Launched two years ago by the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation, the Municipality of Anchorage and the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce, Vision Anchorage has contracted with Chabin Concepts of Chico, California to conduct research and identify strategies for growing jobs and businesses in Anchorage.

The consultants have generated nearly 1,200 pages of documents which can be accessed on the Internet at www.visionanchorage.org, and Vision Anchorage Chair Rick Morrison said the overriding theme is a call to work together.

"The key that they talked about was a collaboration plan," he said. "One of the descriptions they gave us was that Anchorage looked a lot like Silicon Valley 10 years ago. Silicon Valley at one time was doing very very well, then the economy crashed on them," he said.

AEDC Board Chair Kathy Porterfield said the development agency in June will begin recruiting local business executives for its "Ambassador to the World" program to help market Anchorage to potential new business partners.

"We've created some special CDs with information about Anchorage, transportation, quality of life and so on," she said.

The AEDC is also moving ahead with a three-year international public relations and marketing campaign to attract corporate attention.

"The first year of this campaign focuses on the global logistics industry, which is a specific target mentioned numerous times," in a "Call to Action" report from Chabin Concepts, Porterfield said.

Another recommendation is the creation of a business expansion program, overseen by AEDC. "The program is designed to help local businesses find opportunities for growth, and also to flesh out and identify any obstacles that they see as limiting their ability to expand," she said.

Under the program, AEDC officials plan to meet with representatives from more than 200 local businesses during the next two years.

The AEDC also will be forming a task force later this year to look into sites for creating new business parks in the Anchorage Bowl, Porterfield said.

Anchorage Chamber of Commerce Chair George Vakalis said the chamber has formed a business and economic development committee to pursue Vision Anchorage recommendations.

"They have been tasked to focus and work ... in all areas of collaborative leadership and business development," Vakalis said. "They have been tasked to create strategies for implementation of key aspects of the Call to Action plan."

Other main players in Vision Anchorage are the Anchorage School District, Chugiak-Eagle River Chamber of Commerce, University of Alaska Anchorage, Municipality of Anchorage and the Anchorage Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Space for new business is tight and getting tighter in Anchorage, and Chugiak-Eagle River Chamber member Jim Palmer told the group to consider looking north.

"In the next twenty-four months we pledge to work on a scheduled revision of the Chugiak-Eagle River Comprehensive Plan," Palmer said, "to make sure that there is adequate commercial and industrial land to meet these needs."

Outgoing Anchorage Mayor George Wuerch highlighted two projects that will continue after he leaves office June 30. The city is developing plans for a new Health and Human Services headquarters, and the Port of Anchorage is in line for an expansion project with a pricetag of nearly $200 million.

It is not all bricks and mortar that will bring Anchorage into the future. University of Alaska Anchorage Chancellor Lee Gorsuch said his priority is keeping well educated Alaskans in Alaska.

"The number one goal is to build Alaska's talent pool," he said. "I'm keenly interested in having grandchildren in my home town."

The final speaker at the gathering was Anchorage Mayor-elect Mark Begich. He said he will put his full support behind economic development.

"If we work together and take control of our own destiny, we know we can do better," he said, adding that the most important task is follow-through.

"How to implement the innovative recommendations and continue to mobilize our community behind this common purpose is the main goal," Begich said.