* Overview *
In the land of honey and peaches, there's a buzz a-brewing. And it's
not just worker bees, but Internet-bees who are flocking to Atlanta,
GA, for the newest, hottest place to go for the dot-com expansion.
Atlanta is full of construction and the sprawling city has pockets
of dot-com activity throughout. >From downtown to Buckhead to Cobb
Galleria, companies like iXL to Naviant to eHatchery to PlanetJam to
Presscafe are all setting up shop and making a difference in this
burgeoning town.
I flew into town for two conferences occurring simultaneously, and
hosted a small, informal cocktail soiree. First Conferences Eye For
Travel show was held at the Sheraton Buckhead, and it was one of the
newest sorts of conferences I'd attended. Normally I'm used to being
a part of very inward-focused (navel-peering) event, mixing with
people "in the industry" and talking about it from a very internal
focus.
When in new cities, we like to take the opportunity to visit with
the city and trade organizations to get an overview of developments.
Thus, I welcomed the opportunity to meet with Tina Stevens of Duffey
Communications, which represents the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce.
The Chamber's Senior VP of Economic Development Hans Gant and VP of
Economic Development Darrell Glascow have been heading up much of
the new initiatives. They were busy preparing for their new ad
campaign, which will be placed in the Industry Standard and Rolling
Stone magazines and targeted to attracting talent to Atlanta. She
told me of the amazing growth and attention Atlanta is beginning to
experience and some programs aimed at increasing their awareness,
namely the Industries of the Mind program. She explained that
companies are moving into loft spaces in Midtown, and that
Alpharetta is experiencing a dynamic play between tech-cos and horse
farms. There are a good number of other organizations aimed at
aiding industry in Altanta too, like the Technology Association of
Georgia, localbusiness.com and TechLinks.net. The Industries of the
Mind is also partnering with Yamacrew.org to recruit telcos and act
as incubators. Atlanta's got over 28 incubators already, ranging
from the ehatchery -- the most popular one started by Jeff Levy to
the Atlanta Technology Development Center -- to smaller ones like
Duffey's Golden Egg.
