We continue our long-standing partnership with the Journal of Business to bring you the 26^th Annual Economic Forecast with a theme highlighting “What Recession?” from a panel offering local, regional, and national insights. 

The Spokane region has made great strides and worked hard to recover from a global pandemic and is poised to excel in the years ahead. Our work, together with the community has always been to maintain momentum and create a healthy and thriving economy.  

As the region’s business development organization, Greater Spokane Incorporated (GSI) is a nonprofit that leads transformative business and community initiatives to build a robust regional economy. GSI creates the place where organizations come together to advocate for the region, drive strategic economic growth, and champion a talented workforce. We work on behalf of the Spokane community to build our economy so your business can thrive.

This work requires and succeeds through collaboration with partners. GSI is uniquely positioned to bring together and work alongside community leaders, businesses, the education community, legislators and elected officials, economic development organizations, nonprofits, and others to implement strategies to move key initiatives forward and transform our economy.

In 2023, with the support of 38 partners, GSI launched a five-year community campaign named Believe Spokane to provide more opportunities for our community. The theme of Creating the Future Today is a daily reminder to be more than we currently are and to use each chapter as a building block for community growth and readiness. 

None of us know what the future holds or what the Spokane region will need in five or more years, however, what we do know is that we can and must be ready. Hearing from economists is one piece to the readiness puzzle. There is no better time than now to focus on growth, equity, and agility.  

Partnerships and collaboration are essential to community success. It takes a unified effort to work together to move forward initiatives that transform our economy. We step toward 2024 with both hope and intentionality. As we learn from our region’s economists and imagine what the future of the region could be, we hope this forecast informs you and impacts the way you do business today, in 2024, and beyond. Together we’re greater, join us at GreaterSpokane.org.

 Alisha Benson is CEO of Greater Spokane Incorporated