September 2024 Chair's Column

What’s up? 

I hope everyone made it home safely and is caught up on their emails after our 2024 Annual Conference in Savannah. I don’t know about you, but I thoroughly enjoyed seeing everyone and hearing from our panelists and speakers. Thank you again to Stacy Watson and his team for organizing another successful conference. 

Throughout the event, I had the opportunity to speak with individuals from all corners of Georgia—some of whom I’ve known for years, and others I was meeting for the first time. Our conversations reminded me that the challenges and successes we face in economic development are often shared across the state. Engagement with our peers is a powerful tool for navigating those common hurdles.

It’s easy to feel like our situations are unique to our organization, but more often than not, our neighbors in other counties are experiencing something similar. There’s so much we can learn from one another, but that exchange of ideas only happens when we actively engage.

I saw many of you networking during the receptions and especially during our Thursday activities. It’s so easy to do when we’re all together for two days, right? I’d encourage you to keep up those relationships and continue those conversations as you get settled into your routine again. And I’ll also take this opportunity to remind you that we have another time to gather at our upcoming luncheon at the Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center on October 21. 

Finally, thank you to those of you who have taken the lead in getting involved with GEDA – you create opportunities for that very engagement for our larger membership and you set the tone of GEDA to be an organization that welcomes all and strengthens our community. 

Trip Tollison