The red carpet was rolled up, but local participants in the 2025 Red Carpet Tour are following up on connections made during the event.
The tour, sponsored by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and hosted by the Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce, brought business leaders from around the world to the Garden City.
“I’m following up with people we met on the tour, so we haven’t slowed down,” Cal Wray, President of the Augusta Economic Development Authority (AEDA), told ABD. “I’d love to say we get to take this week off, but it’s an extremely busy week, because we’re trying to follow up and answer all the questions that were asked last week that now we can research and give them accurate answers to.”
Greeting the visitors were Gov. Brian Kemp (R), along with local elected and business leaders. In previous years, Wray participated in welcoming guests, but this marks the first year he was able to join the tour.
“Fortunately, being chairman of GEDA this year, which is the Georgia Economic Developers Association, I got to participate,” he told ABD. “Communities aren’t allowed to participate because it’s a state event, and they don’t want to give one community an advantage over the other. So, I’ve never been able to actually see the event, from Wednesday night with the Governor at dinner all the way through until Saturday at the end of round three.”
Wray said being a part of the tour gave him the opportunity to see how the event highlights Augusta, as well as the third stop, which was Athens this year.
‘The way that they market the state and give the reasons why businesses need to relocate and then showing them the hospitality that you would expect in the South and you would expect in Georgia, it gives these 40 or so guests that entirely new perspective on the state of Georgia.”
Wray said this year’s visitors represented a good mix of business leaders, as well as a site selection consultant. Those are individuals who help companies find the right building or property to locate a new business or expand an existing one. They were greeted by a diverse set of local hosts including Dennis Trotter of Jordan Trotter Commercial Real Estate, Stan Sheperd, Regional Director at AT&T and local businessman and philanthropist T.R. Reddy.
Wray said that cross-section of local knowledge is key to making the tour a success.
“That’s the exact idea. You want to let them have as many perspectives as possible so they can get the best overall view, so then they can relate to their own companies or their own clients,” he said.
Business leaders had the chance to learn why the Augusta area is a prime location to build a company, but also a demonstration of something the region hopes to never again face. Cleaning up the level of destruction wrought by the area’s first ever inland hurricane.
Augusta Mayor Garnett Johnson said it was a sign of the city’s resilience and can-do spirit.
Wray said visitors noticed. “They were overly surprised at how much damage Augusta had taken, but also equally as impressed with the way Augusta has come together to begin to rebuild and to continue to improve itself.”
This year’s tour followed soon on the heels of the end of the 2025 Georgia Legislative Session, a session that included a slate of pro-business legislation. From income tax cuts to workforce development, but particularly SB 68 and SB 69 reforming the state’s tort system, Pat Wilson, Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development, said the measures are vital for the state to retain its number one ranking as the best place to do business.
“He is absolutely on the right path,” echoed Wray. “While that’s not really my area of expertise, giving a known, for lack of a better term, a known set of rules on how you can operate in a state, you don’t have to worry about unexpected surprises, you don’t have to worry about frivolous lawsuits. It gives a company the confidence that they can operate in the state efficiently and profitably.”
Once the legislation completes the mandatory review process, it will be sent to the governor for his signature.
