Each year, Idaho Falls Mayor Jared Fuhriman holds events for businesses and job seekers to network and further their contact base.

Monday was the first time the Mayor’s Business Summit was combined with the annual Job Fair and Business Connections events.

The event started with a speech from Governor Butch Otter at the Civic Auditorium.

Business Day continued with experts from the Department of Labor and regional economists participating in a panel discussion about the current state of the local economy.

“Right now, Idaho Falls has replaced the Treasure Valley as the most stable economy in Idaho,” said Roger Madsen, Director of the Idaho Department of Labor.

Down the hall from the Civic inside the gyms of Idaho Falls High School, local businesses came out in droves for the other portion of Monday’s event.

In the large gym, dozens of businesses set up booths as part of the annual Greater Idaho Falls Camber, Area Business Connection.

“This is a really important event for us, because some businesses don’t know they may need our services until we talk to them,” said Brian Ziel, Account Manager for Web Impakt, a locally owned and operated web page design business.

Web Impakt has been in operation for the past four years, and have already created web pages for the City of Idaho Falls, and are currently working on an upgrade for Snake River Landing’s web address.

“You have to put yourself out there, and just in the first five minutes, we’ve had a lot of leads and made some great contacts,” said Ziel.