What’s up Atlanta?

by Jeff Haynie on February 1, 2007 · Comments

I’ve been talking for quite some time in the past few months about a growing aggravation that I have – and a number of people are expressing the same. It’s quite simple: the enterpreneur, technology, startup community just isn’t quite as good as it needs to be in Atlanta. And, I’ve been hearing some lame excuses (which I’ve repeated before myself):

There’s just no venture capital money in this area.

Another popular one:

With Atlanta being so spread out, it makes it hard to bring companies and people together.

Then, today, I hear this rumor from someone credible:

The Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) and the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce are considering a proposal to build a directory of companies in Atlanta and paying an Israeli firm $200K to build it.

OK – what?

Let me repeat that: the TECHNOLOGY ASSOCIATION and ATLANTA CHAMBER is thinking about paying a non-Georgia technology company money (and it seems like too much to me) to build a directory of companies here in GEORGIA.

What?  Am I the only one out there that thinks this is just plain stupid?
Boy, I really hope this is not true or just them “exploring ideas”. But even entertaining something like this, if true, is just crazy.

  1. We don’t need another directory for companies. We could use a social directory, one where it’s wiki-like that can be company controlled and participation is two-way. Let’s users maintain the directory – this is the social, participatory generation.
  2. We have plenty of companies – a lot of companies – right here in Georgia that can do this – some might even do it for free or for sponsorship – at least for less than $200K.

What this illuminates to me is a main problem with our region. We just don’t do a good job of supporting our own. That’s something I plan on talking about in future posts in more detail – and something I’m working on (along with a number of other people) to address.

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  • Thanks for the point of clarification -- TAG is definitely a separate and distinct organization than the chamber.

    Tino, I hope your representation on the Executive Committee of the Atlanta Chamber will help sway them to look to our local technology community for participation as David suggested.

    David, as I'm sure you are, a lot of us are passionate about helping continue to grow our technology base in the south and it would be good if you could include some of us in the discussion.

    Best of Luck.
  • Tino is correct however this effort will be a community effort. We are forming a Technology Marketing Council to gather insight from our technology community as to what is the best way to approach this strategic initiative.
  • tino mantella
    A point of clarification....The directory project is being driven by the Atlanta Chamber. TAG is a separate and distinct organization.
    Tino Mantella, CEO TAG
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