Chris Engle will speak at the Annual Meeting of the Economic Development Collaborative-Ventura County on Jan. 19 to explain how national economic trends are manifesting themselves locally. Engle, vice president and senior analyst for AngelouEconomics in Austin, Texas, said he sees the region poised to make a big impact in what he calls “bioconvergence.” “The lines are increasingly blurred between how biotech products are developed with information technology and computer systems,” said Engle. “Bioinformatics is a very big industry; people are essentially designing drugs on the computer.” The continued growth of the country’s senior population, he said, will translate into more business for all types. “This connects to Amgen’s work and some of the other health care sectors in Ventura County,” said Engle. “Certainly the aging population in Ventura County is going to need the latest health care service and products.” The medical demands of that population segment, Engle said, will continue to drive growth in the county’s technology businesses. While Amgen has managed to nurture a hugely successful firm in Thousand Oaks, Engle said that the spin-off businesses that usually come from larger biotechnology businesses may not be prevalent in Ventura County because of the lack of major research universities nearby. Additionally, venture capital firms have remained cautious about investing in brand-new companies, preferring to finance those looking to expand or purchase another business. Biotechnology companies in particular can take several years before developing a successful drug and becoming profitable. Still, Engle said, demand for health care services and medical technology should be high enough to support plenty of new businesses. Looking toward home sales, Engle joins the economists that are predicting a “flattening out” of new-home sales in the coming year. “We have been pleased to see how strong growth has been in the new home sales market over the past year, 2005 was another record year,” Engle said. “We do anticipate a slowdown, that new home sales will flatten and home prices are going to grow at single digit rates.” “A lot of the new home purchases have been by first-time buyers,” he added. “Those first-time buyers, many have already entered the market, so there’s no pent up demand.” Michele Pettes, president of the EDC-VC, said that Engle was asked to speak this year because the technology and biotechnology industries are significant economic forces throughout the entire region. “We work to encourage the cities to step outside their walls and work in a collaborative nature for the greater good of the county,” said Pettes, adding that she expects over 250 people to be in attendance at the group’s ninth annual meeting. “We want to help cities work proactively on something larger than themselves,” she said.