MOULTRIE, Ga. — Moultrie will host Leadership Georgia this week, taking the opportunity to show itself off to some of the leaders who may one day shape the future of the state.

The local economy may also get a little boost from roughly 180 people filling hotel rooms and eating at local restaurants for three days.

Leadership Georgia is a year-long program during which approximately 60 couples from across the state visit five communities in different areas of Georgia to learn about the issues that face them and the resources that are available to meet those challenges. They’re joined by 20 program chairs, the 20 members of the Leadership Georgia board of trustees and their spouses.

The visit to each town is hosted by Leadership Georgia alumni from that town. The Moultrie visit is hosted by state Rep. Sam Watson and his wife Emily, the marketing director for Colquitt Regional Medical Center.

Sam Watson said the theme of this year’s Leadership Georgia class is “Rooted, Growing and Leading,” and the plans for the Moultrie visit expand that to “Rooted in Forestry, Growing in Agriculture and Leading in Rural Medical Education.”

The week will include site visits to many local employers, with a firm emphasis on agribusiness, said Watson, who is a farmer and works with Southern Valley Fruit and Vegetable.

“This will be the first time and the only time some of them will be on the farm,” he said in a presentation to Moultrie City Council last week.

The three-day workshop will begin around 4:15 p.m. Thursday with a gathering on the Courthouse Square, Emily Watson said. The group will be welcomed by someone from the city and county governments as well as the Colquitt County High School cheerleaders.

That will be followed by activities all day Friday and Saturday, but Emily Watson didn’t want to go into too much detail. Class members arrive with no firm idea of what’s planned for them, and she didn’t want to spoil any surprises.

“We’re hoping to do a lot of mythbusting,” she said.

This is the third time Leadership Georgia has visited Moultrie — first in 1992 and more recently in 2012.

Two Colquitt County couples are members of this year’s class: Quentin Bates of Standard Discount and his wife, Beth, and Ashley Goss of Stripling’s General Store and her husband, Clint.

“It’s a big honor,” Quentin Bates said, referring both to his participation in Leadership Georgia and the visit of the class to his hometown.

“It’s really cool because you get to go through it with your spouse,” he said.

Bates said Moultrie is the fourth of the five stops for this year’s class. They began in Brasstown Valley on Jan. 25, followed by Cartersville, Jekyll Island and Moultrie, and they’ll finish with Covington and Athens in November.