By Randy Davidson, Founder & CEO of Georgia Insider and Georgia Entertainment
Why the next chapter of Georgia’s economic growth may depend less on attracting companies and more on becoming the place where ideas, intellectual property and innovation can live.
California’s lawsuit involving Paramount reflects the reality of protecting an entertainment economy built over generations. When your state is home to legacy studios, thousands of businesses and hundreds of thousands of jobs, consolidation naturally raises concerns.
Georgia should be asking a different question and it’s not whether Paramount should come here. (Although that’s not a bad idea.)
The real question is whether Georgia has positioned itself to become the place where companies like Paramount choose to invest and innovate.
For more than two decades, Georgia pursued a bold strategy. State leaders recognized that attracting film and television production could create jobs, develop infrastructure and establish Georgia as one of the world’s premier production destinations. That strategy worked.
Today, Georgia is home to world-class studios, an experienced workforce, nationally recognized colleges and universities and one of the strongest production ecosystems anywhere.
That success deserves recognition. It also presents an opportunity.
The innovation economy is changing rapidly. Artificial intelligence is transforming every industry including entertainment. Gaming continues to redefine storytelling. Creator-led businesses are scaling faster than ever. Virtual production, immersive media and new forms of intellectual property are creating industries that barely existed a decade ago.
Production remains essential. But production follows ideas. Intellectual property is where long-term value begins.
Intellectual property creates companies and companies attract investment. This leads to sustainable jobs for Georgians.
Georgia’s next competitive advantage should be becoming the best place in America to create, own and commercialize intellectual property.
That means encouraging entrepreneurs to launch creative and technology companies here. It means helping storytellers retain ownership of their work. It means supporting companies originating and building these tools. It means attracting capital that helps innovative businesses grow from Georgia instead of relocating elsewhere.
The next generation of policy and narrative can help build the companies that fill the venues, office spaces, sound stages and other development spaces in the state.
The same vision that transformed Georgia into the best place to do business can position the state as a worldwide leader in innovation, entertainment, technology and intellectual property.
California’s lawsuit reminds us that every successful innovation economy eventually reaches a point where it must protect what it has built. Georgia still has the advantage of building what comes next.
