Enthusiasm sends Chamber Session Into Overtime: Florida 2030 Townhall
Courtesy of: Deborah Buckhalter / Jackson County Floridan
MARK SKINNER/FLORIDAN
With its guest speaker planning to take a survey of the crowd as he talked, the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce arranged for a longer First Friday power lunch than usual. Two hours were set aside instead of the more common hour or 90 minutes. But enthused participation from the full crowd pushed the meeting to almost three hours instead. Florida Chamber Foundation Executive Vice-President Tony Carvajal was on the agenda, invited there by the local Chamber Executive Director Tiffany Garling in her first speaker-selection opportunity since taking on her new role with the organization.
Carvajal often asked the crowd for details after they answered some of the general questions posed in his survey, which gauged their opinions and level of optimism concerning the community’s strengths and weaknesses in education, general infrastructure, governance, and many other matters that play into the county’s future.
The votes were counted in real time as they were punched in, and Carvajal inquired further from time to time as the results came in for specific reasons as to why people voted they way they did on the given topic. The comments he received, as well as the numbers resulting in the survey, will be used to help the Foundation built a blueprint of growth for Florida through the year 2030. Carvajal will have visited all 67 counties in the state by the time he’s done with the survey in 2018, and hopes to have heard from at least 10,000 voices in the vote and comment period.
And the local Chamber will likely be using information gathered in the meeting to shape its own plan for helping Jackson County be ready for the coming growth through 2030. Garling indicated that Chamber committees will be assembled to address specific growth and sustainability issues over time.
According to Carvajal, the state estimates that, between now and 2030, Florida will have 6 million new residents. Of those, about 2 million will be work-force age and needing jobs. The state estimates that, for this region of the state to support its portion of the growth, 81,500 new jobs in Northwest Florida counties will have to be added by 2030, on an average of 485 per month.
Across the state, job growth must increase by 300 positions a day until in order to meet the need for extra jobs by the year 2030.
The survey covered topics such as readiness in technology, educational systems, talent pool, general infrastructure, government, transportation and more. Almost 70 people attending the session participated in the survey. Carjaval said that was a good sign of engagement with the process, and that the robust post-question responses from the crowd also indicated the local community’s willingness to be part of shaping its future.
To further engage with the Foundation’s multi-faceted planning research now underway, visit www.FLFoundation.org.