BBA Econ Growth Summit

UAB President and BBA Chairman Ray Watts addresses the crowd at the Birmingham Business Alliance's 2016 Regional Economic Growth Summit on Thursday, May 12, 2016 at the Harbert Center.

Birmingham's biggest image problem is that people just don't know a lot about it, one expert said Thursday at the Birmingham Business Alliance's Economic Growth Summit.

Andy Levine, President of Development Counselors International, urged guests to be ambassadors to Birmingham and talk well of it as often as possible when speaking to industry peers elsewhere.

"For a lot of people, Birmingham is kind of a blank canvas - they don't have a lot of knowledge about your community or about your region," Levine said. "That's really the challenge you have, from an image perspective - it's not that they have a positive perception or a negative perception, but they just don't really know a lot about Birmingham."

DCI is a company that specializes in media promotion for economic development purposes. The BBA is one of their clients, and Levine was the keynote speakers at the annual event.

Levine said when outsiders think of Birmingham, they often think of it as the birthplace of the civil rights movement. But more recently, they also think of Jefferson County's bankruptcy. ("Thank God for Detroit," Levine quips.)

DCI is working with the BBA to tell four stories about Birmingham: Innovation culture; the downtown renaissance; tackling talent attraction; and Birmingham as a global leader for human rights.

"Our economy remains strong and continues to grow, but more than that, I believe the trends we're seeing in Birmingham and in the metro region are moving us in the right direction," 2016 BBA Chairman and UAB President Ray Watts said. "We want to be as competitive as possible regionally, nationally and globally."

Brian Hilson also released the BBA's annual Regional Economic Growth Report.

Here's a few notable numbers from the report: