The Compass Conference: A mix of business and politics
by February 1, 2011 1:24 pm 111 views
Past and potential future economic and political moves will be addressed during the 2nd Annual The Compass Conference scheduled for Feb. 25 at the Phoenix Expo Center in Fort Smith.
U.S. Rep. Steve Womack, R-Rogers, and economist Jeff Collins are the featured speakers. The emcee is John Taylor, senior vice president of John Taylor Financial-Sterne Agee and a member of the board of directors at Fort Smith-based Benefit Bank.
Rep. Womack has agreed to talk about the new dynamics of a Congress in which 84 of the 93 U.S. House freshmen were Republicans and the GOP gained the majority in the House. Womack is also a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee — an atypical appointment for a freshmen member of Congress.
Collins, the economist for The City Wire’s Compass Report, will review the 2010 health of the Fort Smith regional economy and comment on possible regional economic directions in 2011.
The Compass Conference is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., Feb. 25, at the Phoenix Expo Center in Fort Smith. Tickets are $40 each, or $350 for a table of eight. The conference is a joint program of The City Wire and the economic development division of the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce.
More than 225 attended the first Compass Conference in 2010, and seating is limited for the upcoming event. To reserve tickets, contact Whitney Yoder at the chamber, 783-3111, or [email protected]
“There is a lot of political and economic uncertainty, if not mixed messages, that challenge our area business owners and government officials. It is our hope with the Compass Conference to provide some clarity for the road ahead,” said Tom Kirkham, publisher of The City Wire.
THE COMPASS REPORT
Funded and managed by The City Wire and presented by Benefit Bank, The Compass is a quarterly regional economic report with data collection and analysis handled by Collins, a nationally known economist based in Springdale and co-founder of Streetsmart Data Services. Cox Communications, the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Phoenix Expo Center are also sponsors of The Compass.
The Compass, launched during the first quarter of 2009, was the first and continues to be the only independent comprehensive economic analysis of the Fort Smith metropolitan area.
The overall grade for the third quarter of 2010, based on eight sets of data and Collins’ analysis of the information, was a C-. The grade means that relative to the region’s historic economic performance, the third quarter saw no economic gain or decline compared to the second quarter of 2010, but was an improvement over the third quarter of 2009 (D).
Following are the previous quarterly grades for the Fort Smith regional economy:
3Q 2010: C-
2Q 2010: C-
1Q 2010: C-
4Q 2009: D
3Q 2009: D
2Q 2009: D-
1Q 2009: D+
