To attract new industries, Rocky Mount must improve its educational system and become part of a regional marketing effort that accentuates the area’s culture and business advantages.

Those were among the many suggestions made at a forum Thursday at N.C. Wesleyan College.

The forum was sponsored by the Carolinas Gateway Partnership, N.C.

Wesleyan College and the Rocky Mount Telegram.

And it comes on the heels of a series of stories that the newspaper has published delving into the subject “Reinventing the Rocky Mount Economy.”

With the loss of thousands of jobs in the textile industry going overseas and a drastic reduction in tobacco jobs due to mechanization, Rocky Mount is at a crossroads, officials said.

A panel of four experts from the public and private sector answered questions on the subject by moderator and college president James A. Gray III. The audience of more than 130 invited guests, which included local and state elected officials, asked questions and made suggestions on Thursday afternoon at the forum at James B. Powers Recital Hall.

Albert A. Delia, who serves as a senior advisor to Gov. Bev Perdue, recommended that the community move ahead with an idea brought forth by the partnership to form an advanced manufacturing technology corridor to market the area to businesses. It would stretch from the Research Triangle Park to East Carolina University.

“I think it’s an incredible idea, and I think for this region, for this corridor, it is a very credible idea,” Delia said. “We do not yet have the research and development base and the intellectual capacity in this part of the state to support a (research and development) technology corridor like you have in Boston or like you have in Maryland or you have in Silicon Valley.”

But he said there is a tremendous manufacturing work force in this area of the state that is competitive.

“We are the lowest cost pharmaceutical-production region in the country,” he said. “So we are well-positioned to do exactly what you are talking about today, (that) is, to attract those types of businesses that can take advantage of R & D that goes on in (Research Triangle Park) but also want to have manufacturing facilities nearby.”

Andrew Shapiro, a site selection expert who is manager director of Biggins Lacy Shapiro & Co., recommended a marketing corridor for the Eastern Region that did not include the Research Triangle Park area.

“Eastern North Carolina is a very different market from Raleigh,” he said.

He said, “you have to go with what you are.”

He said the marketing campaign could focus on the cheaper cost of living and doing business in this region.

“I see North Carolina East. … It is a very powerful brand unto itself. It is the value side of North Carolina,” he said.

Jim Goodmon, the president and CEO of Capitol Broadcasting Co. and owner of Rocky Mount Mills, said entrepreneurs are attracted to areas with diversity — “all type of diversity, economic diversity, racial diversity, age diversity.”

He also recommended a new hotel, motel and food tax with revenues devoted to improving the community.

“We need a very reliable funding base for all the amenities we need to have to add to the city and to the area in order to get people to want to live here,” he said. “The quality of life issues are important.”

Thomas A. Stith III, the program director for economic development for the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, emphasized the importance of educating students in attracting industries.

“We have to prepare our children to excel,” he said.

He said this area is in competition for industries not just domestically but abroad in places like Shanghai China.

“Our children are going to have to be competitive on a global scale, and that starts in our public education system and we’re not getting that at this point,” he said. “Any economic development planning process is going to have to include a strong focus on education in your community.”