Several of Wyoming’s top policy minds met on the campus of Laramie County Community College on Thursday to try to define answers to a problem nearly as old as Wyoming itself: how to break free from the state’s ceaseless boom-and-bust cycle.

The first in what was hinted to be a series of tailored conversations on the issue throughout the state, the panel — sponsored by LCCC and the University of Wyoming American Heritage Center — was a no-holds-barred discussion on the binds that have held back Wyoming’s economy for decades, as well as a vision of what could improve its economic prospects in the long term.