What was the "real" purpose behind the Mayor's Economic Summit Meeting??

[AshleyLauren]

T sizzle, I was going to say "hooker heels" but figured that was inappropriate. As an overall picture to the meeting it is not valuable insight but it is, at the very least,  interesting to see how the demographics of such meetings has evolved.

Also, I believe it gives insight into the type of people Jacksonville attracts. To be very clear, I am not saying anything is wrong with any of those articles of clothing discussed in my post; however, there is a time and place to show the world what you got, and there is a time and place where tradition and good manners should be used. If Jacksonville wants to attract profitable, growing, and well ran corporations to the city then we need to show them why to choose us. If Jacksonville is not portrayed to have the educated and sophisticated man-power an owner would want to better one's company then why would they come here to better our community?  First impressions are everything and from what we saw at the summit Jacksonville is in serious need of a few lessons.

[mtraininjax]

Haha, well some of them put it all out there. Perhaps, this is why no one was allowed near him either.

Next time, pictures please, as you know a picture is worth 1,000 words!

[AshleyLauren]

Except to those who actually live in Jacksonville.  I have heard cheers and applause that we are bringing in big major companies to Jacksonville.   The latest one being bringing in the prestige of GE Capital.  Of course, what nobody seems to be talking about is that these jobs are the bottom of the barrel jobs that were probably brought here because Jacksonville was cheaper than any other area place besides going off to India.  GE Capital one is even starting to looks like a collections agency arm of GE. 

Let me ask you this question.  In any city you worked with, how many of them have managed to turn bottom of the barrel jobs into top level positions?  Has any of the areas you worked with manage to successfully turn from housing call centers and paper shuffling jobs into major research and development center or major marketing center or major financial center?  If so, how did they do it?  Is it possible for an area to have a major call center presence and a major marketing presence at the same time (Jacksonville wants both)? 

You know, questions that are supposed to be asked during an economic summit.

cityimrov: Exactly! That is the point.  All four speakers did not answer any pending questions, they offered no insight about their thoughts of next steps to be taken, no ideas of how to buildup downtown, no ideas of how to bring new companies to Jacksonville or the efforts being made to create top level positions. We did not expect for the Mayor and Bill Clinton to lay out the entire economic path of the city for the next decade; especially since the meeting began at 11am which made it clear we would be out just in time for lunch.
The only thing remotely resembling the questions you offer was given by Mr. Clinton. Near the end Clinton said, there are three or four things you need to do next. 1. Rebuild 2. Make lists of our problems and our struggles. Ask yourselves what companies you want to bring to Jacksonville and what jobs do you want to create. 3. The importance of solar panels. And we never got to 4.

[Garden guy]

T sizzle, I was going to say "hooker heels" but figured that was inappropriate. As an overall picture to the meeting it is not valuable insight but it is, at the very least,  interesting to see how the demographics of such meetings has evolved.

Also, I believe it gives insight into the type of people Jacksonville attracts. To be very clear, I am not saying anything is wrong with any of those articles of clothing discussed in my post; however, there is a time and place to show the world what you got, and there is a time and place where tradition and good manners should be used. If Jacksonville wants to attract profitable, growing, and well ran corporations to the city then we need to show them why to choose us. If Jacksonville is not portrayed to have the educated and sophisticated man-power an owner would want to better one's company then why would they come here to better our community?  First impressions are everything and from what we saw at the summit Jacksonville is in serious need of a few lessons.

Thats a funny...Jacksonville and the sophisticated educated...with our public educational system being attacked day after day by the republicans and conservative sophisticated and educated are the last on the list in discribing jacksonville  and the state of Florida.     

[simms3]

The only thing remotely resembling the questions you offer was given by Mr. Clinton. Near the end Clinton said, there are three or four things you need to do next. 1. Rebuild 2. Make lists of our problems and our struggles. Ask yourselves what companies you want to bring to Jacksonville and what jobs do you want to create. 3. The importance of solar panels. And we never got to 4.

Since the Chamber has been a focus recently, I'll repost the mission of the Atlanta chamber, which I think really spells this out. -

The Metro Atlanta Chamber focuses on the big issues that matter most to the business community: creating jobs and boosting the region's quality of life by finding solutions in the areas of transportation, education and the environment.

The Metro Atlanta Chamber works with many partners to recruit companies and headquarters to metro Atlanta by focusing its marketing strategy on the logistics, high-tech and biomedical sectors and on global trade. Brazil, Russia, India and China are major global markets currently being pursued in this effort.

[AshleyLauren]

Well speaking of educating Jacksonvillian's to become sophisticated individuals......

Now, I was young when Clinton was president, but it was not hard to understand why most people I know remember him fondly. He spoke to his audience with the ease of a friend, or a grandfather, constantly telling jokes and stories as if we would know exactly what he was talking about. And not long into Clinton’s speech it became clear he had no set itinerary; he briefly spoke about childhood obesity, the pros and cons of immigration, America offering entrepreneurial opportunities, energy resources and innovations, breast cancer research, Alzheimer’s, the mortgage crisis, and his wife. He made it very clear that he was on Mayor Brown’s team; fully condoning his efforts to “rebuild downtown first”.  Offering very generic advice in regards of how to bring this vision to fruition. By the end we were wondering if there had been any economic point at all, or had Bill Clinton just talked for forty minutes just to imbed the idea that we needed to come up with a “united approach” for change and progress.
   The one piece of advice Mr. Clinton offered the Mayor (an item that has not already been overly discussed lately with no progress to show) that could help the future of Jacksonville was to bring the program, College Track, to the city. College Track is after-school program that provides the resources necessary for self-motivated low-income youth to transcend socio-economic constraints and realize their academic and personal potential.  Mr. Clinton enlightened the audience that the USA is ranked 15th worldwide for the amount a college graduates produced. In the midst of such a large-scale economic crisis, the belief in educating and the need for an education has been put on the backburner. The children in grade school now will be affected by the unfortunate and dwindling status of our country’s education system. A program like this one would offer more children a chance at not only thinking about college but finishing high school first.
With all the talk of our current money problems, our sights are stuck in the present and what to do right now, but that is not enough. The information related about the recent FCAT scores is enough evidence  to prove we are failing our children and the hopes of them having a better future than we have right now. If anything, this was the main point we found at the economic summit meeting that we are destroying other aspects of our city by focusing so intensely on money, the job market and property. There are other topics that need just as much attention.