News of Ted Turner's passing reached us this week, and it sent us back through our own files. Web Experts has been building since 1999, and some of the earliest names on the client list still carry weight in this city.
Turner Enterprises was one of the first major clients we signed. That deal came shortly after we wrapped a large project for Grady Memorial Hospital, which is the kind of sequence that tells you a small firm is starting to find its footing.
The Archive Project
Turner Enterprises hired us to help build out their main website and to develop an intranet system. The purpose of that intranet was to manage and organize the company's archive of historic video footage, which was an incredible collection by any measure.
That was practical work, not glamorous work. Someone has to decide how thousands of pieces of footage get labeled, found, and pulled back up years later, and that problem has not changed much even with all the tooling available now.
Sitting In On A Meeting
During that engagement, our founder had the chance to sit in on a meeting with Ted himself. He had taken an interest in the project, and he was incredibly witty, sharp, and charming in person.
There were also several times crossing paths with him in the halls at 133 Luckie Street while heading into meetings with his team. Even in passing, there was an energy around him that was impossible to ignore, and you knew you were around someone who had fundamentally changed media, Atlanta, and the way the world consumed news.
A Street Gets A Name
The second crossing came years later and entirely by coincidence. The City of Atlanta hired us to film the ceremony naming the street in his honor on Ted Turner Drive in 2010.
By that point we had already worked with the city on several projects, so they brought us in to capture the event using our drone fleet and production equipment. Standing there coordinating the filming of a street being named after an Atlanta legend was one of those surreal full-circle moments you never forget.
Why We Keep These Stories
To have had the opportunity to meet and work around someone of Ted Turner's caliber twice in one professional life is something we will always appreciate. He was one of Atlanta's true legends, and those two engagements remain highlights of this firm's history.
We write a lot here about AI, websites, and the practical side of running a technology business. Every once in a while it is worth remembering that the work is made of people, buildings, and street signs, and that some clients change the city you work in.