Oklahoma's professional economic developers have honored the Oklahoma Business Roundtable with their 2007 Award for Outstanding Support of Oklahoma's Economic Development.

Lt. Governor Jari Askins and Commerce Secretary Natalie Shirley presented the award at festivities on December 6 in Oklahoma City.

Oklahoma 's professional economic development organization is represented by members of the Governor's Economic Development Team, Governor's International Team and Commerce Department business development staff.

The Roundtable was recognized for major business promotional activities during the year which included, but were not limited to: The PGA Tournament, The Oklahoma Invitational, support of the Disney Project at Epcot, sponsorship of the Governor's Cup Competition and receptions for corporate clients and site consultants in both New York City and Dallas.

Roundtable Chairman Steve Hendrickson, as chairman, expressed his appreciation and accepted the award on behalf of the entire Roundtable membership. Roundtable President Don Paulsen and Executive Assistant Ann McVey, were also recognized for their ongoing efforts.

In the battle for global economic supremacy, countries are recognizing that future prosperity depends on human capital.

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia (the country that sits on 25% of the planet's oil) knows that oil is not his country's future. His goal: Attract the best researchers in science and technology.

That is why he is spending $12.5 billion to found a graduate research university, which he'll endow with $10 billion - as big an endowment as MIT has built in 142 years.

The key competitive advantage of the information age is education - not natural resources or financial capital. The international fight to keep and attract talent will only accelerate.

The Roundtable continues to support key marketing efforts to grow the weather industry cluster in Oklahoma.

Business development representatives from Norman and ODOC will be on hand to work the annual conference of the American Meteorology Society (AMS) January 20-24, 2008 in New Orleans.

This annual conference is the premier gathering of private -sector corporations, academia and government representatives. The Roundtable is a co-sponsor of the annual "Oklahoma Night" opening reception.

The 2008 Annual Meeting is being organized around the broad theme of "Enhancing the Connectivity between Research and Applications for the Benefit of Society." This is an important topic that will shape our weather, ocean, climate and environmental enterprise for many years to come.