Enterprise Florida

ENTERPRISE FLORIDA tional trade shows and trade missions every year.We focus our trade shows on the largest world-class aerospace and aviation defense shows; the large medical hospital/ pharma products exhibitions; IT; the marine industry. And we do shows in other sectors: security, transportation, and others. “Aviation and aerospace is probably Florida’s largest industry cluster; medical –we’re the second largest manufacturer in the nation of medical device products.We have a very fast growing IT sector in Florida – some 30,000 companies and growing fast. So, on the trade show side, we are very focused on those major sectors in Florida which are also high- growth and high-wage. “We also do trade missions, which are dif- ferent than trade shows. They tend to be fo- cused on growing international markets - Lat- in America, some in Africa, some in Asia – and those are, essentially, matchmaking missions. We recruit a group of companies; we vet their products to make sure they are in demand in that market, and then we work with U.S. Commercial Services and the U.S. embassy in that country, to help them line up individu- al appointments with companies interested in their specific product line. And then, they have high-value individual business meetings called Gold Key meetings. “We also do educational events around the state, where we bring one of our foreign officers, or a floating commercial officer, and we talk about business opportunities –we call them ‘road shows’–‘Business Opportunities in South Africa’; ‘Doing Business with the World Bank’; ‘Exporting to Turkey.’ “We have a Florida export directory, online. Any Florida company can register there for free, so we can promote their products through this site, throughout the world.We have a newsletter to inform Florida companies about export opportu- nities, the trade shows that we do, all the partner events, etc. It goes to 10,000 Florida companies that are in our data base. “We also help companies in the form of a grants program, which are small grants designed to help a manufacturer or a high technology com- pany go into new markets. Say you want to go to a trade show- we are able to offset 50 percent of the standard exhibition costs.When you go on a trade mission, the U.S. Department of Commerce charges a fee to make appointments, provide the translator, and so on.We have a grant for a new to market manufacturer or high tech company - we will pay the cost of your Gold Key meeting, 100 percent. “And the final one, which we just created re- cently: we are helping Florida companies localize their website. Say you just got back from ‘Arab Health,’ the largest medical show in the Middle East and you did well enough on that show that now you think that you should have a website in Arabic.We have a program to help offset part of the cost of translating the website. Let’s say you go to a show in Singapore and you want your website in Mandarin-we’re able to help you do that. “Remember: export development is a tool of job creation, just like investment recruitment.The difference is that job creation, in this case, comes indirectly.We help the company sell its products, and because of those expanded sales, the compa-