Back in Seattle after a very productive mission to Madrid and León as part of INCIBE – Instituto Nacional de Ciberseguridad’s International Information Security Meeting (ENISE), a benchmark international event in Spain for the #cybersecurity industry.
Thank you to The Honorary Consul of Spain and Iñigo Esteban of Pacific Northwest Advisors for their tremendous support in leading a seamless multi-day and multi-city event that brought together an excellent combination of experts and influencers for productive meetings and partnerships.
Our delegation consisted of representatives from Bayer, Coalfire, Cloud Security Alliance, Embedded-Knowledge, Inc., Greater Seattle Partners, Microsoft, Tiro Security, University of Washington Tacoma, and Washington State Department of Commerce.
We had the privilege of meeting the Mayor of Leon – president of the local business association, ALETIC Asociación Leonesa de empresas TIC – director general of Incibe, Felix Barrio Juarez – the SCAYLE supercomputer at the Universidad de León – global cybersecurity companies – and more.
Great to engage many new friends in Spain and beyond.
Great to be back in London and the U.K for the Farnborough International Airshow. We had a great delegation of public and private partners including Lieutenant Governor Heck, representatives of the Washington State Department of Commerce, Head of the UK Government Office in Seattle, Alaska Airlines, Boeing, ZeroAvia, and regional economic development partners.
After a welcoming reception at the The Shard and the National History Museum, our team engaged in one-on-one meetings with 15 international aerospace companies where we actively promoted the Greater Seattle region as a leading hub for aerospace, clean energy, and advanced manufacturing, with a strong emphasis on sustainable solutions.
Following Farnborough, a smaller delegation of Washington State representatives ventured to northwest England and Chester to further co-operation on trade, innovation and clean energy. Founded as a Roman fortress in the 1st century A.D., Chester is a charming city that also serves as a nexus to world-class aerospace innovation.
The first day began at Electroimpact, which is an aerospace automation company with an exceptional concentration of engineers working on a wide range of projects include complete automation assembly systems for commercial aircraft wings, riveting machines and tools for wing panel and fuselage assembly, advanced fiber placement machines, robotic assembly systems, and spacecraft handling equipment.
The group proceeded just up the road to Broughton and the Airbus factory where the majority of its commercia aircraft wings are made. Adjacent to Airbus, the group also had the opportunity to tour the Advance Manufacturing Research Center (AMRC) that specializes in carrying out world-leading research into advanced machining, manufacturing and materials for aerospace and other high-value manufacturing sectors.
The day concluded with a roundtable discussion at HyNet Northwest where the group learned more about the UK’s ambitious plans for industrial decarbonization and hydrogen production.
A special thanks to the head of the UK Government Office in Seattle, Robin Twyman, Lord Mayor Razia Daniels, Cheshire West and Chester Council, and so many others for hosting the delegation. Everyone was exceedingly warm and welcoming.
It was back to the SelectUSA Summit and Washington, DC to engage international companies from around the world that are interested in expanding to the United States. I was there to represent Greater Seattle and continue the global conversations started as part of our SelectUSA Seattle Spinoff held each year before the main Summit.
It was a nice treat meeting the British Ambassador to the U.S., Karen Pierce at her residence on Embassy Row, as well as many friends with U.S. Commercial Service and Department of Commerce.
Enjoyed returning to the Bio International Convention in San Diego, but in this case, representing Seattle as opposed to my past life building the state of Georgia’s life science industry. It was great to run into old colleagues, spend time with the president of Life Science Washington, as well as friends from Poland that were just in Seattle on an economic development mission.
Admiral William McRaven, retired four-star admiral in the U.S. Navy spoke about leadership, global events, and the national security importance of biotechnology. And Viola Davis, an award-winning actress and author shared her story about being a loving and caring person in the face of adversity in a conversation with Brooke Baldwin.
Key subjects were definitely around the convergence of artificial intelligence and biotech, and Seattle is playing a leadership role in the development of new drugs, identifying new proteins at a quicker rate, and data analytics. Frankly, the cells in our bodies have become like applications on our phones, and we will continue to dive deeper into the precise activation or repression of genes.
Bio always puts on an amazing welcome reception, as well as a fun street party in the Gaslamp quarter.
