A Pictorial Review of the 2010 PA Trade Reps Visit to Central PA:

Around 7:00 am - the WTC team is ready for the day!



One-on-one meetings with PA companies and PA Trade Reps from Japan

PA Senator Mike Brubaker stopped by the event in the morning to say hello to the PA Trade Reps, here he is with Steven Zou, the trade representative from Beijing, China


 

Senator Brubaker with Vladimir Gololobov, trade representative for Saudi Arabia 



Meetings with PA trade reps continue throughout the day!

We did have a break for a luncheon buffet and program

Randy Campbell, Chairman of the WTC Board of Directors, is the MC for our luncheon program

Everyone is enjoying lunch, waiting for the presentations to start

Linda Gardener from the PA Center for Trade Development, provides an overview of the State's export program

Terri Morrison, Author of "Kiss, Bow or Shake Hands" is our keynote luncheon speaker

Audience "volunteers" help Terri demonstrate the concept of personal space in different cultures

 







Luncheon participants listening to presentations

One of our Sponsors:  UPS, with Diana Morales and Craig Feister at their booth, talking with Linda Gardener, from the State's international office

Another Sponsor booth:  MANTEC Inc. and Gary Egolf, Professional Business Advisor, at the booth



Our event sponsor Fulton Bank's Booth:  Chuck McGough, CEO of CAM Innovation talks with Amy Sahm, VP and Manager of Fulton's International Services


And more appointments in the afternoon: 







WTC Offers One-on-one Consulting on Social Media Use to Members

More and more of our members are becoming active on social media sites with an increasing interest in engaging a global audience. For WTC members who are completely new to this concept, we have been offering a customized overview and one-on-one consulting - all as part of the WTC member benefits.  To check out the basic powerpoint presentation that Melissa uses, click here.

WTC Members Tour the Port of Philadelphia

On August 25, WTC members had the opportunity to tour the Philadelphia seaport as well as the UPS cargo facilities at the Philadelphia International Airport.  After an early morning pick-up in York and then Lancaster, we traveled by bus to Philadelphia, arriving at the seaport a little after 10:00 am.   

The Ports of the Delaware River shipped over 80 million tons of freight in 2009, making them one of America's Top 10 Port Complexes. We saw the marine terminals that move containers, steel, forest products, fruit and cocoa. We also saw the giant cranes and container moving equipment, the portable x-ray machines used for scanning full containers and the facilities for keeping refrigerated and freezer containers. August was a busy month  at the Packer Avenue Marine Terminal, as it marked the arrival of 7 HYUNDAI/KIA vessels, who together delivered more than 17,000 Hyundai and Kia vehicles to the Port of Philadelphia.

After a lunch at the Airport Hilton, we got an inside look at the East Coast Regional UPS air hub, which averages 43 flights every day. The 681,000 square foot technology‐packed facility has the capacity to sort 80,000 packages/ documents per hour.  We were very fortunate to have two UPS pilots join us for an inside tour and presentation, which included climbing into cargo airplanes and checking out the cockpit.

Thanks again to Dominic O'Brien and the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority and Adam Say and UPS for hosting our group and providing a first hand look at cargo movement.  Thank you also to Stephanie Gehman from HIA for taking photos and sharing them with us.  We learned and saw a lot, and everyone enjoyed this opportunity immensely.

PA Pavilion at ANUGA 2009

The PA Office of International Business Development partnered with the WTC to organize and staff a “Pennsylvania” booth at the world’s largest trade show for the food industry, ANUGA 2009.  The fair took place in Cologne from October 11-14.  The purpose of the booth at ANUGA was twofold, one to offer subsidized space for Pennsylvania companies to showcase their products to the world, and second to promote the Commonwealth and the southcentral PA region as a location for investment for food related companies.  Tina Weyant coordinated the exhibit and staffed the booth during the show.

According to the trade show organizer's final report, the 30th Anuga generated high-powered market momentum for the food industry in Germany and abroad. Against the background of a difficult overall economic situation, the market-oriented trade fair concept of Anuga once again impressed everyone involved. 149,349 trade visitors from 180 countries came to the fair, with 63 per cent (115,066) coming from abroad.  The number of exhibitors - 6,522 suppliers from 98 countries - remained unchanged at its previous high level.

Two Pennsylvania companies exhibited their product lines in the PA booth:  Herr’s Foods and Lancaster Fine Foods.  Two other PA companies, Advanced Food Products and Snyders of Hanover also exhibited at ANUGA  - in the same Hall as the Pennsylvania booth. 

The PA booth was part of the USA Pavilion, which attracted a lot of attention!

In additional to promoting Pennsylvania at the ANUGA booth, Charles Blankenship, President of the Lebanon Valley Economic Development Corporation, traveled to ANUGA on behalf of the southcentral PA region, and directly promoted Pennsylvania to pre-qualified “investment” leads.  This list had been generated with the help of PA overseas investment offices.  Together, Tina and Charles called on 20 investment leads during the show and coordinated and presented 2 seminars to promote PA as an ideal investment location!