BillingsGazette.com :: Speaker to examine city's economic future

Speaker to examine city's economic future

Larry Swanson, an expert on the Rocky Mountain West economy, will give a breakfast presentation, "Foundations for Future Economic Success, Billings 2020," at 7:30 a.m. March 17 in the Granite Ballroom at the Billings Sheraton Hotel.

Swanson says Montana is at a critical junction in its development. After a decade of economic hardship in the 1980s, new patterns of economic growth emerged in the 1990s. As a result, the economy of the Rocky Mountain West became one of the nation's fastest-growing, and Montana is participating in this growth.

"I continue to be impressed with Dr. Swanson's analysis, insight and logical approach," said Michael Gulledge, publisher of The Billings Gazette. "Anyone interested in our economy and understanding its future potential should attend this breakfast."

The presentation is sponsored by the Celebrate Billings partners: St. Vincent Healthcare, Montana State University-Billings, Billings Clinic, and Billings Gazette Communica-tions.

Swanson will address the question: How can Billings, including both its public and private sector decision makers, use current growth and vitality as an important "bridge" into the future -- not only in creating strategies for greater economic success, but also in making critical investments that will enhance the city's prosperity?

Swanson received a doctorate in economics and community and regional development from the University of Nebraska and served as director of the Great Plains Office of Policy Studies at the University of Nebraska. He then worked as a private economics and policy consultant with a Washington, D.C., consulting firm.

In 1988, Swanson joined the University of Montana as director of economic analysis for UM's Bureau of Business Research, and in 1995 he became director of the O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West at UM. The center is an interdisciplinary program dedicated to the broad-based study of the Rocky Mountain West region of the United States and Canada.

For additional information or for tickets to the Community Economic Leadership Breakfast, call Teresa Cox at The Gazette at 657-1443 or send your check to: The Billings Gazette, Attention CB, P.O. Box 30462, Billings, MT 59107-0462. You may also make your reservations online by logging on to http://www.celebratebillings.com/. Individual tickets are $10, or tables of 8 are $80. Doors open at 7 a.m.

Published on Friday, February 24, 2006.
Last modified on 2/24/2006 at 1:05 am

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tom wrote on February 24, 2006 4:05 PM:"billings should be doing better, it seems that the bigskyeda doesnt accomplish very much compared to great falls (of all places), missoula, or helena. billings needs to attract high tech manufacturing, help with bozeman growth overload, providing a secondary high tech campus, and develop medical research and alternative sites for government and energy research."