Lake County's Office of Economic Development and Tourism hosted their first-ever Economic Development Summit at the Mission Inn Resort & Club located in Howey-in-the-Hills on Monday, November 14. Attended by over 250 business and community leaders, the day-long event featured nationally renowned speakers who presented best practices in workforce development, economic development, site selection and strategic planning.

While much of the day focused on the economic realities facing the region, nation and world right now, Scott Blakenship, director of Lake County's Office of Economic Development, emphasized that increased collaboration and partnership is the key to successful economic recovery.

Dr. Charles Mojock, president of Lake-Sumter Community College and EDC board member, served as the master of ceremonies for the event designed to lead Lake County into a successful 2012. Speakers included: EDC President and CEO Rick Weddle; Jay A. Garner, Garner Economics, LLC; Debra Lyons, ACT; Sean Snaith, Ph.D., University of Central Florida; Ed Morrison, Center for Regional Development at Purdue University; and B. Thomas Mancuso, SIOR, Batavia Industrial Center and real estate professional.

As the world's leading real estate executives and professional site consultants gathered in Atlanta last week for the annual CoreNet Global Summit, the EDC's Declan Reiley, vice president of business development, was there to build connections and identify project prospects. In addition to the conference, the EDC - along with counterparts at Enterprise Florida, the state's economic development agency, and other EDC's from around the state - hosted a private gathering of key corporate advisors for networking and an "Iron Chef" cooking competition and dinner.

And Gloria LeQuang, director of business development for the EDC, was recently in Canada for the Montreal International Game Summit. Home to one of the world's largest clusters of digital media companies, Montreal and Orlando have an existing relationship thanks to past EDC missions that helped to open doors for business between the regions. In addition to working the tradeshow floor, the EDC also met with several companies in collaboration with Enterprise Florida's Canadian office and presented at the Quebec-Florida Chamber of Commerce reception dedicated to "Doing Business in Florida and Orlando."

These are important efforts on behalf of our region. Site selection advisors are primary project generators for the economic development industry and CoreNet Global's more than 7,000 members manage over $1.2-trillion in real estate and workplace assets. The Montreal International Game Summit provided a good opportunity for the EDC to follow up on an agreement to do more business together with Canada that stemmed from the July visit from Canada's Minister of State, Science and Technology Gary Goodyear where he met with Florida Lieutenant Governor Jennifer Carroll.