Bangor - The Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce held their early bird breakfast, with a panel of executives from one of Maine's oldest professions.

"It was part of our business revolution series where we're looking at 21st century challenges to business. We focused today on the paper industry," said chamber president and CEO, John Porter.

Misconceptions that paper and milling industry executives were happy to get the chance to address.

"It's nice to get a good cross section of folks who don't normally interact with us on a day to day basis and be able to tell the story and talk about all whole host of issues that we face as a business and we're no different then a lot of businesses," said Lincoln Paper and Tissue president, Keith Van Scotter.

Some of those issues are ones that many are facing in a new century. Issues such as global competition and new regulations were topics covered.

The panel talked about how employee education is different than in the past, due to new technology.

Panelists also addressed how the paper and milling industry is doing in Maine.

"It's a big part of the state. I think overall it's probably number two or three employer in the state," said Van Scotter.

They say it's still one Mainers can look to for employment.

"The industry employees over 7,000 people in the paper mills themselves. But, the important thing is in this business, people can get a job and they can earn a wage and support a family on it A family wage job with benefits and those aren't easy to come by these days," said Van Scotter.

Leaving some optimistic for the future.

"It gives me hope with these three individuals. I'm leaving today feeling a lot better then I did when I came in," said Arthur Comstock, a retired banker.

"The paper industry remains really a vital, vital part of our economy," said Porter.

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