The economic climate looked much different in 2014 when a fledgling organization kicked off its campaign to unite businesses in nine Acadiana parishes and create an Acadiana-based chamber of commerce.

With 1,200 member business and a five-year, $3 million budget, One Acadiana went full steam ahead and hired new directors, an administrative staff to move its agenda forward.

Then, in what for many felt a blink of eye, oil prices dropped and the economy tanked.

It’s something the regional organization didn’t sugarcoat Wednesday night during its annual banquet. In fact, it was first addressed with humor.

“As you can clearly see, One Acadiana set out to build one of the most prosperous, high-growth economies in the South… and we failed miserably,” One Acadiana President and CEO Jason El Koubi jokingly said during his opening statements inside the Cajundome Convention Center.

El Koubi added that the economic downturn hasn’t changed the region’s agenda — it has focused it.

“There is no question we would have wished for a few more years under our belt to face the challenges ahead,” he said. “But the potential we have now-with a regional platform capable of taking action to preserve and strengthen our economy is greater that it has ever been.”

On Thursday, One Acadiana that it will kick off an initiative with the Lafayette Economic Development Authority, the Louisiana Workforce Commission and other partners “to connect job seekers with available jobs across South Louisiana,” the organization’s 2016 chairman Jerry Vascocu, told hundreds who attended the event.

“We need to protect the families and workers who provide the backbone of our economy,” Vascocu, said. “This is why we are working super regionally to help displaced workers from the oil and gas sector find employment so they can keep living here during this downturn.”

Vascocu added that the organization has also retained an international consulting firm to study site selection and how Acadiana ranks up with other regions in terms of access and availability for major industrial development. The step is something One Acadiana has been working toward since it began.

It again offered gratitude Wednesday to the hundreds of businesses and organizations in various industries that support the organization’s efforts to create job growth, attract new business and its campaigns to complete projects like Interstate 49 and a new engineering school at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

“We are here because of your commitment to a shared vision to be one of the most high-quality sought after regions in the South for enjoying a prosperous career in an idyllic family environment,” El Koubi said.