75 Years of AUBER:  Economic Resiliency from Coast to Coast

Oct. 15-18, 2022 • Hilton Hotel • Pensacola Beach, Florida

Our annual business meeting was held, with the election of three new officers to the AUBER Board, who will each serve a three-year term:

Additionally, Jennifer Green, Jacksonville State University, was sworn in as the newly-elected vice president of AUBER, and Michael Hicks was reappointed to the office of secretary-treasurer for another year.

The following board members were recognized for their years of service:

The winners of our annual publications awards are as follows:

SILVER SPONSORS

Relaunching the Decade: Supporting Innovation and Our New American Economy

Feb. 26 – Mar. 1, 2022 • Hotel Boulderado • Boulder, Colorado

Thanks for joining us for 74th annual conference in scenic Boulder, Colorado. This conference was originally scheduled for the fall of 2020; however, we were forced to postpone the conference due to the pandemic. Many thanks to our amazing conference hosts – the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Our keynote speakers included John List, distinguished service professor in Economics at the University of Chicago; David E. Altig, executive vice president and director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, who gave the Keith Schwer Keynote Address; Patty Limerick, faculty director and chair of the board at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Center of the American West; and Seth Levine, partner and co-founder of Foundry Group.

How the COVID-19 Pandemic Transformed Our Economy

Oct. 13, 2021 • Online

Thanks for joining us for our online fall conference. The focus of this year’s conference was how the COVID-19 pandemic transformed our economy; how that affected some industries more severely than others; and how we can move forward.

Following the conference, all AUBER members participated in the annual business meeting.

The Impacts of COVID-19 on Regional Economies

Sep. 21, 2020 • Online

Thanks for joining us online for our 73rd Annual Fall Conference!

Regional Analysis in the Age of Populism

Oct. 12-15, 2019 • DeSoto Hotel • Savannah, Georgia

In an age of populism where discourse has stirred up anger and distrust, skepticism about the opinions of experts is on the rise. The days of getting out on balconies and making expert pronouncements are over. As information providers, we must constantly prove that our research is relevant. AUBER centers are well positioned to overcome skepticism by communicating data in ways that are understandable and getting important research findings into the hands of policymakers.

The conference featured keynote speakers David E. Altig, executive vice president and director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta; Jed Kolko, chief economist at Indeed; John J. Neely, III, vice president of Law and Public Affairs at Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation; and Mark Partridge, Swank chair of rural-urban policy at Ohio State University.

The 72nd annual conference was hosted by the Center for Business Analytics and Economic Research at Georgia Southern University. Participants had the opportunity to tour either the Georgia Ports Authority or the Gulfstream Aerospace production facility during a field trip on Monday afternoon.

View the 2019 conference program.

Mountains of Data: Exploring the Next Generation of Regional Research

Oct. 13-16, 2018 • Marriott Hotel • Salt Lake City, Utah

In a world where we are creating almost 2.5 quintillion bytes of data each day, Big Data, real-time data, and data analytics influence everything from consumer trends to enterprise operations. As economists and researchers, we often find ourselves sorting through and analyzing mountains of data to help inform community members, business leaders, and policymakers. Hosted by the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah, the 2018 conference discussed all of these topics and more.

The 2018 Fall Conference featured great keynote speakers like Google’s Qing Wu, the Urban Institute’s Jonathan Schwabish, Wells Fargo’s John Silvia, Chapman University’s Joel Kotkin, and Annetta Wilson, the president of Annetta Wilson Training and Success Coaching . The conference also included a variety of sessions highlighting cutting-edge research.

A full day pre-conference workshop featuring world-renowned data visualization expert Jonathan Schwabish, senior fellow at the Urban Institute and founder of PolicyViz, examined how to better communicate economic research.

View the 2018 conference program.

Natural Resources, Border Issues, and Local Economics:  Navigating Regional Economies in a Time of Change

Oct. 21-24, 2017 • Hotel Andaluz • Albuquerque, New Mexico

The Southwest has benefited historically from rich mineral deposits that have supported mining and extractive industries. Oil and gas continue to be the lifeblood of many communities. But the future of this arid region depends critically on the availability of water. What does the future hold for major rivers like the Colorado and for the underground water supplies that have supported agriculture and sustained local communities? While we in New Mexico worry about water scarcities, elsewhere the climate change may be manifested in heavy storms and winds, as has been seen this hurricane season. How can our states and our communities mitigate the effects of climate change?

In New Mexico, the dynamics of shared resources and climate change can be further complicated by the border issues – between states, as in the Texas water lawsuit against New Mexico over groundwater pumping, and between countries, with the U.S. this month finally coming to an agreement with Mexico to conserve Colorado River water. Throughout the conference, we will hear from speakers who carefully examine the evidence regarding changes in our natural environment and elucidate the challenges posed for state and local economies, including those that are neighbors on different sides of a border.

Keynote speakers included John Fleck, director of The University of New Mexico’s Water Resources Program and author of the book, Water is for Fighting Over: and Other Myths about Water in the West; Rajeev Dhawan, professor in the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University; Jesus Cañas, senior business economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas; Katharine Jacobs, director of the Center for Climate Adaptation Science and Solutions at University of Arizona; and Elizabeth (Lisa) J. Kuuttila, chief executive officer & chief economic development officer of Supporting Technology Transfer at the University of New Mexico.