Tuesday, 10 May 2016

Recent work in the USA...

    
Gene DePrez, Managing Partner served as Senior Strategic Advisor in late 2015 to provincial and municipal leaders and mayors in the Toronto Metropolitan Area of Ontario, Canada as they formed a new Regional Foreign Investment Attraction Development Corporation. Global Innovation Partners teamed with Ontario-based Global Investment Attraction Group in the three-month consulting engagement to set a strategic direction based on best practices from across North America. 
Mr. DePrez was also featured at the International Economic Development Council’s Annual Summit held in Anchorage, Alaska in October, speaking on Global Business Location Investment Trends at both a ”Live from Anchorage” global webcast, and moderating the Summit’s closing session.  
DePrez was also invited by IEDC, where he serves as Visiting Senior Fellow to conduct a Best Practices Leadership Roundtable for a select group of international major city-region economic development CEOs as part of IEDC’s 2016 Leadership Summit in New Orleans in late January.
He has also been named to the Professional Site Selector Advisory Board of StateBook International, the first online marketplace for site selection and economic growth and development

In his community service, Mr. DePrez was recently re-elected as Board Chair and President of the Lake Mohawk Preservation Foundation with a mission of improving water quality within the Wallkill River watershed of New Jersey and New York states in the US.

Wednesday, 22 July 2015

The Greater Birmingham Digital Academy and Summer School

From March to June 2015 Andy worked with CidaCo and partners on a project funded by Digital Birmingham at the city council to create and deliver a raft of eight workshops and a two day intensive Summer School for small and micro businesses in Birmingham (UK)

The programme is specifically designed to support companies and help them identify and adopt new digital technologies for their businesses to foster growth.



The Workshops
A case study from a delegate discussing where the gaps are in their business

Identifying the opportunities and gaps together

Andy (@andyc172) introduces digital platforms and tools for business efficiency



The Summer School
Keith Evans MD of CidaCo (@keyinnovate) opens the two day Summer School

Alexis Bradbury (@alexisbradbury) showing how to utilise website analytics and marketing campaign tools

Delegates get first-hand support and guidance from software companies like KashFlow and MyCake Finance (@mycakefinance)


Andy (@andyc172) delivers a walkthrough and "workflow" session using Flipboard and Hootsuite


Everybody graduates with a certificate

One of the tools we're using for the first time at the Summer School is Storify which we used document the days twitter activity via hashtag #digiacademy. You can see how the 2 days worked and what delegates thought on our stream here.

If you'd like this programme delivered in your region please feel free to get in touch with Andy in the UK office here


Monday, 20 July 2015

Global Innovation Partners invited to be on City of Rotterdam International Advisory Board

In May 2015 Andy Curtis was honoured to be appointed as a member of the City of Rotterdam International Advisory Board. (IAB Rotterdam)

The board is made up of experts from business, academia and economic development who bring their skills and experience from destinations all over the globe. 

During a week of intensive work the board created a new strategic framework to underpin the work-streams and programmes that the city will deliver to foster and support economic growth over the next two years.

The 2015 IAB Rotterdam team


The strategy development begins


The innovation team discuss opportunities


Workshop with key stakeholders in the city


The final presentation of the plan to the city



More info on the IAB here: http://www.iabrotterdam.com



Monday, 3 February 2014

Global Innovation Partners' shared a perspective on US competitiveness in the January cover story of FDI Magazine.



Managing Partner Gene DePrez was quoted in the Global Outlook feature on the impact of the USA's sluggish growth and political deadlock.  He commented on how he and other international site selectors have traditionally viewed the US and how that may be changing. See the full article: http://tinyurl.com/mhbugnl

Tuesday, 12 November 2013

SelectUSA Investment Summit




Global Innovation Partners was represented at the first ever event which brought together in Washington over 1200 international business leaders, government officials and economic development executives (with a waiting list of over 1400 more).  

Gene DePrez, Managing Partner, was invited to moderate a panel of C-Suite Executives, which discussed using professional service firms to support investment projects coming into the USA. President Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker (and Summit host), several other members of the Cabinet and an array of senior administration officials and corporate executives spoke at the event which also featured a variety of panel discussions and n exhibition floor.  Over 60 countries sent representatives along with 46 states.  

Further information, including President Obama’s remarks and other videos are available at: http://new.livestream.com/accounts/4828334/selectUSA2013

St. Louis Economic Development Partnership (USA)

Global Innovation Partners, working with its Partner, Collaborative Strategies, has been selected to assist the new partnership of the City of St. Louis and St. Louis County to engage citizens, businesses, organizations and other stakeholders in the development of a transformative economic development strategy for the City and County and its community partners.  

Gene DePrez, Managing Partner, is serving as senior advisor to the Steering Committee and Core Planning Team.  He also kicked off the public participation aspect of the six-month process with a keynote presentation at the Stakeholder Forum held in late October.  The effort will bring together business, university, community leaders, the Regional Chamber and other civic and professional organizations to build a consensus and an action plan for guiding the economic development of one of the leading economies of the country. 

Kern County, CA (USA)

One of the first strategy grants in the initial round of the Obama Administration’s Investing in Manufacturing Communities Partnerships was awarded to China Lake Technologies, with Gene DePrez of Global Innovation Partners providing economic development strategic insight and guidance.  

The US Commerce Department funds will be matched by Kern County and be used by the China Lake Technologies team to develop a regional strategy for Kern County to leverage its unique economic assets to create a vibrant bio-products industry in the region.  China Lake Technologies is a subsidiary of NJ-based InSitech, Inc., a not for profit foundation established to assist in technology transfer from federal military bases to assist in local community economic development. 

Global Innovation Partners is partnering with InSitech to identify and leverage economic development opportunities. 

IEDC Annual Conference “Transformation, Innovation, Reinvention”

Andy Curtis, Managing Partner in the UK for Global Innovation Partners was invited to present on a panel at the Annual Conference of the International Economic Development Council held in Philadelphia, PA.  IEDC, the largest Economic Development professional organization in the world, attracted over 1600 delegates. Andy spoke on “Building the Next Great Start-up City” with the panel exploring how to create technology hubs in communities. (pic below)  


Gene DePrez, Managing Partner in the US, moderated the always popular Site Sectors’ Forum, which this year included 12 well known international and national site selectors from the North America, Europe and Asia.  (pic below)



Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport

Global Innovation Partners partnered with the International Economic Development Council, Washington, DC and Global Logistics Development Partners, based in Scottsdale, AZ to provide DFW Airport’s Commercial Division with a Strategic Action Plan for attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to the region and to the airport expansive property.  

The consulting team identified target sectors, niche opportunities and potential investors whose interests would most closely align with the assets and unique advantages that DFW offers as an international destination and intermodal hub.

Headquarters, R&D, engineering, manufacturing, operational centers, logistics, training and conferencing needs were among specific opportunities described as being attractive to international investors.