Larry Williams With Technology Association of Georgia

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio. Brought to you by On pay. Atlanta’s new standard in payroll. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:25] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio, and this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, Onpay. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Larry Williams, the CEO and president of Technology Association of Georgia. Welcome, Larry.

Larry Williams: [00:00:46] Hi Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:47] I am so excited to get caught up with you. Big anniversary this year, huh?

Larry Williams: [00:00:52] That’s right. It’s our 25th anniversary. We’re so excited.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:55] I know that is a big deal for the folks who aren’t familiar with Tag. Can you explain mission purpose of Tag and how it’s kind of different from the Chamber of Commerce and the other economic development things out there?

Larry Williams: [00:01:07] Well, sure. I mean, at the top level, our job is to focus in on the technology sector, our technology industry, as well as the people that are utilizing technology to drive their business and the people that are building great careers in technology. You know, one of the great things we’ve done over the last 25 years is we’ve created one of the most connected technology and innovation ecosystems in the country with 30,000 members. You know, in Georgia. I think that’s something for us to be proud of. And as we’ve grown, not only are we doing great things to connect our our people through our societies and our major events like we have tomorrow with the Georgia Technology Summit, but we’re also very involved in lobbying and advocating for policies that help enable innovation or prevent things that might inhibit it. So both at the state and the federal level, as well as we do a lot through our Tag Education Collaborative, our charitable charitable education foundation, about how we prepare the the next generation of technology workers now.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:11] Was tag, um, kind of born out of the Chamber of Commerce or was this 25 years ago was this kind of initiative that a bunch of folks said, you know what, there should be a dedicated organization that just serves technology here in Georgia.

Larry Williams: [00:02:24] There were three technology organizations at the time. There was what is now known as Tag. I forgot exactly what the name was back then, but it was the South East Software Association and Wit. The Women in technology all came together to create an organization under one umbrella. Um, and that was just because that was there was a little bit fragmented at the time. So most of that’s stayed together. Women in technology has grown up and they’ve, um, you know, doing great work and as a autonomous organization. But they’re a great partner of ours now, too.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:59] Now, at the time, it was, was it primarily, um, software focused or was tele telecommunication kind of part of that and the growth of that industry?

Larry Williams: [00:03:09] By all means. Um, so if we think about, you know, what was going on during that time, you’ve got to think about, um, you know, the Hayes modem. So if you want to think about, you know, telecommunication that was coming up in the 70s and the 80s, scientific Atlanta was founded in the 50s. You know, it wasn’t sold until 2005. So. So, Lee, um, technology is part of our DNA here in Georgia. You know, we’ve been in this business for a long time. And, um, you know, it was taken advantage of a lot of things that was that were going on. And then with these great nexus of, uh, organizations like Scientific Atlanta, there were a lot of other companies that were starting to build and develop and come up with new innovations as well. And that’s what created that critical mass for for it to make sense to really launch an organization like the Technology Association of Georgia.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:01] Now, did it get escape velocity right off the bat, or did it take a few years to get kind of momentum and grow to the 30,000 member mark?

Larry Williams: [00:04:11] Yeah, I think it took a few years for it to for it to grow and then to get to the 30,000 mark certainly took a few days, you know. Well, you know, 25.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:20] Years now, but was it something that you were always had a groundswell of support, or was there a tipping point at some point?

Larry Williams: [00:04:29] You know, I think there had some volunteer leadership at the very early on. And then they went with a professional, uh, CEO, if you remember, they hired Tino Ventilla to come in, and he was really a catalyst to, uh, launch it and grow it, um, and shape it. And then I came in, uh, eight years ago.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:49] Now, uh, one of tino’s kind of, um, I remember him talking a lot about clusters and special groups that were serving niches within technology. Was that helpful in, in kind of growing the organization, in your opinion?

Larry Williams: [00:05:06] Yeah. Cluster theory about economic development is is alive and well. And it’s, um, you know, with clusters when you have a certain, uh, strength and other people want to be around that for a lot of reasons. It’s either it could be, um, client vendor relationships and also workforce. So, um, those all work very closely together. And it was important then. It’s important now.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:29] Now, are you seeing that, um, the center of gravity in technology shifting a little bit? I mean, there was a lot of stuff centered around Georgia Tech, but it seems like now it’s expanding out into the suburbs and exurbs of Atlanta.

Larry Williams: [00:05:45] You know, it’s, uh, you know, we’re fortunate we have a plethora of riches in many ways. Um, Georgia Tech is still extremely important to our ecosystem and to our talent, to the research and development, uh, the thought leadership that comes out of there. But we have other areas. I mean, you know, you go out to Augusta with the cyber center out there now, you know, Kennesaw State merging with Southern Poly, uh, really made it for a richer, more comprehensive, um, uh, university for us. Georgia State and I think about, you know, what’s going on there with the film industry and, uh, the media labs, Emory, all of these things work together. Clayton State is extremely important to us. Columbus. You know, uh, the the the trouble we’re trying to start listing them is I’m going to leave somebody. They’re all important. And but, you know, if I, you know. So if we think about it from an economic development point of view, um, yester year, people used to move to where the jobs are now, the companies are moving to where the talent is, um, workforce development today. Talent is economic development. And I think you’re seeing that unfold as our you know, if you look at Atlanta, our skyline has changed and that’s been a big driver of it.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:05] So now when it comes to workforce development, how does the organization, um, kind of serve the whole state? Because it could be almost a trap to just be Atlanta focused. You mentioned, um, Augusta. And obviously Savannah is important. And and the definitely the cities around, uh, Atlanta are important. So how do you bring all of these? Kind of I don’t want to say distant, but you are serving the state. How do you bring all those communities together? Do you encourage them to kind of find their niche that they can really lean into, or do you just let them kind of develop and you just build around what they’re doing?

Larry Williams: [00:07:45] You know, it’s a little bit of both. You know, I’ve got to bring in University of North Georgia as we’re setting up some programs with them about, you know, how do we actually develop more executive leaders, um, you know, the next generation of people that are going to be, you know, running, you know, either in-house operations or building their own new technologies. So working with them on specific things, knowing where the universities are building out expertise, um, like fintech and with our partner, the fintech and, uh, fintech Academy, these things all work together so that we can direct people and collaborate as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:22] Yeah, I think that’s kind of one of the secret sources of, um, of the state is that we are so collaborative. There isn’t kind of that zero sum game mentality where we’re it seems like we’re all kind of rooting for each other and trying to help each other all grow.

Larry Williams: [00:08:39] It’s always been that way. And I think it’s extremely importantly. And I’m glad you mentioned that. Um, you know, if we look at you and the other component of this that’s extremely important is the technical college system of Georgia. Tcsg. Um, the way we look at the world is from a talent is one. How do we how do we start preparing and how do we start building tomorrow’s workforce today? So the demand for jobs still is higher than the supply. So we’ve got to continue to work on that and creative ways. So we work on how do we connect at the high school level. How do we, uh, connect, uh, all those smart people with Stem related, um, curriculums so that they can go to whatever higher education they want to go to, or next training programs so that they can be prepared. We work on workforce, uh, so especially things that don’t require four year degrees. And there are lots of jobs out there that don’t require four year degrees. And we’ve got to make sure that we’re engaging those people. So training people, upskilling them, reskilling them in a dynamic world is constantly important. And I’ll mention Lee that last week we launched our, um, tag technology apprenticeship program. So apprenticeships or experiential learning? Uh, it’s getting back, you know, real world experience in the workplace and then being able to build a career after that. Lee, we are the only technology association or council in the southeast that has a certified, uh, apprenticeship program. This is big news. Uh, we’ll continue to partner with, uh, the Universities and Technical College System of Georgia, but this is certainly a game changer for us in Georgia being at the lead of this. Let me just give. And then lastly, it’s that, uh, professional development that I mentioned earlier. We have a program called Pathways to Leadership about to launch our fourth cohort. And that’s all about preparing the next generation of senior and executive leaders for technology roles.

Larry Williams: [00:10:43] I keep going.

Larry Williams: [00:10:43] Let me just give you a little bit of context. Um, we’re, um, there’s data out there that we’re planning on creating about 100,000 new jobs in technology over the next nine years by 2033. Um, you know, we’ve got the large companies that are here and that are headquartered here with large presence here. But we’ve got to continue to make sure that we’re, um, connecting everyone with these great opportunities that they have.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:13] And I think that, uh, the nimbleness and the, the willingness to take action is really what sets it apart. I mean, we’re not talking about things that are just on a whiteboard for year after year after year and never gets done. These are things that action is taken and, uh, moves are made.

Larry Williams: [00:11:32] Grant. Um, so excuse me, Lee, you’ve heard me say this before. Um, Georgia is really where, uh, technology meets the real world. And what I mean by that is, you know, we don’t always create the shiniest new gadget or the coolest new social app, but we have more people that are building things, um, that are driving revenue, building new companies probably than anywhere else. And if you think about what we’ve done so successfully here in Georgia is, you know, we’ve got our our favorite start with fintech, 70% of all debit, credit and reward, uh, reward card transactions are processed through Georgia. We led the way in digitizing that industry, you know, going from paper checks and manual processes. It was here in Georgia. And that’s why we dominate. You know, as I say, we have if you have 51% market share, you’re number one. If you have 70%, you dominate. We dominate in that area. You mentioned mobile technology. I mean, what we were doing is, um, you know, building it up, you know, from BellSouth to Cingular to AT&T wireless. Um, it was also AT&T, um, that created a partnership with another company that built up here called Airwatch, which was a mobile cybersecurity application.

Larry Williams: [00:12:51] When you put those two to those, the telecom with the cybersecurity application, and then at the same time, the Apple phone, the iPhone was rolling out, that was a game changer. So the partnership that was created here in Atlanta is, you know, said to be what put the BlackBerry out of business. And in fact, there was a magazine in, uh, Canada that even said that that’s the type of things that we do cybersecurity. We were the leaders at Georgia Tech with the Department of Defense talking about what can we do with back when we’re talking about mainframes and network security, that evolution of, um, being able to lock down major, uh, systems to how do we secure our laptops to now the cloud and mobile applications that all happened here. These things are transformative. So again, you know, it’s not always the shiniest new thing, but we got people that are really building real world, uh, businesses here in Georgia.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:53] How are we doing? Um, in regards to AI are um, is that something that, um, you’re finding that there’s a lot obviously there’s a lot of interest and there’s a lot of opinion about it on both sides. Um, but what’s your take on, uh, Georgia?

Larry Williams: [00:14:10] And I know AI is the most transformative shift that we’re going to see in our lifetime. We’ve seen a lot lately, but we’re this is this is huge. And if you think about. And so I think Georgia will be the leader for AI, for legitimate commercial purposes. And a lot of reasons I say that is because of the things that I talked about that we transform industries. Just I believe yesterday I saw an article and it says that Georgia Tech has more graduates working in AI than any other university in the US, and that’s ahead of Berkeley and Stanford, um, University of Southern California more than Carnegie Mellon. It’s right here at Georgia Tech in our state. That knowledge base, that research base, that amount of people, um, that are going to be interacting with our, uh, business partners and our commercial entities are going to create and lead the way in how AI is going to have very positive case studies and even help us, you know, fight, you know, when it comes to cyber security, those that thought process is going to help us not only secure our own networks, but, uh, help us fight the bad guys as well. And we need that type of, of quick, um, response and that type of thinking as well. So I am bullish. I’m going to repeat it. I believe that Georgia will lead in AI for legitimate commercial purposes.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:40] So now, um, you know, putting that in the crystal ball of looking ahead to the next 25 years, uh, being a leader in AI, obviously is part of that. What else are you seeing for Georgia in the years ahead?

Larry Williams: [00:15:55] Well, you know, I think we’re going to continue to have the great mix of the, you know, of software along with the physical world. Uh, manufacturing is still going to be important to us, and we’re going to see that that intersection of being able to have more efficient operations. Um, you know, uh, I don’t think it’s a slam dunk on the future of EVs, but there’s going to be a great place for EVs, and Georgia’s going to be at the center of it as well. So that’s certainly something that we’re looking at. But I think overall, if what we think about is automation, whether it be the automation of software, uh, utilizing AI as a tool, but also harnessing the great smart people who are going to be thinking of new ideas and how to utilize these AI tools and then marry them with robotics and other automation in the physical world. That’s where Georgia’s going to continue to lead and build great companies and be able to trade, uh, attract, you know, global leaders that want to be a part of this.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:55] Well, congratulations on 25 years. I mean, it’s an amazing achievement for your organization and your leadership. If somebody wants to plug in to tag, what’s the website?

Larry Williams: [00:17:05] It’s, uh, tag online.org. Tag online.org. And you know, Lee, I’m looking forward to seeing you tomorrow at the Georgia Technology Summit. Uh, the new Sydney, a hotel right downtown, a phenomenal location. We have an incredible, incredible line up. And I think, uh, even the governor and the mayor will stop by and and say hello to us.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:29] As they should. Well, thank you again for sharing your story, Larry. You’re doing such important work, and we appreciate you. Thanks, Lee. All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.