Spokane River Forum H2O Breakfast March 17

Friday, March 17, 2017

The Spokane River Forum is hosting its annual H2O Breakfast on Friday, March 17 from 7:30am-10:00am at Lincoln Center (1316 N Lincoln St, Spokane WA). The featured speaker is Craig Mackey. The event is sponsored by Visit Spokane, the City of Spokane, Spokane Riverkeeper and Kootenai County Aquifer Protection District.

This year's H20 keynote speaker, Craig Mackey, knows the value of recreation. For years, he led policy and lobbying efforts for the Outdoor Industry Association. Grokking the connections between water flows, the economy, lifestyle choices and recreation is something he's thought a lot about and acted on.

The Forum believes water recreation has now taken its place alongside water demands for day to day living, meeting agriculture needs, and supporting manufacturing as core values. Register now to hear Craig's insights on this topic, and what it means to critical choices being made in our region.

A 2013 economic analysis of Washington State showed over 20.5 billion dollars of direct expenditures and 200,000 jobs are associated with outdoor recreation. In addition, $4.6 billion is flowing into the economy from out-of-state visitors. This same report showed the recreation contribution to Spokane County as being over $1.3 billion in direct expenditures and over 12,000 jobs.

No wonder then that the Spokane River finds itself in the middle of conversations to meet both water demands and recreation. Said Cheryl Kilday, President and CEO of Visit Spokane, "Whether a visitor or resident can touch the water or not, they expect water to be part of their experience. When we market the convention center, we say take a right to the river and left to downtown."

It's a big deal. In 2015, Spokane area visitors spent $947 million, paid $64 million in local and state taxes, and supported more than 10,000 jobs. Added Kilday, "The convention celebrates that with idyllic views, art and the ability to rent a paddle board right outside the door."
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