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Atlanta Business Chronicle - by Kelly Gay
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2002/03/18/focus5.html

A little trivia: Which city was the first to be called the “Intelligent City of the Year” by the World Teleport Association? Atlanta, right?

Wrong. Actually it is the city of LaGrange, Ga., that boasts the honor, along with other recognition for its leadership in technology, especially for the city’s broadband infrastructure, available to every home, school and business.

An e-mail caught my eye last week, an invitation for technology enthusiasts to book seats to “e-roadie” down to LaGrange and network with other technology leaders.

The e-mail got me thinking about all the attention Atlanta receives, while many technology “firsts” are occurring elsewhere in the state. Rome, Savannah, Athens and all points in between are making vast contributions toward Georgia’s reputation as a technology epicenter.

Consider Rome, rated No. 1 of 193 small cities in health care with more physicians per capita than any other city in Georgia. Rome has seen many health-care-linked businesses emerge, including ePhys Healthcare Technology, Crestline Technologies and eLabLink.

Recently, the Technology Association of Georgia joined forces with technology incubator Digital Rome to create the Northwest Georgia Technology Alliance.

“We believe that Rome and cities like Rome can serve as model communities for `New Economy’ economic development through the synergy created by emerging companies and livable communities like ours,” says Digital Rome’s founder and president, Derek Willis.

And which city is second to Atlanta as far as technology-related employment? Savannah. Savannah’s technology sector has become well-organized through its Coastal Business, Education and Technology Alliance (BETA).

“Coastal BETA’s mandate is to maximize the potential of research and intellectual assets, linking to nearby research entities—The Herty Foundation and Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, and the many educational institutions based in and around Savannah,” says Howard J. Morrison Jr., chairman of the Technology Committee of the Georgia Department of Industry, Trade and Tourism.

Crossing all city borders in Georgia is the Office of Economic Development of the University System of Georgia (USG), created to leverage the vast resources of the state’s 34 public colleges and universities.

The centerpiece of the USG’s economic development program is Georgia’s Intellectual Capital Partnership Program, which provides one-stop entry to USG’s education programs, faculty expertise, research and development facilities.

One of the program’s special initiatives is Yamacraw, the economic development initiative that is intended to make Georgia a world leader in broadband communications.

You may have seen the recent Dow Jones article noting the University of Georgia in Athens is testing an alternate heat source—chicken fat. I can hear plenty of wisecracks from you Yellow Jackets, but the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering reports chicken fat yields about 90 percent of the heat given from fuel oil, with comparatively low sulfur and other air emission pollutants.

Athens recently was named in stories tied to stem cell development by BresaGen, an Australia-based company with labs in Athens. BresaGen is part of the Georgia BioBusiness Center, one of two UGA Research Foundation-sponsored business acceleration programs that house 14 technology companies. According to Margaret Wagner Dahl of the Development and Technology Alliances for UGA, university-related technology companies raised upward of

$30 million in financing last year.

For 2001, the entire state raised $770 million in venture funding—an impressive number that kept Georgia ranked among the top 10 nationwide.

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