Regions in Transition
Invitation and Registration Announcement
The 31st Annual Pacific Northwest Regional Economic Conference will be
held at the newly-remodeled Red Lion Hotel Spokane City Center in Spokane,
Washington, April 24-26, 1997. The conference opens at 10:00 a.m., Thursday,
and concludes Saturday at noon. Information on conference registration and arrangements for hotel reservations can be found on the main page of the PNREC '97 website or by clicking on these
highlighted items.
This is one conference you will not want to miss-the agenda is packed! The response
to our call for papers and panels was outstanding. Concurrent sessions will focus on
such topics as the valuation of environmental quality, electric power and utility deregulation,
water policy, land preservation, urban growth management, regional migration, economic
development strategies, timber vs. recreation trade-offs, public services provision, the
impact of ports and river systems, monitoring the local and regional economy, income
distribution, trade and transportation issues, and the implications of welfare changes on
jobs in transition.
Nine panel sessions will address many of the hot issues confronting the region: property
tax initiatives, mine siting decisions, the changing economic base of Northwest states, rural
social and demographic transitions, substate labor market trends, the performance of
Northwest equities, the economics of banning grass seed field burning, the impacts of
information-age technologies on rural areas, and the brown-to-green transition
of the Pacific Northwest.
The conference opens with a plenary session addressing a topic which will influence
the regional economy for years to come-The Comprehensive Review of the Northwest
Energy System. It will feature three speakers with alternative views:
John Etchart, Chair, Northwest Power Planning Council;
Nancy Hirsch, Policy Director of the Northwest Conservation
Act Coalition; and Paul Redmond, Chairman and
Chief Executive Officer of Washington Water Power.
Calvin Beale will deliver the Tiebout Lecture on the "Forces
Underlying the Recent Rebound of Rural Areas and Small Towns." Dubbed one of our
"national treasures," Calvin Beale is The Guru among those who monitor rural issues and trends.
Roger Brinner, Executive Director and Chief Economist of
DRI/McGraw-Hill, will be the featured speaker for the national outlook luncheon on Thursday.
The ever popular regional forecast session Thursday afternoon will be anchored by Mike
Ferguson (Idaho), Bob Fox (Alberta),
Chris Lawless (British Columbia), Patrick Newport (Washington),
Paul Polzin (Montana) and Paul Warner (Oregon).
Our speaker for the Friday luncheon will be Jerry Jordan,
President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
Dr. Jordan's contribution to the PNREC is warmly remembered by those attending the
conferences of 1986 (Missoula) and 1988 (Boise).
Jack Ward Thomas will deliver the address for the Awards Banquet on Friday. His topic will be "Stability in Resource Dependent Communities: Mission Impossible." Jack Thomas, former U.S. Forest Service Chief, is currently the Boone and Crockett Professor of Wildlife Conservation,
University of Montana.
The plenary session scheduled for Saturday morning addresses the topic "Confronting
the Perils of Economic Research in a University Setting," from the perspective of a university
president - Robert Hoover, University of Idaho; a college dean -
Michael Martin, College of Agriculture, University of Minnesota; and a
state legislator - Laird Noh, Idaho State Senator.
We are pleased to invite you to this conference, and urge you to register early. If you have
any questions, call Gary Smith at 509-335-2852, or browse this web site further.
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