Nantes delegation June 7-June 14

I had the pleasure to welcome and organize last week the visit to Seattle of a delegation of 19 people from Nantes. Their program was pretty full every day. Have a look at it below:

MONDAY
Visit at Microsoft
Meeting with French IT company Adeneo Corporation and its rep Yannick Chammings.

TUESDAY
Presentation and meeting with Michael Killoren, Director of the Mayor’s Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs for the City of Seattle about creative industries

Visits of several art galleries and lofts

WEDNESDAY
Presentation given by Bill Stafford from the Trade Development Alliance of Greater Seattle giving an overview of the local economic situation
Presenation of the French presence in WA State by Jack A. Cowan, executive director of the FACCPNW
Overview of the High Tech industry given by Karl da Gama Campos
and finally a presentation given by Steve Garritson about the Clean Tech technology.

The presentation session was followed by a visit at the Washington Technology Alliance and a tour of the labs, followed by a meeting and tour at the Washington Convention and Trade Center and Visitors Bureau. We were welcomed by Brad Jones and Michael.

THURSDAY
The day was focused on biotechnologies:
Presentation about the biotechnologies in Washington States by Lee Huntsman, executive director of the Life Sciences Discovery Fund and very famous in the region; followed by a speech given by David Schubert, who works at Accelerator Corp, an investment and development company based in WA.

Visit of the Institute of System Biology where we were honored to be received by Leroy Hood, founder and CEO of ISB and Accelerator Corp.

Meeting with Vulcan Inc. about the South Lake Union Project followed by a visit of facilities of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

Presentation of the biotech industry in France and introduction to Atlanpole Cluster given by Georges Igor Chargardieff, biotech attaché at UBIFRANCE in San Francisco and Olivier Kitten, responsible for the biotech sector at Atlanpole (Nantes). Both presentations were followed by a networking evening where people from many different spheres have had a chance to talk to each other and have fun.

FRIDAY
Visit of The Boeing Company plant in Everett before going to the Sea Tac airport.

Everywhere we went, we all had the pleasure to be very welcome and many times by francophones.
The group was also of a great quality, curious, interested, motivated.

I really appreciated being their guide throughout the week. The week was so busy that I even feel a bit lonely now!

Below are a few pictures. More are to be found under the pictures and video gallery tab.

Senior executives dinner with French Senator Ben Guiga

We were pleased to welcome the French Senator representing the French community linving abroad, Mrs Monique Ben Guiga. A dinner was organized on her behalf with local French senior executives from very diverse sectors and activities.

From links to right:

Alinh Louan, , Laure-Alessia Leroy, Mr Mayoral, , Marco Onetto, Amazon.com, Senator Ben Guiga, Jack A. Cowan, French Honorary Consul and Executive Director of the FACC, Béatrice Delmas, Microsoft, Philippe Sanchez, Starbucks Coffee France, Norbert Gaillard, SafranUSA, Laurent Rotival, GE.

Safran’s VIP dinner

In behalf of the Safran Group, a French aerospace company supplying the Boeing Company, I was in charge of organizing their annual private dinner.

Officials representing the State Governor, Christine Gregoire, the City of Seattle, the Future of Flight, and CEO of aerospace companies based in WA States.

This PR event sponsored by Safran was also the opportunity for the President of the French-American Chamber of Commerce to receive the Medal of the National  Order of Merit.

The FACC has indeed very good relations with Norbert Gaillard, CEO Safran Seattle, who has been member of the FACC for about 10 years.

The Boeing Company plant’s visit

Thanks to our contacts at the Boeing Company, the FACC staff was able to have a VIP visit organized.

The plant is situated in Everett, an hour far from downtown Seattle.

We had the chance to see the first 787-Dreamliner.

Air France Inaugural Flight - Sept. 28, 2007

On the occasion of the inauguration of the direct Flight Paris-Seattle, Air France in partnership with the Port of Seattle invited a delegation from France to participate in a wonderful and sunny cruise .

The French Minister for Transportation was also present. On the same morning, he met the managers of the French aerospace firms, suppliers of The Boeing Company in WA State in a private meeting. This exchange was very helpful for everyone and everybody seemed to agree about the strategy to follow as French firms on the US market.

Please click here to see the Gallery pictures. (User: port; password: inaugural)

http://www.donwilsonphoto.com/client/index.php