Business memo 06/02/03

Development conference held at Lake Ozark

The 45th annual Governor's Business Development Conference came to a close last week at the Lodge of Four Seasons at Lake Ozark. Creating jobs in a knowledge-based economy was the theme of this year's conference, which featured informational sessions, guest speakers and business networking opportunities.

The conference was held in conjunction with the Missouri Economic Development Council's Spring Conference, which started Wednesday and ended Thursday at noon. The Governor's Business Development Conference opened at that point and concluded with an awards luncheon Friday with Gov. Bob Holden.

Holden delivered the keynote speech and presented awards to eight businesses, organizations and individuals for outstanding accomplishments in economic development. The following recipients won awards in these categories: Wyeth BioPharma, St. Louis, business expansion and attraction project; MART Corporation, St. Louis, exporter of the year; MO-SCI Corporation, Rolla, technology; Leatherwood Enterprises, Kansas City, small business; Warrenton Downtown Association, community development; Schreiber Food Inc., Clinton, innovative training/workforce development; Barbara Prasad, Jefferson City, international volunteer; and City of O'Fallon, marketer of the year.

U.S. consumers trim spending in April

WASHINGTON -- Consumers worried about jobs put a tight grip on their cash and trimmed spending by 0.1 percent in April, the biggest cutback since the beginning of the year.

The dip in spending represented a big pullback by consumers from March, when they ratcheted up spending by 0.8 percent, the Commerce Department reported Friday.

April's spending figure was weaker than economists were expecting. They were forecasting a tiny rise of 0.1 percent.

-- From staff, wire reports