Atlantic County Economic Forum

 To establish a broad based, sustainable economic development initiative  Build upon assets and resources unique to Atlantic County  Capitalize on new, emerging opportunities  Create good jobs

 Atlantic City’s tourism, hospitality and gaming industry are vital to Atlantic County  Atlantic City is getting significant state resources and attention  Redevelopment and marketing plans are underway  Emerging opportunities are occurring on the Mainland and need attention

 To come together as a community with the vision, the will and the determination needed to build a new economic future by developing strong aviation research and health care and health research economic clusters

 New thinking  New vision  New energy  New way of doing things  Urgency  Time

 Get Real  Get Organized  Get a Plan  Get Going

 The era of easy economic growth is over  We are not going back to the future anytime soon  Even a successfully revitalized Atlantic City may not be enough in term of good job creation  Casino work force seeing substantial cuts in salaries and benefits. More Part time workers  Gaming industry is reaching market saturation

YTD 2011 GGR (Billions) $5.22 $3.565 $2.5 Employment July YTD ,560 46,159 33,493

 More aggressive  More cooperative  More coordinated  More accountable  More results oriented  Private sector responsibility for Economic Development

“A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.” Wayne Gretzky What Wayne meant: Be positioned to take advantage of a range of possibilities that may occur.  Think Long Term  Base decision making on facts  Develop strategy and tactics  Get on the same page

 Take control - Build the future WE want  Strong, sustainable future based on three pillars  Tourism, Conventions and Gaming  Aviation Research  Health care and Health Research

 Today is a starting point “We choose to do this not because its easy, but because it’s hard, because that goal will serve to measure and organize the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win. “ President John F. Kennedy