Professional Service Firms Make Cities Succeed

CLIENT ADVISOR AWARDS ANNOUNCES KEYNOTE SPEAKER, CAROL COLETTA EXPERT ON COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE OF CITIES TO SPEAK ON IMPORTANCE OF PROFESSIONAL SERVICES TO GROWTH OF ATLANTA

Atlanta, GA. (June 18, 2007) – The organizers of Atlanta’s Client Advisor Awards, celebrating the importance of the professional services sector to the Atlanta economy, today announced that a renowned expert on the competitive advantage of cities, Carol Coletta, will be the keynote speaker for the 2007 Client Advisor Awards ceremony on December 4, 2007. Coletta is a passionate advocate for cities, and she has devoted her life to answering the question: What makes cities succeed? Her talk will explore the role of professional services firms in the growth and success of Atlanta.

Carol Coletta is President and CEO of CEOs for Cities, a national network of mayors, corporate CEOs, university presidents, foundation officials and business and civic leaders, which acts as an idea lab for cities: exploring the transforming issues that cities face and explaining them in compelling ways that can lead to action plans and improved regional and national policy. She also is host and producer of the nationally syndicated public radio show "Smart City," which features interviews with the world’s smartest thinkers on urban life and opportunities for cities. Coletta was formerly President of Coletta & Company, an urban policy advisory and marketing firm. She also served as Executive Director of the Mayors’ Institute on City Design, a partnership of the American Architectural Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Conference of Mayors, whose mission is to transform cities through design. Since 1974 Coletta has pioneered new approaches to building communities throughout the United States. She began her career helping the City of Memphis with its first contemporary redevelopment projects. Her extensive experience in community development also includes work for the Center City Commission in Memphis and First Tennessee Bank.

Among Coletta’s accomplishments best known to Atlantans, is a study which garnered significant press attention for Atlanta. She and her colleague, economist Joe Cortright, completed a ground-breaking six-city study in 2005, "The Young and the Restless," to learn where college-educated 25-34 year-olds are moving in America and why. This study highlighted that shifting U.S labor markets may threaten a city's economic future unless it succeeds in attracting the young, college-educated workers who propel today's knowledge-based economy. The study placed Atlanta among the top five cities in attracting this important worker segment and its results are reflected in the rapid growth of Atlanta’s professional services firms.

Professional business services represented the largest share of job growth in Atlanta for two years running (’05 and ’06), bringing the total number of Professional Services firm employees in the city to over 400,000 according to recent data from the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce.

“Atlanta has developed world-class competence as a professional services center,” says Hans Gant, senior vice president of economic development for the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce.

“Atlanta’s robust city center owes a great deal to the professional services firms that occupy our core,” says A.J. Robinson, President of Central Atlanta Progress, a private, not-for-profit that strives to create a dynamic economic climate for Downtown Atlanta. “Major professional services firms like Deloitte, McKinsey, McKenna Long & Aldridge, Tatum and many more which call downtown Atlanta home help to create an intellectual and economic boost that make our city an immensely attractive destination. An Awards program that champions our City’s professional services providers is long overdue,” added Robinson.

Held for the first time in 2006, the Client Advisor Awards celebrate the importance of the professional services sector to the Atlanta economy and set the standard for professionalism by honoring advisors and clients who consistently and cooperatively foster and grow successful client-advisor relationships. The premise of the Awards program is that clients and their advisors both get more out of their engagements when they demonstrate certain best practices. These practices are publicly recognized and rewarded through the Client Advisor Awards program. Nominations are currently accepted through August 31, 2007 and the Awards will be presented on December 4, 2007.

About Creative Growth Group
Creative Growth Group, Inc. is the leading consultancy that helps build more profitable client advisor relationships for professional services firms and the companies they serve through research, consulting, connections and coaching. For more information, contact Andrew Dietz at 404-664-7484 or adietz@creativegrowthgroup.com

About Atlanta Business School Alliance
The Atlanta Business School Alliance is an alliance of Atlanta-area alumni groups from the top-ranked MBA programs including Harvard Business School, Yale School of Management, Ross School of Business at University of Michigan, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, Duke University Fuqua School of Business, University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, the Johnson School at Cornell University, New York University Stern School of Business, Emory University Goizueta Business School, MIT Sloan School of Management, Stanford Graduate School of Business, and the London Business School. For more information, contact Barry Trout at (404) 459-0890 or btrout@hgi1.com.