New Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper plans series of city and regional economic summits

Mayor John Hickenlooper told metro-area business leaders Wednesday that he is looking at "rolling out a series of summits" to promote economic development in Denver and the region.

By John Rebchook, Rocky Mountain News

(Thanks to the Colorado Technology Alliance http://www.coloradota.org for bringing this to our attention- MATR)

His speech at the Downtown Denver Partnership’s 48th annual meeting was titled Preaching to the Choir.

First on the agenda is a marketing summit, Hickenlooper said in his remarks before about 650 peopleat the Westin Tabor Center hotel. It was the largest annual meeting in the partnership’s history.

At the marketing summit, the focus will be on the "key attributes of the city and the region" and how they can be most effectively communicated, the new mayor said.

Next on the agenda will be a "regionwide economic development summit," Hickenlooper said. He noted that creating jobs in Aurora and Lakewood and other suburbs ultimately benefits Denver.

The third summit will focus exclusively on downtown Denver, he said.

Doug Linkhart, a newly elected City Council at-large member and former state senator, had plans for his own economic summit. Linkhart said Hickenlooper wants to host the marketing summit this fall, and the economic development summit may be held soon after.

Linkhart said he will meet todayith Hickenlooper to "make sure we’re on the same page."

Asked if he wanted to make it a regional summit, Linkhart said, "Half and half. The purpose I’m after is for Denver to have an economic development strategy, because we don’t have one. But it has to be couched within a metro framework and the regional economy. But I think there are some things Denver alone can do to make us more competitive within the region."

Examples of issues that could be tackled include parking meter rates, a head-tax moratorium and marketing ideas to increase downtown and Cherry Creek shopping. Linkhart said he wants to create an ongoing process for economic development and not just a one-time event.

"We want to look at long-term and short-term goals," Linkhart said. "There are some things we could do immediately to get our revenues back, so we don’t face making $50 million in cuts."

Tom Clark, president of the Metro Denver Network, applauded the summits.

"There has not been a regional summit like this one since the first term of (Gov. Roy) Romer," who was elected in 1986, Clark said. "It couldn’t happen if Hickenlooper hadn’t had the track record of campaigning so hard on regional cooperation."

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http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/real_estate/article/0,1299,DRMN_414_2131691,00.html