I sat just a few seats away from the Hon. Michael Grayum, mayor of DuPont. Other heads of both small and big cities in Washington surrounded me. I had never seen so many mayors in one place in my life. This happened during the opening session of the 43^rd Annual Economic Forecast Conference, organized by the Economic Development Council (EDC) of Seattle and King County at the Convention Center on Jan. 15. I joined over 500 other representatives from industry, government, trade associations, labor partners, educational institutions, and non-profits at the sold-out event.

This year’s conference theme was “Global Innovation & Investment: Capitalizing on our gateway to the world.” EDC’s Executive Director (and WTIA board member) Suzanne Dale Estey declared, “Global competition does not allow for complacency…success for our region means going global.” Other conference speakers echoed her point that Washington needs to increase Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to grow our economy and stay globally competitive. Seattle is the 20^th largest city in the US but it is ranked 57^th in FDI.

Attracting FDI is important. The government as well as trade associations like WTIA have been making great efforts to increase FDI. At WTIA, we have been working with the Korean Internet Security Agency and the Taipei government to encourage more Korean and Taiwanese investment to Washington’s tech sector. Seattle’s Mayor, Ed Murray, announced a FDI specialist has been added to his administration and Governor Jay Inslee said Washington will open an office for trade in China.

Throughout the day, speakers cited Washington’s prosperity and advantages:

• “In a few months, this will be the longest streak of adding jobs consistently in 5 years in Washington.” (Chris Mefford, Community Attributes)
• “In 2010, we had a 10% deficit. Now four years later, we are at a 3% deficit.” (Preston McAfee, Chief Economist, Microsoft)
• “37% of King County’s population hold bachelor’s degrees-that is one of the highest in the nation.” (King County Executive Dow Constantine)

But I also continued to hear we can’t leave behind people in this strong economy.

• “King County has almost no middle class growth, significant challenge. 95% of households is on one end or the other.” (King County Executive Dow Constantine)
• “What does our tax policy say about the value of the state? We want property tax and retail tax high. Two-thirds of tax income comes from property tax, the rest from retail.” (Chris Mefford)
• “Only 4% of UW’s budget is state money, even though it’s a state school.” (Vikram Jandhyala, Vice Provost of Innovation, University of Washington)

At WTIA, we advocate to government on building the pipeline for more homegrown tech talent because we know it means generating more employment opportunities for the rest of the economy. Washington’s tech industry requires more computer scientists than we are producing locally. Strengthening our local talent pool is critical to attracting FDI because foreign companies will invest where the talent is. The conference provided good context on how and where our efforts align with the region’s great economic development strategy.

If you want to check out the presentations for yourself, they are online at EDC’s site.