Register for Free Webinar: Initiatives to Protect Community Assets from Disaster, Oct 24th

October 24, 2012 - Initiatives to Protect Community Assets from Disaster

Safeguarding community and economic assets including public infrastructure and key resources such as hospitals, schools, business districts and industrial parks should be a vital focus for all local government. These assets are essential to maintaining a community’s quality of life and to providing a foundation for job creation and economic growth. In the event of a major catastrophe, communities should look to redevelop and support these assets in a manner that allows the economy to emerge stronger and better prepared for future disasters. Communities around the country are finding that the most effective time to have a thoughtful conversation about these critical issues is before disaster strikes, not in the politically charged environment that often follows a major disaster or economic disruption. For this webinar, attendees will learn how Florida communities are creating what are called “Post Disaster Redevelopment Plans” that provide policies, strategies and action steps to facilitate long-term recovery and redevelopment in a community in the event of a large-scale disaster. Hillsborough County, with Tampa as the county seat, and the Tampa Bay region will be a featured case study. Learn how they have created a process to engage the business community in the challenging conversations about land use and post-disaster redevelopment during “Blue Sky” periods. During this webinar, attendees will:

• Learn about Hillsborough County’s process of developing a post-disaster redevelopment plan with a focus on the economic component; discover the economic development organization’s role in that process;
• Become familiar with tools and analysis used in conducting an economic vulnerability analysis to see what industries and workforce pools are more vulnerable to disasters within your community;
• Discover how to create an action plan to better assure economic resiliency and spur more effective and sustainable economic recovery in your community.

Speakers Mickie Valente Principal Valente Strategic Advisers, LLC Ms. Valente is as the President of Valente Strategic Advisers, which assists community and business leaders in developing economic resiliency and redevelopment plans prior to a disaster as well as helps communities to identify economic recovery strategies following any economic disruption. She has led innovative projects that encourage regional collaboration among economic development, workforce development and emergency management organizations to build more diversified economies and resilient communities. At Enterprise Florida, she led the development of Emergency Support Function 18 for Business & Industry at Florida’s State Emergency Operation Center. Patrick O'Neil Senior Planner Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council Patrick O’Neil is a Senior Planner/Economist for the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council (TBRPC), which serves the Florida counties of Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco and Pinellas Counties.   Prior to joining the council in 2005, Mr. O’Neil had been providing financial analysis and consulting at A.G. Edwards and had extensive previous experience in the management and use in the information technology field.   Mr. O’Neil’s earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of South Florida (USF) in the Finance, MIS, Management, and International Business tracks in 2005.  At TBRPC, Mr. O’Neil focuses on heading the Economic Analysis Program.