No solutions next year

The uncertain economic and political outlook affects more than just business.

A Naples gathering of intellectuals called Imagine Solutions won't take place next year because of lack of sponsorship and the impact of the presidential election on attendance.

Imagine Solutions is an annual conference organized by the Naples-based nonprofit Searching for Solutions Institute. Mirrored on the Aspen Institute, it brings together more than 40 nationally recognized speakers and experts on topics ranging from medicine to economics and environmental conservation.

The two-day gathering, which costs $2,300 per person to attend, was scheduled for March at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort in Naples. This would have been the group's third annual conference. Instead, organizers say they will use next year to reorganize the program.

“We chose not to proceed with this year's program in part because of the financial uncertainty we all are facing today,” says Tom Everist, chairman of the group, in a statement. “These new economic realities changed the assumptions we had made in March and April as we planned for the 2012 conference. To move forward may have risked our long-term financial sustainability.”