As home to firms such as California Amplifier, ACT Networks and Xircom, Ventura County has represented itself well in the race for high-tech prominence.
In the months and years to come, it will be the ability of those and other companies to apply this high-tech power in new and creative ways that will play a big part in Ventura County's continued economic growth, said Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.
In its annual economic forecast for the five-county Southern California area, the agency presented an outlook for Ventura County that while a bit less optimistic than last year's, offers a picture more appealing than most of the last decade.
"We're coming off a year where the whole region's economy performed extremely strongly," Kyser said of the area that includes Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
"It is the best Ventura County has done since 1990, which was the end of the golden age for jobs in Southern California," Kyser said. "It won't be as great as 1998, but unless there is a major surprise, Ventura County will continue decent growth in 1999 and 2000."
Ventura County's well-recognized charms--proximity to the ocean and picturesque landscape--likely will continue to draw the work force that will supply the creativity needed to keep the area at the cutting edge of high-tech design, he said.
"Ventura is still what we would call the idyllic California, a mix of rolling hills, coast, farmland--a unique ambience which is very, very attractive to the creative types," Kyser said.
"If you talk to people in the technology area, they are saying that all of a sudden they've got a lot going on in technology, but that content is becoming very critical," he said. "A lot of people developing that [creative content] are out there in Ventura County. . . . The future of Southern California is based on that creativity."
The attributes that will keep creative businesses in Ventura County, Kyser said, also will attract new companies from outside the area.
"Ventura County is adjacent to Los Angeles, which has a lot of valuable resources, you have an international airport nearby, and yet you can live in this environment, which would probably inspire you to be more creative," he said. "It's very [appealing] to high-value types of businesses."
