Letters

As I write this letter, it is hard to believe I have already served a year as the Savannah Economic Development Authority chairperson.

While our dedicated board of directors continues to guide the strategic direction of the organization, it is the staff who execute our mission day in and day out – to create jobs and investment in the Savannah region.

It’s rare to find a team with such dedication and drive. Led by President and CEO Trip Tollison, each staff member, whether a part of business development, World Trade Center Savannah, the Savannah Regional Film Commission, the Regional Industry Support Enterprise (RISE), marketing, finance or administration, tackles each day with professionalism, positive attitudes and collaborative spirit, making them as the late SEDA chairman Kevin Jackson often said, “the best in the business.” It’s why, for the sixth year in a row, Site Selection magazine named SEDA a recipient of the MacConway Award for excellence in economic development.

One effort that I am particularly proud of was the formation of RISE. Created and funded by SEDA in 2024 in response to the Regional Workforce Study conducted by Donovan Gutshaw Consulting, LLC, RISE is focused on seven initiatives (or as they call them, working groups): military, underrepresented, housing, education, transportation, childcare, and marketing to meet the critical workforce needs of our region. Now including eight county partners:  Bryan, Bulloch, Candler, Chatham, Effingham, Evans, Liberty and Screven, this organization is rising to the challenge to move the needle to better prepare our workforce to meet the needs of industries.

I hope you will explore this report and learn more about SEDA’s 2024 activities, accomplishments, and efforts to propel us to even greater achievements in the future.

Kay Ford
Chairperson, Savannah Economic Development Authority
BankSouth

Greetings from 906 Drayton Street, located right on one of Savannah’s greatest assets – Forsyth Park. It’s a beautiful day with plenty of folks enjoying the park and all of the incredible things Savannah has to offer. As I look out through the trees and see more and more people, I am reminded of our incredible pace of our growth.  

The Savannah region is the fastest growing region in the state and one of the fastest growing in the southeast. The demand for our industrial real estate allows our region to be one of the hottest markets in the country and our manufacturing sector continues to thrive thanks to massive investments made by our companies and partners. But the growth challenges are here, and we all must work together to improve our workforce, housing, childcare, education and transportation. You can count on SEDA to step up to the plate as we move forward – especially with our partnership through RISE (Regional Industry Support Initiative).  This is one of the highlights for SEDA in 2024, and I encourage you to follow our progress on their social media channels, LinkedIn: savannah-rise, Facebook: Savannah RISE and Instagram: sav_rise.

Other successes in 2024 include more development in our industrial parks located at the Savannah Chatham Manufacturing Center, Rockingham and Bloomingdale. Also, we launched Succeed in Savannah, won awards at SEDA, Film Savannah and World Trade Savannah and continued our proud tradition of marketing and selling the Savannah region to the world so that we can grow careers and investment.   

I want to thank SEDA’s fantastic board of directors for always supporting the team and our mission. Additionally, I want to thank Team SEDA for being the best in the business. It is always a pleasure and an honor to work with such a talented group of people.    

SEDA is celebrating 100 years of service in 2025, and we encourage you to learn more about us online at www.seda.org. 

Here is to the next 100 years and thank you for reading.

Hugh “Trip” Tollison
President and CEO, Savannah Economic Development Authority

The first half of the year is always busy for World Trade Center Savannah (WTCSav), but we experienced a particularly exciting spring season in 2024. Savannah and the city of Accra, Ghana have maintained a splendid relationship since the team led a delegation to Africa last year.

That relationship formalized during a historic city-to-city partnership agreement ceremony. What an incredible thing to witness – two groups of people on two different sides of the globe committed to outlining a shared vision through the exchange of information. Ghana is one of WTCSav’s target countries, and the agreement demonstrated the value in establishing and maintaining relationships with colleagues all over the world and how those connections can truly bridge the physical distance between Savannah and other nations.

World Trade Centers Association hosted their 54^th Global Business Forum in Bengaluru, India this year, allowing the WTCSav team to continue building new relationships and forming partnerships with new parts of the world. While in India, WTCSav was presented with two global awards, reaffirming what we know to be true about the WTCSav team – their work is meaningful and has impacts far beyond our region.

I always love to be involved in the Irish delegations that we welcome to Savannah each year in March. This was a particularly exciting year as we celebrated Savannah’s 200^th annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade. The group had a wonderful time and built on already-existing relationships formed through the TradeBridge program. This year, we welcomed three groups from County Wexford, County Limerick as well as a diplomatic group from Dublin.

I also had the opportunity to travel with WTCSav over to Ireland in August. We were joined by leadership from the Georgia Department of Economic Development, the Metro Atlanta Chamber and Georgia Southern University. As a Tech fan, it was a once-in-a-lifetime moment to see Georgia Tech win a collegiate football game in the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.

Our partnerships with our Irish colleagues now span several years and have grown into much more than single connections – there is a true bond between the Southeast of Ireland and Southeast Georgia. Just look at our new City Market establishment, Wexford Pub. Two sister cities, indeed!

And the team is making new connections with other parts of the globe every day. It was a true honor to be a part of the city-wide team that welcomed the inaugural visit of H.M. King Willem-Alexander and H.M. Queen Maxima of the Netherlands to Savannah in June. Every bit of their visit was successful due to the incredible teamwork amongst several industries in Savannah as well as with the Dutch advance team that made countless trips to our city to prepare for the visit. I’m looking forward to seeing the many follow-ups that will result from these initial visits.

As I’m sure is evident throughout this letter, the WTCSav team’s work never ends. The relationships maintained, cities visited, delegations welcomed, trade service requests completed, programs hosted – it all contributes to the global reputation and vitality of our region. I’ve had the pleasure of serving on the Savannah Economic Development Authority board as well as this one, and I can confidently say our city wouldn’t be the same without the efforts made by the individuals at this organization. I’m looking forward to another busy and exciting year ahead!

John Coleman
Chairperson, World Trade Center Savannah
Bonitz of Georgia