• Save the date for SSTI's 2024 Annual Conference

    Join us December 10-12 in Arizona to connect with and learn from your peers working around the country to strengthen their regional innovation economies. Visit ssticonference.org for more information and sign up to receive updates.

  • Become an SSTI Member

    As the most comprehensive resource available for those involved in technology-based economic development, SSTI offers the services that are needed to help build tech-based economies.  Learn more about membership...

  • Subscribe to the SSTI Weekly Digest

    Each week, the SSTI Weekly Digest delivers the latest breaking news and expert analysis of critical issues affecting the tech-based economic development community. Subscribe today!

City, Chamber Partner for Birmingham Future as Tech Mecca

September 10, 2001
  • Forward logo
  • LinkedIn logo

If the corporate leaders, educators, scientists, and technology entrepreneurs who make up the Birmingham Area Technology Task Force have their way, Birmingham, Alabama in the 21st century will be a mecca for technology-based businesses and jobs. A cooperative effort of the City of Birmingham Mayor Bernard Kincaid and the Birmingham Area Chamber of Commerce, the “BATT Force” is charged with developing a strategic plan aimed at fostering the start-up, growth, attraction, and retention of technology industries to the Birmingham area. 



At its initial meeting in late August, the 150-member BATT Force divided into six Work Groups, each of which will spend roughly the next nine weeks studying a specific area related to technology-based business development. The Work Groups will issue reports on their findings, including up to 10 recommendations for action. The Work Group reports will be the basis of the Birmingham Area Strategic Plan for Technology Development, to be presented to the City and the Chamber of Commerce by mid-November. 



The areas to be studied by the BATT Force Work Groups are: 

  • Education and Workforce Development 
  • Finance, Funding, and Taxation Issues 
  • Governmental Affairs, Image, and Communications 
  • Infrastructure and Assets 
  • Minority Opportunities 
  • Research and Commercialization 

The Work Group reports will be the basis of the Birmingham Area Strategic Plan for Technology Development, to be presented to the City and the Chamber of Commerce by mid-November. 



For more information, contact Mark Kelly, the Mayor’s Public Information Office, 205.254.2843. 



Return to the top of this page 

Alabama