Another area of responsibility for ADO is small business advocacy. The agency holds small business exchange forums around the state and invites small business owners in order to introduce them to federal, state and local agencies that can help further their business.

“We really wanted to make small business more of a focus,” Wade said. “We are trying to do more to assist small business than we have in the past because we realize the importance they have on our state economy.”

The Alabama Film Office, another facet of the ADO, promotes the state of Alabama to the film and video industry as a site for on-location production for feature films, television, music videos, industrial and corporate training films and commercials. In addition to scouting locations for specific project needs, the film office maintains a file of more than 20,000 photographs of potential sites.

Wade explained, “We believe that Alabama could be much more of a movie-producing state because we have great downtown landscapes, beaches and mountains. What we don’t have is competitive incentives, like those in Louisiana, within our state for people to come and make movies. We are working to change that in order to grow the commercial film industry in the state.”

As for its plans for the future, Wade said the agency is broadening plans for how it helps to create jobs for the state.

“We have spent a lot of time and money in the past to create jobs and we will be spending more helping existing industry expand and broaden,” he added. “We want to work with all business in the state, not just new business, and we want to help companies distribute their products worldwide as much as we can.”

As it promotes the many aspects of Alabama’s economy from a booming aerospace industry in North Alabama to a world-class port and shipbuilding industry in South Alabama, the ADO is bringing a unified message to the world about what Alabama has to offer business in turn creating more jobs for Alabamians.