Tampa Bay Partnership meeting yields ideas for the future

Tampa's business community gathered for a luncheon at the Hilton St. Petersburg Carillon Park last Friday to discuss the future of innovation and development in the Bay area's private sector. With 500 attendees and a series of panels on growth and challenges, the event shed light on the future of big business and entrepreneurship in Tampa. 

Some attendees and speakers voiced concerns over the failed public transportation initiatives from this month's election. The business community had supported proposals for beefed up transit for commuters and visitors, an area in which the city could improve. Taxpayers found the measures too costly, but this month a study of attitudes toward Tampa identified growing that capability as a major step toward courting corporate headquarters to the area. 

"We're disappointed with the outcome [of] the initiatives but it is not unusual to stumble at the ballot but it's important to stay with it and keep going," said Gary Sasso, CEO at Carlton Fields Jorden, according to Alexis Muellner of the Tampa Bay Business Journal. "We need to do a better job of linking cost and benefit,"

Collectively, the Tampa business community convened to discuss how best to promote growth and become ambassadors for the potential Tampa holds as a commercial center. One of the notable speakers was Florida Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, who remarked that the Floridian economy has the fourth largest GDP in America. This fall, the Sunshine State was also singled out as a hotbed of job creation, with some of the most active metropolitan regions reducing unemployment. 

As a measure of progress, the luncheon reflected an engaged community of business leaders looking to help fortify Tampa's future as an economic center. With more thought and action, the city could find itself on short lists for brands looking for office space in Tampa.