About 80 percent of the 800 attendees at the second annual Georgia Logistics Summit on April 30 were from private companies.
Although he heads a government organization, that’s just how Page Siplon would have it. Mr. Siplon is the executive director of Georgia’s Center of Innovation for Logistics, which helps companies find resources to build faster and more efficient supply chains.
The center organized the summit at the Cobb Galleria Centre, which drew twice as many attendees as its inaugural event last year from the state’s 11,000 service providers in logistics, an industry comprised of many different sectors but centered on the movement of goods.
“It’s a great example of us driving collaboration to help companies that are already here in Georgia and companies that want to be in Georgia compete,” Mr. Siplon said of the summit in an interview with GlobalAtlanta.
The event focused on the theme of “Fueling Logistics Competitiveness.” It provided a platform for the state to release its first annual Georgia Logistics Report, which provides a detailed summary of five factors that influence logistics competitiveness: policy, infrastructure, operations, technology and workforce.
The 170-page, downloadable report isn’t a how-to guide, Mr. Siplon said. It’s an overview that will help logistics providers make sense of a sprawling industry.
“I wouldn’t even call it an industry anymore. Logistics is truly and ecosystem, and there’s no way” companies can track everything that’s going on, Mr. Siplon said.
Speakers at the event included Todd Long, planning director for the Georgia Department of Transportation, who discussed Georgia’s statewide freight and logistics plan; Paul Bingham, managing director of IHS-Global Insight‘s global commerce and transport group, who gave the national and international trade outlook, and Ken Bianco, vice president of commercial operations for JCB Inc., the third-largest heavy equipment manufacturer in the world, whose North American headquarters is in Savannah.
To download the Georgia Logistics Report, visit http://report.georgialogistics.org.
Facts about Georgia’s logistics industry
-More than 11,000 logistic service-providers
-World’s busiest passenger airport with top 10-ranked international air cargo hub
-Fastest-growing container port in the U.S.
-Fourth largest container port in the U.S. (Savannah)
-Sixth largest automobile port in the U.S. (Brunswick)
-80 percent of U.S. market within a 2-day truck haul
-80 percent of the U.S. market within a 2-hour flight
-Most extensive railroad network in the Southeast
-Largest intermodal hub in the Southeast
-Over 230 million cubic feet of cold-storage warehousing including 10 facilities of companies from the International Association of Refrigerated Warehouses list of North America’s Top-10.
-Operations by 90 percent of the world’s top 25 third-party logistics providers
-More than 100 logistics-related education degrees, courses, programs, and certificates
-Fifth in the U.S. for logistics-related patents
-The No. 1 companies on Transport Topic’s Top 100 “For-Hire Providers,” Private Users,” and “Service Providers” lists are located in Georgia (UPS, Coca-Cola Enterprises and UPS-Supply Chain Solutions respectively)
Source: Georgia Department of Economic Development
The Pendleton Group is the presenting sponsor of Global Atlanta's Economic Development Channel. Subscribe here for monthly Economic Development newsletters.
