The 2008 San Fernando Valley Economic Summit will be held May 8 at the Sheraton Universal Hotel. Because the economy is in an entirely different predicament than it was when the summit was held last year, national and regional economic issues will be a primary event focus. “The big thing is what in the heck is going to happen with our economy?” asked Bruce Ackerman, head of the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley, which is co-presenting the event along with California State University, Northridge. “We’ve continued to watch gas prices go up, auto sales go down, and a general softening of the overall market. We’re going to be walking into a setting we haven’t been in for 15 years.” In light of the business community’s economic concerns, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will discuss his economic policies and strategies for the city, which will inevitably affect the Valley, Ackerman said. A new feature of the summit this year will be an interactive roundtable discussion between audience members and panelists about the real estate market. But due to, what some view as an impending recession, the main difference between this year’s summit and those held previously will be the direction of the discussion. “The first two years we did this the economy was doing great,” Ackerman said. “Last year, we had some early warning signs. We knew what was happening with Countrywide and the potential for problems in the housing industry, mortgage industry, in particular.” Now that some of the trends predicted are playing out, the challenge is to figure out how to survive the economic downturn, Ackerman asserted. “I think the difference we’ll see this year is more in short-term remedies,” he said. “What’s going on in the next months in terms of real estate, both commercial and residential? Large projects like Westfield are they going to have any kind of an impact?” Another difference between this year’s summit and last year’s is that the economy will be discussed from more of a national perspective. “When everything is good, you can look at the regional perspective,” explained Ackerman of this shift. “When things are slowing down, people want to see how national policies are going to be, so you’re going to see some interesting perspectives from Rich Weiss. It’ll be interesting to see what he says this year versus last year. He’s an economist. He is very enlightening and entertaining. He brings a different perspective.” The summit will also focus on which industries are capable of growing, despite the economic downturn. “What we have is a forecast survey where we surveyed 125 businesses in key industries in the San Fernando Valley, and those key industries were in aerospace, biotech, business services, entertainment, health services, manufacturing and wholesale trade,” said Dan Blake, a CSUN economics professor as well as director of the San Fernando Valley Economic Research Center at CSUN. Blake will present his findings during the summit. Blake said that the aforementioned industries were selected because they have a “multiplier effect,” meaning that, if activity goes up or down in any of them, other industries such as retail, trade, real estate and finance could be affected. “Generally, we found that the economic downturn is affecting Valley business,” Blake said. “They’re feeling the impact both inside and beyond the Valley, and many of them do business beyond the Valley.” Yet, there is optimism among business owners in the Valley, Blake added. The ones surveyed answered questions about their hiring practices if they’re doing more or less as well as whether they would consider leaving the Valley and the advantages and disadvantages of doing so. Blake will also present census data about the San Fernando Valley concerning employment and economic levels of residents here. What he won’t do, according to Ackerman, is make any outright predictions about next year. “Dan is going to review where we are right now and then interpret where we might be going in the short term,” Ackerman said. “He’s not going to full on forecast. He’s going to do more of current summary and an outlook.” For more information about the summit, contact (818) 379-7000. or www.economic alliance.org.
