Mississippi can emerge from negative perceptions of the past and attract jobs in Vicksburg and elsewhere in the next 10 years, a group of nearly 200 people said Wednesday.

The beliefs were calculated and reported electronically at a Vicksburg-Warren County Chamber of Commerce luncheon where gadgets were placed on each table of local public and private-sector jobbers and business owners.

“One of the things that would alter the face of the state is having to deal with our history, and the perception,” said Dr. Hank Bounds, the state’s commissioner of the Institutes of Higher Learning and chairman of Blueprint Mississippi 2011, a group charged with building the next master plan for growing jobs in Mississippi.