Brian Hilson took over at the Birmingham Business Alliance in mid-March.Brian Hilson conceded that trying to foster cooperation in the seven-county Birmingham metro area will be a greater challenge than it was in Huntsville and Madison County, which was his charge as the CEO of the chamber of commerce there. That was the job that Hilson left last month to lead the BBA, Birmingham's primary business organization.
Speaking to the Kiwanis Club of Birmingham at its weekly meeting today at the Harbert Center, Hilson said work that will be done by the New York marketing firmDevelopment Counsellors International will benefit the entire metro area as that firm seeks to boost Birmingham's image globally. The BBA lined up the services on DCI after Hilson's arrival. The firm had performed image work on the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce.
Hilson said the BBA is also the point-of-contact for the metro area when the Alabama Development Office brings representatives of a new economic development project to look at sites in the area. He said sites in all seven counties are pitched to prospects.
A spirit of cooperation should exist in citizens, local elected officials and the metro area's legislative delegation, Hilson said.
"Our goals should be one and the same and our approach should be one and the same," Hilson said.
Hilson said he saw that happen when 14 counties in north Alabama and south Tennessee lobbied to keep Redstone Arsenal and the thousands of defense and aerospace jobs during the government's 2005 Base Realignment and Closure, or BRAC, program.
He said BRAC officials held up Huntsville as an example of the kind of cooperation and a unified front that other communities should demonstrate in trying to protect their bases. That effort resulted in Redstone gaining around 4,500 jobs in the realignment.
"It's the same thing I've been talking about today (for Birmingham) but in a different light," he said.