Fairbanks 2022 Interior Alaska Economic Summit comes to a conclusion

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTVF) - The goal of the economic summit was to connect private and public partners to develop a plan for future economic development in the Fairbanks North Star Borough.

According to Shelly Wade, Principal Owner of Agnew::Beck Consulting, those gathered at the event worked to discuss and plan for how various sectors could be developed. Wade explained, “So this was a roll up your sleeves, and let’s look at these very specific economic sectors, and respond to what we see as some preliminary ideas that are really the culmination of the almost year long process of getting community and other stakeholder feedback.”

The summit was broken up into a variety of sectors such as agriculture and energy, each working to develop and grow over the next five years.

Brittany Smart, Special Assistant to FNSB Mayor elaborated, “We got some great feedback in general in terms of education and workforce, and how to work on developing that. And there was also significant discussion as, may not be surprising, on the military and the opportunities those bring. But also the reminder that the military is not the sole resident of our community and making sure that we’re strategically using these opportunities in order to benefit the overall community as a whole.”

And while the summit may be over, there remain many more steps to pursue over the next several years using feedback and discussions from the event.

Wade remarked, “It’s just the beginning of the process. And so, annual updates where there’s an opportunity to reconvene, look at those measures of success. Have we gotten as far as we wanted to with those targets? What progress are we making? Identifying new priorities, all of those are critical components of success for planning the next steps.”

More information on the economic summit can be found on the FNSB website.

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