Inward Investment Officers visited Milton Keynes to learn more about opportunities for business emanating from a Smart City.
On 15 October MK:Smart played host to a visit at the Transport Catapult from 21 Inward Investment Officers from various British embassies from across the world. This included Tel Aviv, Helsinki, Berlin, Chicago, Paris, Toronto, Rio de Janiero, Istanbul, Mumbai, Tokyo, Seoul, Chennai, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Milan, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Taipei and Atlanta. In addition, they were joined by eleven representatives from UK Trade and Investment (UKTI).
Keynote presentations on Business Engagement were given by Geoff Snelson, Director of Strategy, Milton Keynes Council; Rajinder Sharma, University Campus Milton Keynes (UCMK); Dr Paul Sant, University of Bedfordshire and Matthew Napleton, Marketing Director at Zizo (a local SME). This was followed by presentations in the afternoon by the Satellite Catapult and Transport Catapult delivered by Dr Joanna Hart and Alessandro Saraceni respectively.
Rajinder Sharma, who is also the Commercial Manager for Business Engagement for the MK:Smart project, commented, “We are delighted to host such a diverse gathering in one place. This has given us an excellent opportunity for us to raise the profile of both MK:Smart and Milton Keynes internationally. We look forward to working closely with UKTI and other government departments in future such visits.”