One area of focus in this year’s Economic Outlook Conference presented at UNCW is global trade. Lt. Governor Walter Dalton, who serves as the chairman of the North Carolina Logistics Task Force, will be the keynote speaker at the event on Tuesday, October 11.

“The reason the lieutenant governor will be here is because he chairs the state’s logistics taskforce, which is looking at what can be done in terms of infrastructure issues to improve international trade,” said Woody Hall, senior economist with UNCW Cameron School of Business. Hall and fellow faculty member Tom Simpson will deliver national and regional economic forecasts at the conference.

“We are growing a little more rapidly the than state and national average,” he said, based on household, business and government spending in the local area. “[But,] a real concern is, are we growing fast enough to keep unemployment the same or to improve it?”

Hall’s forecast covers the next 15 months through the end of 2012. He will also make a presentation on real estate sales and prices from North Carolina Association of Realtors reports.

The eighth annual conference will be held from 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. in UNCW’s Burney Center. Gov. Dalton will present on behalf of the logistics task force, which is in the process of gathering data and public comment to evaluate the current and future role of North Carolina’s maritime industry. The task force also oversees road, water and air logistics.

The conference will include a panel discussion on global trade with state Rep. Danny McComas, president of MCO Transport, Gary Winstead, CEO of LoadMatch Logistics, Steve Yost, director of North Carolina’s Southeast and moderated by Walter Kemmsies, economist with Moffatt & Nichol.

It will be followed by a real estate panel discussion with Carlton Fisher, principal broker of Coastal Realty, Hector Ingram, appraiser with Ingram & Company, Debbie Mitchell, broker with Intracoastal Realty and moderated by David Swain, president of Swain & Associates.

For more information on the Economic Outlook Conference, visit www.uncw.edu/eoc.