We were lucky to catch up with Sarah K. Smith recently and have shared our conversation below.
Sarah, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?
The mission behind The Atlanta Digital World Summit is a simple one – it is to market Atlanta as a profoundly effective and advanced digital hub, with VC, innovators, a diverse population and some of the greatest achievements in modern history. Why is this meaningful to me? I grew up with a famous father who was the Voice of the NFL for 17 years, and prior to that he was a history making Capital Cities radio station program director and marketing genius. Watching this man – my father, Jeff Kaye – work was like watching an artist create – it was exhilarating, fascinating and impossible to turn away from. My father experimented with technology all the time — on my 10th birthday he showed up with several boxes – a receiver, 2 speakers, a turntable and a tape deck – and said “Happy Birthday – put it together” – I did. My desire to launch into media and marketing was spurred by my fathers work – but my desire to move to Atlanta from Philadelphia was inspired by Mr. Ted Turner – the Maverick – the man who said “I don’t care what anyone says! I don’t need New York City! I can broadcast from Atlanta!” – and he did. I moved to Atlanta with $500 and set my sights on working at CNN. Within 12 weeks I was there. My boss – the incredible Jim Kitchell – became my mentor. When he interviewed me, I couldn’t help but ask WHAT had he done to win those 2 big Emmy Awards behind his desk. He smiled. “This one is for the first ever international live broadcast.” Jim had been working for NBC News & Sports in NYC and had been sent to lead the Olympic Broadcast Center (a position he held until the Barcelona games in 1992). He continued, “I thought – wouldn’t it be great to broadcast the opening ceremonies LIVE, all around the world? my team loved the idea. So I called the Navy, borrowed a satellite, and made history.” Only Jim Kitchell could make ‘borrowing a satellite’ sound easy. I asked what the other one was for – He said “I am sure you’ve seen that one. I won this for creating and executing the most important broadcast that will ever exist in humankind.” I was interested, but didn’t know what he was talking about. “Yes?,” I said. “and?” – Jim leaned back and crossed his arms behind his head. “Have you seen the man walk on the moon?.” Again – I said “Yes.” Jim smiled, “About 6 months after the live global broadcast, I got a call from NASA in Houston. They said we have a proposal for you. Will you come meet with us?” He continued, “I accepted. I went to Houston. I was asked if I could engineer the first ever interstellar live global broadcast and I did not hesitate. I said YES immediately.” The power of YES. I worked for Jim Kitchell for several years. Jim wrote a large part of the Atlanta Olympic Bid for 1996. One day he asked me to get the bid out of one of the filing cabinets (there were 7). He showed it to me and said, “See here. We had a problem in Atlanta, There wasn’t much here to draw big crowds. So I told the leadership group that we should sell the city of the future, and that we should install as much fiber optic cable as we could (It turned out to be $78M).” As I moved through my career and watched how the fiber installation allowed new companies to move into Atlanta, I thought of Jim Kitchell – and I thought about my father who arrived to visit in 1994 to watch our beloved Buffalo Bills lose their 4th Super Bowl to the Dallas Cowboys. The growth and the leadership of MACOC CEO Sam Williams, and ACVB Spurgeon Richardson was amazing – more and more companies kept arriving. Then, when Michael Coles became the first Film Commissioner to Georgia and got the Film Tax Credits passed, an entirely new revenue stream and workforce came to the forefront. I started the ADWS because I am standing on the shoulders of titans, in a city I love, that fosters a diverse culture that exists nowhere else in the world, and is constantly undermined and brushed off by the rest of the country. The New York Stock Exchange runs through Georgia – Amazon leases all of its supply chain technology from Atlanta-based UPS – all Governmental communications go through Georgia; The White House, The CIA, The FBI – and 70 % of all financial transactions in the country move through Georgia. Why does no one know this? The ADWS is here to make sure that people listen, that we yell from the rafters, and that we utilize our underdog status to take the world by storm and brand ourselves as the digital capital of the world.
Sarah, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My name is Sarah K. Smith and I am an entrepreneur. I was not always one. I left my last job at Emory University in 2014 – which was not a smooth exit for me! But it taught me that my creativity, my problem solving ability, my imagination and my desire to collaborate with exciting companies and people was not something that appealed to all executives. In fact, these skills were actually threatening to many people I worked with, and I realized that I needed to forge my own path. It was hard. Starting my career at WPVI-ABC in Philadelphia taught me how to think fast, solve problems and make life easier for my executive producers. Working at CNN and Turner Entertainment taught me that pipes were pipes and that the communication business was about to collide with the telecommunications business. The first press release I wrote for the Entertainment PR group was for a spiritual film that seemed odd at first glance – The Shawshank Redemption was Turner’s first film release under ownership of Castle Rock Studios – and creating a press release to describe this emotionally charged film was hard! I’ll never forget it. Having a child led me to what would become a 10 year stint at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School where I learned how to exercise my showmanship through the execution of the Leadership Speaker Series where I hosted President Jimmy Carter, Warren Buffet, the Dalai Lama, Carly Fiorina, Michael Dell, Robert Redford and many more. I also designed and executed The Arthur Blank Speaker Series: The Business of Sports – this was the first sports speaker series that Emory University ever had. It is now housed at The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation offices. A 3 year stint as the Vice President of the Emmy Awards Foundation taught me the highest level of corporate fundraising that there is — what a win-win! A shiny statue, Barbara Walters, Regis Philbin, Bob Iger and more–it was the most fun I ever had raising money. Back in Atlanta, I went to Time Warner into the strategic planning department where I worked for one on the smartest men I’ve ever met – Mr. Kevin Cohen. A writer, a story teller, a Dartmouth grad, Cohen taught me a lot about patience and “the system.” I soon found myself on my entrepreneurial road and launched SOLUTION ROAD – my first marketing company. Winning several awards for large corporate projects and launching 6 podcasts for different companies eventually drew me back to my passion for telling the story about the digital prowess of Atlanta, GA. I am on that road now with the ADWS and I am super excited to have had a great response from the community. It is not a job you can do alone. Our Host Committee is amazing and our partners are risk takers who want to accomplish great things and have fun doing it.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I worked for a school in Georgia for 4 months. My boss – the headmaster – hired me to raise money and integrate the school through scholarship. There were no black students in this school. I brought money in, and thought about how I could integrate the school. At this time, I went back to my friends at the Arthur Blank Foundation and they agreed to work with me by sponsoring a student. It was a great beginning. After the NFL Draft, I went to Flowery Branch and met with the player management team. I told them that there was a small school on a beautiful campus that was trying to integrate, modernize and grow. I asked the group to send new players with families to me at the school and I would take great care of them. Lo and behold – the players and their wives showed up – we toured the school – we met the faculty and sports coaches – it was great. I had just signed a contract extension that had been approved by my boss and the leadership team — but very soon I got a call from the head of the board. This man told me to cease and desist my integration work immediately. it was an ugly conversation – one I will never forget. When I spoke to my boss about this, he became very pale, afraid, anxious and generally distressed. I was fired 4 days later. Packing up my office, I saw a parent who knew the situation. She looked at me and made the throat-cut motion across her neck. Such hate, such racism. I got a lawyer – found a mole in the school who sent me documentation about how this school filtered out potential black students. They would fail the entry exam, or if there were 2 kids in one family, one kid would fail, the other would pass – leading parents to shift away. I approached my lawyer with all of this – and then discovered that this school had been lying about its scores to the accrediting body. Big trouble. I won my lawsuit – got the head of the board fired – the head of admissions fired – and made each board member sign a document declaring that they would start a real integration program. I fought hard for what was right — I worked hard to do what was right — and then went along the process of reinvention.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
To pivot or reinvent is not easy. After giving birth to my first child, I was working at Turner Entertainment as a Unit Coordinator for an original program. Dream job. The only problem was that I never saw my baby – and I was miserable. The choice to leave my dream job for a secretarial job at Emory was hard, but I knew it was the right decision. Folks that work in media work hard, work tough, work fast. They have to be excellent. I went into Emory University’s Goizueta Business School to work for “the most difficult woman in the school.” – I never changed my pace, or my output, or my work ethic. I learned how to fundraise from some of the top people in the country, and I was asked to a reinvent a small speaker series, and blow it up. I installed a broadcast studio for $1250 and put some of the most famous business executives in the world in it for interviews. A finance professor asked me if I might reach out to the NYSE and create a connection as the school had none at the time. What a blast! CEO Dick Grasso and President Bill Johnston welcomed me and helped me create a robust annual event for NYC based alum. It is still one of the largest events the school does. My pivot ended up being a fantastic career move. But it would not have happened if I had not hit the ground running and worked hard, hard, hard. I am very grateful for this turn of events.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.atlantadigitalworldsummit.com
- Instagram: @atldigsummit
- Facebook: Atlanta Digital World Summit LLC
- Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/sarahsmithsolutionroad
- Twitter: @AtldigSummit
- Youtube: @ADWSAtlanta
- Soundcloud: Atlanta Digital World Summit Podcast
