Austin might be weird but Atlanta wants to show millennials and creative thinkers that the Capital of the South is cool.
Atlanta hip-hop artist Steve Cantrell performs at SweetWater Brewing Co. during a recent event for ChooseATL. The Metro Atlanta Chamber through its ChooseATL campaign plans a two-day sales pitch at South by Southwest to show recruit young professionals to come to Atlanta. J. Scott Trubey/ strubey@ajc.com
The Metro Atlanta Chamber through its ChooseATL campaign plans a two-day sales pitch at South by Southwest (SXSW) to recruit young professionals to come to Atlanta. Plenty of states and cities send economic development groups to recruit companies, this campaign, chamber CEO Hala Moddelmog said in a recent interview, is about recruiting makers and doers to come to Atlanta to mold their futures.
The program will focus on metro Atlanta’s quality of life and unique features that distinguish the region.
The SXSW trip will be the big push roll out of the ChooseATL, which was launched last year. The group is renting the Austin Speakeasy — to be rebranded the ChooseATL House — March 13-14 during the festival’s interactive confab. It will feature panels from the founders of social media platform Yik Yak, a conversation with The Walking Dead executive produce Tome Luse and the show’s head of photography Michael Satrazemis.
Upcoming Atlanta musicians and bands also will appear, including Ruby Velle, Kick the Robot and Steve Cantrell.
The chamber estimates about 1,000 Georgians will be in Austin during the ChooseATL campaign there and as of last week the organization had connected with about 700 to be ambassadors of the Atlanta brand. ChooseATL has held parties at Ponce City Market, Spitfire Studios and SweetWater Brewing Company to drum up support.
The program in Austin is sponsored by groups including Georgia Power, Crawford Media Services, Georgia Tech’s Scheller College of Business, How Stuff Works, the Nebo Agency (which was a founder of the ChooseATL campaign).
About the Author
