Tampa Bay Regional Strategic Planning Forum: Shaping the face of Tampa and Florida’s economic future
Roadmap for Florida’s future is part of Enterprise Florida’s multi-faceted initiative to chalk out a five-year economic roadmap. This roadmap –which serves as a blueprint for economic development—is updated every three years, and is inclusive of an in-depth competitive analysis/feedback from a broad base of community representatives across the state. Input from Floridians is gathered through a series of regional forums as well as online vehicles.
FLATE Center for excellence in manufacturing and technical education recently participated in the Tampa Bay Regional Strategic Planning Forum. It was held at Valpak Manufacturing Center in Saint. Petersburg, Fla., and was the fifth among a series of statewide forums that began June 3 in Gainesville, and ends July 30 in Tallahassee. The Forums are mandated by the Legislature, and was part of a comprehensive, statewide campaign targeted to identify and prioritize the region as well as the state’s key economic development needs for the next five years.
The Tampa Bay Forum brought together over 80 people comprising of regional leaders in business, education, government, and economic planning/development. Discussions centered on retaining, creating and attracting high-wage jobs; cultivating a talented and high-skilled work force that is prepared to meet the demands of the future, and upgrading infrastructure to increase Florida’s competitiveness. The forum also served as a platform to devise strategies to diversify Florida’s economy to meet global competition, and in positioning Florida as a premier player in knowledge-based, cutting-edge high technology jobs. Dr. Eric Roe, director of FLATE observed “The presentation by Geary Havran, NDH Medical and Chairman of FMMC, on the sector panel coupled with numerous audience participants provided Enterprise Florida and Workforce Florida with first-hand information on the importance of modern manufacturing on Florida’s future economy, and stressed the need for a skilled workforce for the wealth-building manufacturing sector”.
Feedback from the Forum will help Enterprise Florida and its partners focus on Florida’s most important economic development needs, and strategize goals for continuously improving the state’s economy. Feedback and results will also assist in compiling an in-depth five-year strategic plan for Florida’s economic development that will be available later this fall on the eFlorida website, https://www.eflorida.com/ where there is easy access to the online vehicles to participate in the statewide conversation.
For more information about the Forum contact Dr. Eric Roe at 813.259.6580 or roe@fl-ate.org.