Northwest Florida Economic Summit

Building on the success of the Milcon and Air Force Contracting Summits held by the Defense Leadership Forum in recent years, the Northwest Florida Leadership Forum, also headed by William Loiry, presented its first-ever Northwest Florida Economic Summit in October at the Destin-Fort Walton Beach Convention Center.

The event in many ways resembled Loiry’s summits focused on military construction and procurement budgets, but this one encompassed, too, anticipated projects that will result from the $1.2 trillion federal infrastructure bill and the $715 billion federal transportation bill.

The Economic Summit addressed economic development funding and programs, energy and technology initiatives, military contracting opportunities and public-private partnerships while also speaking to Northwest Florida’s growth dynamic.

Of particular value to contractors, the Economic Summit provided for one-on-one matchmaking discussions between business people and officials at local, state and federal agencies who are responsible for administering grants and awarding contracts.

The event’s keynote speakers were Congressman Neal Dunn, who represents Florida’s 2nd Congressional District, and Jennifer Conoley, the president and CEO of Florida’s Great Northwest.

Dunn, a member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, addressed the summit regarding the fiscal year 2022 Department of Defense budget and anticipated spending in fiscal year 2023. In 2022, 19% of the DOD budget or $132.5 billion was reserved for procurement purposes, and 16% ($112 billion) was earmarked for research and development. Those appropriations, versus far larger budgets reserved for operation and maintenance and military personnel, flow to private-sector businesses.

Jennifer Conoley, CEO of Florida’s Great Northwest, discusses the growing economic diversification of Northwest Florida.

Dunn emphasized the continuing strategic importance of the Eglin Test and Training Range, which covers approximately 724 square miles of the Florida Panhandle and 120,000 square miles over the Gulf of Mexico. He described the range as irreplaceable. Dunn also provided an update on construction at Tyndall Air Force Base, which is being redeveloped at the cost of $5.2 billion as the Air Force “Base of the Future.”

Conoley provided a regional perspective on economic diversification and development efforts.

A handful of large public investors stood up Florida’s Great Northwest 22 years ago, intending that it serve to encourage businesses to locate and expand their operations in the Florida Panhandle. The economic development organization represents 12 counties: Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, Holmes, Washington, Bay, Jackson, Calhoun, Gulf, Liberty and Franklin.

Its chief aim, Conoley said, remains economic expansion and diversification, but the organization also has arms dedicated to advocacy and community collaboration. It retains a lobbyist, she said, who safeguards the region’s interests in Tallahassee, including by seeing to it that $1.5 billion in damages, paid by BP owing to the Deepwater Horizon disaster and designated for eight coastal counties in Northwest Florida, remain in the region.

Conoley counts as her competitors Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana and the Carolinas and said she doesn’t like to lose. She spends a lot of time with site selectors, especially those who relate to Florida’s Great Northwest’s targeted industries: aviation; aerospace and defense; cybersecurity; distribution and logistics; and manufacturing.

She pointed to regional assets including its talent ecosystem; a supportive financial environment; transportation infrastructure in the form of ports, airports and highways; and supportive business networks and communities.

McKenzie Burleigh, Associate Publisher of 850 Business Magazine, moderates a Northwest Florida technology panel.

Those assets, she noted, have yielded successes ranging from ST Engineering, a maintenance, repair and overhaul operation at Pensacola International Airport to Probes Unlimited, a temperature sensor manufacturer that set up shop with 18 employees in an old middle school building in Bonifay in Holmes County.

The 12-county region can be expected to experience rapid growth in coming years. Citing figures from the Bureau of Economic & Business Research at the University of Florida, Conoley noted that the area’s population was projected to grow by 11.3% between 2021 and 2025 and by 51.3% by 2050.

Conoley was the keynote speaker at Rowland Publishing/850 Business Magazine’s 2022 Pinnacle Awards presentation, held in Tallahassee in October.

Rowland Publishing executive editor Steve Bornhoft and associate publisher McKenzie Burleigh participated in an Economic Summit panel focused on the technology sector in the regional economy. Joined by Steve Millaway, the founder/CEO at Tech Farms Capital in Panama City Beach; Vincent Mayfield, the CEO at Bit-Wizards in Fort Walton Beach and Keith Bowers, the director of the Office of Economic Vitality in Tallahassee, they discussed vulnerabilities and strengths of the entrepreneurial ecosystem involving tech innovators in Northwest Florida.

Their conclusion: The future is bright.     

With all of that growth, of course, comes growing pains.

Megan Harrison, the CEO at the Walton Area Chamber of Commerce, and Bill Imfeld, the executive director of the Walton County Economic Development Alliance, spoke to the need for affordable housing, day care centers, and roads and mass transit in Walton County, which is the second-fastest-growing county in the state and home to Florida’s fastest-growing city by some measures, Freeport.

The Northwest Florida Summit, then, provided an insightful look into the growth that will inevitably visit the region, the impacts that it will bring and ways in which businesses can position themselves to take advantage of what’s next.

» Want to Go? Find out about more Defense Leadership Forum initiatives,
as well as all upcoming summit and networking events, by visiting usdlf.org.

Northwest Florida Military Report

By William Loiry

The 2023 Air Force Contracting Summit will be held on Feb. 7-8, 2023, at the Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort & Spa.

The 10th annual Summit, a national military business event, will bring together more than 700 military and government officials, business executives, contracting experts and financing leaders to discuss the 2023 defense budget, Air Force mission and contracting priorities, and new support for companies with innovative defense solutions.

U.S. Rep. Neal Dunn (FL-2) with Summit Chairman William Loiry at the 2022 Northwest Florida Economic Summit. More than 120,000 government, military and business leaders have attended Loiry’s conferences on defense, homeland and global security, disaster reconstruction and economic development. For more information, visit WilliamLoiry.com.

Speakers from the Pentagon, Air Force bases, and Air Force commands will provide the latest information on Air Force procurement opportunities, accelerated innovation contracting, Tyndall AFB reconstruction, military base energy resiliency, support for small-business tech programs, military-community partnerships and more.

Of special note will be opportunities at the Summit for companies to pitch their products and services to DEFENSEWERX, SOFWERX, DHSWERX, MGMWERX and the Doolittle Institute — all Pentagon-supported organizations which speed the development of innovative solutions to benefit warfighters and the nation.

Summit sponsors include General Dynamics, ARMA Global, Bank of America, Horsley Construction, Minoria Tech, Gene Moran, Carr, Riggs & Ingram, Cadence Bank, and many others. More than 60 on-site exhibitors will be on hand, representing a wide range of products and services, from aircraft munitions to aircraft maintenance, command-and-control systems and military base reconstruction.

During 2023, the Defense Leadership Forum is also organizing the Southwest Defense Contracting Summit, European Defense & Energy Security Summit, Navy Contracting Summit, Northwest Florida Economic Summit, Pacific Defense Contracting Summit, and the MILCON Contracting Summit.

Interested in attending the 2023 Air Force Contracting Summit? Visit usdlf.org