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Business experts at forum offer some optimism for '07

An investment strategist sees the economic slowdown continuing but no recession.

By LORRI HELFAND
Published October 29, 2006

Business experts shared insights and offered a cautiously optimistic view of the coming year and beyond at an economic forum Friday.

About 65 people attended the inaugural program called "Focus on 2007: a Tampa Bay Economic Forecast," which was a joint venture between the Largo/Mid-Pinellas Chamber of Commerce and Greater Largo Library Foundation.

The panel featured four leaders in finance, technology, real estate and energy. And as part of the library foundation's outstanding author series, the keynote speaker, author David B. Wolfe, focused on his soon-to-be-released book Firms of Endearment.

Jeff Saut, Raymond James' chief investment strategist, forecasted a "continuing economic slowdown, but no recession."

And Bryan M. Chavis, president and founder of The Landlord Academy, said all was not bleak in real estate. While there's much talk of a crashing real estate market, Chavis told the audience at the Largo Public Library that the future of the real estate looked positive for the rental market.

He said rental properties could be a "tremendous" income-producer for those who look at real estate as a long-term investment rather than as a way to make a quick buck.

Dale Oliver, vice president of Progress Energy Florida's South Coastal Region, said his company expected a 24 percent increase in the demand for energy from its customers over the next eight years.

Rising demand and rising fuel costs will mean that energy companies will have an increased interest in less expensive fuel sources, such as nuclear energy, he said.

Andy Hafer, chief executive officer and president of the Tampa Bay Technology Forum, said there will be an increased interest in securing business computer systems and making advances in nanotechnology, which is basically the building of tiny machines on the scale of molecules.

The Internet also would grow more user-driven and collaborative, he said.

Wolfe's book, scheduled for release on Nov. 9, illustrates how some of the most successful companies make compassion, honesty and communication a priority.

Companies such as Whole Foods and Costco reach out to customers and also go out of their way to support employees, suppliers, the community and stockholders, he said.

For example, he said, at Wegmans Food Markets, where employees are encouraged to please customers, a chef went to a customer's home to cook her Thanksgiving meal.

"Almost everything you thought before is wrong," Wolfe said. "You've got to find the new way to adapt to the world the way it is now."

The Internet is one reason for the change, Wolfe said.

Another is that today most customers are 40 and older, said Wolfe, who also wrote Ageless Marketing: Strategies for Reaching the Hearts and Minds of the New Customer Majority.

"Our cultural values are changing dramatically as a result of the aging of the population," he said.

Chamber president Tom Morrissette said his group and the library foundation plan to make the economic forecast an annual event.

Lorri Helfand can be reached at 445-4155 or lorri@sptimes.com.

[Last modified October 29, 2006, 07:27:41]