We've just delivered a trade mission to Japan for the American State of Idaho, aimed at expanding export opportunities and building partnerships for six of its innovative organisations.
As part of the mission for the State of Idaho’s Department of Commerce, we organised two days of tailored visits for each of the participating organisations with prospective Japanese customers, distributors and partners in their target sectors. And, to help them get the most out of the meetings, we hosted an initial one-day briefing session to explain the cultural norms of doing business in Japan.
Our Tokyo team also worked closely with each participant, providing in-depth market intelligence and insights into the major Japanese players and emerging opportunities relevant to their industries.
We organised 36 business matching meetings in total, and these are already delivering tangible results, with all six US organisations following up on promising leads and productive discussions from the trip.
The Idaho delegation comprised:
- Astra Engineering – specialists in industrial design, electrical engineering and automation solutions for factory construction
- ATC Advanced Thermo Composites – manufacturers of moulded components for the aerospace sector
- Boise University – a top-ranked Idaho university with a prestigious business school seeking to attract more Japanese students
- G-Zero – producers of precision-machined parts for the global aerospace industry
- HMI Hamilton Manufacturing – suppliers of environmentally friendly, fire-retardant building materials
- Viiision – developers of a QR code platform that instantly delivers multilingual content.
Tracy Day, Business Development Specialist at Idaho Commerce, said: “We’re so appreciative of the support we received from Intralink’s Japan-based team, which exceeded our expectations.
“The excellent training session ensured all our participants were fully prepared for their meetings and understood key aspects of Japanese business etiquette. The tailored support provided before and after each meeting, together with the clear action plans and next steps, then ensured that each participant could capitalise on the opportunities on offer.
“All of our participants are optimistic that the mission will generate a strong return on investment for their organisations.”
Dr Jack Marr, Director of Global Programmes for the College of Business & Economics (COBE) at Boise University, added: “We joined this mission to encourage Japanese students to complete their studies at Boise State COBE, which we believe will give them a huge leg up in the global economy.
“Intralink's understanding of the Japanese market, its professionalism and its thorough follow-up made the process seamless and we’re now in dialogue with four great partners. We will be working with them to enable Japanese students who aspire to study in the USA to come to Boise in Idaho.”
This project is the latest in our long-standing work for economic development organisations including several US states, the Canadian province of Ontario, Switzerland Global Enterprise, Innovation Norway, Enterprise Ireland, the UK’s Department for Business & Trade and government agencies in the Middle East.
To discuss how we could support your organisation’s overseas trade or investment work, please contact Micah Hostetter at micah.hostetter@intralinkgroup.com