SARASOTA COUNTY — When Florida Chamber Foundation president Dale Brill, Ph.D. took the stage at the annual Sarasota County Economic and Development meeting Friday, he had a stiff message to begin his presentation on how to encourage economic growth around the county to government and business leaders in Sarasota County.

“The Florida that you knew 20 years ago,
15 years ago and even 10 years ago is gone,” he said. “If you’re waiting for the pendulum to swing back to those good old days the way things used to be, you’re going to be waiting for a very, very long time. And you all know the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again waiting for a different result — let me ask you to remember that and apply that to your business prospective, but also to your economic development structure.”