Headlining a UCLA Anderson Forecast conference that was focused on the entertainment industry, Los Angeles Mayor Jim Hahn reassured industry leaders and business representatives attending the March 27 event that he will do whatever he can to help lure movie and television production back to Los Angeles.

Hahn served as a keynote speaker for the conference, which brought together prominent movie and television industry professionals to discuss topics ranging from the role that the entertainment industry plays in the Los Angeles economy to the direction in which the industry is heading.

The impact of Sept. 11 on motion picture and television production, which is Southern California's fifth-largest industry, was particularly hard-hitting, Hahn remarked.

"I want to do whatever I can to create the kind of business environment that's going to nurture this industry, to keep the jobs here and to keep the small businesses here," the mayor said. "We want to enable the people who have the talent to be able to do their jobs with a minimum of hassle and effort and cost."

He acknowledged that Los Angeles had created a pitfall for itself by taking the industry for granted. "Obviously, some folks have figured out that you can do [filmmaking] in other places besides L.A.," he said.

Hahn is attacking local problems such as parking, tax reform, neighborhood involvement, permitting and high costs, but issues such as the conversion to digitalization can best be handled at places "like right here at UCLA," he stressed. "Our edge is having the kind of educational system that creates people who can use their talent effectively, who have the skills to get that message across. That's why, for a long time to come, a lot of creativity is going to come out of Southern California."

Keynote speaker Jeffrey Berg, chairman and CEO of International Creative Management, noted that none of the five films nominated for best picture this year at the Academy Awards was made in Los Angeles. "That's just the way the world is going," he said. However, he added that there is still great value in the major studios in Southern California as "huge repositories of copyrights, of movies that will likely be distributed around the world. ... [The studios also provide] management skill, editorial ability to discern which movies are going to get made. That talent is unique."

On the national front, the Anderson forecasters warned that the country's recovery will be muted. Despite rosy predictions by other forecasters, UCLA held that the U.S. gross domestic product growth will be no more than 2% or 3% this year, much lower than the 4%-5% growth that is more typical when coming out of recession.