Mike Skelton meets with 42 international delegations in 2014

Over the past months, Mike Skelton, Director of the Mayor's Office of International Business, met with several foreign delegations visiting from around the globe, visited the UK to conduct economic development business, and met with foreign-based companies visiting Richardson including Cash Management and VMN Plus Argentina.

During the 2014 calendar year, 42 delegations visited our area and 292 visitors heard the benefits of establishing a business in Texas and in Richardson. Visitors included the U.S. State Department delegation, Shanghai Jio Tong University, the East Africa delegation, the Chinese delegation, Connect Vest, and the National U.S. Arab Chamber of Commerce Houston.

From Oct. 6 to Oct. 18, Skelton visited the United Kingdom. A local economic development consultant arranged meetings from ten UK firms that are planning on expansion of their business to the U.S. market within the next 12-24 months. While there Skelton spoke to 15 members of TECHUK, attend the IP EXPO conference and met with over 20 firms exhibiting at the conference to discuss their possible plans for expansion develop future leads for attracting them to Richardson. Skelton was invited to sit at the head table of the President at the annual meeting of the UK Science Park Association dinner, and met with several officials from SelectUSA at the U.S. Embassy in London.

The Mayors Office of International Business hosted several events over the last few months. On September 10, 2014, a reception was held at the Eisemann Center in Richardson to host the international chambers of commerce in DFW and select business organizations representing foreign regions or countries in the greater Dallas area. As a result of the reception on September 10, two separate task force meetings were held to get input from all reception attendees wanting to participate. The goal of the Task Force meeting was to solicit their advice on the best ways to cooperate between all the organizations. Volunteers of the Richardson International Concierge Program arranged a happy hour on November 4 at the Amigos Restaurant in Richardson. About 20 members of the program stopped by during the event to meet and connect with other members.