10:22 AM CDT on Wednesday, July 19, 2006

By Nancy Holland / 11 News

Houston business leaders have an image of what the city should be like by the year 2016. But before selling Houston to the world, they have to deal with the image Houston currently has -- or perhaps more accurately does not have.

AP

Almost 2.5 million people have jobs in Greater Houston -- a 10 county area.

Over the next decade, the goal is to create 600,000 more jobs.

Where to look? Aerospace, health and energy.

In short, look where Houston has looked before but not exactly.

"By growing jobs in the energy cluster we move into alternative fuels because that's where the future is in that cluster," said Jeff Moseley with the Greater Houston Partnership.

Astros CEO Drayton McLane is one of the forces behind recruiting businesses with the same vigor as a major league star.

Houston has two problems.

One of them is success. Things are good right now so people here have a hard time thinking ten years in the future.

The other one is describing the city.

"A lot of traffic."

"Sauna."

"Hot weather."

And those quotes are from people who live here. Imagine Singapore and New Delhi. In fact, research shows Houston's major image is nonexistent.

"We were expecting perhaps some stereotypes. And they came back and said really it's a blank -- that Houston isn't generally known," explained Moseley. "But that shouldn't surprise you too much because if you go to Dallas and talk about the Port of Houston there are a lot of people in Texas that don't know we have a port."

All of which must change if Houston is to hit its very ambitious goal for the decade.