President's
Report
Word from around the state and country from other economic developers is “things have really slowed down.”
The slowdown in the national and world economy will affect Baldwin County and the Alliance. Higher fuel and food prices and declining home values will hurt consumer discretionary spending and this will eventually find its way into even the most insulated local economies. That is the bad news.
The good news is that locally we continue to have robust business prospect activity and are working on numerous industrial/distribution projects. The Alliance will continue to be aggressive and market internationally to aviation and other high pay, high tech market segments.
While others are waiting for something to happen we hope to make things happen. During slow times, those who work harder and smarter survive in the short run and thrive in the long run.
Many in our community, especially those in real estate and service related segments, are hurting right now. Continuing to diversify our economy can soften the effects of future downturns.
We will succeed with your continued support and friendship.
Robert
Ingram
President/CEO
Fairhope Festival of Flight
The
Fairhope Airport Authority invites you to participate in the
3rd Annual Festival of Flight on Saturday, May 17, 2008 from 9 am -
2 pm. In honor of Armed Forces Day, this year we are saluting all
Viet Nam era veterans. Four aerobatic acts are scheduled this year headlined
by Alex Land, the youngest member of the US National Team. Shuttles will
provide transportation to scenic downtown Fairhope shopping and dining
venues. Thanks to our sponsors, the event is Free! So kick
the tires and light the fires, the Fairhope Festival of Flight
is back.
http://www.fairhopefestivalofflight.com/
Auburn University works with Gulf Shores
An Auburn graduate student, Dr. Barry Crumby, earned his Ph.D. in
Information Technology working this past year with companies and cities in
South Baldwin on how
coastal
communities can recover more rapidly after a “tropical event.” He held focus
groups with many local people who had been deeply involved in recovery after
Ivan and Katrina. One of their conclusions was that we need a way to
quickly access accurate as-built data on our infrastructure and commercial buildings. Diane Brown, IT Director for
the City of Gulf Shores, picked up the challenge and hosted 12 Auburn
undergrads over two weekends earlier this year to begin accurately GIS
mapping the GPS coordinates of utilities along AL-182. The results were
rolled out to representatives of the utilities and the cities of Gulf
Shores, Orange Beach, and Foley. This exercise demonstrated the need for a
common, secure database with all of the information in one place. The cities
and utilities agreed to find a way to work together on this. Congratulations
to Auburn and the folks involved on a job well done!
Workforce Development
We are in the final stages of setting up the “Southwest Alabama Workforce Development Council” in the 8 counties that form the state’s Region 9. The purpose is to make sure that we have a steady supply of qualified people to fill tens of thousands of jobs that will open in both existing and new businesses over the next few years. The idea is to have a business-led council and a professional staff who will lead all of us through a process of building the best workforce development system – and workforce! – in the world.
It’s a testament to the importance of this initiative that we didn’t hear a
single “no” from 30 CEO’s and General Managers of our largest employers when
we asked them if they would accept an appointment from the governor to sit
on the board of the council. More to come on this in future newsletters.
Thank you Baldwin EMC for Sponsoring our
Spring Investors' Reception!!
If you/your company are interested in sponsoring one of our Investors' Receptions or another of the events that we have throughout the year, please contact our office at (251) 947-2445.
You will be listed as event sponsor on
all correspondence regarding the event including invitations, any and all
publicity for the event and given the opportunity to emcee the event.
You will also have the opportunity to display a company banner at the event.