Fall Conference
September 20 – 22, 2023

Take a tour and learn how the ports accelerate global commerce, empower entrepreneurs, strengthen industries, and sustain communities. This tour will offer insight on the 4th busiest container port in the United States. A port that provides access to 44% of U.S. consumers and manufacturers in 2-3 days. It is the single largest and fastest-growing container terminal in America. 

In Fiscal Year 2021, the Georgia Ports Authority contributed to 560,000 full- and part-time jobs, $140 billion in sales, $59 billion in state gross domestic product, $33 billion in personal income, $7.4 billion in federal taxes, $2 billion in state taxes, and $1.8 billion in local taxes.

Our afternoon tour will give you an insider’s look at the Georgia Ports Authority Garden City Terminal.  It is the fourth-busiest container port in the United States and provides access to 44% of U.S. consumers in 2-3 days. At 1,200 acres, it’s North America’s busiest single-terminal container facility. This allows for maximum efficiency and flexibility, concentrating all manpower, technology, and equipment in one massive container operation.

This session will be led by Lee Beckmann, Manager of Governmental Affairs at Georgia Ports Authority. This will be a bus tour around the GA Port, a busy hub that is central to industries throughout the region. Participants will learn about the day to day operations of the Port.

Join Historic Savannah Foundation (HSF) for a trolley tour of the Cuyler-Brownville neighborhood, a historically African American community rich in history and character. HSF, through its Revolving Fund program, has dedicated their time and resources to creating affordable housing within the neighborhood. We will visit several HSF Revolving Fund properties, including active rehabilitation sites, and dive into a deeper discussion of the housing needs within a community faced with rising housing costs.

Join us for a bicycle tour of the Canal District. Anchored by the new SPLOST-funded arena, the Canal District is located to the west of Savannah’s downtown. The arena and surrounding area are one of the largest projects the City has ever undertaken and presents the opportunity to create a vibrant new center of activity. Health, social, environmental, and economic disparities must be considered with emphasis on stormwater management, displacement, historic preservation, small business development, affordable housing, connectivity, and much more.

In this mobile workshop to the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, planners will have a unique opportunity to meet and talk with the leading coastal researchers on sea level rise, Dr. Clark Alexander, director of the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography (SKIO) and Dr. Chester Jackson, Associate Professor of Geology, Georgia Southern University’s Applied Coastal Resources Lab, located on Skidaway Island. Dr. Clark Alexander will discuss his coastal geology research on climate change and sea level rise impacts to Georgia’s coast and his resiliency goals for SKIO and Dr. Chester Jackson will demonstrate his coastal hazards mapping tool, AMBUR, to include vulnerable populations, and his most recent high-resolution map of the Georgia shoreline and coast. The workshop concludes with a brief tour of the SKIO campus and a stop at the UGA Marine Extension Aquarium to get acquainted with the dynamic and diverse marine life living in Georgia’s ocean and estuaries.

Equity, Sustainability and Resilience CM credit will be applied for.

Completely unlike any other area excursion, a Savannah Confidential Walking Tour feels like a candid late-night conversation where a close friend shares personal memories and strange-but-true anecdotes of the unique people, places and things which defined this fabled city’s Historic District from the 1970s through 2010 – most of which are forgotten or simply never known.

While virtually all other Savannah history tours focus on the 1700s and 1800s, these stories are fewer than three degrees of separation from your guide. Each tour is bespoke and uses no set script or route, but rather is geared to each different group of guests’ interests and collective personality.

The slow-paced stroll of several blocks ends at a bona fide legendary, beloved dive bar (make sure to bring ID for entry), where folks can use the restroom and/or purchase cold beverages.

Your guide Jim Reed is an award-winning print journalist, community advocate and public radio commentator who’s been a well-known local fixture for the past 37 years. His tours currently hold a near-perfect 4.95-Star Rating on Airbnb Experiences.

Enjoy a biking tour of facilities and projects in downtown Savannah, led by Caila Brown, executive director of Bike Walk Savannah. Discussion topics will include the importance of creating a connected network for people walking and biking, local struggles and successes, and what a network means for community resilience. As part of your registration, bicycle rentals are available from Savannah on Wheels.

This is a half-day mobile workshop to Sapelo Island, one of Georgia’s most culturally rich and ecologically important barrier islands which is under threat from climate change, sea level rise and intense pressure from outside, and inside, interests in removing descendants’ land ownership retention.  Jazz Watts, island descendent, writer, actor, environmental and social justice expert will co- lead a Saturday half day tour of Sapelo Island to discuss cultural heritage preservation, land retention, climate change and sea level rise impacts to the Hogg Hammock Community. Co-leading the tour will be a Sapelo descendant-owned tour operator who will provide our transportation.  Boxed lunches will be catered by a Hogg Hammock descendant small business owner.  Stops include Hogg Hammock community and the Sapelo Island Cultural and Revitalization Society, the Sapelo Island National Estuarine Research Reserve, the University of Georgia Marine Institute and Nanny Goat beach, for boxed lunch and conversation with Jazz Watts. The tour concludes around 12:10 pm to return to the Marsh Landing Dock for the 12:30 pm ferry back to the mainland. Plan for a 5.5 hour workshop window, to include a one hour travel time to Marsh Landing dock.  Carolyn Henry Rader, AICP, is the organizer and moderator for the workshop. Please see the important information below.  You may contact Carolyn with any other questions.

Important information: Sapelo Island is accessible only by boat. The Georgia DNR operates the ferry (no cars), which leaves Meridian, GA dock at 9:00 a.m., sharp. Participants are required to be at the dock at 8:30 am to ensure enough time to park, sign-in and board the ferry.  It is a 1 hour, 10 minute travel time from the DeSoto Hilton, downtown Savannah to the Sapelo Island Dock, Meridian, GA. Participants will have to leave downtown Savannah no later than 7:20 am.  Participants are responsible for their own transportation to the Sapelo Island dock in Meridian Georgia. Workshop organizer, Carolyn Henry Rader, AICP, will provide detailed information to all participants on schedule, directions, transportation and carpooling options and other logistics, weather updates, what to wear and bring with you to make this a successful and very enjoyable workshop!

Cost of workshop includes ferry fee, tour, lunch and on-island transportation. 

Note: Sapelo Island mobile session registration will open to friends and family of conference attendees on September 9 if there are any remaining spots.