Cox, business leaders tout Southern Utah at ‘What’s Up’ summit

Although the possibilities are limitless for business development in Southern Utah, stakeholders will need to work together to make it happen — abandoning “me” in favor of “we.”

That was the general message conveyed by speakers at the recent 28th annual What’s Up Down South Economic Conference held at the Dixie Center in St. George. Speakers included Gov. Spencer J. Cox; Mark Knold, chief economist at the Utah Department of Workforce Services; and keynoter Lincoln Nadauld, CEO of Culmination Bio, a St. George-based biotech company.

The What’s Up Down South Economic Conference is an annual meeting of business leaders, clients, influencers and public officials. Attendees take the opportunity to shift the business spotlight from the Wasatch Front and Silicon Slopes to Southern Utah and its Greater Zion visitors and tourism efforts and the new Tech Ridge technology center.

Among the announcements made at the conference, St. George Economic Development Director Chad Thomas highlighted the 2025 arrival to St. George of outdoor goods retailer REI’s first Southern Utah store. He also said Hobby Lobby is coming to St. George but didn’t specify a date. He said they is still no word on the long-rumored arrival of Trader Joe’s.

Speaking below a video backdrop of Southern Utah scenery, Cox kicked off the conference, calling his presentation “Keeping Utah Weird.” He said the original settlers were weird people who “nobody else wanted.” Today’s weirdness is that Utahns can rise from poverty to prosperity and the attitude that if someone else wins, they win too, Cox said. He said that is what separates Utah and its southern area from the rest of the nation.

“There’s this weird state, this weird place called Utah, where we still work together to solve our problems right here,” Cox said. “More people nationwide are continuing to separate into ideological tribes that are keeping business and industry initiatives from being done. We are builders in Washington County. You are builders. We are building something great, something that will outlive us. We will make sure that our kids and grandkids have a better life than we have. And we’ll do it by taking care of each other the right way.”

Cox reiterated a common theme for the conference — the need for better housing solutions.

“That’s where we build wealth, right?” Cox said. “What happens 50 years from now in our country if we have a generation that was never able to own their own home.? We can be the first state in the United States to figure this out. We can build. We must build and we will.”

Knold drew laughter from his audience when he told those gathered in the Dixie Center’s ballroom, “I’m retiring in April so that frees me up so I can say anything I want. I’m thinking more of our legacy.”

Knold said one reason for some current economic woes, including a worker shortage, is that the baby boomers are retiring and there just aren’t the same numbers in the later generations to replace them in the labor force.

“I’m one of the issues,” Knold said. “We’re going to retire but we’re still going to be buying things and not helping produce those things at the same time.”

He said it is a bigger problem nationwide than in Utah, which unlike many other states experienced a second baby boom in the 1980s. He said local businesses are facing the quandary of how to build the local labor force. He offered possible solutions, including pressuring baby boomers to hold off retirement and remain in the labor force, importing products and increasing the use of immigrant labor, offsetting departing labor with automation and artificial intelligence and allowing the economy to shrink naturally. But he cautioned that AI and robotics ultimately won’t boost the economy.

“Robots don’t buy houses, don’t buy groceries, don’t buy healthcare,” Knold said. “They’re not taking money out of their wallets to make the economy bigger.”