Leonard Beck "Len" Jordanwas the 23rd Governor of Idaho and a United States Senator for over ten years... (wikipedia)
Idaho must keep focusing on building top quality engineering schools, specialize in areas you can compete and specialize on what local businesses are good at.
Four years ago, you weren't seeing a wide adoption of wireless data services. And you weren't seeing a wide consumption of new consumer electronics products.
When you are trying to compete against a region with such a huge head start, why not play to your strengths?
Every boat show is not like that. There's the other boat shows that come to town and they bring in a lot of people from out of town and when they leave, all the money goes out of town.