This month’s meeting kicked off with upbeat news from Tim Campbell of BWI Airport who said that passenger traffic in August was six percent higher than it was in August 2008, and for September the number was 11 percent higher than the year-ago period.  Further underscoring the optimism of the meeting was keynote presenter Laura Gamble, chair of the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore.  Summary statement: she had 26 slides with reasons why the overall Baltimore region is a great place to do business.  Many stats covered the combined Washington-Baltimore region, and Maryland as a whole, but here are notable numbers and other info specific to the Baltimore area:

• #1 among 25 largest metros for per capita personal income growth, and 9^th in the amount of per capita personal income ($47,333)
• #4 best place to educate kids, according to Forbes
• 3^rd largest among 25 metros with the most advanced degrees
• 3^rd lowest unemployment rate among top 25 metros
• Anchors such as BWI, Fort Meade and Port of Baltimore
• BRAC, BRAC and BRAC.