As the West faces an economic slowdown, the ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥-Boulder Center of the American West is assembling a group of experts to examine the region's historical pattern of a boom and bust economy and talk about what the future might hold.
Eight experts from a variety of disciplines will issue the results of a two-day discussion from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 1, in Hale Science room 270.
The event, titled "Boom or Bust? The West's Economy: Past, Present and Future," is free and open to the pubic. Each participant will speak for five minutes on what they learned during the two-day discussion, and then will field questions from the audience.
Speaking will be Ben Sherman, president of the Western American Indian Chamber; Bill Travis, professor of geography at ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥-Boulder; Patricia Limerick, professor of history at ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥-Boulder; and Ed Marston, publisher of the High Country News.
Other panelists will be Richard Wobbekind, director of the Business Research Division and associate dean of external relations at ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥-Boulder's Leeds School of Business and Keith Schwer, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.
They will be joined by Brian Black, assistant professor of history and environmental studies at Altoona College in Pennsylvania and John Cromartie of the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Questions to be considered include: Has the "New West" economy become less bust-prone than before? How did the 1990s demographic and economic boom differ from earlier booms? How will the impact on cities and rural areas differ? And what will be the impacts on the West's citizens and its natural and human-altered landscapes?
Booms in the regional economy are nothing new to the West, but the boom of the 1990s differed from those than preceded it, Travis said. In contrast to the past, the recent boom -- which occurred while prices for most of the region's raw natural resources were depressed -- was fueled by the service, high-tech, recreation and retirement industries.
The mission of the ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥-Boulder Center of the American West is to explore the distinctive character and issues of the region and to help Westerners become well-informed, participating citizens in their communities.
For information call the Center of the American West at (303) 492-4879 or visit .