Bradley N. Currey Jr.

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) is an American orchestra based in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Robert Spano has been its music director since 2001. The ASO's main concert venue is Atlanta Symphony Hall in the Woodruff Arts Center. In 2008 the ASO opened its new 12,000-seat Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park in north Fulton County in the town of Alpharetta, some 22 miles north of Atlanta, where it presents concerts of its own as well as those by various pops groups. Encore Park and the Amphitheatre are owned by the Woodruff Arts Center, the ASO's parent organization. Including Encore Park and its activities at Atlanta Symphony Hall and Chastain Park, the ASO expects to present more than 300 performances annually. With a budget expected to increase to US $50 million with the completion of its new Amphitheatre, the ASO has become one of the six or seven largest orchestras in America, by budget size. The ASO's budget includes not only the costs of production, along with musician and staff salaries and benefits, but also the Orchestra's very significant expenditures on education, community outreach, special events and fundraising. Since 2005 the Orchestra has been actively planning for the construction of a new principal concert hall. In addition to the Verizon Amphitheatre the Orchestra plays an extensive outdoor summer pops concert series at Atlanta's city-owned Chastain Park and at other parks in the area.

The Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce is the chamber of commerce for the Atlanta metropolitan area. It was founded in 1860. The first Atlanta Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1860, chiefly concerned with fighting railroad rate discrimination and with sustaining commercial ties with the North. After secession, it focused its attention on direct trade with Europe, which was part of an overall Southern goal of achieving economic independence from the North. In 1866 the chamber was reformed into a Board of Trade.

The American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) is the national trade association of the forest products industry, representing manufacturers of approximately 80 percent of the U.S. pulp and paper industry and 50 percent of the wood building material capacity. AF&PA was formed on January 1, 1993 by the merger of the National Forest Product Association and the American Paper Institute.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta is responsible for the sixth district, which covers the states of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, 74 counties in the eastern two-thirds of Tennessee, 38 parishes of southern Louisiana, and 43 counties of southern Mississippi. The Sixth District operates branches in Atlanta, Birmingham, Jacksonville, Miami, Nashville, and New Orleans. These branches provide cash to banks, savings and loans, and other depository institutions; transfer money electronically; and clear millions of checks. The Atlanta Fed has three main functions: monetary policy, operation of nationwide payment system, and bank supervision and regulation.