Economic forecast: Kyle Parks, principal, B2 Communications, St. Petersburg

Company: Parks hasn’t seen a pullback in spending on the part of his existing clients, while the rapidly diversifying Tampa Bay economy means more companies, across a broadening range of industries, are potential customers. However, low unemployment presents a challenge to B2 — just like it does for many other businesses. “This job market has been really hard on employers,” he says. “Everybody’s looking at pay structures, flexibility. They’re asking, ‘How do I do more than just post a job on Indeed.com or LinkedIn?’ The big storyline going into 2019 is labor.”

Industry: Parks says the marketing, advertising and communications industry in 2019 will continue to move away from a “one size fits all” approach. “Traditionally, marketing agencies would have a PR person who might be two years out of school and they would just write news releases,” he says. “For certain clients, that’s fine, but the clients we work with want a more sophisticated approach on the communication side to go with a sophisticated approach on the marketing side.”