Forecasting the Future 2024

What will happen in 2024? Strictly from an economic perspective, 2023 was a pretty good year in Marin County with low unemployment, higher sales tax revenues, more visitors staying overnight in hotels, and new business license applications continuing to increase. The Marin economy continues to be resilient and recover from the pandemic while also possessing leading companies in fields like life sciences, multimedia, healthcare, and technology.

What will happen in 2024? You can find out by joining our annual conference, "Forecasting the Future", on February 7th. MEF's Chief Economist, Dr. Rob Eyler, will provide an economic forecast and other speakers will talk about successfully doing business in Marin County.

EVENT DETAILS & AGENDA The 2024 event will focus on business attraction in Marin County. In addition to an excellent reputation for quality of life and natural beaury, Marin County has also long been associated with innovation and creativity, sparking such companies as Lucas Film, Autodesk, and more recently, life science powerhouses BioMarin and Ultragenyx. Despite these successes, Marin County is not typically one of the first regions in the Bay Area that a company may think of locating itself, especially the tech hotbeds to the South or agriculture centers to the North. But a look inside the data and activity on the ground shows the county may be ripe to capture more businesses, especially with recent trends of workplaces that favors smaller office footprints. Forecasting the Future is the perfect event to highlight the opportunities for businesses to locate in Marin and to discuss the opportunities to support business attraction going forward.

The program will feature first-hand accounts of companies that have started or located to Marin County, as well as presentations from experts on the advantages of locating in Marin. Our feature presentation will focus on strategies that Marin could pursue to attract more companies. Forecasting the Future will also include a presentation on the upcoming challenges and opportunities in the economy as delivered by MEF's Chief Economist, Dr. Rob Eyler. Dr. Eyler, a notable expert on the North Bay economy, will discuss key national and state level policies and proposals that are likely to have an impact on businesses and employees in Marin in 2024 and beyond.

•  
• 8:00-9:00am: Networking Breakfast (Outdoors)
• 9:00-9:10am: Opening Remarks
• 9:10-9:45am: Economic Forecast
• 9:45-10:00am: Outlook for Commercial Real Estate in Marin
• 10:00-10:15am: Why I Started a Company in Marin
• 10:15-10:30am: Transportation Options in Marin
• 10:30-11:00am: Best Practices for Regional Business Attraction
• 11:000am: Program Closure