EDC Hosts French Delegation

From the EDC (Oct 5 2011)

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   Yesterday, the EDC hosted a delegation from the Seine et Marne region of France, east of Paris. Most of our guests were economic developers, but one company representative came, too. The delegation is spending this week in North America and included a day in western Mass, in addition to stops in Boston/Cambridge and Montreal. The mission was organized by Hubtech 21, a company based in Paris with a U.S. office in Cambridge that assists European companies that want to enter the U.S. market. The EDC works with Hubtech 21 and similar organizations to identify international regions and clusters (which are formal entities in Europe) that match up with the industry sectors in our region. Establishing these relationships helps us generate leads both for foreign direct investment and business opportunities for companies in our region, which was the case with the firm yesterday. We set up meetings with three local executives in the medical device packaging industry that could lay the groundwork for new business for our region in 2012.

    

   Since we had the delegation in the region for the day, we worked with partners in Springfield, Holyoke and Northampton to share best practices and opportunities for future collaboration, as well as to inform the French of key initiatives underway in the valley. We would like to thank the Scibelli Enterprise Center, Springfield Technology Park, City of Springfield, Western Mass Electric Co, Associated Industries of Massachusetts, Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, City of Holyoke, Holyoke Gas & Electric, City of Northampton, Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce and Smith College for graciously hosting our guests. We look forward to working with these and other partners to host similar delegations in the future. Please contact Michael Graney at m.graney@westernmassedc.com or 413-755-1300 if you would like to participate in future international trade missions.

    

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