The challenge of attracting a talented workforce to Atlanta and retaining it will be the focus of a collaboration summit in September.
Nearly 40 speakers, including Pulitzer Prize-winning author Thomas Friedman, will address ways the area can transform education and cultivate innovation in a way that makes the city an employment magnet, according to Pat Upshaw-Monteith, president and CEO of Leadership Atlanta, which is hosting "(co)lab" summimit on the Sept. 22-23.
Upshaw-Monteith said there was a time when Atlanta was a leader in retaining “the young and the restless” and “the best and brightest.”
“We want to know why our young people, why the millenials are leaving Atlanta,” she said. “What do we need to do to retain the best and the brightest?”
Upshaw-Monteith said Leadership Atlanta surveyed its membership, which consists of corporate and community leaders, to determine the major issues the city faces and found education and teaching the skills of tomorrow continue to be the top concerns.
The tech industry, for example, has long expressed concerns about attracting talent disciplined in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
Other major cities, including Chicago, Washington, D.C., and New York, have held similar brainstorming summits and the Atlanta session at the Woodruff Arts Center will be open to the public.
In addition to Friedman, who will discuss launching Atlanta forward, speakers will include Ceree Eberly, Coca-Cola’s chief people officer, who will lead a session on attracting and retaining top talent.
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