Sponsors
The Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) is the regional planning and intergovernmental coordination agency for the 10-county area including Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry and Rockdale counties, as well as the City of Atlanta . For more than 50 years, ARC and its predecessor agencies have helped to focus the region's leadership, attention and resources on key issues of regional consequence. ARC is dedicated to unifying the region's collective resources to prepare the metropolitan area for a prosperous future. It does so through professional planning initiatives, the provision of objective information and the involvement of the community in collaborative partnerships.
EDAW is consistently ranked among the world's leading design firms, and boasts hundreds of client and industry awards. Over the course of our 65-year history, EDAW principals have embraced an action-oriented philosophy that values the relationship between people and their environment, and takes into account a project's impact on its investors, community and setting. With over 1100 professionals working from a network of 25 offices worldwide, EDAW's multidisciplinary teams' perspective is both broad and specialized. According to EDAW, environments, whether built or natural, resist simplification and reward comprehensive attention. EDAW strives for a "fusion" practice — forging connections between disciplines, roles, and technologies across the globe.
Georgia Power , the largest of five electric utilities that make up Southern Company, has been providing electricity to Georgia for more than a century. Georgia Power is an investor-owned, tax-paying utility that serves customers in 57,000 of the state's 59,000 square miles. The company's 2 million customers are in all but six of Georgia 's 159 counties and has approximately 8,800 employees throughout the state.
The Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce (MACOC), with our 4,000 member companies that collectively employ more than 700,000 workers, is a catalyst for a vibrant metro region. The Metro Atlanta Chamber focuses on the issues that matter most to the business community: improving quality of life; promoting economic growth; and making Atlanta a brand name that means opportunity.
Organizers
The Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development (CQGRD) is an applied research center of Georgia Tech that helps communities achieve a sustainable, equitable, superior quality of life through sound planning, policy, and design. The Center produces, disseminates, and helps implement new ideas and technologies that improve the theory and practice of quality growth. Its work focuses on five complementary programmatic areas: Community Design & Architecture, Air Quality & the Natural Environment, Healthy Places, Land Development, and Transportation & Infrastructure.
The mission of the City and Regional Planning Program of Georgia Tech's College of Architecture is to be the national leader in education and research on planning for sustainable cities and regions. Through combined efforts in teaching, research, and public service, the program contributes to a greater understanding of patterns of human development and promotes changes to those patterns to achieve more sustainable cities and regions. The Program capitalizes on its unique position within Georgia Tech, the Atlanta metropolitan area and the southeast region, to link its academic pursuits to professional practice and service to communities.
Mayor's Forum
In conjunction with the Think Global, Act Regional Symposium, the Office of Mayor Shirley Franklin, City of Atlanta , and the Urban Land Institute are hosting a Mayors' Forum.
Office of Mayor Shirley Franklin, City of Atlanta: Since her inauguration in 2002, Mayor Franklin has worked to build a “Best in Class” managed city by strengthening existing frameworks, implementing progressive changes and making the tough decisions necessary to improve Atlanta. She has been recognized as one of the “Five Best Big-City Mayors” in America by Time magazine.
Urban Land Institute (ULI): ULI facilitates the open exchange of ideas, information and experience among local, national and international industry leaders and policy makers dedicated to creating better places. The mission of the Urban Land Institute is to provide responsible leadership in the use of land to enhance the total environment. In the ULI fashion of offering an unbiased and non-partisan exchange on issues impacting the industry, ULI Atlanta strives to provide the avenues for active dialogues between private industry, environmental organizations, and public agencies to help provide solutions to local and regional issues.
Thanks to all of former students who worked on the Southeast MegaRegion case study, many of whom are volunteering at today's event: Jason Barringer, Carolina Blengini, Elizabeth Keysar, Karen Leone de Nie , Jared Lombard, Lee Lyman, Julie McQueen, Kayah Royal, Karl Smith-Davids, Eric Sundquist, and Leigh Ann Valletti.
