EDPA President Greg Barker Shares the Keys to Economic Development in Alabama

RCB President Brenda Hackney with Rotarian Miller Girvin and Greg Barker

The Rotary Club of Birmingham recently welcomed Greg Barker, Economic Development Partnership of Alabama President. Barker discussed economic development in the state and EDPA’s role in supporting it. He explained the organization focuses on innovation and entrepreneurship, talent attraction and retention, business lead generation, economic development policy, business intelligence and research. Barker described EDPA programs such as The Alabama Experience (ALEX) which will launch during The World Games 2022 to promote employment, training and education opportunities in Alabama; Fuel Alabama, which is focused on keeping young people in Alabama after they graduate from the state’s colleges and universities; and Alabama Launchpad, a business generation program that awards seed funding to promising new companies.

Barker explained EDPA’s role in the establishment of the Alabama Innovation Corporation and the Alabama Business Intelligence Center to provide proactive business intelligence at the state level.

“This is proactive business intelligence,” Barker said. “We are going to be looking for risk and opportunities because we want to mitigate as many risks as early as we can and realize every opportunity.”

Barker also discussed the positive attributes that attract people and companies to the state as well the challenges that hinder growth.

“The livability of communities in Alabama, and Birmingham in particular, is outstanding,” Barker said. “There are a lot of attributes in the community that you can actually access and get to in relative terms a lot easier than you can in a lot of bigger places. The other thing that I feel like sometimes we underestimate that’s really important both for students and for companies is the ability to engage and make a difference in the communities where you live.”