“Communities with economic recovery plans will be able to more quickly meet the needs of the business community post disaster, which is a key component to sustaining the local economy.  Lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina helped us craft an economic recovery plan for Pinellas County Economic Development, and I hope to share what we’ve learned with the conference attendees.” Christman explains.

The 2007 conference is scheduled for April 2-6, at the Hilton Riverside in New Orleans.  The primary goal is to improve hurricane preparedness response, recovery and mitigation in order to save lives and property.  The conference serves as a national forum for federal, state and local officials to exchange ideas and recommend new policies to improve Emergency Management.

For more information, please contact Stacey Swank at Pinellas County Economic Development, (727) 464-7425, sswank@pinellascounty.org, or visit www.pced.org.

###