A group of Yorkshire and Humber companies recently had just 48 hours in Prague to make their mark on the Czech business scene.

Nineteen export-minded businesses from across the region were making a concentrated bid for business in the Czech Republic by taking part in the International Business Network (IBN) in Prague from 28-29 April 2009.

Officially opened by Lord Digby Jones, Patron of the Yorkshire and Humber IBN, and attended by HM Ambassador Linda Duffield, this was the fourth in a series of such dynamic networking events staged overseas by UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) during the last two years and follows a highly successful event in Milan in October 2008.

After a breakfast briefing from senior members of UKTI’s trade team based in Prague and CzechInvest, the government agency for business development and investment in the Czech Republic, the Yorkshire delegation joined over a hundred Czech companies and agencies at the IBN event.

Speaking alongside the Czech Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, Lord Digby Jones gave a keynote address in which he praised the strengths of the Yorkshire region, telling assembled delegates: “Yorkshire is a place moulded by change. It has reconstructed itself and with its good universities is full of entrepreneurship and knowledge-based business. Wherever we can grow and transfer knowledge this is the key to being prepared for future markets.”

The Yorkshire companies went on to participate in an afternoon of intensive one-to-one meetings with Czech based firms in a bid to seek areas of future collaboration and partnership. A busy day programme ended with an evening reception at the Ambassador's Residence Garden.

Rob Arntsen of York-based MyKnowledgemap, summed up the experience saying: “Prague has been a refreshing visit. We have been able to network and meet with the Czech-based companies all under one roof. UKTI arranged it so that the companies came to us and provided interpreters which meant that we were able to concentrate on business without the worry of logistics or language. I had meetings with training providers from across the Czech Republic and contacts are now in place to discuss future collaboration.”

Individual ‘match’ meetings were set up for all the Yorkshire companies in Prague as part of UKTI’s Overseas Market Introduction Service (OMIS). Designed to match firms up with a number of potential business partners overseas, the service is a valuable export tool helping many UK companies to capture business in international markets.

Mark Robson, regional director for UK Trade & Investment, said: “This latest event has been the result of a close collaboration between our two UKTI teams based here in Yorkshire and at the Embassy in Prague. What we gave the Yorkshire companies was a short, sharp taste of the Czech market, at a pace designed to be fast and to put companies on their mettle, so that they really had to focus.”

"I'm really sold on this type of event, and so too are our clients. Inspiration and communication figured highly between UKTI team Czech Republic and the UKTI team in Yorkshire and Humber. Business is already being won as a result and UKTI received some high profile media attention. We hope to entice Lord Jones back here in September for the largest engineering exhibition in Central Europe," Mike Moon, Head of Trade & Investment, Prague.

UK Trade & Investment Team Prague

Enquiries: tradeinvest.pragc@fco.gov.uk
(contact details in 'Doing Business' section of the web)

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