Sep. 4--SANDESTIN -- The current economic times can be scary, but there are opportunities for those who push through that fear.

The 13th annual Gulf Power Economic Symposium at Sandestin on Thursday brought together speakers from around the state and nation to discuss the best way Northwest Florida can rebound from the recession.

Congressman Jeff Miller was unable to attend, but he opened the event with a recorded message criticizing President Barack Obama's economic stimulus package and the impact it will have on recovery.

"Tax and spend policies do not work," he said

He was followed by Jeffrey Finkle, president and CEO of the International Economic Development Council, who said the stimulus was working.

While residents have read about the effects of the ongoing recession for a year-and-a-half, Finkle posted some statistics about the downturn on two large screens set up in the conference hall. Among them were:

Since the recession started in 2007, $6 trillion has been lost in property values nationwide;

Construction of new homes is down 17 percent from two years ago;

Of all the homes in the country, one out of every 33 has had a foreclosure filed against it;

5 million people were out of work as of July, with Florida's unemployment rate of 10.7 percent in the nation's top 10.

"This is not going to be an easy time for businesses or the community to try to recover," Finkle said. "This is not President Obama's recession. This is not Congressman Miller's recession. This is our recession. We did a number of things wrong over the last few years that got us to this."

Finkle said Northwest Florida should have an easier time recovering from the recession because it has a diversified economy, lead by the military and tourism industries.

Geoffrey Colvin, senior editor for Fortune magazine, offered his tips for businesses to be successful. They included resetting priorities to address the changing market, finding new solutions to the new problems that arise and pushing boundaries to expand business.

"Times like these, as tough as they are, are a great opportunity," Colvin said.

A panel of speakers representing University of Central Florida and the Florida High Tech Corridor Council spoke about the importance of the economic development community partnering with higher education.

Ed Schons, director of economic development for UCF, said universities should adopt economic development as one of their core missions to grow, train, attract and retain the best and brightest employees.

For example, he said Electronic Arts, the world's second largest third-party video game publisher, was considering opening a game-development studio in Orlando but was concerned about staffing. UCF developed a master's degree program on video game design, which helped entice Electronic Arts to go forward with its Orlando expansion.

"The role colleges play in economic development is more important than ever," Schons said.

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