Intro/Outro (00:02):

Welcome to Logistics with Purpose presented by Vector Global Logistics. In partnership with Supply chain. Now we spotlight and celebrate organizations who are dedicated to creating a positive impact. Join us for this behind the scenes glimpse of the origin stories change, making progress and future plans of organizations who are actively making a difference. Our goal isn’t just to entertain you, but to inspire you to go out and change the world. And now here’s today’s episode of Logistics With Purpose.

Enrique Alvarez (00:35):

Welcome, welcome, welcome to another episode of Logistics With Purpose. I am your host, Enrique Alvarez, and I have the pleasure to have a guest host with me today. Adrian, good friend, coworker, teammate. How’s your week going?

Adrian Purtill (00:49):

Good, thanks, Enrique. Good to see you. Good to be here. And lovely to see Sandy again and to meet Ali and looking forward to a great chat.

Enrique Alvarez (00:56):

Hugh Manchester United fan. They’re going to come and play in Atlanta in a couple more days. I’m excited about that.

Adrian Purtill (01:03):

Yeah, next Sunday they’ll be here.

Enrique Alvarez (01:04):

Watch your forecast for that game.

Adrian Purtill (01:06):

We’re going to win two nil. We’ve got a great signing as well this week, so we’re excited.

Enrique Alvarez (01:10):

Well, for all the soccer fans out there, we’ll be watching that game and maybe commenting on the next interview, Adrian. But for now, we have an amazing guest. And so why don’t you make the honors of introducing her.

Adrian Purtill (01:22):

Yeah, Sandy Lake, director Logistics of the Georgia Center of Innovation, a part of the Georgia Department of Economic Development, 19 year career with them has done some amazing things. So Sandy, welcome again.

Intro/Outro (01:36):

Thank

Adrian Purtill (01:36):

You, Bailey. Welcome again, looking forward to this. Alright.

Enrique Alvarez (01:39):

Ika you Sandy. So good to see you.

Adrian Purtill (01:40):

Question start.

Enrique Alvarez (01:41):

I do. And just for the audience, I was supposed to be in Atlanta today and I would’ve loved to hang out in person with Sandy. It’s also a milestone for us here, Sandy and Adrian. Think it would’ve been, or it is because you two are in person. The first episode of logistically the purpose that we’re doing in person, or at least part of these people in person, which is great. Should be a lot better. Yes. We’ll try to do a lot more of those whenever we can. Sandy, I’m sorry I missed you in person, but thank you so, so much for being here.

Sandy Lake (02:14):

Well, it’s my pleasure. And yes, I’m sorry to miss you today too, but hopefully we can reconnect soon.

Enrique Alvarez (02:19):

So for this first section, as we warm up a little bit, I’ll ask you some quick questions and you can respond with whatever comes first to your mind. Are you ready? Alright. All right. Here we go. First question, one thing you can’t live without.

Sandy Lake (02:32):

Well, for me it’s art and creativity. I love art. All kinds of expressions of creativity, whether it be art, music, dance, whatever. I just love it.

Enrique Alvarez (02:42):

Wow. What’s your favorite art form? Or they’re all similar, equally important to you?

Sandy Lake (02:46):

Well, I like glass art personally. I’m into sculpting and glass fusing and things like that. So that always as

Adrian Purtill (02:53):

Much. Have you done glass blowing yourself?

Sandy Lake (02:55):

Not glass blowing, but glass fusing.

Enrique Alvarez (02:57):

Fusing. Okay. Oh wow, that’s interesting. I didn’t know that about you. Next one. Favorite hobby? Sculpting. Sculpting

Sandy Lake (03:04):

And the glass fusing. But right now my newest passion is sculpting.

Enrique Alvarez (03:07):

I feel like all the questions are going to be answered with the glass hobby and passion that you have. Favorite place to be.

Sandy Lake (03:14):

My favorite place to be is out in nature.

Enrique Alvarez (03:16):

And what is one thing you do to stay productive?

Sandy Lake (03:19):

Well, I try to get enough sleep. Honestly, that helps me be the most

Enrique Alvarez (03:22):

Productive. Always important. Definitely. Well, thank you so much for answering those questions,

Adrian Purtill (03:27):

Sandy. Thank you. Just like to hear a little bit more about your background. Please tell us a little bit more about your childhood, where you grew up and early formative years.

Sandy Lake (03:35):

So I grew up all over the southeast. Was born in Alabama, raised in Texas, Florida, Tennessee, and made it back to Alabama for my college years. That’s pretty much, I missed Mississippi and Louisiana somehow, but otherwise I was all over the southeast.

Enrique Alvarez (03:51):

Well, Sandy, looking back, what is the story from your early years that shape who you are now and what you do now? Something you can share with us, your family, something you remember.

Sandy Lake (04:00):

Well, I was thinking about that, of course. One thing I thought about was how what I’m doing now is pretty unconventional. And so I was thinking what did I maybe do as a child that would kind of prepare me for that? And so the only thing that popped to mind is when I was in about fourth grade, something like that, I had a Kool-Aid stand. Do you remember those Kool-Aid stands with the

Adrian Purtill (04:20):

Outside the house? Yep,

Sandy Lake (04:21):

Yep, yep. And so me and a friend, we sold Kool-Aid and Lemonade on the corner. And then I sold in fifth grade. I think I was the top girl scout cookie salesman. And then I also, you guys probably aren’t familiar with this, but there was a company called Current Stationery. So I went door to door and sold stationary. And so those skills of selling and just kind of putting yourself out there in sort of unconventional ways, I think is one of the ways that helped me be prepared for this job as well as kind of shaped who I’m,

Adrian Purtill (04:53):

Yeah, nothing more intense than door-to-door sales.

Enrique Alvarez (04:57):

I know that’s intimidating.

Adrian Purtill (04:59):

That’s a great preparation training ground.

Enrique Alvarez (05:01):

So Sandy, two questions on that before you go, Adrian, what’s your favorite Girl Scout cookie flavor? Oh, thin mint.

Adrian Purtill (05:08):

Yes, of course.

Sandy Lake (05:09):

Yes. And especially, I like ’em frozen too.

Adrian Purtill (05:11):

I haven’t done that

Enrique Alvarez (05:12):

Yet. They’re good. That’s a good idea. Good idea. And so any kind of interesting story about this door to door sales experience? You must, I mean, you covered the whole neighborhood. I mean, that must be a really good training opportunity for sure.

Sandy Lake (05:26):

Well, it was kind of an interesting experience. Of course, I got to meet some neighbors I hadn’t met and I got ignored sometimes. I also had somebody open the door and then just say, Nope, don’t come back. But then I also met a lot of interesting people. And one lady, seriously, this is no lie, I met a lady that had 25 cats in her house, the cat

Enrique Alvarez (05:47):

Lady in the neighborhood. You met the cat lady.

Sandy Lake (05:49):

I definitely met the cat lady and they had full run of the house. So that was a new experience for me.

Enrique Alvarez (05:55):

Did she buy anything or No,

Sandy Lake (05:57):

She actually did. She ordered in stationary because I had some with cats on it. So yeah, she went for that.

Adrian Purtill (06:04):

So you just dropped off in these massive neighborhoods and then you called when you were done, which was your own neighborhood. Okay.

Sandy Lake (06:09):

I wasn’t just in the wild, but

Adrian Purtill (06:11):

I have a lot of respect for the self people that come around do door todos.

Sandy Lake (06:15):

But I was,

Adrian Purtill (06:15):

It’s,

Sandy Lake (06:16):

I was probably sixth grade when I was doing that. So

Adrian Purtill (06:18):

Good for you. So getting back to a little bit to business and you earned your Bachelor of Science and Business Healthcare Management from the University of Alabama completed a data science and analytics certification from Georgia Tech. So no mean feat and congratulations on that. So getting nerdy for a little bit, if we may, tell us about your Georgia Tech certification in data science and what did the program entail and what were the three key things you took from the course that you’ve now applied to your work over the years?

Sandy Lake (06:46):

The course was a six month immersion into various programming languages and tools and technologies that had to do with analyzing data. So it was meant to give you kind of a preview and a taste of a lot of different tools and techniques. And so it covered things like visual basic and SQL and tableau and how to use APIs and things like that. And so what I got from that was a vocabulary. It helped me to learn a lot about how to understand and communicate with logistics and supply chain technology providers when they would talk, because that was my real motivation for the whole course because I’d be in these conversations and it was way above my head and pay grade. So I thought, well, I’ve got to do something to be able to

Adrian Purtill (07:36):

Understand their language

Sandy Lake (07:37):

To converse intelligently, at least at some level. So at a very high level, it helped me to understand more about what they were talking about, what they were trying to accomplish and that sort of thing. It also gave me a better understanding, again, at a high level of what is machine learning, what is AI and those kinds of advanced computing, quantum computing, that type of thing. And then the third thing was, it really highlighted for me the amazing amount of information that is there to be mined within the data. It’s just unbelievable the amount of data that’s being generated in logistics and supply chain, but then what can be gleaned from that to help with making decisions and informative decisions so that you’re not just relying on distinct or historic history or experience.

Adrian Purtill (08:26):

So it’s back up our data.

Sandy Lake (08:28):

What is the literal data-driven information that you’re actually producing within your organization? That was really, I thought it was very well worth the investment of time and the cost to have that background or taste introduction into those various tools of data analytics.

Adrian Purtill (08:46):

Following on from that, you’re obviously a professional scholar, put it that way. You got your certified, your CSCP so that you get supply chain professional and an SDG certification as well. So what inspired you to get those further qualifications? That’s a well-known one. The CSCP?

Sandy Lake (09:01):

Yes. Well, and that was really a big motivating factor is because it is recognized in the industry. But also since I didn’t grow up, so to speak in the logistics industry, I wanted to understand it better, understand better how logistics fit into supply chain and how the entire supply chain sort of fits together from sourcing to planning, to forecasting and producing and moving how logistics work throughout all of the different nodes of the supply chain down to ultimately delivery to the final customer. So I highly recommend that program for anybody who wants to understand in totality what supply chain is and does and how logistics fits into that

Adrian Purtill (09:44):

Scenario. Anything in particular that those courses have led you to believe now or understand better in terms of innovation and supply chain and sustainability?

Sandy Lake (09:54):

Well, just how important it is to be very connected all along the way to drive out inefficiency. I think that was kind of one of the big key takeaways for me. You also mentioned that other program with the, what was it?

Adrian Purtill (10:07):

The STG,

Sandy Lake (10:08):

That was a total immersive kind of two day experience where we learned about human design thinking and how to get into really getting down to what is the problem that you’re trying to solve. And then as you’re looking into solutions around that, you want to keep your solutions simple and functionally sustainable or else it’s not going to be adopted. We know that. We see that every day that if a solution is too complicated, it’s typically not

Adrian Purtill (10:36):

Sometimes. Exactly. Sometimes simple as we. So at the start of the program, those two days, were you given a number of scenarios or a scenario and then you broke up into groups and tackled it? Or how did you do it?

Sandy Lake (10:47):

Well, the way it worked, so the first part was just kind of an introduction into what it is we were going to be doing. And then they broke us into groups. And we actually, with some guidance, came up with sort of a problem statement. And then obviously in two days, you’re not going to solve the right

Adrian Purtill (11:03):

Yeah. But solutions,

Sandy Lake (11:05):

At least some solutions that could be explored some ideas for solutions.

Adrian Purtill (11:09):

And then at the end of that, did you have to present your findings in front of everyone?

Sandy Lake (11:13):

We did as a team. We did.

Adrian Purtill (11:13):

And there was a competition. I were involved really,

Sandy Lake (11:16):

Not really a competition, just sharing results or sharing our

Adrian Purtill (11:19):

Thought.

Sandy Lake (11:20):

So it was good. Well,

Enrique Alvarez (11:21):

Sandy, it sounds like you have a very well-rounded background coming not only from your door to door sales experience, but then also some machine learning, some human learning, some culture, some supply chain. And before we jump into the logistics and supply chain space, which of course it’s the main gist of our podcast here, you also worked in healthcare management and you even own your own company, am I correct Claims Plus?

Adrian Purtill (11:47):

That’s right.

Enrique Alvarez (11:48):

Tell us a little bit more how this whole thing evolved and how did you start your own and what are things you learned? What experiences can you share with us as a business owner?

Sandy Lake (11:57):

It was just a small home-based cottage business, but it allowed me, obviously I wanted to be at home, working from home during that timeframe. So I was able to acquire this business from someone else who had actually founded it. So I started with a little bit of a book of business, but then grew it from there. And what I learned is you wake up every day unemployed,

Adrian Purtill (12:20):

Scary stuff. Yeah.

Sandy Lake (12:21):

It’s up to you whether or not you’re going to stick with it. And so I did learn to be disciplined enough to have regular hours and work autonomously and learn how to cultivate new clients and obviously, hopefully render good customer service to keep the clients that you already have. But I really, really enjoyed working in that. And you’re right, I did work in healthcare management. That was my initial, what I initially thought I was going to do in life was work in healthcare management. And so I think most people in logistics don’t necessarily start out in logistics.

Adrian Purtill (12:56):

Absolutely.

Sandy Lake (12:57):

It’s more common now, I think for students. As students become more aware of those opportunities, they’re actually pursuing that in their education. But for most of our generation, I think a lot of people just kind of fell into,

Adrian Purtill (13:08):

It was just another hat that you wore. Just take care of the shipping.

Sandy Lake (13:11):

That’s right,

Adrian Purtill (13:11):

Exactly. I remember that. Yeah. So getting back to claims plus cookies, and I would imagine it was a program or something to better process claims. So who were your customers?

Sandy Lake (13:22):

So this was Claims Plus was at the time when there was no crossover, automatic crossover between Medicare and supplemental insurance. And so folks were having to file their own supplemental programs, and a lot of folks just didn’t want to deal with it. They didn’t understand the process, they didn’t understand the paperwork, or they just flat didn’t want to do it themselves. And so they would hire Claims Plus and I would take on that responsibility.

Adrian Purtill (13:49):

So these were individuals, two

Sandy Lake (13:51):

Individuals.

Adrian Purtill (13:51):

Oh, interesting. Okay.

Sandy Lake (13:53):

We would make sure that number one, that their Medicare had been reimbursed properly. And then number two, make sure that the supplemental was paid out. It was supposed to be

Adrian Purtill (14:03):

Right. And how long did that work before, as you said, the synergies between the Medicaid and the claims happened so that it was

Sandy Lake (14:11):

Automatic? Yeah, I did that work for about three years. So interestingly enough, it really changed around the time that this is going to date me, but around the time the internet really took off,

Adrian Purtill (14:21):

Okay,

Sandy Lake (14:22):

That’s when they started automating that process. But even after the internet was introduced, it still took a little bit of time before it

Adrian Purtill (14:29):

Automatically transferred. And before people trusted it as well. They needed, they wanted a human doing it, I’m sure. So jumping to the Georgia Department of Economic Development now, how did you start your journey there and how was the move from the private to the public sector?

Sandy Lake (14:43):

Right. Yeah. Well, that was a big change for me. So I had the opportunity to come on board with them when they were just getting started, when they were really taking and getting organized as the center of innovation, but it was a steep learning curve. There was a whole lot of acronyms that they used in economic development. So I would go home every night with a headache because it was just a whole alphabet suit. Half the time it was like learning the new language. I had to go home and decipher what were they saying, what did they mean? And then over time, as I got specifically dedicated into the logistics sector, well, that was another alphabet soup and another language that I had to learn that I had no idea about. It was challenging what I, as far as working in the public sector versus the private sector, the main thing you recognized that you worked for the taxpayers, you worked for the people of the state and worked for Georgia. And then you also begin to see pretty quickly that you begin to understand better why the public sector and the private sector doesn’t move at the pace of the private sector. There’s a lot of checks and balances. There’s a lot of processes that have to take place to ensure that things are done properly and being managed properly and all of that. So while it’s a bit of a frustration in the public sector to not be able to move as fast, I certainly understand the need for the oversight and the extra checks and balances.

Adrian Purtill (16:02):

Yeah, right. There’s a good grounding then to jump into the private sectors or the public sector as well. You had a question about the center of innovation. So for those who may not be familiar with the Georgia Center of Innovation, it operates within the Georgia Department of Economic Development, but plays a very specialized role. Can you explain how the center fits into the larger mission of the department and how your logistics team specifically supports the businesses of the state of Georgia?

Sandy Lake (16:29):

So the mission of the department is to strategically generate jobs and investment for the state of Georgia. And the way that the center of innovation supports and works in tandem with that mission is kind of in three areas. We work in business growth, we support individual company innovation to drive their growth. An example of that is working with a company that had done their own in-house, had their own small fleet and fleet drivers that they were growing and they wanted to be able to outsource that, but they didn’t know where to turn. But to do that, so we were able to help connect them and accelerate them to a connection with a couple of different folks that could meet their specific requirements. They had very specific requirements that had to be met, so not just any service provider could help them. The second way in which we operate is within industry growth, and we try to facilitate innovation that creates new industry opportunities.

(17:21):

And so right now, for example, we’re working on exploring a couple of different ways. Can’t talk a whole lot about it right now, but a couple of different ways to increase the efficiency of freight movement. So with all of those things aligned, then that could have significant impact on the overall industry. And then the third area in which we try to support the mission of the department is through collaboration and through fostering the stronger regional and statewide collaborative networks. And one of the ways we do that is through the annual Georgia Logistics Summit. So that’s kind of our signature event that we do every year to try to bring the entire

Adrian Purtill (17:59):

Ecosystem, everyone together, ecosystem

Sandy Lake (17:59):

Together.

Adrian Purtill (18:00):

Absolutely.

Sandy Lake (18:01):

So we’re constantly working alongside the industry to connect them with the resources that help them do business better. And additionally, we work on projects for the department that might relate to recruitment or expansion or other economic development activity. We have a lot going on.

Adrian Purtill (18:19):

There’s a lot going on. Absolutely. Do you participate in trade missions? I mean, I know you do a number of those a year. Do you do those directly or

Sandy Lake (18:25):

We do not do those directly. I’ve had the opportunity to speak on logistics with a trade group that was coming here, but I have not gone on trade missions, but I’ve had multiple opportunities to speak to trade mission groups that were visiting the US and visiting Georgia.

Adrian Purtill (18:40):

Okay, interesting. And this year you reached 20 year milestone with the department over the course of those two decades, Sandy, what major shifts have you seen in logistics? You mentioned earlier before when we started, it was something you were just asked to do by someone, just handle our shipping, but there’s been huge shifts in the last 20 years. Can you pinpoint some of those and what have been the most significant?

Sandy Lake (19:00):

Well, so of course in the last 20 years, the industry has been shaped by a lot of major events, and one in that first sort of decade was the housing crisis and the whole meltdown, the great recession that we had to deal with. So a lot of companies were scrambling during those years and connections. Having things like the summit, having opportunities for them to network together really made a huge difference in the industry. So building those relationships was really key during those lean years. And then of course, the next decade was marked by the pandemic, which saw unbelievable unimagined chaos. But what I’ve seen in terms of a shift is the recognition that companies needed to be more agile and more nimble to be able to respond to these kinds of events when they arise. So what I see is companies are working at staying better informed and staying better connected and trying to be more responsive while they’re at the same time balancing risk, but trying to be more responsive to the changes in the landscape.

Adrian Purtill (20:06):

Yeah, I think it sounds awful to say, but there were positives that came out of it as well as to how we do business. I mean, just the fact that people realize that people could work remotely and things weren’t going to

Sandy Lake (20:17):

That’s

Adrian Purtill (20:17):

Right, fall apart, and that companies needed to be more agile and anticipate things like this. I think some companies were just, it was status quo and everything was nice and calm and with the occasional ripple in the water, but this really shook things up. So I think it forced a lot of heads to be put together with a lot of new ideas to come out of it.

Enrique Alvarez (20:34):

You’re exactly right. Sandy, as director of the Center of Innovation for Logistics, you and your team, of course play a really big role in helping businesses leverage Georgia’s ecosystem. What do you think, in your opinion, should businesses out there be using as the most critical ways your team supports these companies? What are some of the resources? What are some of the information? What are some of the connections that you and your team can facilitate for business owners that are listening to this podcast so they can improve their supply chain efficiency and of course drive more economic growth to the state and to their own businesses?

Sandy Lake (21:10):

We do several things in terms of producing resources for the industry. We also, as I kind of alluded to before, in a nutshell, we’re connecting problem holders to problem solvers. So if you have a problem or if you have a challenge or if you have an innovation that you’re trying to tackle, that’s what we’re here for as a state resource for you, for any company that’s based here in Georgia. While it’s not possible for us to know everything about every aspect of every mode of transportation, or there’s just too big, too broad logistics is, but knowing experts like Vector, like other service providers in the industry, we try to keep up with who’s doing what so that when we have folks coming to us needing a specific solution, we know in most cases, we know of a lot of folks that we can quickly get them connected with to try to begin to discover answers and solutions. So that’s one big way in which we support the industry. Another thing that we do is we produce information about the industry. That was something that had not happened prior to the Center of Innovations Creation. There was no real data or information around the logistics industry in Georgia. So we’ve done a couple of times now an economic impact study and learned that this industry has 107 billion impact on our state. So that had never been kept.

Adrian Purtill (22:29):

That’s enormous.

Sandy Lake (22:30):

Then the other thing we do on a monthly basis is produce this document we call the logistics market snapshot, which is a compilation of a lot of different indicators and indices around the economy, around trucking, around ocean shipping, air cargo, trucking, warehousing, and distribution. So that it gives you literally a snapshot when you read through. You can get a real quick snapshot of what the environment is like that logistics is operating within. And so you can see the impacts of various things that happen, whether it’s a weather related event or a geopolitical event or whatever the event might be. You can see months to month how that can have impacts in those indicators and indices, and it’s pretty interesting

Enrique Alvarez (23:15):

From a user standpoint, that report in particular. So I’m a user, and I think it’s a very interesting, powerful tool to have, especially now that information is key to supply chain professionals out there. We’ll put a couple of links to this interview so that everyone that’s listening and is interested in finding out a little bit more about this, I can get access to it. Definitely important. Well, thank you. Appreciate

Sandy Lake (23:39):

That.

Adrian Purtill (23:40):

Sandy. Much of your work involves connecting companies with logistics, tech experts and fostering partnerships with education and research institutions. How do those collaborations help drive innovation, and what tech investments do you see making the most significant impact right now?

Sandy Lake (23:56):

Well, one good example, we’re currently in the middle of, and we’re working with a state agency research institution and a consulting firm to analyze and model corridor reliability on Georgia’s interstates and freight route networks to improve freight movement. So we’re going to be looking at using AI and big data. It takes a lot of different inputs to do that kind of analysis, but that is going to hopefully show alternatives to say, let’s just use, for example, we’re the only way out of Florida. So if somebody’s coming out of Florida headed to say, Chattanooga, Tennessee, typically they would use the interstate. But this will model and look, because Georgia has an entire network of freight corridors outside of the interstate system that is truck equipped to handle the weights and so on so forth. So first that’s going to analyze are there alternate routes that could be taken that are consistently reliable, whereas from your own personal passenger experience, sometimes the interstates can be unreliable in terms of duration of trip time. Once they identify what those alternate routes will be, then we’re going to leverage the connected technology along those routes and test some signal prioritization along those routes so that freight carriers can hopefully move as efficiently as possible along those alternate routes that will, again, enable the reliability of that route or of that corridor. If those work in the analysis and in the models, then we want to collaborate and partner with stakeholders in the industry to actually prove this out in the real

Adrian Purtill (25:35):

World.

Sandy Lake (25:36):

But this is going to be kind of a long-term play. It’s going to be a long-term process because we’re just kind of in phase one in this analysis and modeling, and so depending on what that produces, then that will lead us to phase two. But we hope to get to a real world pilot project to prove this out. And the theory is more than just a theory, and with the ultimate goal that this could really move the needle, even if it just shifts demand voter demand, even just two or 3%, it will have a tremendous impact in the entire freight flow across our state.

Adrian Purtill (26:11):

So pun intended, that would obviously spread the load across the highway, but the arterial roads

Sandy Lake (26:16):

That’s right

Adrian Purtill (26:17):

As well. And opening even up the flow. I would imagine though a lot of those arterial roads would go through small towns, so you’d have to get there by and can only anticipate that there’d be some resistance to that, right? To mass trucks coming towards some,

Sandy Lake (26:30):

Yes, you’re right. I mean, every time there’s change, there’s change management that has to go on with it.

Adrian Purtill (26:35):

Yeah, that’s part of it.

Sandy Lake (26:36):

Yeah, there’ll be a lot of discussion, a lot of convening, and that’s another thing that we are known for is being able to convene the stakeholders and create these discussion forums to help work through some

Adrian Purtill (26:48):

Of those channels with those challenges beforehand.

Enrique Alvarez (26:51):

It’s actually exciting to see all this AI and systems and processes in place and trying to really solve this really big complicated challenge that the state is facing. But so thank you so much, Sandy, and to you and your team and all this modeling. Hopefully, as you said, the model will prove the theory to be right, and hopefully you can actually get to a much more efficient way of managing freight through the state. Georgia, as we know, is a major player in global logistics. It has the infrastructure like the Port of Savannah, Hartsfield Jackson International Airport, and a lot of other very important logistics and supply chain companies headquarter in Atlanta. From your perspective, Sandy, so two things. One, how is innovation shaping the future of our state supply chain? And then also, what are some of the biggest opportunities you see in Georgia as we continue pushing down the line?

Sandy Lake (27:44):

Well, I think one of the significant innovations that we’ve done is the teaming up between our railroads and the Georgia Ports authority to create this statewide inland port strategy. I think that creating more intermodal competitiveness with trucking is huge, but for the transfer of cargo off the interstates onto rail, but also for the environmental impacts that that can lead to as well. But of course, again, that all has to be analyzed because it’s not everything can go to rail. It’s not that simple. It all depends on a lot of different factors that have to go into it. But also the biggest opportunity that I see is that sort of theory around synchro modality, where it involves the real time coordination of optimization of freight transport across multiple modes, whether that’s road, rail, ocean, or whatever, to achieve the most efficient and sustainable route for that product.

(28:37):

It actually allows for the dynamic switching of modes while it’s in route along its journey, depending on what situation or condition in the real time or unexpected event has happened. So that is sort of the big vision in terms of where we could be or where we could get to, but that’s very intensive data collaboration. So that’s a potential barrier, right there is whether or not people have the comfort level to share the types of data that it would need to run that synchronization. But if we could get there, that would be a tremendous innovation and it would spread. It wouldn’t just be contained because logistics isn’t just contained within our state borders, but we could be potentially the leadership in that, because we do have all modes here, road rail, air and ocean, and we have a very team oriented attitude and approach to solving challenges and problems in logistics and supply chain. So I think we have all the key elements here to really be a leader in this space. But that’s kind of where I see ultimate

Enrique Alvarez (29:37):

Innovation.

(29:38):

It comes back to trust, as you said, as people need to understand that sharing data is going to be critical, and hopefully we all understand that by sharing, you actually are helping not only yourself in the longer term, but you’re also helping the state. And as you said, like logistics doesn’t stop in the state of Georgia. So you’re helping the nation, and eventually you’ll be helping the whole world be more sustainable, be more efficient, and be more competitive, and it’s needed, right? I think that being competitive right now and into the future is going to be key, and the US has to keep that competitive level, and Georgia as a leader in supply chain, can demonstrate how easily and effective the transition promotion to Truck Ocean to rail can be. So yeah, very curious. Very interesting to see what all the other stakeholders are going to do mean, but you get a sense from what your experience. You think that they’ll all be collaborating though, right? What do you think?

Sandy Lake (30:37):

Well, that remains me seen. You’re

Enrique Alvarez (30:39):

Somewhat optimistic. You think,

Sandy Lake (30:41):

Well, I’m optimistic, but we also at the same time have to be making sure that the cybersecurity is there because that’s a real threat. Businesses are very concerned about that risk and that threat. So I think, but we have a cyber center in Augusta, Georgia, here in Georgia, so there’s a lot of work in that realm that’s taking place among our university systems, not all across the state. North Georgia has a strong cybersecurity, the University of North Georgia, they have a strong cybersecurity program. Obviously Georgia Tech does as well, but in Augusta. So we have a lot of resource in that regard as well in our state.

Adrian Purtill (31:17):

So you mentioned earlier the Georgia Logistics Summit, that that’s been a eagerly anticipated event since its exception in 2009. Definitely a must attend event on everyone’s calendar, and you took over it as here in 2021. What changes have you seen in regards to impact focus audience since you took over? And secondly, what elements are you most proud of for having introduced to the program?

Sandy Lake (31:41):

Okay. Well, one of the things that we’ve done is set a cadence now for the event so that in the even years, it’ll be held in Savannah, and in the odd years it’ll be in Atlanta. So we’re just going to set that so people can plan around that and know, okay, 2026, it’s going to be April 17th in Savannah, shameless plug for the event. But that’s one thing that we’ve done since I came into this role. The other thing that we try to do is make this event responsive to the audience. And so we have a steering committee that comes together, and Enrique has actually served on that in the past. We continue to do that, and we continue to get their input on what it is do you want to hear about, because we could come to the table with topics galore, but if they’re not relevant or if they’re not hitting where people are living so to speak, it’s not going to be as impactful. So that’s what we try to do is really hone in on what’s the information that you need? Do you want to hear about, who do you want to hear from? And then we try to go out and meet that need.

Adrian Purtill (32:42):

Is that one of the reasons why? Because show used to be, I think, a three day event or meeting ago. So is that one of the reasons where the collaboration is rather targeted, make it shorter now? It’s a day long.

Sandy Lake (32:51):

That’s right, because our audience told us, what we were seeing over those multi-day is we were basically getting two different groups of people. There was some overlap. Most of the folks in the profession were saying, I can give you a day, but I can’t give you multiple days. And that’s just the nature of the industry.

Adrian Purtill (33:07):

And

Sandy Lake (33:07):

So we listened to that and we said, all right, we’ll scale it back to just a one day event. But that has its challenges because there is so

Adrian Purtill (33:14):

Much, they cram so much in it,

Sandy Lake (33:15):

They want to hear about and they want to cover, and so on and so forth. But we do our best to try to do that. But one of the things you asked, what am I most proud of having introduced, and that was, I did this before becoming director, but it’s kind of evolved since we started with a technology showcase and we had exhibitors.

Adrian Purtill (33:33):

I remember that.

Sandy Lake (33:33):

And Vector was one of our early exhibitors in the early days at the summit, but now we’re calling it, we’ve evolved it to something called Innovation Alley, and we’re working in collaboration, the logistics startups that have expertise in startups and logistics and supply chain, like A TDC, like ship. If you’re not familiar with ship, it’s the Savannah Harbor Innovation Partnership that has started down there in the Savannah region and is an outgrowth within Georgia Southern University. So because we’re a small team, it’s hard to manage all of these components to the summit. So we had to get smart and figure out who we could collaborate with and co-locate these events together. So that’s what we’re doing is co-locating a innovation alley and a reception the night before and things like that to help get people prepared and excited for the next day, which would be the actual Summit day. Right,

Adrian Purtill (34:25):

Right. Do you still have the students? I remember a lot of students coming from Georgia Tech and presenting the,

Sandy Lake (34:31):

We’ve talked about adding that

Adrian Purtill (34:32):

Particularly great

Sandy Lake (34:33):

To the innovation alley. Yeah. That was well received when the students would

Adrian Purtill (34:37):

Come. Yes, I was fascinated.

Sandy Lake (34:39):

Showed their design projects.

Adrian Purtill (34:41):

Absolutely.

Sandy Lake (34:41):

Yeah. We’re talking about bringing that back because that was a popular piece.

Enrique Alvarez (34:45):

Yeah.

Adrian Purtill (34:45):

Yeah, I can imagine.

Enrique Alvarez (34:46):

Thank you so much for being here, first and foremost. It’s been a pleasure. I was going to say that going back to having the students present, I remember the first Georgia Logistics Summit was, I believe, at a school, wasn’t it at Georgia Tech? Maybe, but we had students, I remember there was a very clear section of students presenting, and I think that’s something that is definitely a good idea, and looking forward to see some of these young creative people come into the space and continue disrupting it.

Adrian Purtill (35:15):

Yeah, incredible talent. It started in, was it 2011? It went to the, no, no, no, but it moved from school. Where Was it downtown year? Absolutely.

Sandy Lake (35:23):

Oh, Georgia World.

Adrian Purtill (35:25):

Yeah, world Congress. Was it 2011 that had started there, or was it

Sandy Lake (35:28):

It was actually 2010.

Adrian Purtill (35:29):

2010 that started there. Okay. Interest.

Enrique Alvarez (35:32):

Well,

Adrian Purtill (35:32):

Sandy,

Sandy Lake (35:33):

Well, it’s been a pleasure to be with you. I have joined you today.

Adrian Purtill (35:36):

Thank you so much.

Enrique Alvarez (35:36):

Pleasure. Have you around, of course, a very important figure in Georgia’s supply chain. So we’re delighted to have you here and have the opportunity to talk to you. I’m sure our listeners are feeling the same way. As we wrap up, I would like to ask you, what does the phrase logistics with purpose mean to you? Well,

Sandy Lake (35:53):

I think when I hear that phrase, I think about logistics is purpose driven. There’s a reason there’s a person usually behind every transportation move that’s made. So it’s usually, that’s why I get so excited about this is because it helps. If logistics was to stop, we would all be screaming and we would be in need within about three days of something that we must have. So yes, I think there’s a reason. It’s called an essential industry, but it’s definitely purpose-driven and definitely representative of a need that’s out there that must be met. It’s not always just wants, but there’s a whole lot of needs that logistics meets. And I know you’re involved in that in a lot of philanthropic ways, and I always admired that your company took that stance and does a lot of philanthropic work and logistics.

Adrian Purtill (36:41):

Well, thanks, Sandy, for those kind words. We appreciate it. We certainly try and live by that. How can our audience members reach you and learn more about the Georgia Department economic development?

Sandy Lake (36:51):

So yes, you can reach us georgia.org/logistics. I can give you my personal email, which is S lake@georgia.org, or you can reach out to coi@georgia.org, COI logistics@georgia.org. But yes, you can find us on the web or you can email us. We’ll be happy to talk with you, meet with you, understand what your issues are, and try to serve you as best we can.

Adrian Purtill (37:16):

Thanks so much, Sandy. Been wonderful speaking this time with you.

Sandy Lake (37:18):

Thank you.