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Fort Wayne has probably never played host to a larger meeting devoted to economic development than the Regional Economic Summit on Wednesday night. By an electronic count midway through the event at the Grand Wayne Convention Center, 1,040 people were present.

The meeting was part pep rally for a regional perspective on economic development, part mammoth focus group to test the popular appeal of many different strategies to improve the job prospects and quality of life in northeast Indiana.

The regional summit came after six months of work on "Vision 2020," an effort to set development goals and agree on broad strategies to pursue those goals.

Keith Busse, president and co-founder of Steel Dynamics Inc., wrapped up the meeting when he told the crowd, "I was truly shocked there were over 1,000 people who attended this summit. . The last thing we need to do is walk away from this summit and return to our old ways."

Busse also promised those in the meeting that their views on priorities for economic-development strategies would factor into the plans that the Vision 2020 coordinating group is working on. As Busse described the emerging division of work for regional development:

?The Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership would continue to market the region and recruit business prospects for the region.

?The Vision 2020 coordinating group would continue working on a comprehensive plan to boost the prospects of the region - defined as Allen, Adams, DeKalb, Huntington, LaGrange, Noble, Steuben, Wabash, Wells and Whitley counties - and help push the strategies it adopts.

?The new Regional Chamber of Commerce, formerly the Corporate Council, will lobby state government on behalf of northeast Indiana.

Throughout the meeting, those who attended used individual keypads the size of pocket calculators to respond to questions that covered demographic information about themselves, their attitudes about northeast Indiana and their reactions to proposed strategies for improving the region.

After the meeting, John Sampson, president of the regional partnership, said the meeting should be seen as a key moment in a long-term approach to thinking regionally in economic development.

"We're really just launching an effort tonight," he said. "We've only been working at this for six months."