The epitaph for California has been written many times by newspapers, politicians, residents and business. In California, and Sacramento in general, we suffer from high unemployment, a crashed housing market, dysfunctional government and a collage of regulations deciphered only by entrenched bureaucrats. In the midst of all this business uncertainty, the Sacramento Area Commerce & Trade Organization (SACTO) continues to forge ahead.
The outside view
Just as hope springs eternal for a struggling business when a prospective customer calls or walks through the door, SACTO continues to work with businesses from around the globe and here in California that contact them about expansion. Even though Californians may no longer be dazzled by the opportunities in our state, there are companies that still recognize the economic glow that we offer.
CA is huge market
What Californians fail to remember is that if we were a country we would be the 9th largest economy in the world. With 37 million people, diversity in population, sea ports, air ports, extensive highways, rail roads, clean water and air, California is still on the radar screen of any company looking to expand. At the September 12th Member Relations Committee Economic Briefing of SACTO, it was reported that close to 50% of the companies they had been working with were either from outside of the United States or focused on clean energy manufacturing.
Retention
The folks at SACTO are not buying into the doom and gloom sentiment that the Sacramento area
Economic Conditions in the Sacramento Region, 2012, briefing
is dead. Quite the contrary, they are working full time to attract companies to the area. They also work just as hard to retain existing companies. I attended the Economic Briefing as a guest of Dell Richards Publicity and spoke with people that were very optimistic about the areas fortunes.
A guide through the maze
This is not to minimize the multitude of hurdles that companies face when considering the region as either their corporate home or expansion of a manufacturing facilities. Like a good neighbor, SACTO works with the the Governors Office of Business and Economic Development along with local governments and utilities to help prospective businesses get the information they need to make an informed decision about locating in the region.
Down, but not out
For my part, I left the information packed lunch meeting a little more optimistic. Yes, Sacramento has its challenges. But it is hard not to be energized by the dedicated staff and volunteers at SACTO that believe in the Sacramento region and are working diligently to bring new business to the area. As one attendee mentioned to me as we left the meeting, “Businesses will always consider California because of that.”, as he point to the blue sky and sunshine on a beautiful September afternoon.
