Chamber Luncheon - Guest Speaker Craig Miller

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION!!! Please join the Sandy Springs Perimeter Chamber in welcoming award willing film producer, Craig Miller. We will have our October Chamber Luncheon on the 10th of October from 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM at the Westin Atlanta Perimeter North.

Craig Miller will moderate a panel of Georgia film and entertainment professionals that will provide a wide-angled overview of the Georgia Film, Music, and Digital Entertainment industry.

In Georgia, the film and video industry means business, and currently generates $9.5 billion economic impact in fiscal 2017 (reported in the July 2017 Atlanta Business Chronicle).

Attendees will learn about the infrastructure that makes Georgia's film industry so successful. Our panel will discuss tax incentives, legal considerations, a new Georgia Film Academy, locations, and logistics for filming, opportunities for allies businesses and more.

At the conclusion of the program, you will understand why Georgia is the number one Blockbuster for the film industry.

Craig Miller is founder/executive producer of Craig Miller Productions in Atlanta. He has produced award-winning productions for an extensive list of Fortune 500 clients, Georgia Tourism, feature films, television pilots and television commercials. In 2015, Mr. Miller was named Chairman of the Georgia Film, Music, and Digital Entertainment Commission by Georgia Governor Nathan Deal. He is the current past president of the Georgia Production Partnership (GPP), the grassroots organization responsible for establishing and maintaining Georgia’s film incentive.

Jeffrey Stepakoff is executive director for the Georgia Film Academy, a collaborative effort of the University System of Georgia and Technical College System of Georgia supporting workforce needs of the film and digital entertainment industries. An accomplished writer-producer, Mr. Stepakoff has “written by” or “story by” credits on 37 television episodes, has written for 15 different series and has been a writer and/or writer-producer on 8 primetime or first-run cable staffs, credited on more than 200 episodes of popular television.

LaRonda Sutton is an entertainment industry veteran with more than two decades of experience in all aspects of film, television, music and new digital media. Ms. Sutton is currently the Owner/Principal of Film City, LLC, a film permitting agency and entertaining consulting firm dedicated to advising policy makers and municipal governments on the longstanding economic benefits of being a film-and-entertainment-friendly city. Among her many accomplishments, Ms. Sutton was the first Director of the Mayor’s Office of Film & Entertainment for the City of Atlanta and in July of 2013, she established the new Executive Office during Mayor Kasim Reed’s administration.
 

Stephen Weizenecker is a partner in the Atlanta office of Barnes & Thornburg where he is a member of the firm’s Corporate Department and Entertainment, Media and Sports Practice Group. Mr. Weizenecker focuses his practice on entertainment-related business including tax incentives, financing, mergers, acquisitions and intellectual property matters for film, television, and videogame clients. A member of many professional organizations related to the Sports and Entertainment Industries, Mr. Weizenecker is also a member of the Georgia Governor’s Advisory Commission on Film, Music, and Digital Entertainment.

Susanna Spiccia is Founder/Executive Director of re:imagine ATl, a non-profit organization that empowers young people from all walks of life by cultivating passions for film and music production. Ms. Spiccia’s desire is to see a flourishing Atlanta with a vibrant, interdependent community where all people groups are equally valued, as young people become agents of change through the organization’s unique programs that foster empathy, real-world skills, storytelling, civic action, and creativity.  The organization has two existing programs: The Green Room Summer Camp, which is a curriculum that infuses film, entrepreneurship, and storytelling into a 5-day program that seeks to unleash the innate creative passion that lies within all young people, and re:imagine Studios, which provides year-round project-based classes and professional mentorship for youth ages 10-18 interested in film or music production.