Innovation in Georgia, as Published in Newsweek Sept. 25th 2015 by Elite Reports

GEORGIA: THE STATE FOR SMART BUSINESS Innovation across sectors gives Georgia a global competitive edge

eorgia is currently one of the most innovative states for business in the US, due to the synergy and versatility between its leaders in government and the business community. It is also an international hub for dynamic sectors such as entertainment, IT, life sciences, logistics and manufacturing. Ranked as the number one state for business with the most effective workforce by CNBC in 2014, it is also becoming the HQ capital of the US. In recent years, companies such as Porsche, Mercedes-Benz and Invesco have chosen it as the base for their global headquarters, creating more than 320,000 private sector jobs since 2011.

Much of Georgia’s growth can be attributed to Governor Nathan Deal’s bid to reinvigorate the state’s manufacturing industry, which was achieved by eliminating sales taxes on energy used by manufacturers and putting programs in place, such as the High Demand Career Initiative, to drive workforce development. “Because manufacturing today is technology-based, we are seeing companies migrating back to Georgia to take advantage of our skilled workforce and favorable tax structure,” said Governor Deal. “In the heavy machinery sector we have companies like Caterpillar based here. Baxter International, the pharmaceutical manufacturer

sees the value in making Georgia a great place for all companies accross industries,” said Chris Carr, CEO of the Georgia Department for Economic Development. “We are very proud of what this state has accomplished both in the pubI take great pride lic and private sector,” he said. in the fact we have been So far 2015 has been a great designated as the number year for the state with NCR one state for business.” Corporation and Worldpay Nathan Deal , Governor of Georgia announcing new jobs – 3,600 and Talk to any Georgian CEO and 1,200 respectively – as well as they will quickly praise the initia- the opening of the new Porsche tives spearheaded by Governor headquarters. “That was a good Deal and Mayor Kasim Reed who day,” said Mayor Reed “We are have consistently found a way to number three in America in work together regardless of any terms of concentration of Fortune political differences.“We are very 500 businesses, and that number fortunate to have leadership that is growing.” is investing $1 billion in a new biologics plant east of Atlanta. Kia Motors has been here since 2006 and in Savannah, we have Gulfstream who build high-end aircraft,” he said.

L to R: Governor Nathan Deal • David Belle Isle, Mayor of Alpharetta • Shan Cooper, VP & General Manager, Lockheed Martin • Lynne Laube, President & COO - Cardlytics • Chris Carr, Commissioner, Georgia Department of Economic Development • Craig Richard, CEO, Invest Atlanta • Peter Tokar, Director, Alpharetta’s Economic Development Authority • Joseph Marinelli, President, Visit Savannah • Kasim Reed, Mayor of Atlanta • Mark Burns, President, Gulfstream • Dr. G.P. “Bud” Peterson, President Georgia Institute of Technology • Randy Jackson, SVP HR & Admin., Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia • Arjun Mirdha, President & CEO, JCB USA • Kessel D. Stelling, Jr., Chairman, Synovus Financial Corporation • Douglas Guthrie, Senior Vice President of Big South Region, Comcast • Paul Bowers, Chairman, President & CEO, Georgia Power • Curtis Foltz, Executive Director, Georgia Ports Authority • Frank Poe, Executive Director, Georgia World Congress Center • William Pate, President & CEO, Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau • Miguel Southwell, Aviation General Manager, Hartsfield Jackson Airport • Trip Tollison, CEO, Savannah Economic Development Authority • Hala Moddelmog, President & CEO, Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce • Keith T. Parker, General Manager, Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority • Asif Ramji, Paymetric’s President & CEO • Tino Mantella, CEO & President, Technology Association of Georgia • Martin Flanagan, President & CEO, Invesco • Chris Clark, President & CEO, Georgia Chamber of Commerce • William H. Rogers, Chairman, President & CEO SunTrust Banks • Hank Linginfelter, Executive VP, Distribution Operations AGL Resources In collaboration with

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LET’S TALK INNOVATION There is a place where technology breakthroughs are benefiting you every day. A place where solutions to our toughest problems are discovered, from rare and deadly diseases, to the world’s thinnest electronic generator. A place where global brands like AT&T, The Coca-Cola Company and The Home Depot are opening innovation labs, and leading small businesses are achieving new product commercialization through the #1 industrial and #2 biomedical engineering programs in the nation. That place is Georgia. Start the conversation at Georgia.org.

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Georgia

Hi - Tech 3

Technology Driven by Collaboration

Georgia is pooling its technology resources to spur the next generation of growth

o attract investors and promote the state’s uniquely qualified workforce, Governor Deal announced some years back that “technology is a key growth area for Georgia.” His support put Georgia’s technology sector in the spotlight and paved the way for tuition programs such as the Hope Scholarship, which create opportunities for students Technology is transforming Georgia’s cities at all levels and advocates STEM of the population is employed in technology. In Silicon Valley, it is education. 26%. Here, it is 44%. Technology is We have a unique the lion’s share of what we do. We mix of resources and were built for it,” he said. affordability, which attracts Key to Alpharetta’s success the young talent tech is its advanced technology companies want.” infrastructure, which is due to fiber David Belle Isle optic cables laid in the early 90s Mayor of Alpharetta that made the city “a magnet for Today, Georgia boasts some of tech companies,” said Peter Tokar, the best technical and engineering Director of Alpharetta’s Economic universities and colleges in the Development Authority. “And it country, including Georgia Tech, was not a one-off investment. Last Emory and the University of year, Level 3 Communications, Georgia. More recently, Gwinnett a fiber optic cable provider, laid Technical College has purchased $12 million of additional fiber,” 25-acres of land in Alpharetta for Tokar said. Between Alpharetta a satellite college that can train the and Roswell, there are more than talent needed by the city’s ever- 900 technology companies and the growing number of tech companies. number is growing thanks to the “Thanks to our booming work of bodies like Technology technology economy, we have the Association of Georgia (TAG) lowest unemployment rate in the and the Alpharetta Technology state,” said David Belle Isle, Mayor Commission (ATC). Established in 2012, the of Alpharetta. “We are pleased that Gwinnett Tech located here ATC “serves as a forum to spur because that is going to help us conversation between technology tailor our education programs companies and resource partners to meet the workforce needs of such as Georgia Power, the Metro regional tech employers. These Atlanta Chamber and TAG. It puts needs are significant. Alpharetta is the technology companies in control small compared to well known tech and gives them access to network clusters such as Austin or Silicon resources. We were recently named Valley. But in Austin, only 13% the number one city in America to contents 03 05 07 09 10 11 12

High-Tech Comcast Economic Development Health IT/Invesco Invest in Georgia Invest Atlanta Airports

13 14 15 16 17 18

Georgia Power Ports Savannah Economic Development Visit Savannah Atlanta Tourism Georgia World Congress Center

Images courtesy of Georgia Department of Economic Development

start a business,” Tokar said. With industry leaders like Comcast, Google and AT&T expanding their networks in the metro area, Atlanta too has the infrastructure to handle its growing tech clusters. It also has TAG, the state’s tech association that has more than 28,500 members. “We eat, sleep and breathe technology. We connect with thought leaders and are positioned to drive the industry,” said Tino Mantella, CEO and President of TAG. The association runs industry awards and competitions that have become an invaluable platform for companies to showcase new products, apps and innovations. Due to the strength of Georgia’s FinTech industry – up to 75% of all global financial transactions pass through the state – other tech horizontals such as information security, communication services and Big Data are expanding with companies like Cardlytics choosing Georgia as their base. “The talent here is amazing because of the universities,” said Lynne Laube, President and COO of Cardlytics, a seven-year-old company that provides a data and analytics platform to advertisers. Like many of the tech companies in Georgia, the service provided by Cardlytics is a game-changer. “Our model is unique because it’s based on real data. It is closer to what the consumer is actually doing than any other model. We are very good at finding audiences

and we can prove if they have shopped with you because we have their transaction data,” Laube said. “Because our customers are global, we have the ability to monitor shifts in transactions. When you marry this data with different machinery, it gives us new insights into human behavior,” she said. Georgia’s culture of innovation is not limited to its startup community. Established companies such as Gulfstream and Lockheed Martin have been pioneering industry

Our technology is teaching our customers things about their business they didn’t know.” Lynne Laube President & COO, Cardlytics

solutions and collaborating with the state for decades. Gulfstream, for example, has its own R&D center, which is home to 1,500 engineers while Lockheed Martin VP and General Manager Shan Cooper is chair of the Georgia Partnerships for Excellence in Education. Alpharetta’s technology sector has become so strong it is now in a position to compete with other tech centers like Silicon Valley, Mountain View and Cupertino according to Tokar. “We can compete with a lot of the bigger cities out there, not on a per capita scale, but from availability of labor, quality of workforce, and with the companies here in the city. The next step is to promote our assets and spur the next generation of growth,” he said.

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Georgia

Comcast 5

ADVANCING Tomorrow’s Innovators Comcast: Deeply connected to Georgia’s communities through social initiatives and innovative developments

omcast, America’s largest home internet provider, has invested $200 million a year for 20 years in Georgia and operates 190 facilities statewide. It has installed thousands of Wi-Fi spots and expanded its 10-gigabit fiber network to create the fastest bandwidth speed in the country.

Our business is important, but we are also a part of the community.” Douglas Guthrie, Senior Vice President of Big South Region, Comcast

As a result, the company has played a key role in Atlanta’s evolution as a hub for tech innovation. “We have played a big part in Atlanta’s growth because our business has grown to support it,” said Douglas Guthrie, Senior Vice President

Comcast partners with Georgia Tech for R&D

of Big South Region, Comcast. In 2015, Comcast is also launching Gigabit Pro, which is testament to the growth of businesses, both large and small, in the metro region. Though Gigabit Pro targets homes, the company remains equally focused on its business services. “We have focused on both our business and residential services in Georgia for two reasons. Busi-

Comcast’s state-of-the-art new complex

nesses need reliable networks to expand but they also need it to attract talent. More and more people are working from home today but it is a trend that is particularly prevalent here in Atlanta. That means the quality of broadband connections between business and home services must be uninterrupted. Comcast ensures that it is,” he said. “On the business side, our goal is to continue to supply multi-gig applications that allow businesses to seamlessly connect. That means we must cater to diverse industries, be it a hospital or a large corporation like Coca-Cola. Today those companies see us as much more than a service provider, we have become their solutions partner,” Guthrie said. Comcast currently serves a million customers in the Metro

Atlanta area and it has invested $300 million this year upgrading its residential customer service experience, an investment that will continue every year with the goal of empowering customers with real-time information. There are also new initiatives underway like Project Nirvana that will give customers direct access to technicians. In addition to the $100 million investment in a new multi-use development and partnership with the Atlanta Braves, Comcast is invested in the local community through a variety of both in-house and outreach initiatives such as the Internet Essentials program, which provides broadband services to families in need. “Our business is important, but we are also a part of the community.” Guthrie said.

We are truly global and that is unique in the payment sector.”

We optimize and secure payments with our proprietary technology.”

Guy Harris, President Elavon, North America

Asif Ramji, CEO, Paymetric

Travel is expected to reach $11 trillion, which makes our continuous innovation key.” Matt Minetola, CIO, Travelport

Georgia is home to 27 Fortune 1000 companies, and serial entrepreneurs like Jeff Arnold.” Hala Moddelmog, President & CEO, Metro Atlanta Chamber

Georgia

Economic Development 7

The Southern Technology Triumph Technology, leadership and resources push Georgia to the forefront of innovation

he spirit of innovation is thriving in Georgia. In large measure, that’s because state entities have become extremely active in partnering with universities, business incubators and entrepreneurs to aggressively foster new ideas. The fruits of their efforts can be seen in seemingly countless examples, including 220 healthcare IT companies, a thriving financial-technology industry, leadership in the development of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology and the nation’s leading network of industrial and biomedical engineers. The state also has nurtured a revolution in manufacturing techniques, and is home to a technology-driven agricultural industry worth $72.5 billion annually. At the heart of the innovation movement in the state is the Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD) which made their home in Atlanta’s Technology Square. It is here that the department’s Centers of Innovation – a free economic development offering that’s unique to Georgia – carry out their mission to help entrepreneurs and companies bring new ideas to life. “Technology is evolving at a faster pace than ever,” said Chris Carr, Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development. “Offering talented researchers and resources to Georgia-based companies to help them expand is a priority for us. Our network of industry experts have access to a wide array of connections and world-class resources – it’s just one of the things that make the Centers of Innovation so valuable and unique.” The Centers are joined in Technology Square by a wide range of corporate innovation centers including AT&T, NCR Corporation, Panasonic, ThyssenKrupp and

GOLauncher 2 is an air-launched, two-stage rocket system from Generation Orbit

The Home Depot. The Coca-Cola Company, for instance, is working on behind-the-scenes technologies that will create new ways for retailers to carry out product ordering and harness the power of Big Data. As Wes McKay of Yamaha Motor Manufacturing, put it, “The increase in resources that we got from Georgia Tech through the Georgia Centers of Innovation gives us the ability to develop completely new materials.” Often, the Centers open opportunities that companies never knew about. Chris Paulk of Muscadine Products Corporation, said, “The Centers have shown us doors that we didn’t know existed, and have also helped us open doors that we may have seen but weren’t able to get through.” Led by recognized experts in their respective industries, the six Georgia Centers of Innovation focus on helping organizations to connect with those who can help them to compete and grow. The Georgia Center of Innovation for Aerospace offers technical expertise, research opportunities and partnerships that support one of the country’s most robust statewide aerospace programs. Similarly, the Center of Innovation for Agribusiness helps to accelerate the growth and development of Georgia’s largest industry, providing product commercialization assistance and access to emerging research.

The Center of Innovation for Logistics fuels the global competitiveness of Georgia’s logistics infrastructure and helps companies overcome challenges related to freight movement. It also hosts the Georgia Logistics Summit, which attracts thousands of industry leaders from across the world.

Technology is evolving at a faster pace than ever.” Chris Carr, Commissioner Georgia Department of Economic Development

Sitting inside the Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute, the Center of Innovation for Manufacturing helps manufacturers reach new markets and advance product development through technical expertise, cutting-edge research connections, and strategic partnerships. Other key industries are supported by the Center of Innovation for Information Technology and the Center of Innovation for Energy Technology including cybersecurity and waste to energy technologies. Generation Orbit Launch Services, based in Atlanta, had a vision to open the doors to space for companies looking to launch nano- and micro-satellites. To bring this vision to market safely and efficiently, Generation Orbit needed to find partnerships with the relevant experience, access to

resources and innovative solutions. The Center of Innovation for Aerospace connected Generation Orbit with the right combination of academic researchers, vendors and testing facilities. Generation Orbit COO A.J. Piplica said of the Center, “They guided and connected us to resources we greatly needed. We wouldn’t be where we are today without their services.” Generation Orbit has now assembled a team of partners across Georgia and the United States that are developing the world’s first dedicated small satellite launch system. In an entirely different market, Georgia-based software and technology development company New Frequency was faced with a new challenge of technology scalability when seeking to apply its remote sensor monitoring systems to the wildlife industry. New Frequency was considering a move to another state to pursue technological growth, until the Center of Innovation for Manufacturing stepped in and was able to provide access to experts at Georgia Tech. These resources enabled New Frequency to conduct the research needed to achieve its goal of developing scalable monitoring technology. New Frequency now has a contract with a global pest control company, and is receiving interest from other industries. Generation Orbit and New Frequency are two of more than 1,500 businesses the Centers of Innovation serve each year. In each case, the Centers prove that they have the technical expertise, collaborative research clout and partnership-building ability to help the state’s strategic industries connect, compete and grow globally. As a result, the Centers are having a significant impact throughout the state—and well beyond its borders.

Georgia

Health IT/Invesco 9

Revolutionizing Healthcare

Thanks to innovative entrepreneurs, Georgia boasts a thriving health IT sector

tlanta is the nation’s capital for health IT, as more than 200 companies have their headquarters in the metro region. As healthcare in the US moves from a fee-perservice model to a value base

Healthcare in the US is going digital

model, Atlanta has become the epicenter of the industry’s shift. “The consumer-driven healthcare movement is changing how healthcare works. The buyer is now the patient,” said Jeff Arnold, CEO of Sharecare, an online service that has 87 million users. Sharecare’s goal is to turn the “living room into the exam room.” “Our first phase was to build health profiles on our customers. Then we looked at ‘connected care,’ connecting patients with doctors, enabling patients to ask a range of specific questions and get answers that solve health issues. We have created a triage service on the customer’s mobile device,” said Arnold. Sharecare has partnered with Oprah, Dr. Oz, Discovery

Channel, Heart and Sony who are all active investors in the service. “Our goal is to change how healthcare works, to make the experience more connected,” Arnold said.

From an investor’s point of view there is nothing hotter on Wall Street right now than health IT.” Jeff Arnold, CEO, Sharecare

Like Sharecare, the goal of other health IT companies such as athenahealth and Patientco is to bring healthcare online, using technology to digitize this lagging industry. Patientco’s service “simplifies the user’s experience by providing one centralized place where the patient can ask questions and manage payments,” said Bird

Blitch, CEO of Patientco. “We also work with hospitals and help them take payments from patients,” he said. At athenahealth the service provided is directed at healthcare providers and eliminates administrative tasks allowing doctors to focus on patient care. They operate a “cloudbased national network of 67,000 providers and 3,000 receivers (labs, pharmacies, imaging centers, etc.), who are able to share data openly and seamlessly to support the care of tens of millions of patients across the country,” said David Harvey, VP of Product Strategy and General Manager for athenahealth Atlanta. Collectively, these companies are revolutionizing healthcare in America.

Invesco, INVESTING IN GEORGIA’s FUTURE

hough Invesco was originally founded in the UK in 1935, the company has deep roots in Atlanta that go back to 1978 when the firm established its US base in Georgia. In 2007, the company moved its global headquarters to Atlanta because of the city’s large talent pool and global accessibility.

Everyone gets involved. That’s what makes Atlanta unique.” Martin Flanagan CEO, Invesco

“As the business globalized, we needed a base that would give us access to talent but also make it easy for us to travel; our choice was Atlanta,” said Martin Flanagan, CEO of Invesco. “The city has a number of multinational firms, and the university system is tremendous, so it’s

possible to access real talent here. That’s a real driver for us.” Invesco also invests in some of Georgia’s Fortune 500 companies – including Coca-Cola, Newell Rubbermaid and Aflac Incorporated – and the firm is committed to the state’s development at the community level. Invesco plays an active role in the Atlanta Committee for Progress and participates in state initiatives such as HouseProud Atlanta and Park Ride. These investments are not just a way for Invesco to give back to the community, they are also an important part of the company’s talent retention strategy. “If you look at Invesco’s support of the Woodford Arts Center, our contributions have been more than financial. We wanted to make it a place for our employees to go and bring their families, and so we have contributed volunteer hours

Invesco’s HQ: Collaboration between the public and private sector is key to Georgia’s growth

as well,” Flanagan said. “We have an internal volunteer program called Invesco Cares, which is managed by employees. We attract talent with these programs – as staff members get involved in their community, they want to stay here.” Invesco is deeply committed to supporting development in Atlanta’s community at all levels, and Flanagan – who also serves as chairman of the Atlanta Committee for Progress – believes such

public-private collaboration is critical to the city’s future. “The mayor and the chair identify the issues, and then the committee works together to create the programs that make Atlanta a better place,” Flanagan said. “It could be anything from improving the parks, public safety or infrastructure. But we are not just a think tank. We do the work. Everyone gets involved. That’s what makes Atlanta unique.”

10 Georgia

Invest in Georgia

Initiatives that Led to Georgia’s Boom Business leaders have created a state that invests in its resources

ive years ago, Governor Deal and the Chamber of Commerce met with thousands of businesses, both large and small, across Georgia to find out exactly what was needed to drive growth and curb unemployment numbers. The result was the 2011 Georgia Competitiveness Initiative that worked so well that in just four short years, Georgia has become one of the most robust economies in the US and is ranked as the number one state to do business. The Initiative led to “13 pieces of new legislation strategy for the state and the business community. We were able to pass everything from cutting the energy tax for manufacturing, agriculture and mining, as well as some other key tax reforms that have spurred investment,” said Chris Clark,

Film production is booming in Georgia

President and CEO of Georgia’s Chamber of Commerce. With an emphasis on workforce development the state expanded the depth of its Quick Start program – an initiative that has been in place for decades to help companies employ and train staff – but also put in place a range of new education programs funded by the lottery as well as busi-

ness-led programs such as the Learning Power project, which is run by the state’s largest energy provider, Georgia Power. This year the chamber has shifted its focus to transportation. “We now want to address our transportation issue,” said Clark. “To do that we created a bipartisan coalition task force that went out into the community last year to talk with business leaders and identify infrastructure problems. This year we are focused on putting the solutions in place.” Georgia’s film and television production sector has also grown significantly as a result of these initiatives. “We realized that our talented creative media industry enabled us to offer competitive services,” said Clark. “The results have been phenomenal. In just four years,

we have reached number three in the US and number five in the world as a hub for film and television production.” In 2014 the Chamber of Commerce launched new programs such as Georgia2Georgia, which encourages businesses within the state to work with each other, and Georgia Grown

Georgia is very attractive, not just for the Fortune 100, but also for Fortune 500 & 1000 companies too.” Chris Clark, President & CEO Georgia Chamber of Commerce

which is run by the Department of Agriculture, an initiative that dates back to 1915. “100 years later and we are still committed to Georgia’s growth,” said Clark.

CELEBRATING A CENTURY OF LEADERSHIP For the past 100 years, the Georgia Chamber has been at the epicenter of growing the state’s business. With the support of thousands of members and investors, we’re always proud to create a better state of business together. Learn more at gachamber.com.

Georgia

Invest Atlanta 11

Building a Better Atlanta

Invest Atlanta attracts new business by investing in local communities

ast becoming a headquarters capital, Atlanta has emerged as one of the most vital business cities in the US in the last ten years. Much of this is thanks to Hartsfield-Jackson, the country’s busiest international airport, and the state’s exemplary education system, but it is also the result of visionary policies

What sets us apart is that we also believe in creating a sense of place.” Craig Richard, CEO, Invest Atlanta

put in place by the city’s mayor and hard-working institutions such as Invest Atlanta. “My vision is to ensure that the Atlanta metropolitan region becomes the dominant economy in the southeast,” said Mayor Kasim Reed. “International investors are recognizing that

New York, Chicago and LA are not the only states with investment opportunities. Right now we are number eight in venture capital and technology investment. My goal is to get us up to number one,” he said. To achieve that goal, Invest Atlanta plays a crucial role, as its objective is to advance the city’s global competitiveness, which it does by driving the local economy and building vibrant neighborhoods. “We ensure that Atlanta’s citizens have access to and benefit from the city’s economic prosperity. This organization is essentially the hub where economic and community development intersect,” said Craig Richard, CEO of Invest Atlanta. Invest Atlanta is the main driver behind projects that have transformed Atlanta, projects

Atlanta is thriving and becoming the new headquarters capital of the US

such as Ponce City Market, which was an abandoned Sears building and is now a dynamic tech hub that is home to companies such as Twitter and athenahealth. It also houses restaurants, boutiques and residential units. The organization is involved in the Beltline Project, which is 22 miles of historic rail corridor that encircles Atlanta and connects 45 in-town neighborhoods. Because of Invest Atlanta’s structure, it is able to move much faster than local government and were instrumental in bringing

Worldpay and NCR Corporation to the city. “We create holistic solutions for companies that are looking to set up in Atlanta. Whether it is purchasing property and equipment, identifying funds to train workforce or even helping employees purchase houses, our support is planned and delivered at every level to help ensure that the company’s objectives are met,” said Richard. “Invest Atlanta has a broad menu of support options and opportunities because when the companies are successful, all of Atlanta benefits.”

More educated young adults head to Atlanta than to any other city. It might be smart for you to consider locating here too. MarketWatch Magazine

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12 Georgia

Aiport

Atlanta The Well-Connected City Home to the busiest airport in the country

hat do diverse companies like Invesco, Elavon, McKesson Technology Solutions and Travelport all have in common? It is their reason for choosing Georgia as a strategic US base and that reason is the state’s unrivalled global connectivity. At the core of its transportation sector is Hartsfield Jackson International Airport, the busiest and most efficient airport in the country and the reason Atlanta offers almost unmatched global connectivity for an American city. With more than 2500 domestic and international flights daily, Atlanta’s international airport

Hartsfield Jackson airport gives Atlanta almost unmatched global connectivity for an American city.” Mayor Kasim Reed, Mayor of Atlanta

is one of the reasons more than 1500 German companies have located in Georgia. The most recent being Mercedes-Benz. “In the past when investors travelled, they would spend more time in each country as the travel-time was long. That is no longer the case. Today they want to arrive, conduct their business and get home. Atlanta makes that easy,” said Kasim Reed, Mayor of Atlanta. “It is the reason Atlanta is becoming a leading headquarters city,” he said. Since the start of his tenure, the mayor has been an active supporter of the airport, calling it the “job’s engine” of the city. He saw an opportunity to utilize the airport at night, when it was quiet, for cargo transport. Today it is one of the top ten cargo airports in the country. The next phase of development is to

Katherine Hinton Delta Flight Attendant Soon to be home to Airport City

encourage businesses to locate within close proximity of the airport. To that end, the airport is now a member of the Atlanta Airtropolis Alliance. “When companies choose to relocate here most go downtown or to Alpharetta, not the southern crescent. As a culture we have been conditioned to think that living next to an airport is undesirable,” explained Miguel Southwell, Aviation General Manager of Hartsfield Jackson Airport. “In Frankfurt, for example, upon leaving the airport, you are immediately in the heart of the city and have access to nice hotels and other amenities. The goal of the Airtropolis Alliance is to promote the airport as a place to live, work and play. We are launching a project to build what is called an Airport City, so we can change the perception of living by an airport. There will be a four-star hotel with up to 400 rooms, a transportation plaza with restaurants and renta-car companies. It will have as much as two million square feet of mixed-use space for Class A offices, retail and possibly residential. It will be the first development of its kind in America,” he said.

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Georgia

Georgia Power 13

THE ENERGIZER 2.4 million customers rely on Georgia Power’s network

s a 130-year-old company that operates on the principle, “we will be a citizen wherever we serve,” Georgia Power has been a driver of economic development in the state of Georgia since the company’s inception. With a diverse portfolio of fuels that includes coal, natural gas, solar and nuclear, Georgia Power is continuously adapting to the needs of its 2.4 million Georgian customers to ensure the delivery of cost-effective fuels that power the state’s business-

The goal of Georgia Power is to help create a pro-business environment that benefits every level of the community.” Paul Bowers, President & CEO Georgia Power

es and homes. The company is deeply involved in joint programs throughout Georgia’s business community and its education system. “We are leading the state in education, but also leading the debate about the infrastructure needed. We want to be as efficient as possible, be it transportation infrastructure through the recently passed transportation bill, or providing support to state leadership for improvement of the ports,” said Paul Bowers, President and CEO of Georgia Power. As part of its goal to ensure that Georgia’s workforce has the skillset needed to drive the economy, the power company has been heavily involved in programs that push STEM education in schools. “About four years ago we hired eleven teachers,” explained Bowers. “Through our Learning Power program, these

teachers go into classrooms, 3rd, 5th, 8th grade and high school to engage the students in energy education with the mission to plant an interest in the STEM curriculums at an early age. We have reached almost 300,000 kids in less than three years. Our goal is to provide them with ideas about career paths and encourage them to work in STEM fields such as energy. We provide a wide range of career advice. For example, not everyone wants to go to college. We want kids to have a variety of career paths.” To support the business community, Georgia Power is involved with a number of initiatives and works closely with the state’s Chamber of Commerce. The energy company actively supported Governor Deal’s transportation bill, which removed sales tax on energy used by manufacturers, and has been the catalyst that injected new life into Georgia’s previously lagging manufacturing sector. “The Chamber was a big advocate for removing the energy tax because it was a disadvantage to manufacturers within the state that were competing with manufacturers outside the state. When that tax was removed, we put Georgia manufacturers on equal footing with other regions and that created a competitiveness position that was critical,” said Bowers. “The goal of Georgia Power is to help create a pro-business environment and that is why we are committed to our activities with communities. Why? Because everyone benefits. We believe that being an active participator in a collaborative way is important because it brings communities together.”

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14 Georgia

Ports

ATL_NewsweekAD201509-r3.pdf

Leading the Way in Logistics Port of Savannah: The fastest growing container port

he reason Georgia offers one of the most efficient logistics networks in the US is due largely to the state’s leadership, who grasp the strategic value of Georgia’s location and are committed to investing in its airports, port, rail and road infrastructure.

We invest in the ports with the best economic interests for the development of the state.” Curtis Foltz, CEO Georgia’s Port Authority

“We have the most capitalized terminal in the US,” said Curtis Foltz, CEO of Georgia’s Port Authority. “It has been recognized time and again for its efficiency, productivity and capacity. Unlike other ports, we are structured as a statewide entity, meaning we can coordinate assets and resources to meet the needs of the entire state. All of our profits are reinvested back into our infrastructure, assets, land acquisitions and technology to ensure we operate effectively at maximum capacity,” he said. Location is another reason Georgia’s ports offer unrivalled versatility. “Our container ports are 100 miles closer to Atlanta than any other port in the US. Location makes a huge difference, as it is a magnet for trade and commerce.

We have experienced remarkable growth and have recently opened new manufacturing facilities.”

We are fortunate to be in this unique position.,” Foltz said. Georgia’s ports were only mildly affected by the recession and today are “four years ahead of forecasted numbers for 2018,” Foltz said. He doesn’t expect the rapid growth to slow any time soon citing shifting demographics as a major opportunity for Georgia. 45% of the US population now lives in the region Georgia ports serve, a migration that is expected to swell in the coming years. For a company like JCB that exports 60% of manufacturing to 150 countries around the world, the port of Savannah provides a crucial service. Arjun Mirdha, President and CEO of JCB USA, cites the state’s “unique blend of logistical capabilities” as the reason for the company’s location in Savannah. Randy Jackson of Kia Motors agrees. “When making the decision to locate in Georgia, the logistical infrastructure became most important for us. Today we are the third largest customer of the Port of Savannah. We run a four-hour inventory and any disruption to the logistical flow creates challenges,” he said. “For every customer,” said Foltz, “we are asking what can we do for them at state level and what can we do to improve our transportation.”

In the last four years, we have grown 193%.” Arjun Mirdha,CEO, JCB USA

Mark Burns, President, Gulfstream

Our location puts us close to our customers and a great pool of talent.” Shan Cooper, VP & General Manager, Lockheed Martin

We are Georgia’s oldest corporate citizen and have been involved in its growth since 1856.” Hank Linginfelter, Executive VP, AGL Resources

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Georgia

SEDA 15

Small City, Big Business

Savannah may be small, but its business leaders think big

onsidering its size, Savannah has a vibrant economy with five robust sectors that include manufacturing, tourism, military, logistics and healthcare. The Savannah Economic Development Authority (SEDA) is the body charged with promoting Savannah to the world and creating prosperity for the city’s citizens. Working closely with Savannah’s business community, last year SEDA facilitated the creation of 700 new jobs and brought in up to $160 million in investment. Such is the quality of SEDA’s work that last year the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) awarded SEDA its business retention program. “Our job is to make sure our companies are happy, that they have what they need and every-

Mitsubishi, Gulfstream and JCB all help power Savannah’s key industries

thing is working accordingly. We meet with them regularly and encourage open discussion. It is a dynamic relationship because we are learning firsthand about specific issues and, as we dialogue, we can spot opportunities to help them expand. For example, we have done a lot of work with Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, which has a $400 million facility here in Savannah. The IEDC wants other cities around the world replicate our approach,” said Trip Tollison, CEO of SEDA. Another company that has benefitted from that dynamic re-

lationship is Gulfstream, based in Savannah since 1967. “Gulfstream has flourished in Savannah because of the outstanding workforce available here. That, combined with the area’s transportation and logistical infrastructure are key to our success in Georgia,” said Mark Burns, President of Gulfstream. As the aircraft manufacturer has a close relationship with SEDA, Gulfstream is also involved in state initiatives. “Our new state-of-the-art Product Support Distribution Center in North Port Industrial Park in Savannah

is an example of how we have worked with state organizations to help expand and create jobs. The distribution center, which will officially open later this year,

We work closely with the companies in Savannah to discover and fulfill their business needs.” Trip Tollison, CEO, Savannah Economic Development Authority

will be home to more than 300 employees and approximately $900 million in parts and materials inventory that will be shipped around the world,” said Burns.

Unbelievable Infrastructure. Uniquely Savannah. Major interstates I-16 and I-95, giving access to the entire Southeast

Fourth largest and fastest growing port in the nation

Available property from 5,000 square feet to 1,200 acres

International airport with more than 40 flights daily

Two Class 1 railroads

One Foreign-Trade Zone 104

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16 Georgia

Visit Savanah

Savannah: A Lifestyle Destination with Class Its cool mix of boho districts and chic restaurants make it an enchanting getaway

avannah attracts in the region of 13 million visitors each year. Lured by the city’s fabled heritage and romantic architecture, guests spend more than $2.3 million on accommodation, dining and leisure activities such as haunted tours. Primarily a gateway destination, it is the ideal weekend package

Savannah is regularly ranked amongst the top ten cities to visit in the US.”

Riverboat cruises are one of the many ways to enjoy Savannah

wide variety of holiday needs,” said Joe Marinelli, President of for professionals, families, groups Visit Savannah. “We are popular or couples from nearby cities and with groups of women because states looking to unwind with the they enjoy our spa and relaxation kind of beauty, relaxation, culture packages. We offer a whole range and fun that Savannah offers. of outdoor activities, including “Our diversity means we golf and water sports. A lot of are well-positioned to cater to a people are content to take a stroll Joe Marinelli President, Visit Savannah

around our beautiful Historic District where you find buildings that feature Greek Revival and Gothic style architecture,” he said. Due to its history, Savannah also attracts international visitors. It is a number one destination for Canadians and draws visitors from the UK, Germany,

France and Australia too. While the city’s traditional architecture has remained largely unchanged for 278 years, in recent years an influx of boutique hotels and select restaurants are changing the type of visitor that Savannah appeals to. There is also a lot of new retail in the city with brands such as H&M, Kate Spade and Marc Jacbos opening branches there. “Though we are a small city, the quality of our hotels and restaurants is now comparable to what you would find in a larger destination like New York,” Marinelli said. “In recent years many lifestyle magazines are including us in the top ten cities to visit. Savannah is now seen as a lifestyle break and we are adjusting well to that shift in the market.”

Georgia

Atlanta Tourism 17

Cosmopolitan & CHIC Transformation has brought tourism back to Atlanta

W Kris Reinhard

Owner/Partner at Bold American Events and Fifth Group Restaurants

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ith an annual visitor number in the region of 48 million, Atlanta is number four in the US as a weekend tourist destination. Atlanta today is a transformed city that has been developed with community and convenience in mind. New parks, restaurants and city redevelopment projects have modernized the city’s neighborhoods such as Buckhead, which is known for its upmarket shopping at retail centers like Phipps Plaza and Lenox Square. Atlanta’s

There’s been a lot of development, which means Atlanta has become a more vibrant city.” William Pate President, Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau

main street, Peachtree Street, is an eclectic mix of shopping, nightlife and history. For example, the house of Margaret Mitchell is located at 990 Peachtree Street where the author wrote the timeless story, Gone with the Wind. Meanwhile, investment in the state’s transport systems ensures visitors travel smoothly and at affordable prices. “Working with the airport, we have the best system in the nation. You can go from baggage claim to downtown in about 20 minutes for $2.50. It’s the best system in the US and third in the world,” said Keith T. Parker, General Manager & CEO of MARTA, metro Atlanta’s rail and bus network service. In 2014, Atlanta led the US in terms of occupancy growth, but the city continues to add to its hotel inventory. “We are booming. We have an Indigo Hotel that’s currently under construction and there is a new Hyatt

being built next to the aquarium. Nearby they are building Holman suites,” said William Pate, President of the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau (ACVB). “We recently opened two new stadiums and both offer a variety of development opportunities. The Falcon Stadium includes a hotel and a mix of retail and restaurants. Then we have city center developments such as Ponce City Market which is comparable to Chelsea Market in New York, and is an example of how cosmopolitan Atlanta has become,” he said. Atlanta has also invested in the city’s attractions. “For example, we get people interested in journalism who are keen to do a behind-the-scenes tour with CNN,” said Pate. “Next to that we have the football hall of fame, the world’s largest aquarium and the National Center for Civil Rights. Across the road is the infamous World of Coca-Cola, the country’s biggest corporate museum.” While it is specifically the remit of the ACVB to promote Atlanta as a tourism destination to both business and leisure visitors, the organization has 1,500 members who are all also actively involved in promoting the city. Their collaborative approach both to planning and promoting is one of the key elements of Atlanta’s success. “One of the great things about Atlanta is that everyone really does work together. Everybody puts the ‘Big A’ first. We are thinking about what is best for Atlanta. That is one of the key things that has led to Atlanta’s growth, as well as one of the reasons people are coming back to Atlanta again and again,” Pate said.

18 Georgia

GWCCA

Atlanta: Convention-Centric

One of the most technologically advanced convention centers in the country attracts top events

eorgia’s conference and convention sector is thriving, attracting more than 2.2 million business visitors to Atlanta in 2014 and generating an annual economic impact in the region of $1.4 billion. Two bodies, the Georgia World Congress Center Authority (GWCCA) and the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau (ACVB) are responsible for promoting the city as a conference destination as well as maintaining its convention centers. In the last five years, Atlanta is experiencing a surge in popularity due to its location and the quality of its convention centers. “From the perspective of accessibility to the airport, hotel inventory approximate to the convention center and the attractions that support the area around Centennial Olympic Park, we have a

convention platform that is very unique when compared to other competitive markets within North America,” said Frank Poe, Executive Director of the GWCCA.

We are fortunate to have a business base that knows Atlanta is the right place for meetings.” Frank Poe, Executive Director, Georgia World Congress Center Authority

Atlanta’s convention center is the fourth largest in the country

America’s convention sector is very competitive and as a “We are a convention-centric self-supporting entity, the GWCcity,” said William Pate, Presi- CA works hard to ensure its center dent of the ACVB. “We have the offers clients the most advanced fourth largest convention center facilities available. “As we have in the country and when you invested more than $1.4 million, couple that with the world’s bus- we are amongst one of the most iest airport, logistically we are technically advanced centers in unrivalled in the US, if not in the the country,” said Poe, “Going world in terms of accessibility. forward we have to ensure we are Typically 40% of attendees are compatible with the latest technolcoming from outside the US, so ogy so we can meet the bandwidth and presentation needs of clients.” airlift is crucial,” he said.

Due to the diversity of industries in Georgia, Atlanta attracts medical, logistics, technology, educational and financial conferences and Poe is keen to take a larger market share from the top 100 trade shows and conferences. “What we are seeing is business coming back to Atlanta, people that were here in the 80s or 90s and don’t realize how much the city has changed in the interim. Today we are catering to groups of up to 10,000 in size,” Poe said.

GeorGia is the #1 Convention, Sports, and Entertainment Destination in the World

Find us at gwcc.com/vision GWCCA PROUD AD-final.indd 1

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How to Create the No. #1 State for Business Nathan Deal, Governor of Georgia

What sector in Georgia still has room for growth? Agribusiness and agriculture is still the number one economic driver in our state. But that is a much diversified growth area, and it continues to grow. We have had a program in conjunction with our Commissioner of Agriculture in Georgia called Georgia Grown. This is an emphasis on using Georgia-grown agricultural products to be purchased in the grocery stores. A brand - an effective brand. It continues to be very successful. Governor Nathan Deal is the 82nd Governor of Georgia. He has held this office since 2011 and is responsible for guiding Georgia out of the recession. By inviting initiatives from across the business community, Governor Deal has revived Georgia’s manufacturing sector and created more than 300,000 new jobs.

What are the main drivers ask people in those parts of Georgia what they thought behind Georgia’s recent we needed to do to be able to growth? make their part of Georgia We focused on trying to be more prosperous. We took number one. We set that as their information and their our goal. We were in the answers, brought them back midst of the recession when I and consolidated made that anit. Out of that nouncement that came several maI believed we could be the “We are a state jor changes. One was the decision number one state that says yes to be a manufacfor business. At state the beginning I instead of no.” turing again. In order to asked what do that, we had would it take to to make some be number one? structural changes. We did We put in place what we call that. We agreed to remove the Competitiveness Initiasales tax on energy used for tive, a joint effort with the manufacturing. We have seen Georgia Chamber of Comgreat benefits form that. Not merce. We brought together only have we seen our existbusiness leaders from all ing manufacturing base conacross the state and asked tinue to expand, we have them to hold town hall meetseen other manufacturers ings in the twelve regions of our state and they did, just to come from all over the world.

400,000

Since Governor Deal took office in 2011, 400,000 new private sector jobs have been created

$900m

In 2014 $900 million of lottery funds were donated to the Hope Scholarship

100%

As part of the High Demand Career Initiative, students are offered 100% scholarships to study high demand fields

What makes Georgia’s business environment unique? Our taxes are low. We have removed the estate tax, which is very helpful to small businesses wanting to pass their businesses onto the next generation. We have eliminated the marriage tax penalty, so you do not pay the extra penalty because you are married and filing a joint return. We are recognized as the best state in the nation for women-owned businesses. We continue to lead not only in terms of women-owned businesses but also minority-owned businesses. They continue to be a growing factor within our overall business environment. To a lot of businesses, we are a right-towork state, which means we do not have some of the entanglements of union states. And our economic development team which has outposts all around the world and has been recognized as the best economic development team of any state in the country.

Atlanta: The New Headquarters Capital Kasim Reed, Mayor of Atlanta

$260m campus. Worldpay moved 1,200 employees from Sandy Springs onto Atlantic Station, which is near Midtown. What we see happening is that Atlanta is becoming a headquarters town because business leaders can move around not only America but the world.

Mayor Kasim Reed is the 59th mayor of Atlanta, Georgia. Since taking office in 2010 he has fostered ties between Atlanta’s business, logistics and academic communities to facilitate ongoing growth and innovation for the state’s industries. During his tenure Atlanta has become the city companies choose for their headquarters.

What sectors are benefitting number is growing. We recently had Pulte Homes, most from Atlanta’s growing which is the second largest status as an international homebuilder in America hub? move from Michigan to the Our transportation sector is city of Atlanta. We have had a key sector for us and it influeight headquarences the entire ters wins within Southeast. At the “The city the last 36 months. core of that is Hartsfield-Jackson of Atlanta Atlanta InternaHow is the city has almost tional Airport, changing interwhich gives the nally? unmatched city of Atlanta alMore and more most unmatched headquarters are global global connectivichoosing to make connectivity.” the city of Atlanta ty for an American city. Because of home. We are also Hartsfield-Jackson, you can seeing an influx of businesses reach 80% of the GDP of from the suburbs into the America in two hours or less. center of the city. We had the That is fueling our position as biggest jobs move in 40 years a center for headquarters and by NCR and they are moving businesses. We are already 3,000 of their entire worknumber three in America in force into midtown across the terms of concentration of Forstreet from Georgia Tech, tune 500 businesses, and that where they are building a

$260m

NCR Corporation is investing $260m in its new Midtown Atlanta campus

8 HQs

In the last 36 months 8 companies have chosen to make Atlanta their headquarters

No. 3

Atlanta is No. 3 in America in terms of concentration of Fortune 500 businesses

How important is the city’s education institutions to its growth and innovation? Fundamental. The President of the United States said Georgia Tech is one of the best buys in education in the world. But it is not just Georgia Tech. If you go back to the Ebola crisis, the center of action during that period was Emory University. We have more than 57 public and private universities around our cities core, which allows businesses to move their headquarters and operations to Atlanta and have a talented workforce readily available. Why are so many companies choosing Atlanta for their headquarters? We rival New York in terms of their ability to connect to the world. Our idea is that the world is changing and we are in the top ten cities in the USA for foreign direct investment and one of the top thirty cities in the world. In the old days, when international investors traveled, they would want to spend extended periods of time in the United States. We are not finding that to be the case today. They want to come in, meet with their investors, conduct their business, and then go back home.

Pioneering Innovative Industry Solutions

Chris Carr, Commissioner, Georgia Department of Economic Development

The Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD) is the engine behind Georgia’s growth. Providing support to business in a range of industries including aerospace, agribusiness, arts, automotive, data centers, defense, energy, environment, entertainment and life sciences. GDEcD’s success is powered by its integrated approach and focus on pioneering innovative industry solutions.

What is the strategy behind cal, automotive, military, healthcare and aerospace. the Governor’s High DeThat allowed us to hear what mand Career Initiative? was needed in terms of engiGovernor Deal tasked GDneering degrees and computEcD, the University System er programming, etc. But it of Georgia and the Technical also allowed us to College System of let businesses see Georgia to go out what assets these and find out what was needed from “You have to universities and technical schools the private sector. We wanted to make it easy to already have. If look ten years get products in there was a gap we could fill it. down the line to We have already ask what skills and out.” created a new dethey need to be gree in Manufacsuccessful, what turing Engineerdegrees, what ing at Georgia Southern and programs for long-term sucestablished the Georgia Film cess. We do not just want to Academy. locate a project - we want to make that company successful in the long term because How does the GDEcD enthey will stay and grow and courage local business to add employees. We had fifgrow while also attracting teen meetings with various foreign businesses? sectors including film, mediYou have to make it easy to

80%

Georgia’s transportation can reach 80% of America within two hours by plane

Direct flight to Georgia from 75 different locations around the world

$4.7

trillion Every year $4.7 trillion worth of global payment transactions take place in Georgia

get products in and out. You have to make it as easy as possible for the producer and customer to meet. That is the logistics infrastructure we have. Transportation is this state’s strength; six major highways, two class-one railroads, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and the ports of Savannah and Brunswick. We are geographically located two hours by plane, two days by truck or rail, from 80 percent of the US market. We talk about that because that matters. Direct flights from 75 different locations: Europe, Asia, Central and South America. Brunswick is the fourth-largest and the fastest-growing port and the largest importer of cars. We have the infrastructure that is going to allow a company to be successful both domestically and internationally. And we have workforce, world-class universities and technical schools. Why is Georgia’s FinTech Industry so dominant? There are $4.7 trillion worth of transactions that occur in the state every year. Georgia companies touch about 70 per cent of that. T-SYS, Worldpay and Global Payments are here. Between the 400 Corridor, which goes up to Roswell and Alpharetta, there are about 40 to 60 companies that support this industry. Because we have Georgia Tech, the Chris Klaus School of Computing, the business schools at Tech and Georgia State, the University of Georgia, we are well positioned to serve this industry.

The Voice of Georgia’s Business Community Chris Clark, President & CEO, Georgia Chamber of Commerce

The Georgia Chamber of Commerce is a non-profit enterprise that’s focused on strengthening Georgia’s business

What makes the Georgia Chamber of Commerce unique? The Georgia Chamber is interesting because we are not a government entity, we are a non-profit, but we sit at the crossroads of business and government and it is our job to facilitate those relationships. If a business has a problem with their environmental permit, we are the ones to help them facilitate that. This is a crucial service to business that relocate here. We create an efficient business environment for businesses in Georgia.

community. Through many initiatives such as the Georgia Business Action Network, the Chamber ensures that the voice of Georgia’s business community is heard at the State Capitol and in Washington D.C.

How did the Chamber’s busior Democrats, we supported ness strategy change last year? candidates in both parties, We are a political organizabut we wanted people who tion and have been lobbying understood job creation, ecofor 100 years, but it’s only nomic development and been in the last 5 years that wanted to govern. We have we have gotten some great newly engaged in mak“The number elected officials in ing sure we had place. This year one incentive we raised the the right people elected. We used most that we have is the to just wait for ever raised and rethem to get electally targeted speQuick Start ed and then work cific seats and speprogram.” with them but cific races. We that’s not efficient didn’t just give a anymore. Last year the busicheck to a politician; we went ness community came togethout there and ran an active er. We had a lot of open seats campaign. We also launched and some candidates whose an initiative called Georgiapolicies were anti-business. 2Georgia, which encouraged We were able to raise funds, Georgia governments to do build a coalition, and beat out business with Georgian comthose candidates. We had 7 panies. And we asked busiopen seats that we won by nesses to do 2% more busiless than 300 votes. We didn’t ness with each other than care if they were Republicans they did in previous years.

100 Years The Georgia Chamber has been representing Georgia businesses and employees at the state Capitol for 100 years

88%

In the 2013-2014 Election Cycle the Georgia Chamber’s PAC supported 32 candidates in contested races with an 88% success rate

34,445

The Georgia Chamber boasts over 34,445 members statewide in all 159 counties

Why is the Quick Start Program so important to Georgia? Almost every company that we survey, after they come to Georgia says the number one incentive is the Quick Start program. For example when Kia chose to locate here back in 2006 we reviewed their workforce needs. In order to meet their future needs – their goal was to employ 3,000 - we sent a team to Korea to fully understand their training programs. We were able to then replicate that training in the state, train staff and allow the company to pick the best trainees to create a skilled workforce. We did the same thing for Caterpillar and are currently running a similar program for Baxter International. They are building a new biotech building and we are setting up across the street so we can screen and interview workers on their behalf.

Technology City of the South David Belle Isle, Mayor of Alpharetta

the products of tomorrow are going to be, we can only ensure the resources are available to businesses that need them, so they can continue innovating. That is why we have put so much emphasis on establishing our own incubator here in Alpharetta, to work towards that culture of innovation.

Mayor David Belle Isle has been mayor of Alpharetta since taking office in 2012. From the outset his goal was to make Alpharetta the number one technology city of the southeast. Home to 600+ tech companies, today Alpharetta is known as the Technology City of the South.

How will Georgia and Alguarantee the environment pharetta progress over the that attracts jobs. That has next ten years? been our focus and it is a poliThe first thing to note is that cy that is working statewide. we are in a great position right Alpharetta was recently voted now because we have built a the number one city in Amerifirm foundation. ca to start a busiFrom an economic ness because of “My goal standpoint the our efforts. When was to make we launched the states that are doing well are Texas, Alpharetta TechAlpharetta the nology CommisGeorgia and North Carolina. sion (ATC), the number one Our position in governor was our technology the southeast has keynote speaker. helped us grow The Metro Atlanta city in the but the support Chamber and the we have received Technology Assosoutheast.” from Metro Atlanciation of Georgia ta is also key. Our are partners in the state leaders look at the entire ATC. We pool our resources to state when implementing polget a better result. Again that icy. Their goal has been to creis key for the development of ate the right environment for the right business environbusiness and we have repliment. We are living in a time cated that here. We cannot of rapid technological develguarantee jobs but we can opment. We don’t know what

Alpharetta has been named the number one city to start a business

120,000

The daytime population of Alpharetta is 120,000

600

There are 600 technology companies in Alpharetta, a number that is growing fast

What are the goals of the ATC? We have numerous goals. Of course it is going to be a resource center for Alpharetta’s tech companies and a support structure for startups, but we have a wider vision for the city. We have four of the top ten high schools in the state here. For families with teenage kids, that makes Alpharetta a huge draw. Not only that, but our lifestyle is affordable. For that reason, we also attract younger people, the Millenials, who want to live close to work and have space for outdoor activities during the weekend. We have that too. We want to create a downtown that has residential communities within walking distance. That is the strategy behind our new retail center, Avalon. It is the beginning of our downtown and we have further developments planned. We have signed a deal to develop a conference center, which means our technology companies will no longer have to go to Atlanta for events. It will be 47,000 square feet of meeting space. There are also a lot of companies here that use Atlanta as their postal address and we are changing that to ensure they use Alpharetta.

Powering Georgia Business for the Future Paul Bowers, Chairman President & CEO, Georgia Power

Georgia Power is the largest subsidiary of Southern Company (NYSE: SO), one of the nation’s largest generators of electricity. Value, Reliability, Customer Service and Stewardship are the cornerstones of the company’s promise to 2.4 million customers in all but four of Georgia’s 159 counties.

How does Georgia Power struction of two new nuclear units near Augusta, Georgia manage the state’s energy that will be the first of the portfolio? next generation of nuclear Georgia Power utilizes a dipower plants in the country. verse mix of energy sources We have the largest volunto provide safe, clean, reliable tary solar program in the U.S. and affordable electricity to and we continue to grow our our customers. This mix inrenewable portfolio. We excludes nuclear, 21st century pect to have about 1 GW of coal and natural gas as well solar generation by the end of as renewables such as solar, 2016. New environmental hydroelectric and wind. Distandards have driven the versity of energy sources cost of using coal gives us the flexigeneration. Bebility to call on the “We have cause of our dimost economic the largest verse fuel mix, we fuel choice at any are able to retime and that is voluntary solar spond by shifting reflected in our ability to keep program in the to more natural gas. In the first Georgia Power country.” quarter of this rates more than year, 48 percent of 10% lower than our energy was from natural the national average. We are gas generation and 32 perexpanding our current fleet cent was from coal generaof four nuclear operating tion. units in Georgia with the con-

2.4m

Georgia Power has more than 2.4 million customers and is growing

10%

Georgia Power’s rates are more than 10% lower than the national average

>130 years Georgia Power is a 132-year-old company

How does Georgia Power manage the rapid growth taking place in the state? As an electric provider, we have a unique view into the economy and growth in our state. We project customer growth and plan for additional generation as needed to ensure we have the capacity to best serve our industrial, commercial and residential customers even in the case of extreme weather conditions. Every three years, we present our 20-year plan, the Integrated Resource Plan, to the Public Service Commission where we consider economic conditions, fuel prices, technology costs, and existing and future environmental regulations to determine the most affordable and reliable way to meet capacity needs. This constructive regulatory process has proven to be beneficial to our customers. What innovation initiatives is Georgia Power involved with? Georgia Power is leading the way in new nuclear, in bringing renewables to our customers in an economic way and is pursuing new and valuable options that will meet the future energy needs of our state. We are enhancing the charging infrastructure for electric vehicles across the state and partnering with companies like Google, offering Nest thermostats to create a smarter home. Our focus is creating value for our customers while remaining at the top of the industry for customer satisfaction and driving future innovations.

Welcome to the World’s Most Efficient Airport Miguel Southwell, Aviation General Manager, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to any large corporation that’s considering a base for the US market, amongst the top two criteria will be access to non-stop air service between their home office and their US base. Georgia has over 1500 German companies and there’s only one reason for that.

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is the world’s busiest airport, handling more than 100 million passengers annually. For the past 11 years, it has been voted the world’s most efficient airport by the Air Transport Research Institute despite handling more than 2500 flights per day.

option is to encourage travelHow is technology innoers to sign up to the Trusted vating security at HartsTraveller Program, which alfield-Jackson Atlanta Interlows you to keep your shoes national Airport? on etc. when moving through Advances in technology an airport. have improved the security process, but you can’t replace In what ways does the airthe human element. Addiport contribute to Georgia’s tionally, there has to be a baleconomic development? ance between technology and An airport is any commusocial acceptance. nity’s chief driver of economTackling security in an airic development. port is like lookIt drives jobs ing for a needle “An airport is a n d i n c re a s e s in a haystack. When dealing any community’s wealth in that community in a with someone chief driver of number of ways, who wants to economic most importantcause harm, ly by linking the we’re not lookdevelopment.” community naing at the 99.9% tionally and inwho have no internationally, which is crucial terest in making trouble. We because today commerce is have to find what we’re lookglobal. So we need to have ing for without causing any the mechanism to move peoinconvenience to the majority. ple and goods efficiently. Talk This is a delicate balance. One

75%

75% of passengers using automatic processing gates

2500 2500 flights per day

96.1 Million Up to 1 milion

domestic flights annually

What is the future of the ‘airport experience’? The ideal is to facilitate the passenger moving through the airport, check-in and security screening, with no human intervention. That’s where the industry is moving. The passenger can check in at home. The RFID technology can be used to check bags and some airports are already experimenting with that. The passenger can go through screening and board the plane by scanning their phone or a piece of a paper. On the international arrivals side we’ve just installed 72 new kiosks and we’re trying to increase the number of passengers who can admit themselves, which expedites the entire process. As an industry that’s where we want to go with the technology: intervention free airport experience for customers. It will alleviate the stress of travelling. We know that security screening is an issue. We know that someone’s willingness to make a purchase and their level of anxiety are linked. So there are psychological implications too. That’s why most purchases are made at the gate, because by then people can relax.

Alpharetta: Built for Technology

Peter Tokar, Economic Development Director, City of Alpharetta

The Center for Economic Development in Alpharetta is the body that drives the city’s economy, spurring job creation and investment. Because Alpharetta’s focus is technology, much of the center’s work is driven by that industry. The center’s current goal is to develop Alpharetta’s technology culture.

How did Alpharetta become magnet for tech companies. In the early 90s, that was the a hub for technology compamost sought-after infrastrucnies? ture technology for the transAlpharetta was a popular mission of data. We went location for executives who through a commercial real eswanted to live somewhere tate boom through spacious, away the early 90s pretfrom the noise of ty much up to the the city in the 90s. “We were recession. It was As the population one of the really the advent grew, Georgia of fiber optic cable Power came into first to have that really led to lay a new power Alpharetta’s techgrid and an opa fiber optic nology boom. Alportunity was spotted. Fiber op- infrastructure.” pharetta was and still is one of the tic cable was a most technologinew technology cally advanced infrastrucat the time and it made sense tures in the entire region and to lay cables with the electricwe continue to invest in and ity grid. With this power grid, upgrade it. combined with the high quality of life and the great residential neighborhoods; all of In what ways does Alphareta sudden, Alpharetta had inta engage with Atlanta’s cencredible power and a fiber ters for innovation? optic grid, which became a The Greater Alpharetta Tech

21m

From the mid-90s approximately 21 million square feet of Class A office space has been built in Alpharetta

600

There are 600 technology companies in Alpharetta, a number that is growing each year

2012

The Alpharetta Technology Commission was established in 2012

Network (GATN) was essentially started as the engage committee. The ATDC, the Advanced Technology Development Center in Tech Square, they are the incubator downtown. Since they are a state-funded incubator, they have satellite meet-ups. They call them the ATDC circles. The Alpharetta circle is the largest and most successful circle they run. They meet every Friday morning where there is an average of 20 entrepreneurs meeting at the innovation center. We are trying to expand the reach of our innovation center, for example, we will be running a hackathon, different events that drive our technology culture. Emergence Med Tech and the health IT accelerator run their program from the innovation center. What is the current challenge for Alpharetta’s technology sector? We have to cement our culture of technology and be a dynamic hub for innovation. That means meet-up points and debates, a real energy of discovery that takes place throughout the city. I have talked to young people in New York and Silicon Valley and they one thing they have in common is a passion for discovery and innovation. They want to be “where innovation happens.” It is up to us to provide that environment. In Alpharetta, we already have the main ingredients. We are poised for the next stage and will be implementing new technologies in the coming months.

Global Investment Expertise Matters Martin Flanagan, CEO, Invesco

Founded in 1935, Invesco is a global company that manages approximately $800 billion on behalf of its clients who are spread across 150 countries. The 500-strong team in Atlanta handles about $270 billion in assets that include global equities, fixed income and asset allocation capabilities.

What industries are driving in the country, or Emory, which is known for bio-techinvestment in Georgia right nology. So Health IT and innow and why? vestment technology are very There are the obvious ones, strong here. The Coca-Cola, Delta, number of startHome Depot, ‘The startup ups is in the thouUPS, all strong and important to community in sands and there are incubators evthe community as Atlanta is the erywhere. Two well as the emthings are making ployment base. one to watch.” that happen: the We also have very universities, but strong investment also the return of young peotechnology companies here ple to the city. such as Equifax and Global Payments. And we have ICE, a long-time company in AtHow has Invesco invested in lanta which now owns the innovation both internally New York Stock Exchange, so and in Atlanta? a very broad base in the city. I’m chair of the Atlanta What’s more interesting here Committee for Progress and harder to observe is the (ACP) and one of our goals is startup community, which is to ramp up the city’s technolvery dynamic. It’s coming ogy innovation capability. from the universities such as Experience has shown that Georgia Tech, which is one of success comes when everythe best engineering schools one in the eco-system is in-

150

Invesco’s client base is spread across 150 countries with offices in 20

$800bn

Invesco manages $800 billion on behalf of its clients

$270bn

Invesco’s team at Atlanta manages approx. $270 billion in assets

volved. That means large institutions that might be set in their ways have to connect with the startups by utilizing their products, mentoring them and investing in them. That helps the startups but also forces larger organizations to think about innovation. So that’s one of the things the Atlanta leadership is working on right now, and it’s going to have a significant impact on the startup community. Yes, we are money managers at Invesco, but technology is important to our business. We invest in technology and study it to understand its potential impact on our business. Back in the 90s it was predicted that the internet would have a serious, negative impact on financial advisers, but that didn’t happen. Now it’s predicted that mobile technology will once again negatively impact financial advisers, but I doubt that’s going to happen because they will adopt the emerging technologies. We have teams out in Silicon Valley spending time with the startups to understand how we can utilize the new technology and its potential impact on our business. Here too, we spend time at the incubators and understand how the tech is evolving. Spending time at these incubators not only shows us what technology can help our business, but it also changes how we think. This activity is ongoing at our firm, but we are very focused on it at the moment. And yes, we are working with the universities right now to develop new projects.

Bringing the Truth to Advertising

Lynne Laube President, COO & Co-Founder, Cardlytics

Cardlytics is a data intelligence platform that is focused on making advertising better by using consumer transaction data. Cardlytics enables advertisers to find people more precisely based on their past purchase behavior and deliver tailored marketing campaigns based on that behavior.

What value does Cardlytics they make a purchase, the savings are automatically apoffer banks, advertisers and plied to their bank account. consumers? So the bank is getting value The value we offer is our because they are helping cususe of purchase data to protomers save money, but withvide rewards to consumers, out any personaland loyal customly-identifiable ers to banks. We information ever also give advertis“The best leaving the bank. ers the ability to indicator The advertisers reach consumers are getting value based on this of future through better data, then measure the impact behavior is past targeting and precise measurement their ads have on behavior.” of the effectivein-store purchasness of their ads. es. When a conThe consumer sumer logs into benefits because they are savtheir mobile banking applicaing money on things they altion or online site, they see ready like to buy - and those targeted offers to save money savings go directly back into based on how they spend their bank account. money. If the consumer sees an offer they like, all they How is Cardlytics innovathave to do is  click on it and ing data analytics and digithe offer is loaded to their tal advertising? debit or credit card. When

>500

Cardlytics is partnered with more than 500 financial institutions

18bn

Cardlytics sees 18 billion transactions per year

$1.8tr

Cardlytics sees $1.8 trillion in spend per year

We are innovating because we are using a new data source, which is what I call the single source of truth. A lot of data that is used in advertising today is inferred. It’s inferred based on social behavior, location, gender or age, etc. Ours is based on what the consumer actually does. We see every purchase from each of our bank partners – all credit, debit, bill pay and ACH - totalling over $1.8 trillion this year. We don’t receive any personally identifiable information, which is important to protect the bank and the consumer. However, we can build audience segments, such as people who shop at sporting goods stores, and specifically measure if that advertising was effective in generating more sales. We know where and how consumers spend money, which is incredibly powerful for all forms of advertising. What has been the customer reception to Cardlytics? When we first approached advertisers about the ability to use actual transaction data to target customers and precisely measure the success of their marketing, they said it’s too good to be true. Once they started to use it, they understood the power of the transaction data. It’s black and white. I advertised to you and I can see if that leads to a purchase. Our advertisers love the power of the data. What we are surprised about is how many of the customers are using the data to answer questions beyond marketing.

Innovating to Deliver a Superior Customer Experience Douglas Guthrie, Regional Senior Vice President, Comcast

have also introduced two new tiers of high-speed home Internet - Extreme 150 and 250, and rolled out a statewide network of more than 200,000 WiFi hotspots, making us the largest Wi-Fi provider in Georgia. On the commercial side, Comcast Business completed a major fiber network expansion that delivers up to 10 gigabit speeds to some of Georgia’s leading businesses and organizations. Finally, Atlanta was one of the first markets to launch X1, and it’s been a big success here.

With new jobs, $200 million in annual investments, a world-class high speed fiber network powering Georgia’s largest Wi-Fi network, and the nation’s fastest Internet speeds to the most homes and businesses, Comcast is at the vanguard of Georgia’s technology innovation and economic development.

How is Comcast innovating 300 in Atlanta alone. Nationwide, Comcast is investing to deliver a superior custom$300 million to support this er experience? effort in 2015. Recently we announced a bold plan to redefine what an excellent customer experience What innovative products looks like - across the compahas Comcast recently ny and into every aspect of the launched in Atlanta? customer relationship. We are We just opened four new introducing new technologies Xfinity stores in Atlanta that that give customers more contotally re-imagine the retail trol, letting them use their moexperience. Customers expebile devices to rience a high-tech check account staenvironment that “We want tus, schedule aplets them test to use our pointments, pay drive our latest bills, and more. technologies. On technology to the product side, There is a new app that lets them empower our Atlanta was our track their techninational launch customers.” cian, so they won’t market for Gigabit miss an appointPro, the nation’s ment. We have committed fastest home Internet service. ourselves to always being It’s a 2-Gigabit service deliv100% on time with service visered over fiber right to the its. We are also investing in home - twice as fast as anytraining and people – hiring thing else in the market. We

$200m

Comcast has invested $200 million per year in Georgia for the last 20 years

4,421

The number of Comcast employees in Georgia

8,000 miles

Number of miles of Comcast’s advanced fiber network across the state

What does the partnership with the Atlanta Braves represent to Comcast? This will be the most advanced stadium and mixed use development in the U.S. We will be able to showcase how Comcast’s latest products can create an unsurpassed experience for fans, businesses, shoppers, or visitors. There’s also a lot of excitement around the Innovation Lab we are creating within the new nine-story building Comcast will occupy. The lab will be connected via fiber to our other R&D centers in Silicon Valley, Philadelphia and Denver. Why is Comcast investing so heavily in Atlanta? The technology community here is thriving like never before, and Atlanta continues to provide a terrific environment for business and residential growth. We’ve been making investments here for a long time – on average about $200 million annually for the last 20 years. This investment is helping to attract top talent.

Where Commerce and Community Meet Craig Richard, President and CEO, Invest Atlanta

Invest Atlanta fuels Atlanta’s global competitiveness by facilitating the growth of a strong local economy and by creating vibrant neighborhoods. The organization is a hub where economic and community development meet. Its goal is to ensure that all Atlantans have access to, and benefit from, the City’s economic prosperity.

What role does Invest AtlanHow does Invest Atlanta asta play in the economic desist individual companies? velopment of Georgia? We create holistic solutions When companies are interfor companies that are lookested in growing ing to set up in their business in Atlanta. We help Atlanta, we work connect the dots “It’s the alongside the on all things relatState of Georgia to ed to project suclayers of develop offers to cess. From pursupport that make sure that lochasing property cating in Atlanta make Atlanta a or equipment and is both a competiidentifying funds tive and a comworkforce good choice.” for pelling opportutraining, to helpnity. Because we ing employees are the local compurchase houses, ponent of the economic deInvest Atlanta has a broad velopment chain, which inmenu of support options and cludes federal, state and opportunities. regional organizations, we can negotiate the incentives. What makes Invest Atlanta Our decisions then move to unique? action because our job is to One of the things that we do ensure that the deal is properwell at Invest Atlanta is the ly structured for the company development of tools that and for Atlanta. give companies benefits not

79,600

The number of jobs created in metro Atlanta area this year.

No. 6

Atlanta announced as 6th fastest growing market for Tech Talent.

The BeltLine Project connects 45 neighborhoods with a combination of rail, train and air transport as well as greenspace, housing and commerce

just on the front end, but over time. An example of this is our tax allocation districts or TADs. These are districts that have been created by the city and use the increment of taxes to generate infrastructure support that’s needed for growth and development. What really sets us apart though is our focus on community development. We believe in creating a sense of place because the next generation of economic development is not just about attracting the company, it’s about attracting and retaining talent. To do that the quality of life has to meet and even exceed expectations. We work hard to make sure we provide vibrant communities and quality housing options for all Atlantans. What industries are of specific interest to Invest Atlanta? Advanced logistics is one of our target industries because of Atlanta’s unparalleled market access. With our focus on life sciences, healthcare-related companies have uninterrupted access to resources and to a stream of talent flowing from the nearly 70 colleges and universities – including research institutions – in the Atlanta region. Digital arts and new media production is another segment where Atlanta offers clear value and is a sector where the state has been proactive in creating opportunities. Today, Georgia ranks third in the nation for film production. It’s the layers of support that make Atlanta the best choice.

Selling Savannah to the World

Trip Tollison, CEO, Savannah Economic Development Authority (SEDA) any company that is interested in this region wants to know two things. The first is the infrastructure and site. The second is the workforce. We are very involved in programs with SCAD, Georgia Southern, Savannah State, Savannah Tech, Armstrong State University and others.

The Savannah Economic Development Authority (SEDA) sells Savannah to the world with the goal of creating jobs and generating investment in the region. SEDA also works with surrounding counties and partners. In 2014, SEDA has helped facilitate 700 new job opportunities and brought in up to $160m of investment.

What are some of the feafilm and production in Geortures that attract people to gia recently, Savannah is benlive and work in Savannah? efitting from that boom too Definitely the lower cost of with several major movies doing business is a key attracbeing shot here. tion. We have a lower cost of living and an incredible qualHow closely involved is ity of life. We have 247 proSEDA in workforce training grams in Savannah alone that programs? contribute to workforce deExtremely close. We have velopment. We have great in874,000 people living within centives and land 60 miles of the I-95 opportunities. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our goal is to and I-16 intersecThe diversity of tion. We have apour region and the facilitate jobs p r o x i m a t e l y success of the 60,000 students economy along and investment who are in some with its cultural in the region.â&#x20AC;? sort of postgrad aspects really sells education in that the city. We have area. We tie into five major sectors in our econall the programs and work omy: manufacturing, tourwell with the universities and ism, military, ports & logistics technical colleges. We have and healthcare, which means seats on the workforce investwe have a diverse economy, ment boards. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s essential for particularly for a city of our us to be closely involved with size. Because of the interest in these organizations because

$1.2bn

SEDA currently has 20 active projects representing a potential $1.2 billion in investment

247

Savannah currently has 247 workforce programs

700

New job opportunities in 2014

What is The Creative Coast project? The Creative Coast is a mentoring program, which we help fund. The project has think space for companies to come in and share ideas and they also provide mentors. There are students coming out of SCAD or people interested in moving here but they might not have the business skills or understand the business environment here so The Creative Coast project helps emerging companies get to that next level. How does SEDA choose which educational programs to support? We try to match with the needs of the existing companies here in Savannah. For example if we have a delegation coming from Canada we sit down with the companies and explain this is how to do business with Canada or these are the customs laws. Last year we did 17 programs including two programs on doing business with Germany and Brazil. This year we will do up to 15. Ultimately, the program content is decided by the companies because we find out what they need and customize the programs accordingly.

Savannah: Where History and Luxury Meet Joe Marinelli, President of Visit Savannah

Visit Savannah serves as the primary destination marketing organization for the Savannah-area tourism industry. The organization is committed to driving the economic prosperity of the community through increased visitor numbers and related spending while building and maintaining Savannah’s image as a world-class destination.

Voted as one of the 10 Most back beach community with its own collection of unique Beautiful Places in America, eateries and shops. Savannah what kind of destination is is reminiscent of the quaint arthe city of Savannah? eas of London with its 22 Yes, Savannah is breathtakpark-like squares throughout ing. And for most of our visithe Landmark Histors, Savannah is considered a get“Tours bring toric District. away or weekend destination. the city to life How do tours enGuests to Savanhance the visitor’s nah tend to trend as every corner experience of Satowards couples, has a story to vannah? girlfriend getTours bring the tell.” aways and those city to life as every interested in a trucorner has a story ly unique and authentic expeto tell. We offer horse and carrience. Today, visitors to Sariages tours, Segways or simvannah are staying longer and ple walking tours. At night, spending more. Fortunately, haunted tours are also popuSavannah is many different lar, often called “America’s destinations in one. For those most haunted city,” there are seeking a romantic getaway, over 40 different tours rangshopping, dining or a spa exing from exploring the paraperience, we have it all. Some normal experience to doing a also visit for our beach destihaunted pub crawl. It’s a truly nation, Tybee Island, a laidfun experience.

13m

Each year more than 13 million visitors visit Savannah

The average age of the visitor to Savannah is 41

15,000

There are 15,000 hotel rooms in Savannah

Where are visitors from Savannah coming from? In 2014, Savannah saw nearly 13.5 million visitors. Most of which are overnight guests but many are day-trippers coming from nearby cities like Charleston, Hilton Head Island, Amelia Island and Jacksonville, Florida. Savannah is also very popular with travelers from Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and the Washington DC area. Each year we see more international visitors. Of course Canada is our largest market but we also have guests from all over the world, in particular the U.K, Germany, France, Australia and Brazil. Interestingly enough, more “millennials” are coming to Savannah than ever before. They like the fact that they can be un-plugged for a few days, while still enjoying a vibrant, hip destination. What kind of stay can one expect, what is the city’s room capacity? If you are a part of a hotel frequent-flier program, we have all the big names, we also have wonderful historic inns, charming bed & breakfasts and between Savannah and Tybee Island, a whole array of vacation rentals. There is also a new influx of boutique hotels coming into the market as well. Brands like Kimpton, Andaz, Kessler Collection and Hotel Indigo are extremely popular, especially with our younger, more affluent visitors. But with over 15,000 rooms available in town, we have plenty of room for everyone.

A Convention Complex Fit for Olympians Frank Poe, Executive Director, Georgia World Congress Center Authority

The Georgia World Congress Center Authority operates Centennial Olympic Park - a 21-acre Park in the heart of downtown - the Georgia Dome, the Georgia World Congress Center, and the Savannah International Trade and Convention Center, comprising the world’s largest combined sports, entertainment and convention destinations in the world.

vention centers in other In what ways does the Georstates? gia World Congress Center We are a self-supporting Authority generate its entity. We do not draw upon $1.4bn economic impact? the state treasury for operatOur key metrics are really ing support. In Boston or numbers of visitors we bring Chicago, they are able to into the state for convendraw upon tax resources to tions, trade shows, sports support their operation in and special events. In our addition to what most recent fisthey can genercal year, that “Our front ate as a venue. would be about Our capital in2.2 million. door is vestments have Those event atCentennial been done over tendees go to years other events or Olympic Park.” the through bond experience othprograms in the er activities and state of Georgia. We want to that produced about $72.8m display that capital investin state tax revenue. The ment back and show the govnumber of jobs supported by ernor’s office they’re getting those visitors and events is a a good return on the investlittle over 15,000. All those pieces fold into that $1.4bn. ment. From a visitor standpoint, what makes the GWCWhat makes the GWCCA CA unique is its setting. We different from World conare within walking distance

$1.4bn

In the fiscal year 2014, the GWCCA generated $1.4bn in economic impact.

$1.4m

The GWCCA has invested $1.4m in its IT infrastructure to boost its bandwidth efficiency.

2.2 m

The average number of visitors the GWCCA attracts to the state annually.

of a terrific hotel inventory. Our front door is Centennial Olympic Park, which is one of our legacy centerpieces from the 1996 Olympic Games. As stewards of the park, we have maintained and enhanced it over the years so the park itself is a central footprint and unique component. Around the park the attractions include the College Football Hall of Fame, the Center for Civil and Human Rights, the Georgia Aquarium, the Children’s Museum and CNN. Few cities can offer that in a compact walkable area in proximity to its hotel district. As a congress center, how do you remain competitive? For us to be competitive, we are always looking for ways to improve the customer experience. That comes through in reinvestments to keep the building fresh and updated. Investment in technology is particularly important for us. The experience is not enough. The infrastructure has to be there to support it. We do large events with Microsoft, which require a major pipeline into the facility, significant bandwidth for the movement of their data. We have invested around $1.4m in that infrastructure to continue to beef up the accessibility for the types of groups that need that bandwidth. Also we have plans to develop a headquarters hotel on campus that will be connected to the center and stadium.

The Reasons Meeting Planners Love Atlanta

William Pate, President & CEO, Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau lowed us to host some of the largest robotics competitions in the country.

Established in 1913, Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau (ACVB) is a private, nonprofit organization created to drive business tourism in Atlanta. ACVB acts as the liaison between meeting planners, tour operators and 850 members to ensure that Atlanta remains the region’s most efficient convention destination.

What is Atlanta’s biggest business? Innovation in the city helps draw as a convention destius attract more conventions nation? and visitors. Atlanta is a hub Because we are a convenfor medical research and lotion-centric city, meeting gistics, which helps us attract planners love Atlanta. We meetings from have the those industries. fourth-largest “We have For example, we convention center host MODEX, the in the country the fourth second-largest locoupled with the largest gistics convention world’s busiest in the US. They airport. Logisticonvention selected Atlanta cally we’re unrito be close to the valled – certainly center in logistics innovain the US, if not in the country.” tion that is going the world. From on in this city. the airport you Once you attract a large concan take MARTA, the rapid vention like MODEX, you rail system, and be in the concan entice additional meetvention district in 20 minutes ings and conventions serving where 10,000 hotel rooms are that industry. This has been within walking distance of true in the finance and techthe convention center. nology sectors as well. The innovation around robotics How does ACVB harness inover at Georgia Tech has alnovation in Atlanta to win

10,000 10,000 hotel rooms within walking distance of the convention center

20 Minutes

The time it takes to get from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to the convention district

48m

The number of domestic visitors to metro Atlanta in 2014

How is the ACVB innovating its services? When demand is as strong as it has been in Atlanta, you have to stack the city more efficiently to keep growing. To do that, we built a model that allows us to see hotel and meeting space availability for any day over the next eight years. Our sales people use this tool to identify gaps and look for meetings that can fit in those dates. It also allows us to be more targeted with our incentives and offer clients a more efficient service. It’s a service that works well for smaller conventions that only book a few years in advance. The bigger conventions book up to seven years in advance. What opportunities lie ahead for the ACVB? Last year we welcomed approximately 48 million domestic visitors to metro Atlanta, ranking us fourth in the country in domestic visitation. Large conventions can often draw 35-40 percent of their attendees from outside the US, so international airlift is critical. We are working to increase our international visitation in partnership with Delta Air Lines. As they increase their international flights, it creates opportunities to attract more visitors. Increasing the number of international visitors to Atlanta is one of our best opportunities for significant incremental growth.

The Driving Force behind Georgia’s Tech Industry Tino Mantella, President & CEO, TAG

other new phenomenon for GA is traditional companies like Coca-Cola and Home Depot opening innovation centers and jumping into the innovation community because of the technology that’s been provided to them, how they handle payments, how they use the smart phone, supply chain issues. All that innovation is happening here. Today, 75% of all payments flow through Georgia.

The Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) is a membership-based organization with 28,500 members representing 2,000 companies. Unique to Georgia, TAG drives the state’s technology industry by connecting thought leaders, Fortune 500 executives, investors, government representatives, service providers and entrepreneurs.

What are some of the ways technology state. We connect the tech industry with speTAG drives economic decial interest groups we call velopment? societies. No other state has TAG has initiated a number a program like this. It has alof activities in support in the lowed us to grow our meminnovation industry in Georbership to more than 28,500, gia. We have helped to proas far as I know, the largest mote our technology compastate tech associanies across the tion in North state and beyond “We promote America. via 1billion media opportunities Georgia as last year. Through How has Geora leading entrepreneurial gia’s tech scene competitions changed in retechnology TAG has invested cent years? more than $5m in It’s accelerated. state.” our startup comBeginning with munity. We make opportunities for sure the legislative environstartups, incubators, accelerment is friendly to business. ators and other communities We focus on STEM projects of innovation like Atlanta to get kids excited about Technology Village. Facilimaths, science, technology ties that support entrepreand engineering. We do job neurs have burst onto the fairs and job boards. We proscene so we have 80 now, up mote Georgia as a leading for 20 just 4 years ago. An-

28,500+ 28,500+ Members representing 2,000 companies.

34 Societies that include FinTech, Finance, Marketing, Logistics and Health.

200

More than 200 industry events each year that include Health IT Summits and Marketing Awards.

How does TAG help companies secure funding? We helped start Venture Atlanta, which is a venture conference we organize to showcase 30 to 40 companies and almost all of them are from Georgia. Last year we had 700 people in total, and around 150 investors. Those companies have generated almost $2 billion in investment over the last few years. For early stage companies we do the Business Launch Competition. We work hard to attract investors because about 80% of the funding for companies in Georgia comes from outside the state, so attracting those investors here is critical. Where are the growth opportunities for Georgia? Georgia is well positioned to deliver technology solutions in areas that are important to the consumer like Health IT, Financial Technology, Information Security and Mobility. Research in these fields can transform these industries and lead to further growth for Georgia.

Nurturing the Future of Innovation, Science and Technology G.P. “Bud” Peterson, President, Georgia Institute of Technology

programs, focused on multidisciplinary design, entrepreneurship, and innovation and includes Startup Lab, Idea to Prototype Undergraduate Research, and Startup Summer.

Located on 415 acres in Atlanta, Georgia, the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) is a leading research university committed to improving the human condition through science, technology, and the liberal arts. Ranked as the No. 7 best public university in the U.S., Georgia Tech enrolls more than 23,000 students.

What are some of the innodergraduate students’ invation programs at Georgia volvement in invention, inTech? novation, and Through our curriculum entrepreneurship. The InVenand student competitions, we ture Prize competition atare working to instill an entracted more than 3,000 partrepreneurial spirit in our ticipants in the past seven graduates. We offer multiple years, including more than opportunities for students to 500 in 2015. The winner rebecome engaged, ceives $20,000, such as the Capand Georgia Tech “The ATDC stone Design projprovides free liect, which last censing. Several is ranked spring drew more winners have at No. 2 in than 1,000 stugone on to market dents and 200 the country.” their products. In teams. Students the 2015 InVenfrom all areas of ture Prize we instudy participate in the stutroduced CREATE-X, a faculdent-run “Invention Studio.” ty-led initiative designed to We partner with business and equip students with the conindustry in a number of these fidence they need to actively projects, including the create their own future. The “Spring Convergence Innoprogram was made possible vation Competition.” Georthrough a gift from Georgia gia Tech’s InVenture Prize Tech alumnus Chris Klaus. competition encourages unCREATE-X leverages existing

34 years

Founded in 1981, ATDC is among the longestrunning, universitybased technology incubators in the country

500+

In 2015 more than 500 undergraduate students participated in the InVenture Prize competition

300

In 2014 the Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership worked with over 300 manufacturers to improve their productivity

How have Georgia Tech’s initiatives changed Atlanta? Georgia Tech is “Creating the Next” through innovation neighborhoods. Technology Square is a good example. In 2000 this was an area filled with parking lots and under-utilized real estate. Today Tech Square, immediately adjacent to our campus, is one of the nation’s premier research and innovation centers. Seven fortune 500 companies have opened “innovation centers” there, and we are in regular discussions with many others. They interact with students, faculty, and staff, as well as the many startups located there. The center of activity is the Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI2), Georgia Tech’s business outreach and development organization. How does Georgia Tech extend its services throughout the state? ATDC works with more than 800 companies and entrepreneurs throughout the state every year. Since its founding in 1981, more than 160 successful new ventures have graduated from ATDC’s rigorous incubation program. In that time, ATDC companies have attracted $2.6 billion in investments, generated more than $1.3 billion in revenue, and created more than 5,500 jobs.

Providing Gas for Georgia for 150 Years Hank Linginfelter, Executive VP, AGL Resources

to serve the state. Georgia Seed allowed us to get to areas that were underserved and gave us a lot of ways to get additional infrastructure into areas that needed natural gas.

AGL Resources has four divisions that include natural gas distribution, wholesale service, retail operations and midstream operation. AGL Resources is one of the largest natural gas distribution companies in the US and it serves 4.5 million customers through its subsidiaries across seven states.

How is AGL Resources manto be set aside for strategic aging Georgia’s expanding growth corridors for natural energy needs? gas supply. Over the past dePlanning is critical for enercade and a half we have run gy infrastructure and for gas through areas that were growth. We have been a very underserved through that good planning company over USF. the years. We are more than 150 years old and are the oldWhat is the Georgia Seed est corporate citizen in Georprogram? gia. We have been planning Seed is a program that alfor growth since 1856. The lowed us to take a little more great thing is Georgia has risk on serving new areas and been a place peogrow our customple have wanted er count, particuto come to for a larly large users. “We have a long time. It has Natural gas can be allowed us to exgreat cultural a very critical pand our infracomponent of structure for all commitment to whether or not a those years. Our company wants to growth.” state is very prolocate here. We gressive around serve a lot of territhis. There is tory in Georgia, something in Georgia called and Georgia is the largest the Universal Service Fund state east of the Mississippi. It (USF), which allows money requires a lot of infrastructure

20,000

To date AGL Resources has acquired 20,000 new customers in 2015

$400m

AGL Resources is investing $400 million in new pipeline infrastructure for Georgia

150 years

At almost 150-years-old, AGL Resources is the oldest corporate citizen in Georgia

What makes Georgia unique as a business community? We have a great cultural commitment to growth and economic development in every state we serve. We work with each state, with other utilities in the other states, with business leaders, with civic and community leaders in all our states. We have people dedicated to economic development and jobs growth in all our states. We really put effort into that and have for a long time. The great thing for Georgia is that it has been declared the number one state in which to do business for the last couple of years. It is a very pro-business environment starting with the chief executive of the state, Governor Deal, through his Department of Economic Development, though our state chamber, through the corporations in the state, through our local leaders and our local chambers. It is a team effort. All of those folks come together. In some states that is not as common or as obvious as it is here in Georgia. And it has been this way for a long time. Take Atlanta Gas Light and Georgia Power as examples. We sometimes go head to head to compete for the load, but when it comes to creating more jobs and bringing more business to the state, we both win.

Preserving Savannah for the Future Edna Branch Jackson, Mayor of Savannah

ing the first city of Georgia, and the oldest of course, people come here just to see how we have preserved what we have. So we rely a lot on tourism, hotel/motel taxes and all of that, and the good word when you can get out and just hear people say to you, “you have a beautiful city.”

Mayor Edna Branch Jackson is the 65th Mayor of Savannah and the first African-American woman to hold this position. In 2014, Mayor Jackson travelled to Shanghai, China where she presented a paper on tourism, preservation and economic development. Mayor Jackson has been in politics since the age of 9.

How does your office supthem into some of the proport Savannah’s workforce? grams that are here at our Savannah is the conduit technical college, our univerthrough which the governor sities, as well as our high sends funding for the region. schools that have gone into a We work with people that are technical side. out of jobs and want to get job. We get them ready for the How do you balance growth manufacturers or ports or and maintaining the city’s other areas here in this comhistoric aesthetic? munity. We have found that We have ordinances that because our poverty rate is so will determine how high you high, that one of the main can go as a building. We may barriers right now do a variant on it is transportation, “Savannah is or something like getting them to that, but as long the job site and as it does not take the conduit getting them away the characready to go to through which ter of our commuwork. So those are the governor nity because that the kinds of is why people things that we are sends funding come here. They working on now. want to know the We also have for the region.” history of the cobthose young peoblestones, River ple who can’t find jobs and Street, the Historic District we are hoping to re-educate and the Victorian District. Be-

100

Mayor Jackson was voted Georgia’s 100 Most Influential Leaders in 2015

34.8

The median age of the Savannah population is 34.8

2,000

There are more than 2,000 business property spaces available in Savannah

What role does SCAD play in Savannah’s community? SCAD has done a lot with preservations here in this community. They can take s run-down property, refurbish it and turn it into a masterpiece. The students will do it as a project and then they give it back. Back in the 50’s, the southern ladies wanted to tear down some of the older structures and a group of white ladies decided they weren’t going to do that, enough is enough. That’s when they started the Historical Society. When SCAD came in in the beginning of the 70’s they started talking about preservation, particularly in the downtown area where the theatres are because those were magnificent structures, the interior as well as the exterior. That’s why people come here. They appreciate the way we have preserved the city and they want to enjoy. We have up to 13 million a year now, which means our local businesses have recovered from the recession and are now thriving. SCAD feeds the spirit of partnership that exists here in Savannah, partnerships that ensure the city continues to grow but always with our proud heritage in mind.

Elavon: Running the World of Payments Guy Harris, President of North America Elavon

the mobile space like Apple, Samsung and Android. And our talech solution, our tablet-based payment system, offers customers a full software-based solution.

Elavon is wholly owned by U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB) and provides end-to-end payment processing solutions and services to more than 1.3 million customers in the US, Europe, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Puerto Rico. Elavon’s innovative payment solutions are designed to solve pain points for businesses from small to enterprise-sized.

What innovations has Elamitigates our customer’s sevon recently delivered? curity risk by isolating the The number one factor cardholder data from the that’s driving our industry in point-of-sale terminal. Our the U.S. is security, due to the extensive EMV experience in large-scale breaches that Europe has helped us capture have occurred attention here in over the last sev“The number the U.S., and we eral years and the have taken the upcoming Oct. 1 shift very seriousone factor liability shift, ly by setting high that’s driving business goals for where businesses who don’t offer our industry getting our cusEMV, or chip tomers EMV card, as a payready and educatin the US is ment option will ing our customers security.” assume responsion the purpose bility for any and importance of fraud that occurs. Businesses, this industry game changer. large and small and in all inOther drivers in the U.S. are dustries such as hotels, retail, the insurgence of mobile payrestaurant, etc., are demandments solutions and the rising security payment soluing demand for tablet-based tions and we are delivering point-of-sale systems. We are with EMV-enabled devices, meeting the mobile payment along with tokenization and demand through our partencryption technology that nerships with big players in

1.3 m

Elavon services approx. 1.3 million customers globally

Top 5 Elavon consistency ranks among the top 5 global payment providers as reported by the Nilson Report

3bn

Elavon enables 3 billion secure transactions each year

How does Georgia’s innovation community benefit Elavon? First and foremost, the benefit of being based here is that it is the payment hub of the US. More importantly, it gives us access to a great pool of talent and here we can find people who understand the domains-payment capability that is required to develop solutions. We tap into our talented market regularly. For example, we provide internships for students all over the state such as Georgia Tech. We also are involved with TAG, Women in Technology and the Georgia Tech Denning Project, which is a mentoring program for intern students, with whom many of them are hired on as full-time employees here. What are the benefits of Elavon’s joint venture with Banco Santander? One of our strategies is to develop business relationships with partners such as Santander. They have the relationships with the customers and we provide the payments solutions the customers need. We started our partnership with Santander back in 2007 in Puerto Rico and we are now its global partner, which includes Spain and the U.K. We have joint ventures with them in Brazil and Mexico.

Building an Internet for Healthcare

David Harvey, VP of Product Strategy, athenahealth and GM, athenahealth Atlanta physicians and practices. We are not known as a software company and don’t think of ourselves in that way. We are a cloud-based services company that takes networked intelligence and combines it with back-office services, which means we can track performance across our network and help our providers do even better.

Named America’s fastest growing company, athenahealth is a unique hybrid in the health IT industry, a cloud-based company that doesn’t just offer software solutions but also provides dedicated back office support that ensures practices run more smoothly and patients get better care. athenahealth aims to build an internet for healthcare.

How did athenahealth get about selling services and more about selling perforinto the Health IT industry? mance and results, and we’ve Our founders, Todd Park done this by leveraging the and Jonathan Bush, originally cloud model. started a women’s health and birthing center in California, but  they quickly  realized that  What sets athenahealth’s software apart? they were spending most of It’s very user-friendly and their time trying to get paid. probably the best health IT Their solution was to develop software in the industry today software to streamline and for electronic health records, speed up the billing process. billing, patient engagement, Essentially, they built one of care coordination, health care’s first cloud-based busi“Cloud-based and population health manageness services. Initechnology ment. But that’s tially, athenis the most not what we hang ahealth stepped in our hat on; our and helped profuture-proof software is a viders submit infrastructure means to an end their claims, work because it’s only their denials, for through that softmade sure their innovation.” ware and our credentials were cloud platform in order, and that that we are able to deliver ropayers paid on time. Today bust, flexible services to our we do much more, but it’s less

700

athenahealth processes ~700 documents (including faxes) per month per MD

200m

athenahealth delivered more than 200 million automated messages on behalf of providers last year

67,000

Number of providers on athenahealth’s network using its core services

What does athenahealth see as the future of healthcare? We are building a healthcare internet and we’ve started by creating the athenahealth Marketplace where providers can shop for the best health IT solutions that complement our current services. It’s our version of the Apple App store, specifically for physicians and health systems. We have assembled a group of like-minded healthcare innovators that have found it much easier to plug their solutions into our cloud-based network that gives them access to over 67,000 providers as opposed to going around the country and trying to latch their tool onto different versions of legacy software. Partnering with innovators, athena is able to provide services that keep doctors working faster, smarter, and better. Healthcare in general is about 20 years behind other industries when it comes to adopting the latest tools in technology. If you look at retail companies like Amazon or the CRM industry and companies like Salesforce, they are all thriving on the internet. We want providers to know that there is a better way of doing things.

Connecting Companies to Capital and Customers Hala Moddelmog, President & CEO, Metro Atlanta Chamber

startups and research universities. Through Nine Sigma, for the problem is posted for organizations or individuals around the globe to try and solve it. It is all done anonymously. This is a great service for large companies to bring in fresh ideas from outside the company. This fosters collaboration and facilitates the development, commercialization and deployment of new science and technology in the region.

The Metro Atlanta Chamber is a non-profit organization that helps businesses of any size, whether foreign or domestic, to establish and grow in metro Atlanta. The chamber focuses on a variety of industries including bioscience, health IT, technology, mobility, supply chain and advanced manufacturing.

What initiatives have helped sities like Georgia Tech. . We are also the franchising capiAtlanta become the city it is tal of the US. Then of course today? there are professional serOne of the things we are vices like consultants and working on is the Metropolilawyers. We are 13th in the tan Export Plan (MEP), in US for exports, conjunction with generating $25.5 the Brookings Inbillion. stitution. . This initiative aims to “We are the help small and How does the franchising medium-sized chamber contribbusinesses grow capital of the ute to innovation through exports. within Atlanta’s Exporting can be business commuUS.” difficult and risky nity? and many compaOne of the nies don’t know things we have where to start. However, done, besides working with sometimes businesses need our universities, is launchthe to export to stay competitive. Atlanta Open Innovation FoIn Atlanta 45% of our exports rum in partnership with Nine are services. The best examSigma. This online marketple of a service industry is edplace will help large and miducation. For instance, we exsized companies define andport a lot of education solve their innovation needs services from leading univerby connecting them with

45%

45% of Atlanta’s exports are generated by the service sector

13th

Atlanta is 13th in the US for exports

1,000

There are more than 1,000 startups in the metro Atlanta region

How does the local business community respond to the chamber’s efforts to help the foreign business community? The business community is working collaboratively on economic development, to start, grow and attract leading companies to the region. In fact, a large portion of the companies that we have recruited this year are foreign-based. To ensure that we continue to attract and retain top talent, our leaders are open to helping in any way they can. They are proud of the global work we do. We learned a lot from the recession and moving forward we see that by working together we can achieve so much more. Foreign companies bring foreign talent, fresh perspectives and new products. It opens new doors to companies that are already established here by expanding our international business network. Ultimately, business leaders in Georgia know that when the region prospers, everyone wins.

Taking Business Jets to New Heights Mark Burns, President, Gulfstream

Gulfstream has led the evolution of business and personal aviation since the 1958 debut of the Gulfstream I, the world’s first purpose-built business aircraft. Today, Gulfstream produces the world’s most advanced business aircraft, with innovations from nose to tail to wingtip, all while offering unmatched global support and service.

How does being based in with good weather for flight-testing, are also key to Georgia make operations our success in Georgia. We easier for Gulfstream? also receive a significant The success of our home number of parts for our base in Savannah can be atlarge-cabin aircraft, the G450, tributed first and foremost to G550, G650 and G650ER, the great workforce that we through the Port of Savannah. have had here for almost 50 years. The jobs we have created and the investments we How does Georgia assist have made build on this with the company’s workworkforce and are a result of force needs? our strong partnerships with Georgia Quick Start and the the Savannah Economic DeTechnical College System of velopment AuGeorgia have thority (SEDA), been valuable the Georgia De- “Our customers training partners partment of Ecofor Gulfstream, drive our nomic Developnot only in Savanment, the state’s innovations.” nah but for our technical college facility in Brunssystem, the city of wick as well. Savannah and Chatham Thanks in part to this partnerCounty. Combined with this ship, we have been able to exexcellent workforce, the arpand with the confidence that ea’s transportation and logiswe will have the employee tical infrastructure, along training resources we need, in

150

Number of aircraft Gulfstream will build this year

14 hours

A customer flew a G650ER from Las Vegas to Singapore in just over 14 hours

12%

The G280 is 12% more fuel efficient than other super mid-sized jets

areas that range from effective delegation to aircraft assembly. Just this summer, we opened a new 110,000-squarefoot maintenance hangar in Brunswick, and we have been working with Georgia Quick Start over the past year to train the employees that this new hangar accommodates. Military hiring is also a priority for Gulfstream, and in addition to holding job fairs at military bases and other military-focused recruiting activities, we were the first corporate sponsor for Georgia Tech’s military transition program, VET2. VET2 allowed us to offer internships to active-duty military, all of whom were offered full-time jobs at Gulfstream. How much does Gulfstream invest in R&D and what drives the company’s culture of innovation? Our culture of innovation is driven by our employees, who are the best in the industry and who take great pride in setting new standards for business aviation. We have a robust research and development program, thanks to the support of our parent company, General Dynamics. Our 2006 expansion included growing our Research and Development Campus, which is now fully operational with more than 1,500 engineers. Our investments in research and development can be directly linked to the success and performance of the Gulfstream G650 and G650ER and to the introduction of our new family of aircraft, the G500 and G600.

A New Era of Manufacturing in Georgia A New Era of Manufacturing in Georgia

Randy Jackson Senior Vice President Human Resources & Administration KMMG Randy Jackson, Senior VP, Human Resources & Administration KMMG

erty owners understood our erty owners understood our vision, they were happy to vision, they were happy to get on board. We built a waget on board. We built a water ter tower to support the plant tower to support the plant and a new exit 6 referred to as and a new exit 6 referred Kia Boulevard. We added Kia to as Kiato Boulevard. We added Kia Parkway provide access to Parkway providethe access to the site. We’ve to extended the to site. We’ve extended the rail track provide more cato provide more capacityrail duetrack to growth.

pacity due to growth.

How innovative is KMMG’s production line? How innovative is KMMG’s Our production system is really line?different. We Our sell the vehicle first, differsystem is really we build it second and delivent. We sell the vehicle first, er it third. Almost everything we build it second and delivwe build has already been er it third. Almost everything sold. We have advanced techwe build has already been nology that we use in our faKia Motors Manufacturing Georgia (KMMG) is Kia’s first North American automobile manufacturing plant. sold. We have advanced techKia Motors Manufacturing Georgia (KMMG) is Kia’s first North American automobile manufacturing plant. Based cilities such as innovative Based in a state-of-the-art facility in West Point, KMMG began production in November 2009 and is home to the nology thatrobotics we use in Kia a state-of-the-art intwo West Point, KMMG began models production November 2009 and is home to the Kia stamping presses, in in our Sorento and Kiafacility Optima, of the brand’s best-selling in theinUS. facilities such as Sorento and Kia Optima, two of the brand’s best-selling models in the US. Weld and Paint shops, andinnovative erstamping presses, robotics in gonomically friendly workWeld and Paint shops, and stations in assembly. But we When choosing West Point, Currently it’s about 50% ergonomically friendly workAre all of Kia’s suppliers When choosing West Point, take it further because our but ideally we’d like to make GA. as your manufacturing Kia Way philosophy supportsBut we that 100%. Because base, a key decidstations in assembly. based in the state? we imGA. aswhat yourwas manufacturing 15,000 jobs created since innovation for humanity. We port 50% of parts, we’re the ing factor? take it further because our Currently it’s about 50% but base, what was a key decidthe plant opened in 2009 see people as the heart and 15,000 jobs created Port of Savannah’s secHands down, workforce. We Kia Way philosophy supports ideally we’d like to make that ing factor? the company. ond-largest cuswere aware that workforce. the for humanity. We 100%. Because we import 50% Hands down, since the plant soul ofinnovation tomer. We went textile industry was see people as the heart and of parts, we’re the Port of SaWe were aware that“Our the system is through opened in 2009 What programs do you have a being phased out in soul of the company. vannah’s second-largest custextile industry was being in place to ensure the conGeorgia. Manufactur- really different. $100m expantomer. We went phased out in tin-ued availability of worksion several ing is not easy work What programs do you have through a $100m 360,000 units produced Georgia. Man“Our system We sell theis years force? ago, and it demands dediannually in place to ensure the continexpansion sevu cated f a c t upeople r i n g iwith s We have a multi-tiered apdifferent. areally vehicle first, we which brought uedFirst availability of workforce? ago, not easy work proach. we introduce useral fromyears 300,000 strong work ethic and We sell the vehi360,000 units build it second have a to multi-tiered apand it demands youngerWe students STEM towhich 360,000brought units familybased values. proach. First we introduce us from 300,000 d Ite d i c a t out e d very cle first, we build produced annually with the A World in Motion annually, so worked and deliver it younger students to STEM to 360,000 p well. e o p lToday, e w i tthe h da- it second and program to trigger an interest we’re on trackunits to third.” 50% of Kia’s parts with the from A World in Motion a n naumore a l l y,lo- s o a ta-base strongiswork in STEM fields an early create well over deliver it third.” calized age. We helped establish the an in135,000 people that program to trigger we’re model. on track to coming through the Port ethic andof famiTHINC Career Academy, want to work for us. We work terest in STEM fields from create a more lo- of Savannah, making Kia ly-based values. whichan opens its age. doorsWe in Aua network of the chalthe port’s second largest early helped escalized model. Itwith worked out of more than What were some 50% of Kia’s parts gust 2015 to support high 25 supplers in the state, too. lenges of establishing a base customer tablish the THINC Career very well. Today, the datapathways which into engiAll is together we’ve created Georgia? coming through schoolAcademy, opens its What were some of the base well over 135,000 of in neering and mecha-tronics. more than 15,000 jobs since We worked closely with doors in August 2015 to supchallenges of establishing a people that want to work for the Port of Savannah, Finally we run co-op proopening the plant in Georgia. economic development offiport high school pathways base in Georgia? us. We work with a network making Kia the grams and internships in cials to secure the purchase into engineering and mechaWe worked closely with of more than 25 suppliers with the univerof 2200 acres of land. Not an Are all of Kia’s suppliers port’s second- partnership tronics. Finally we run co-op economic development offiin the state, too. All togethsity system. easy task but once the propbased in the state?

15,000 15,000

360,000

360,000 50%

50%

er we’ve created more than 15,000 jobs since opening the plant in Georgia.

cials to secure the purchase of 2200 acres of land. Not an easy task but once the prop-

largest customer

programs and internships in partnership with the university system.

Passion for Pain-Free Payments Solutions Bird Blitch, CEO, Patientco

co works with all of those systems to give providers one single place to process and automatically reconcile all the payments coming into the health system. That service was not available until Patientco came along. Most importantly, for the patient, that hospital’s billing process now exists in one single online portal we call PatientWallet, which is simple for them to use. When everyone’s working off one single technology platform, it means the hospital or clinic can run smoothly and patients are always up to date on their payments. A pioneer in the Healthcare Payments industry, Patientco is passionate about pain-free payments solutions for healthcare providers and their patients. Patientco’s software simplifies payment management for healthcare providers by giving them a single platform to manage every payment that is processed at any point in the health system.

What role did Georgia Tech thing when you are solving complex problems. Just being play in the launch of in that environment, being Patientco? around innovators and forWe are a graduate of the Adward-thinkers, the energy is vanced Technology Developcontagious. And Georgia Tech ment Center (ATDC) at Geordoes a great job of creating gia Tech. It is listed in Forbes that environment. as one of the top ten incubators in the US and the no. 1 public university incubator. What makes Patientco’s techThey gave us a lot of support nology unique? in terms of product launch, What’s unique about Pacustomer discovtientco is that we ery, financing and process 100% of “Financial recruiting. We patient payments were able to use health can now that come into a Georgia Tech to health system for give us access to be managed in every healthcare talent as well since treatment. In the one centralized US healthcare sysit’s no. 5 for engineering in the tem there are often place.” country. If you different tech platwant to make a forms running the great company, you have to various physician groups, have great talent, so having hospital groups, ancillary that link was vital for us. Great groups, labs, radiology, anestalent is the most important thesiology and so on. Patient-

3-5x

Patientco projects 3-5x growth in patient payments by the end of 2016

12m

Patientco will add 12 million patients to its user base by the end of 2016

94%

A recent customer satisfaction survey gave Patientco a 94% satisfaction rating

How has Patientco adapted its mobile design to facilitate ease-of-use for patients? The payment experience is simplified because the patient now has one place to manage all their healthcare expenses, questions and communications about the financial portion of their care. That makes life simpler. It also takes into account where the industry is going because healthcare in the states is moving from a fee-per-service model to a value-based model where services and costs are combined to deliver better care. What we are doing is the “amazonification” of healthcare. The focus of Patientco is similar to Amazon’s – one patient portal to pay for everything and one back-end system for providers to manage the entire payment process. This optimization is crucial as the healthcare industry shifts to a heavier reliance on patient payments as a major source of health system revenue.

Travelport: Redefining Travel Commerce Matt Minetola, CIO, Travelport

Travelport is a leading Travel Commerce Platform that provides distribution, technology, payment and other solutions for the $8 trillion global travel and tourism industry. Its Travel Commerce Platform enables travel providers, travel agencies, corporations and developers to connect to the B2B travel network increasing profitability and driving business success.

What is Travelport’s apend for the traveler. By havproach to service developing that visibility it allows us ment and innovation? to partner with our business The traveler touches every partners to build the technolindustry, from car, hotel, ogies for the consumer and transportation cater to a range of and airline indusneeds. So, we protries, and each vide our business “We offer one of those busipartners with cusbrands the nesses has a spetomer value but cific relationship whole mobile yet they still own with the customthe customer. In er. Travelport, experience.” that way, we are through our comthe glue or the merce platform, fabric that allows teams up with our business these very brand-centric partners and allow our cuscompanies to provide niche tomers either on day of bookservices. ing or day of travel to be able to go through us and get the How does Travelport’s serfull travel experience. To give vices benefit its customers’ you an example: a hotel will brands? see the travel booking for the Each brand has a strong night and the airline will see alignment to the customer the booking for the flight, but but they have a hard line in we see the booking end to terms of what they offer and

170

Travelport has unmatched global reach and a presence in 170 countries

$2bn

In 2014 Travelport’s net revenue was $2 billion

73%

Travelport has a 73% holding in eNett, its virtual payment provider

for them to get to what I call the end-to-end experience for the customer, each one wants to own that customer on day of booking or day of travel. We have the ability to provide that glue. As the customer moves from time of booking to time of travel we have a lot of information that we can provide to them. For example, we know the time of your flight, where you are going, what hotel you are staying at. That gives us a lot of information and a range of possibilities of what to do with that information, and we can serve those up to travelers with our advertising capability, such as concierge service for the day. It really allows what we call ‘micro content day-of transactions.’ We ask, at the time of traveling, how can we give the traveler what they think they want? We are well positioned for that. We have an innovation program because this industry is currently $8 trillion and it’s going to be $11 trillion. When you look at innovation startups, travel is number one or two because it’s such a growing industry. What products has Travelport recently launched? We launch products on a regular basis. Our most recent release is Travelport Smartpoint 6.0. It allows a lot of rich content and branding. We are servicing more than 250,000 desktops and with this technology we can integrate all these services, which allows our partners to upsell or add services. The airlines are lining up for that.

Securing Payments across the Globe Asif Ramji, President & CEO, Paymetric

breach of this nature can be equally damaging and costly as one involving payments. By not storing data onsite, but instead storing tokens, helps eliminate the liability and protects sensitive card information and the associated risk. Paymetric solutions integrate into the epicenter of enterprise applications and seamlessly streamline ERP workflows while securing critical sensitive information through a single cloud-based integration.

With 18 years of experience in the Financial Technology industry, Paymetric was one of the first companies to develop a secure tokenization payment system. Today Paymetric works with companies of all sizes, right up to the Fortune 1000, providing a secure payments model that safeguards data and integrates payments into enterprise systems.

How does Paymetric’s proAre more companies choosprietary tokenization work? ing to store data in the cloud? Paymetric provides patentData breaches are on the rise. ed tokenization technology As a result, companies are to ensure sensitive data does searching for better methods not enter the enterprise. This to protect customers’ sensitive sensitive data is information. Withturned into a toin large enterprise “Paymetric ken, separating it systems, the nais the global from the original tive ability to acraw data format. cept and secure leader for Paymetric offers payments doesn’t this tokenization exist. Many comintegrated solution through panies are searcha managed soft- payments and ing for cloudware–as-a-service based solutions to data security.” completely model. Tokenizaretion affords busimove sensitive finesses the opportunity to nancial data from the entereliminate the storage and prise. There has also been a transmission of sensitive significant increase in the data in enterprise systems need to secure other types of and applications. By leveragpersonal data such as social ing tokenization technology, security information, and companies can reduce the bank account information, all risk of data security breachattributed to the growth in es. fraud and identify theft. A

18 Years

Paymetric has over 18 years of experience in Global Secure Payments and is headquartered in North Atlanta.

2008

Paymetric introduced its tokenization system in 2008

$201

The average cost of a stolen file

What is the next stage for the payments industry in the US? There is tremendous growth in commerce with the addition of mobile and electronic payments. The industry is facing unprecedented demand from customers to support new secure methods of payments from credit cards and electronic checks to alternative payments like PayPal, Apple Pay and Google checkout. In the US, we are following both Europe and Canada with the adoption of the EMV chipbased card. These changes represent tremendous challenges to support multiple and complex platforms while properly addressing the potential risk of fraud. Paymetric’s market leading solutions address these secure payment integration challenges in enterprise systems. In the B2B market, the order-processing model is ripe for error due to software incompatibility and inefficiencies. Companies look to Paymetric for their experience in secure processing and integration to optimize operations and improve electronic payment acceptance.

Banking on a Bright Future

William H. Rogers Jr., CEO & Chairman, SunTrust Banks Inc. hand-in-glove on major state issues. That’s unique and the business community emulates it. Atlanta serves as the world’s largest transportation hub. We have the third highest concentration of Fortune 500 companies. We have an influx of large and influential companies moving here, such as Porsche and Mercedes Benz. Also, our academic community works well with the business community, which means we have a great pool of talent coming out of our universities. Fast approaching its 125th year, SunTrust Banks is headquartered in Georgia with a client base that includes more than 4 million households and half a million business clients. SunTrust’s primary businesses include Consumer Banking and Private Wealth Management; Wholesale Banking and Mortgage.

What is the scope of Sunat different life stages, and Trust Banks? our unique expertise allows SunTrust has $190 billion in us to dive deeper and underassets, with three primary stand the niche needs of indibusiness segviduals and busiments: Consumnesses. Those er Banking and specialized seg“Today, 60% Private Wealth ments tend to Management; of our clients grow faster, and Wholesale Bankthat’s much of the ing and Mort- interact with us reason for our gage. Today, our success, our willdigitally.” client base iningness to undercludes over 4 milstand niche needs lion consumer and cater to them. households and more than half a million business cliWhat are the benefits of beents. Most of our businesses ing headquartered in Atlaninclude specialized services. ta? For example, we have a docAtlanta’s business environtor specialty in mortgage, ment is highly collaborative which means we can help and welcoming. We all want people who are just graduatto work together for the beting from medical school all terment of Atlanta. For exthe way through running a ample, we have a Democrat successful practice. We tailor mayor and a Republican financial solutions to people governor who work together

7,600

SunTrust Banks has more than 7,600 employees based in Georgia

105,000+ SunTrust Banks serves more than 105,000 business clients in the state of Georgia

125 years SunTrust Banks have been operating in Georgia for almost 125 years

What is the future of banking? Like everything else, banking changes with consumers’ tastes. Clients want more than one channel. They want the physical branches, so those are still important, but clients want other channels for their transactions. We have invested heavily in digital platforms, and today, 60% of our clients interact with us digitally. We offer mobile, tablet and online technology in addition to the bank. We have several branches where we are making “uber technology” investments, testing the very latest technologies, such as Teller Connect that allows access to a teller through an ATM. In the evolving digital landscape, we have to find a balance between providing a personal service, but with the speed and efficiency of technology. And in private wealth, we developed an innovative tool named SummitView for those clients to see their full financial picture.

Building the World’s Toughest Machines Building the World’s Toughest Machines Arjun Mirdha President and CEO of JCB North America Arjun Mirdha, President & CEO, JCB North America

JCB is a British multinational with 22 plants globally producing manufacturing equipment for construction,

JCB is a British multinational with plants globally producing manufacturing equipment for construction, demolidemolition, agriculture and22the military. Established in 1945, today, JCB produces over 300 machines, which are tion, agriculture andcountries the military. Established in 1945, today, JCB produces over 300 machines, which are sold in 150 sold in 150 making it one of the world’s largest construction equipment manufacturers. countries making it one of the world’s largest construction equipment manufacturers.

Can you describe JCB’s ac-

steers and the HMEE is

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at JCB’s your Savannah Savannah, which is skid done steersinand the HMEE Can youtivities describe acplant? now the home of the compais done in Savannah, which tivities at your Savannah More than 1,000 highFrom our North American ny’s global Government and is now the home of the complant? mobility engineered More than 1,000 corporate headquarters in Defense Division. By engipany’s global Government From our North Ameriexcavators in global Savannah, we manufacture neering and manufacturing high-mobility engineered and Defense Division. By can corporate headquarters military use side-entry skid product within excavators in global engineering and in Savannah, we manufacsteer and comourmanufacprimary marturing productkets, within ourable ture side-entry steer military use pact trackskid loadwe are primary markets, we are and compact track loaders, ers, the 3CX to quickly turn “Innovation able to quicklyfeedthe 3CX back- part of back-hoe; customer is at the very back and suggesturn customer h o e ; pJCB’s a r t o#1 f selling “Innovation JCB’s skid steer and tions into prodfeedback and JCB’s #1backhoe selling loader core of our compact track loaders line, and the high is at the very s u uct g g edevelopment, stions backhoe loadJCB’s skid steer and are the safest design engibusiness.” i n tallowing o p ro d uus c t to compact er line, mobility and the in thetrack industry; giving loaders are core of our neered deliver greater development, high m o b i l i excavator operators 60% better (HMEE), a fully value to the cus- the safest design in the allowing us to ty engineered visibility business.” amored 60 mph tomer. Our Sa- industry; giving operadeliver greatexcavator backhoe loader engineered vannah campus also serves er value to (HMEE), a fuland built for the US military as our southeastern parts tors 60% better visibility the facility. customer. ly armored and 60 NATO Allies. The distribution Our Savannah campus also mph backhoe loader engiHMEE is a true testament to In just 70 years JCB serves as our southeastern neered and built for the US JCB’s engineering capabiliHow much input does the has gone from one man parts distribution facility. militaryties andand NATO Allies. a product we are team at Savannah have in in a garage to a major In just 70 years JCB extremely proud of. All enthe design of JCB products? The HMEE is a true testaglobal brand known for research and deFor allinput products How much doesmanufacthe ment togineering, JCB’s engineering has its gone from one man pioneering spirit velopment for JCB skid in Savannah, team tured at Savannah haveweinhave capabilities and a product in a garage to a major the design of JCB products? we are extremely proud of. global brand known for For all products manufacAll engineering, research it’s pioneering spirit tured in Savannah, we have and development for JCB

60%

70 Years

full responsibility from the full responsibility from the ground up in terms of prodground up in terms of product design. That being said, uct design. That being said, we ship these products all we ship these products all over the world, so we work over the world, so we work in partnership with all JCB in partnership all JCB global markets with to ensure global markets to ensure that any product manufac-tured here meets the that any product manufacneeds applications tured of here meets thespecifneeds ic to that continent andto of applications specific country. This process is used that continent and country. around the world in our 22 This process is used around manufacturing facilities, althe world in our 22 manulowing us to export products facturing facilities, allowing specific to each market. In us to export products spefact, 60% of what we procific to market. In fact, duce in each Savannah is export60%to ofmarkets what we produce ed around the in Savannah is exported to world.

markets around the world.

What are some of the advantages beingof based in What areofsome the adSavannah? vantages of being based in From a business standSavannah? point, offers a FromSavannah a business standunique blend of logistical capoint, Savannah offers a pabilities that include easy unique blend of logistical access to airport and rail sercapabilities that include vices and the Port of Savaneasy access to airport and nah.

rail services and the Port of Savannah. What state workforce initia-

tives have been made availWhatto state able JCB? workforce iniQuick Start a fantastic tiatives haveis been made state program. available to JCB?It has allowed us to bring peoQuick Start is new a fantasple into JCB and to train and tic state program. It has alre-train our staff as they go lowed us to bring new peothrough job rotations. It is a ple into JCB and to train and benchmark program that alre-train our staff as they go lows us to partner with the through job rotations. It is state. In addition, we have a benchmark programprothat an internal apprentice allows to train partner gram to us help and with dethe state. In addition, we velop tomorrow’s JCB workhave an internal apprentice force. We are passionate program to help train and about workforce development to create jobs within develop tomorrow’s JCB our local community. workforce. We are passion-

ate about workforce development to create jobs within our local community.

Herculean Talent that Builds Pioneering Aircraft Shan Cooper, VP & General Manager, Lockheed Martin

cians, trade professions. We try to start early, focusing on kids in middle school. But our efforts extend to college.

Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs about 112,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The company’s site in Marietta, Georgia assembles the C-130 Hercules.

How strategically important and be close to our customers. is the base at Marietta, Georgia to Lockheed Martin? The location of military basWhat kind of local commues here in Georgia makes this nity projects is the company the right place for Lockheed involved in? Martin. It puts us close to our STEM Education is our customers, gives us access to number one focus area. Our great talent, the folks who are biggest challenge is talent. transitioning from the miliThe aerospace workforce is tary and underaging and this is a stand our prod- “Georgia is an problem for us. ucts and services. The average age ideal location here is 55 so deThat makes it a win-win for us. because it gives veloping educaDue to the proxtion is critical for imity of the airus. We have a us access to port and the two-point apgreat talent.” proach in terms of ports, and the fact that many of our what we look for customers are international, in talent. Yes, we want those it means they have easy acwith four-year degrees, engicess to us and we can easily neers, scientists, but we also get to them. Being located have partnerships with techhere means we can run our nical schools because we operations more efficiently need welders and electri-

Countries Lockheed Martin has customers in 70 countries

60 Years

Lockheed Martin’s C-130 program has recently celebrated 60 years

257

Companies Lockheed Martin works with 257 suppliers across the state of Georgia

What innovations is Lockheed Martin currently focused on? The C-130 program has just celebrated 60 years. It is the longest running military aircraft production line in history; we have never had a break in that production line. This aircraft has had to reinvent itself year after year to remain relevant for our customers. The last few years we have been focused on reducing the cost of owning an aircraft, so the team implemented little devices called microvanes which reduce the cost of operating an aircraft. The other key area for us is robotics. When we get to full rate on the F-35 center wing assembly, we will be building one center wing assembly every manufacturing day. It’s not possible for humans to keep up with that production so robotics has been brought in to help us deliver on our commitments. 3D Printing is another key area for us and has changed how we service our customers. We have customers in 70 countries and when someone buys one of our planes, it has to be maintained for decades. For example, the lifespan of the C-130 is up to 40 years. If that customer needs a part, they need it immediately. 3D Printing allows us to respond quickly. At Lockheed Martin we leverage all sorts of technology to make our products and operations more efficient.

State-of-the-Art Banking for SMEs

Kessel Stelling, Chairman & CEO, Synovus Financial Corp.

Synovus Financial Corp. is a financial services company with approximately $28bn in assets based in Columbus, Georgia. Synovus provides commercial and retail banking, investment and mortgage services to customers through 28 locally branded divisions, 258 offices, and 341 ATMs across the South East of America.

How important is Georgia to the crisis, our political and department leaders guided the Synovus brand? the industry with a steady Our roots are in Georgia. We hand, and now the sector is have been here since 1888 so gaining momentum: 86% of we have a tremendous histoGeorgia-based banks were ry here. Of our 4,400 team profitable in 2014 and 88% as members, around 2,800 are in of the second quarter of this Georgia. There is a strong emyear, which makes Georgia a ployment base and we have great state for leading market business. share in the mar“Georgia kets in which we operate in GeorWhat is Synois a gia. vus’s role in great state funding small business in GeorHow has the for gia? banking sector in business.” Our role is large Georgia contriband important. uted to the state’s For a five-state franchise, we recovery? have top five market share in The state has about 210 markets representing approxbanks that generated over imately 80% of our core de$2.5 billion in profit last year. posits. In Georgia, we are We have a strong political number one in Columbus, system and a pro-business Warner Robins, Athens, Valgovernor in Georgia. Even dosta, and Statesboro, and though it was tough during

2,800

Synovus has 2,800 team members based in Georgia

19 Awards Greenwich Associates awarded Synovus 19 customer service excellence awards

200 ATMs

In 2014 Synovus added 200 state-of-the-art ATMs to its service footprint

we are top-five in almost every market, including Brunswick and Atlanta. We are a big provider of credit to small- and medium-sized business. Greenwich Associates recently awarded us 19 customer service excellence awards for middle market and small business banking. That segment was important to us during the crisis. We were concerned not just about surviving the crisis, but also about supporting local businesses in communities throughout the state. Our role will continue to be substantial in the small business, consumer, and middle market space. How important is technological innovation to banking? Technology is huge in our industry. Customers more and more want the convenience of online and mobile banking and access to full-service ATMs. Last year, we completed the installation of around 200 state-of-the-art ATMs that serve as virtual branches. Same thing with smartphones: As we’ve strengthened our mobile banking platform, we’ve seen a decline in branch traffic. So as habits and preferences continue to evolve, we want to ensure our customers have access to all the latest tools and technology. For example, millennials don’t go to the bank. But if they have a problem, they want to know who they can call to solve it. So we try to strike a balance by providing relationship-based service, focused on individual customer needs.

A Conference Room with a View

Scott McQuade, President & CEO, Golden Isle Convention & Visitor Bureau The center is a brand new state-of-the-art facility. The tourism boom means we have been able to attract a lot more business but a lot of that business has come because of the quality of that convention center.

The Golden Isles Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) is the official destination marketing organization dedicated to promoting tourism in Glynn County, Georgia. The Golden Isles CVB also oversees the operation and maintenance of two Welcome Centers in Glynn County as well as a state-of-the-art convention center.

How has Georgia’s tourism sometimes international too. We are a popular spot for reboom impacted the Golden unions and weddings. We Isles? have a lot of social business The most dramatic impact that comes from our conferhas been on the recognition of ences, which benefits indithe state, both nationally and vidual hotels as internationally. In well as the confer2015, the state of ence center. We Georgia increased “That really cater for corpoits international creates a rate groups too tourism by 22% and have seen in and tourism here quality increase in corpoin the Golden Isles increased by experience for rate events here, for example, in13%. Clearly the visitor.” centive trips and word has gotten things of that naout that Georgia ture. With 190 is a great place to holes of golf, Golden Isle is travel to. We have such varipopular for corporate reety from the mountains to the treats. We also benefit from coast, which attracts visitors association business. For exto all parts of the state. ample, we have a 148,000 square foot convention center What kind of tourism do the on Jekyll Island, which is one Golden Isles attract? of only two coastal convenWe attract a lot of tour buses tion centers on the east coast. here, mostly domestic but

6,000

A 6,000 square foot facility has recently been opened on St. Simon’s Island

13%

Tourism increased by 13% on the Golden Isles in 2015

190

There are 190 holes of golf on the Golden Isles

How does the promotion of the Golden Isle CVB benefit the local community? We participate with the state on a lot of their co-operative marketing efforts for both the domestic and international market. For the last several years we have been able to participate in various international campaigns that have impacted our tourism figures. While the state campaigns market the whole state, we focus on the Golden Isles, and tell its story. That gives us the opportunity to really push local events and amenities. We work closely with the other conventions centers to promote our corporate services. Local hotels, restaurants and attractions such as our golf courses benefit from that business of course but we like to be more involved than that. We have an annual cultural calendar, which we also heavily promote. In fact, we are the catalyst that helps bring the community together. We provide a number of programs throughout the year that really brings the community and the tourism partners together. We like to partner up to tell our story because that makes it a more powerful singular voice. We really see our role as unifying the community, which means organizing events and promoting them.

Technology that can Revolutionize Relationships Jeff Arnold, Founder & CEO, Sharecare

Created by Arnold and Dr. Mehmet Oz, Sharecare is an engagement platform where people can access their personalized health profile and resources to live their healthiest lives. Millions use Sharecare each day, including patient populations of the country’s leading hospitals and every Soldier in the United States Army.

ful of their health without disWhat’s the next stage of innorupting their daily routine. vation for Sharecare’s conAnd by harnessing the power sumer health services? of ultra-personalization and In health, you hear a lot mobile technology - in parabout “patient engagement” – ticular the smartbut it’s not just phone - we can about “patients.” “Better help people optiAt Sharecare, we relationships mize their health are focused on engaging people no lead to better to live happier, more fulfilling matter where they lives. are in their health health.” journey - whether Talk a little more about the managing a chronic condition, concept of “invisible health.” sick with the flu or wanting to What’s an example of someshed 10 pounds. To get started thing you’re working on in with Sharecare, someone takes that area? the RealAge test, our scientifiThe smartphone stands to be cally validated health risk asthe single greatest healing desessment, which gives us pervice of our time – consider all sonalized insights to deliver the insights you can get from highly relevant content and it: how many steps you take, resources - all of which are your heart rate, how many free. Our next stage of innovahours you sleep and - sometion is laser focused on “invisthing I find particularly inible health,” developing new triguing - what your voice can ways to help people be mind-

$160m

Sharecare has secured more than $160 million in funding from investors ranging from Discovery to Wellington Management

62m

Sharecare has 62 million registered users

5bn

Consumers have given Sharecare 5 billion data points about their health

tell you about your health. Each voice has a unique identifier - called a fractal pattern that reveals a lot about your mindset and stress. Earlier this year, we launched a smartphone app that “samples” and analyzes your unique pattern (not your conversation) during phone calls, enabling us to determine your mindset and stress level with the same clinical accuracy as a functional MRI. While the technology is cool, what’s profound is the self-awareness it yields, which we believe helps both reduce stress and improve relationships. To test this theory further, we partnered with Georgia Tech’s Human Computing Lab and Dr. Sanjay Gupta on an adaptive trial in which several organizations (Trinity Health and Univision, to name two examples) have invited their populations to participate. While we’re still in the throes of the trial, we’re learning that over time, the voice is the truth and - in many ways - the key to unlocking better health. What’s the end goal for Sharecare? Healthcare is in the midst of an incredible transformation – and we can learn a lot from companies outside of health that harness data analytics and personalization to create a de facto “profile” for consumers. That kind of predictive personalization is powerful. Soon, Sharecare will enable people to store, share and access all of their health information in one place – and that will be a game changer.

A Transit System that Wins Big Business Keith T. Parker, General Manager & CEO, MARTA

year. We have made a concerted effort to get LED lighting throughout our system; half of our Peachtree Center Station has been converted to LED and that’s already saving us a lot of money.

The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) is the rapid-transit system in the Atlanta metropolitan area. It is the 9th largest rapid transit system in the US by ridership. Formed in 1971, today MARTA operates a network of bus routes linked to 77km of rail track with 38 stations.

What transit challenges face year ago and we anticipate that others will follow. Atlanta? One of our biggest challenges is the stratification of the How have you applied innodifferent governments in this vation and sustainability to region. Atlanta is the largest your maintenance policies city but there are dozens of citand technical teams? ies throughout the region each We have a lot of things going with their own transportation on in that regard. In the last systems and quite three years, our “We’re often, their own bus fleet has gone governments. Crefrom one of the overcoming ating a system that challenges by oldest in the nation works for all those to one of the newbeing fiscally governments is a est. We are looking efficient and challenge but we at other technoloare overcoming gies including customer those challenges electric vehicles focused.” by being fiscally and we are also efficient and customer focused looking at solar power. For exand by investing in our emample, we have solar panels at ployees. By doing that we are one of our garages that probecoming more attractive to vide electricity to the point our cities and counties. For exthat it has excess capacity we ample, Clayton County joined are selling off to the power our transit system, voting by a company which saves us tens 3 to 1 margin to join MARTA a of thousands of dollars per

minutes The length of time it takes to get from the airport to downtown Atlanta using MARTA rail

$42m

MARTA spends approx. $42 million annually on its IT infrastructure

By switching to CNG, MARTA reduced its average per gallon fuel cost to $1

How important is Atlanta’s transit system to the continued growth of its business community? The impact is huge. We have seen some great examples of that in recent months. For example, one of the recent big wins for the city was NCR moving into the heart of the city. They did that partly because they wanted greater access to the public transit system. Kaiser Permanente chose their location for similar reasons. Mercedes-Benz mentioned specifically that they wanted to be near a MARTA station. The biggest one of all in recent times has been State Farm where they are creating their largest HQ in Atlanta next to our Dunwoody rail station. They will have 10,000 people there and 3,000 new jobs. They told us that they wanted to be next to a station so that they could provide that service to their employees. Through surveys we have found that the millennial population is not as interested in suburban living. Many want an urban lifestyle and that includes more mass transit so we are confident we will continue to play a major role in corporate relocation to Atlanta. We are open to trying new things too, for example, we are among the first in the nation to provide a farmer’s market at a rail station.

A Southern Port to the World

Curtis J. Foltz, Executive Director, Georgia Ports Authority ating locally. These DCs are within minutes of the terminal, reducing drive time and increasing supply chain efficiency. Garden City Terminal’s location west of Savannah and direct links to Interstates 95 and 16, only six miles from the port, mean truck drivers do not have to deal with city traffic.

The Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) oversees the development, maintenance and operation of four ports: Port of Savannah, Port of Brunswick and two inland ports. The GPA is dedicated to providing the most efficient port facilities in the nation and to creating opportunities to benefit more than 9.7 million Georgians.

How is the Georgia Ports the entire state’s needs, not just the needs of a single city. Authority model different Today, we operate our ports from other states? and coordinate our port asWhen you look across the sets on behalf of the state. ports sector in the United States, it is clear our ports are not being modernized at the What are the logistical benepace they need to be. Most US fits of using the Port of Saports don’t have the necesvannah? sary capacity. Cargo handling Because our container port through our ports is not ocis 100 miles closer to Atlanta curring as efficiently as it than any other port in the US, should be. For Georgia, howGPA is a magnet for global ever, we have protrade and comactively invested merce. In fact, the “We are very Port of Savannah in the future. This is possible beadvanced from is centrally located cause the Georgia to serve the entire Ports Authority is a technology U.S. Southeast – an owner-operathe fastest growstandpoint.” ing demographic tor, unlike many ports, which leasregion in the naes out dock and terminal tion. Savannah serves as a space. We can coordinate our distribution center hub, with assets and resources, both major retail outlets such as from an investment and infraTarget, Walmart, Ikea, The structure standpoint, to meet Home Depot and Pier 1 oper-

1,100

There are more than 1,100 people employed at the GPA

$2m

GPA invested up to $2m in a training simulator

45%

GPA services an area that covers around 45% of the US population

How has the port innovated to handle cargo transport? Garden City’s single-terminal design means drivers enjoy fast turn-times through one simple check-in process, even when moving containers for multiple shipping lines. Served on-terminal by two Class I railroads (CSX and Norfolk Southern), Savannah has the fastest westward transit in the South Atlantic region – including overnight rail service to a five-state area: Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina. At 1,200 acres – with 22 shipto-shore cranes and 116 rubber-tired gantry cranes – Savannah has the capacity to handle influxes of cargo, and the flexibility to handle megaships carrying freight for allied shipping lines. With 38 weekly vessel calls, Savannah provides more global connections than any other East Coast port, except for New York/New Jersey. This means more choices to more destinations, with greater scheduling flexibility. With room to grow and an infrastructure plan to increase annual container capacity to 6.5 million TEUs, Savannah is well positioned to take advantage of new market opportunities.

Southern Hospitality with an Asian Flavor Robert Lowe, General Manager, Mandarin Oriental, Atlanta

to be themselves and connect with the guest in a genuine way. Southern hospitality is very open and embracing and our colleagues make that part of the experience.

Mandarin Oriental, Atlanta is part of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group with hotels in 27 locations around the world. The hotel’s 127 rooms and suites are housed in a 42-storey skyscraper designed by American architect Robert A.M. Stern. The exclusive Mandarin Oriental, Atlanta Residences are on the top 27 floors.

Why did Mandarin Oriental prestigious Buckhead neighborhood. Since 2007, MOHG Hotel Group (MOHG) has had a regional office in choose to open a hotel in AtAtlanta. Our Development lanta? Director and President of the MOHG is always exploring Americas, Terry Stinson, is development opportunities based there, so in key leisure and any development business destina“Atlanta is of the group tions around the world, and Atlan- considered the comes out of that office. We saw the ta had been on the New York of vision for the city group’s radar for back in 2007 and 10 years. With the the South.” it’s all forward busiest airport in thinking, so that’s the world, Atlanta why we chose Atlanta. is an amazing hub and a key destination for a group like ours. Therefore, when this How does MOHG define Buckhead hotel project be21st century luxury? came available, we jumped at 21st century luxury means it. We had many reasons why creating an experience and this particular address apcustomizing that experience pealed to us. It’s an iconic for each guest. We are very building, designed by archiproactive in figuring out tect Robert A.M. Stern. It’s what people might like and the ideal location in Atlanta, our colleagues really respond on Peachtree Road in the to that because it allows them

4 Stars

Forbes Travel Guide awarded the Mandarin Oriental, Atlanta with 4 stars

Mandarin Oriental, Atlanta has 35 exclusive residences on the top 27 floors of its building

90 Days

Mandarin Oriental, Atlanta spends 90 days training new colleagues

What kind of training programs and incentives are offered to staff? We provide an intensive orientation, which encompasses 90 days. So for the first 90 days of employment, the employee is never alone. Following on from that we have various programs that enable our employees to keep learning and they see a succession plan. For example someone might be interested in becoming a beverage manager, so we offer on the job training through our “MOve Up” classes. If someone wants to become a supervisor, we teach them the necessary skills to make that transition. That program goes all the way up to an MBA program we have for senior leaders. To be the employer of choice, that’s a key way of attracting people. How does the Mandarin Oriental, Atlanta represent Atlanta? We like to represent ourselves with a sense of place so we are certain to incorporate Southern touches throughout the hotel, such as peach roses and hydrangeas in the garden or sweet tea upon arrival. We have partnered with the Bill Lowe Art Gallery and he provides us with rotating art for our lobby and public spaces from local artists. We want a connection with the community.

SCAD: Where Art Meets Industry

John Paul Rowan, VP of Strategy and Innovation, SCAD resume and identify opportunities. So we feel our approach is much more proactive. We find out what companies the students want to work for and we invite those recruiters onto campus and give the students that chance to meet with them directly.

Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) was established in in 1978 by Richard G. Rowan, Paula Wallace, May L. Poetter and Paul E. Poetter to provide college degree programs in southeast Georgia and to create a specialized professional art college to attract students from the US and abroad.

What makes SCAD a unique What are some of the way SCAD links students and inuniversity for creative cadustry? reers? Our career services office is SCAD’s curriculum is set up different from most universito create a positive learning ties because we flip it around. environment but also with a Traditionally the mindset towards student would go how students are going to apply “Companies to the office and ask for advice. But that learning in a tend to come around 3 years professional caago we turned reer after graduato us with that around and tion. We are always thinking specific design gave our career office a list of stuabout the future of projects.” dent names and our students. For said these are the example we restudents you are cently did a surrequired to work with, in efvey and found that 97% of our fect making it the job of the students had found employuniversity to reach out to the ment or were doing a poststudents. So we say to the stugraduate course after finishdent, where do you want to ing their studies with SCAD. work and how can I – as the Considering that figure is 48% university – help you achieve nationwide, it’s a real testathat goal? We do everything ment to our focus and prepafrom help students build their ratory skills.

36 Years

In 36 years SCAD has grown to become a global university with institutions in Georgia, France and Hong Kong

97%

After finishing their studies with SCAD, 97% of our students have found employment or are doing a post grad course

175

The number of companies that visited SCAD as part of its career services program in 2014

What innovative programs are currently happening at SCAD? We have many but for example at the moment we are doing interesting projects on augmented reality with Hewlett Packard. Our goal is to make the first Live City in the world. On credit cards there is a watermark that you can’t see but as you scan over with a device, it creates a new experience and we are experimenting with that technology. There are various points around the city, such as buildings and signs, and when you scan them with a device, they become alive. We have been working on that for a few years now and are really excited about it. We also work with Disney extensively on new designs for their parks. We have a themed Entertainment Design degree that we designed with Disney and it gives our students direct access to the Imagineering side of Disney. We have other ongoing projects with Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble and Chick-fil-A to name a few. We recently took over the 14th Street Playhouse in Atlanta and it is now named SCAD Show. We have full production offices there providing pre-production support to line producers and our students can intern there.