The Maine Real Estate & Development Association (MEREDA) will host its 2014 Annual Real Estate Forecast Conference Jan. 23. This year's conference includes regional economic forecasts for Bangor, southern and central Maine. This will be the largest gathering of commercial real estate professionals in Maine, with more than 600 experts expected to attend. Economist Arthur Jones will give a national economic report this year before delving into Maine's future. Jones is a senior managing economist at CBRE Economic Advisors out of Boston. He is responsible for guiding CBRE's U.S. and regional economic outlooks. "Often times, Maine lags behind larger cities in various trends. I think the audience will appreciate a look at some national trends, as well," said Shelly Clark, of MEREDA. Jones will join 10 other speakers at the conference, who will break down economic forecasts by region and by industry sector, including Maine residential, office, retail, and industrial commercial real estate forecasts. This year's conference will also offer a state hospitality forecast, which will hit on topics of: Bar Harbor tourism, lodging, corporate hospitality and demand in Lewiston-Auburn and the midcoast. MEREDA is a nonprofit whose members banded together in 1985 to present the views of the state's real estate industry to lawmakers in Augusta. Today, MEREDA's more than 270 member firms are primarily from the commercial real estate industry and employ thousands of Maine citizens and drive a huge percentage of Maine's economic activity. The organization aims to promote fair and responsible development and ownership of real estate throughout Maine.