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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Entrepreneur, Real Estate Chief to Headline Event

The state’s top real estate deputy and the inventor of Atari are scheduled to headline the San Fernando Valley Economic Summit, an all-day conference next month on the state of the Valley economy and real estate market. The second annual event, which kicks off Thursday, May 17, at 7:30 a.m. at the Sheraton Universal Hotel in Universal City, will feature California Real-Estate Commissioner Jeff Davi and Nolan Bushnell, the Valley entrepreneur who created the video game system Atari, then started Chuck E. Cheese’s restaurants and more recently, the restaurant and entertainment center uWink at Westfield Promenade mall in Woodland Hills. Bushnell will serve as the keynote speaker and discuss entertainment technology and its influence on the Valley area, said Bruce Ackerman, CEO of the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley, a sponsor of the event with California State University Northridge. “He’ll talk about how you go out and start three successful businesses,” said Ackerman, who approached Bushnell a few months ago about speaking at the event. “He was absolutely excited. Talk about the entrepreneur’s entrepreneur.” <!– Bushnell –> Bushnell Ackerman added that Davi would lead a panel on real estate issues, both at the Valley and state level. Other scheduled panels will focus on key growth industries such as entertainment, manufacturing, retail and on the 2007 apartment market, the office and industrial markets, financing real estate projects, international trade, tax and equity structures and issues related to environmentally friendly buildings. The event will also include the release of the fifth annual Economic Forecast of the San Fernando Valley by the Economic Research Center at California State University Northridge and the fourth annual San Fernando Valley Real Estate Outlook authored by the CSUN Center for Real Estate. The summit will also include an exhibitor expo. Officials expect a mix of real estate, banking, development and general business professionals. About 600 are expected to attend, up from last year, the first time the event was held. Ackerman said the anticipated increase shows that business people are interested in what the Valley economy has in store and that the Alliance is delivering a needed product. “It says we’re targeting the right market,” Ackerman said. For more information, call (818) 379-7000 or visit economicalliance.org.

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