The phantom presence of Mark Zuckerberg seemed to haunt the panelists today at a discussion of planning for Boston’s economic growth through 2030.

Moderator Peter Howe of NECN quoted the Facebook founder’s remark from his recent visit, "Honestly, if I were starting now, I would have just stayed in Boston," and asked panelists how to make sure future Zuckerbergs stay in the commonwealth.

A deep pool of well-educated potential employees is an important asset which Boston has to maintain, but cutting down on business regulations and attacking the high housing costs are key priorities.

"There are three options," when considering Boston’s potential, joked Peter Meade, director of the Boston Redevelopment Authority. "The glass is half full, the glass is half empty, or as many people like to say in Boston, the glass is gonna break and we’re all gonna die!"

"I don’t think the glass is about to break…this is a long game to play. We’re the youngest city in America, and one of the best-educated cities in the world. That cohort is one of the reasons companies want to come here," he said.

But comparing the Route 128 tech corridor to Silicon Valley, one thing that’s allowed the latter to explode in growth is its encouragement of small nimble firms that cultivate entrepreneurship – instead of the large, vertically integrated companies which have historically dominated here, said Ed Glaeser, a professor of economics at Harvard.

"We are corporate in many ways," he said, and entrepreneurship is what drives new growth. While Boston "may have a lot of book learning, we’re not always so great at that."

The discussion was sponsored by the Greater Boston Real Estate Board, Suffolk University and the Boston Business Journal, and featured Glaeser and Meade, as well as Michael Greeley, a partner at venture capitalist firm Flybridge Capital Partners, and George Donnelly, editor of the Boston Business Journal.

Greeley also pointed to concerns about encouraging entrepreneurship. Boston-based venture capital firms like his have and continue to be strong in life sciences, robotics and enterprise services, he said, but recent tech booms in consumer-facing companies like Facebook have passed Boston by. His own firm recently opened a New York office to make sure they can compete in that area.

"The venture community is under a state of siege. It’s really contracting," Greeley said. Boston’s inability to retain a company like Facebook is a profound problem, he said, because such successful companies often spin off new ventures which drive future growth.

The area’s high housing costs are also an issue. The number one reason for young people to not stay in Boston after college or graduate school is housing, Glaeser said.

"They’ve told me, ‘I’m paying New York prices, but I’m not getting New York fun," he said. While the BRA has done a good job of allowing housing to be built in recent years, other parts of the region are "profoundly anti-growth," he said.

George Donnelly, editor of the Boston Business Journal, countered that Boston doesn’t do enough to celebrate its existing success – saying that while Google opening a small lab in Cambridge was front page news, existing local companies which are adding hundreds of jobs a year are ignored.

"Our problem is that we don’t know how to grow companies over a certain size," Donnelly added, pointing out that about 200 companies in Massachusetts employ more than 1,000 people, saying it’s easier for large companies to migrate out of Massachusetts because the state doesn’t do enough to make big companies want to stay.

The state of the MBTA provoked bit of spark from the panelists, with Meade saying that the fact that the state had such an extensive public transport system is a key attraction for the younger, urban demographic that provides the seedbed of entrepreneurship and innovation.

"People aged 20-34 [today] drive 12 percent less than they did a decade ago. People under 20 are getting fewer licenses," he said.

But Donnelly pointed out that the current sorry state of the MBTA’s financing makes the system technically a liability, rather than an asset.

Even with will, encouraging growth can be a tough nut to crack, Meade conceded, saying the authority aims to follow Ted William’s example of a steady stream of hits rather than go for a home run with every swing. Despite twice weekly calls with developer Vornado Realty Trust, the former Filene’s site remains empty. If, by the end of his tenure, "there isn’t steel in the hole at Filene’s I will have been a failure, and I know that," said Meade.