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B2B Stories
B2B Stories

Businesses Wanted for Black Chamber Event

The Greater Augusta Black Chamber of Commerce (GABCC) is preparing to host an annual Resource Business Fair and is calling for vendors to participate. This marks the third year the Chamber is sponsoring the event. Shagraila Hammond, GABCC Program Manager, told ABD the first was December 2023 and the second in April 2024. They chose February this year, making it the kick-off to the Chamber’s yearly activities. “It is essentially something that was created through a program that we had running in 2023 where we wanted to put everything that

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Dana Lynn McIntyre January 21, 2025 No Comments
B2B Stories

Legislative session underway in the Palmetto State

South Carolina lawmakers have converged on Columbia for the start of the 2025 Legislative Session. In a news conference coinciding with the start, Gov. Henry McMaster (R), joined by Lt. Gov. Pamela Evett (R), laid out his proposals in his $14 billion executive budget proposal as the session began. High on his agenda are income taxes and education. He pointed to a time when South Carolina had the highest personal income tax rate in the southeast and the 12th highest in the nation. Three years ago, he signed legislation to

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Dana Lynn McIntyre January 20, 2025 No Comments
B2B Stories

Simon Says: Augusta AI Growth

Augusta is set to benefit from the increasing use of Large Language Models (LLMs), a type of artificial intelligence (AI) model that can understand and generate human language (so says Google AI Overview!). According to recent economic research by Scott Abrahams and Frank Levy, Augusta is ranked second in a list of Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) that may benefit from the technological change. Their analysis follows from the observation that 15% of all tasks currently performed by humans could be completed by generative software such as ChatGPT, and 19% of

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Dr. Simon Medcalfe January 20, 2025 No Comments
B2B Stories

AI Classes for Small Business Owners

As the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) expands, small business owners have the opportunity to gain experience in how they can use it to grow their business. Managed Nerds, an IT managed services company based in the Georgia Cyber Innovation and Training Center, is offering a class on Jan. 28 called EntrepreAI Tuesday. “We help small businesses manage their IT, from planning on what their technology purchases are to maintaining the computers, ensuring that they’re regularly updated, to providing remote or onsite support, and cyber security protection to make sure

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Dana Lynn McIntyre January 16, 2025 No Comments
B2B Stories

An Assist After Helene Results in $10k Donation

After Hurricane Helene, hundreds of Dominion Energy linemen across the country ended up in the CSRA to restore power. They got a helping hand from the University of South Carolina Aiken (USCA). Dominion Energy was grateful and presented a check to them this week for $10,000. In the wake of the hurricane, USCA played a crucial role by providing housing and assistance to hundreds of Dominion Energy frontline workers who had traveled from across the country—ranging from Texas to Illinois and Iowa. These workers were essential in restoring power to

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Staff Report January 16, 2025 No Comments
B2B Stories

Governor Kemp outlines priorities for the 2025 Legislative Session

The 2025 legislative session is underway in Georgia and Gov. Brian Kemp (R) has laid out his agenda for business and education. Speaking at the annual Eggs and Issues Breakfast, sponsored by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, Kemp pointed to policies that have the state ranked number one for business, according to a news release from his office. Kemp referred to the more than 193,000 jobs created in the last five years, along with $90 billion in private investments, thanks to the partnership with the state Chamber, as well as

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Dana Lynn McIntyre January 15, 2025 No Comments
Awards/Celebrations

Georgia scores a win from site selection leaders

Georgia’s business climate has received another accolade from a national publication. A news release from Gov. Brian Kemp (R) announced Georgia is the number one state for Best Business Climate. That came from Site Selection Magazine, which conducted a survey of site selection experts. “The Peach State racked up the most votes to dethrone last year’s winner, Texas, for Best Business Climate in the nation. North Carolina finished just behind Georgia in the runner-up spot, followed by South Carolina in third and then Tennessee and Texas in a tie for

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Dana Lynn McIntyre January 14, 2025 No Comments
B2B Stories

Driving Culture through Your Words and Actions

In last week’s column, I emphasized the importance of culture in your company. I tried to show you how I attempted to establish culture in my classroom during the first meeting of the semester and what you might learn from those efforts to apply to culture development in your organization. In this week’s column, I will continue my discussion of organizational culture through the lens of college football. Through an example near and dear to my heart, I will try to show you how a leader’s words and actions have

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Dr. Rick Franza January 14, 2025 No Comments
B2B Stories

Augusta firm hosting workshop to help companies scale and create vision

A team of experts based in the Georgia Cyber Innovation and Training Center is holding a workshop to help businesses develop a unified vision for their company. The organization, Purpose Fueled Leader, is sponsoring Unified Company Vision: Purpose Fueled Excellence on Jan. 23. “We are a business, coaching, and consulting organization, purpose, skilled leader,” Anna Bradsher, Director of Strategy, Trainer and Coach, told ABD. “We focus on how to marry strategy and people development. We will help you set your three-year and your one-year (goals), and your business objectives. You

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Dana Lynn McIntyre January 13, 2025 No Comments
B2B Stories

Simon Says: Rising unemployment rates

I have already reported that Augusta’s employment rebounded from Hurricane Helene in November, increasing by 800. But what about other labor market indicators? The unemployment rate increased for the eighth successive month to 4.8% in November, and the Sahm Indicator has been indicating a recession in Augusta for four months. The unemployment rate is the highest rate for all Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in the State of Georgia. Record employment and increasing unemployment can be explained by the increase in the labor force. These are people that previously were not

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Dr. Simon Medcalfe January 13, 2025 No Comments
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