By Tina Fisher Forde
The Forde Files No 65
Business conference at Mojave space port soars
The Forde Files
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An XCOR Aerospace kiosk stands on the stage at the end of the massive new Stuart O. Witt Event Center at the Mojave Air and Space Port as 1,000 attendees at the Antelope Valley Board of Trade 42nd Annual Business Outlook Conference fill the floor. Two giant video screens flank the speaker (center left).
The Antelope Valley Board of Trade Annual Business Outlook Conference ventured for the first in 42 years into Kern County, and the county emerged as a star.
"The most rapidly growing economy is Kern County," economist Christopher Thornberg told the 1,000 attendees. "Folks, you live in a boom town. This is great!"
Kern County, he said, has construction, retail, good local government and abundant energy resources. In Los Angeles County, he said, "The hotels are on fire."
Kern County 2nd District Supervisor Zack Scrivner served up the good news about Kern County:
No. 5 Metro in the U.S. for upward mobility (National Bureau of Economic Research, Jan. 2014).
Top 20 Best performing U.S. metro (Milliken Institute, Dec. 2013)
No. 3 Strongest-recovering areas in the U.S. (Brookings Institution, Sept. 2013)
No. 9 Engineering jobs per capita (Forbes, July 2013)
No. 4 Region for STEM jobs (science, technology, engineering and math), (Brookings Institution, June 2013)
Scrivner spoke of Kern County's $1.3 billion tourism and film revenue, Tehachapi's wine industry, the visioning projects of unincorporated Boron, Rosamond and Mojave and the $40 million annual wind energy property taxes.
The Mojave Air and Space Port itself took center stage, as CEO and General Manager Stuart Witt led off the array of speakers with a story about the new event center in which the conference was held. The building, constructed with soaring beams, had been a gigantic pool for training Marine aviators during World War II, Witt said. During refurbishment of the old building, he said, workers found that pilots had written their names on supports and walls. One of the messages from the past was dated 1944. Witt sought to track down the pilot who had trained there so long ago, discovering that he had been killed in action in 1945.
Tehachapi attendees at the Antelope Valley Board of Trade Business Outlook Conference Feb. 21 at the Stuart O. Witt Event Center at the Mojave Air and Space Port, (l-r) Greater Tehachapi Economic Development Council President Nikki Cummings, City of Tehachapi Community Outreach Coordinator Michelle Vance, Hilltop Publishing owner and immediate past chair of the Greater Tehachapi Chamber of Commerce board of directors Claudia White, Tehachapi City Council member Mary Lou Zamudio. Others in attendance from Tehachapi were Community Development Director David James and Tehachapi Valley Recreation and Park District Manager Matt Young. The building, in the 1940s, was a huge pool where Marine pilots trained. The conference was the first event in the building since it was refurbished and named in honor of Witt.
Keynote speaker astronaut Capt. Mark Kelly, USN, Ret., skillfully wove his – often funny -- flying experiences into personal revelations about the shooting that almost took the life of his wife, U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
Kelly described the sensation of being sent into space inside a Space Shuttle orbiter, sitting atop millions of pounds of rocket fuel on the launch pad. Six seconds before liftoff, he said, the huge bolts in the launch pad explode.
"It's like the hand of God coming down and yanking you off the planet."
Kelly, who ventured on four space walks, said the shuttle, whichwould glide from the middle of the Indian Ocean to a landing in Florida, made a good rocket ship "but it's a lousy airplane...the Space Shuttle glides about as well as this podium."
His wife's advice, he said, is, "Be bold, be courageous, be strong and be your best."
Scaled Composites Kevin Mickey that he is proud to be part of the explosive growth of the aerospace industry in Mojave, where 160 companies and 3,000 jobs are creating and innovating.
"I'm watching the world change before our eyes. In the next hundred years, they'll write about what's happening here.," Mickey said.
Other speakers included Denny's Corporation President and CEO John Miller, Lancaster and Palmdale mayors, California 21st District Sen. Steve Knight, KB Home Executive VP Tom DiPrima, sSolar CEO John Van Scoter and Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides.
