The coming Orlando-Tampa Bay super-region. What the heck does that mean?

Hot on the trails of the Obama administration's $1.25 billion pledge to bring high-speed rail to Orlando and Tampa comes talk of the emerging Orlando-Tampa Bay Super Region.

So, what does that mean?

What I think it means is this: spurned on by population growth and greater transportation connectivity, Tampa Bay and Central Florida will bump into each other more often. So it makes sense for those communities (and those in between, like Lakeland) to work together to recruit talented people and businesses to the area.

[FloridaThinks](http://www. FloridaThinks.com) is a new site consisting mostly of former old-media journalists who cover Florida issues. Good stuff over there. Recently, the site conducted an interview on the topic of super-regionalism with Stuart Rogel, president of the Tampa Bay Partnership, and Jacob Stuart, president of the Central Florida Partnership:

Stuart’s leadership at the Tampa Bay Partnership has taught Florida that regional thinking and regional stewardship really matters. So we have followed their lead. Now leaders have a place to go and talk about regional priorities. The only thing that’s different now is that we’re just making the region a little bit larger.

Business leaders have no problem with this conversation. They instantly connect to the Tampa Bay-Central Florida region, because that is how they are managing their businesses.

Governments aren’t quite as quick to come to this place, but they’re coming, because they’re beginning to see that Mayor Pam Iorio of Tampa, Mayor Buddy Dyer of Orlando and Mayor Gow Fields of Lakeland are now indelibly linked together when it comes to the future of the Central Florida. Particularly those linked by high-speed rail recognize that by working together, we’re all going to be advantaged.

Today, at the Orlampa conference center, early findings will be presented on the advantages of working as a super-region:

The presentation updates the effort titled “Connecting for Global Competitiveness: Tampa Bay-Central Florida Super Region” and is geared to government, business and civic leaders of the Tampa Bay and Orlando regions on the progress being made in analyzing the value of working together as a “super region” to become a major global competitor.

The Tampa Bay Partnership and the Central Florida Partnership have supported the research with additional support from the Central Florida Development Council, Florida High Tech Corridor Council, Progress Energy, University of Central Florida Metropolitan Center for Regional Studies and Workforce Central Florida.

Many forecasts suggest that by 2050 Tampa Bay and Central Florida will become a single economic region and Florida’s dominant economic driver, a release said.

So we're still studying the feasibility of deciding to work together. In other words, it's early. This is going to take awhile.

The whole thing makes sense, however. Today, the entire region is the seventh most populous in the U.S. To better battle with the large metros, why not pool resources and work together for better economic development?