Trade Week - International Export Symposium
Featuring Governor Chirstine Gregoire

Mark your calendar for the upcoming International Export Symposium on March 20, 2007. This highlight of Trade Week is sponsored by the Trade Development Alliance, Washington State Department of Community Trade and Economic Development, Greater Seattle Chamber and the Puget Sound Regional Council.

Symposium topics will include business opportunities in Western Canada, such as the 2010 Vancouver/Whistler Olympics and Alberta soil sands and remarks from Jim Foley, Director of the International & NAFTA Trade Centers at Bradley University and author of "The Global Entrepreneur: Taking Your Business International." Trade representatives from several Asian countries, Germany and Mexico will be on hand.

Governor Christine Gregoire will give the keynote for the evening reception, outlining her vision for the “Next Washington” as part of the global economy, followed by her Trader’s of the Year Awards.

Registration ranges from $30 to $60 and is available online. The event will be held at Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue.

Collaboration, Innovation and Sustainability

The Prosperity Partnership is working with the Oregon Economic & Community Development Department, the Portland Development Commission and our friends at CTED to produce The Competitive Institute’s Global Conference this fall. Specifically, the Prosperity Partnership is responsible for organizing the Seattle Cluster Tours portion of this conference. Don’t miss this opportunity to show off the region’s clusters at an international event. Seattle area tours will be focused on Life Sciences, Aerospace, Video Games, Marine Manufacturing, and Nano-Technology. The event will be held primarily in Portland from October 8-12, 2007, with the Seattle cluster tours scheduled for October 8. Registration opens March 1 online at www.clusters2007.org.

For more information, contact Angela Kerwin at 206-587-5061 or akerwin@psrc.org.

Click here to see more of our Partner’s Events

Prosperity Partnership E-Newsletter
March 9, 2007

  • Prosperity Partnership Highlights Diversity as an Important Strategic Economic Advantage
  • Minority Economic Development Working Group
  • African American Partners for Prosperity
  • Assessment of Minority Businesses

    Prosperity Partnership Highlights Diversity as an Important Strategic Economic Advantage

    A key to the Prosperity Partnership’s success is a focus on issues of diversity in our region. “Prosperity is not prosperity if it doesn’t include all,” says Bob Drewel, Executive Director of the Puget Sound Regional Council. “Our goal is to achieve shared prosperity with every community in the four county area.”

    Throughout its initial strategy development process, the Partnership actively reached out to organizations representing communities of color –meeting with groups like the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, the Communities of Color Coalition for Snohomish County, Filipino Chamber of Commerce, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Minority Executive Directors Association, and The Tulalip Tribes – to build important relationships to implement the Regional Economic Strategy. The Partnership has been particularly pleased with its collaboration with the African American Partners for Prosperity.

    In 2007, the Prosperity Partnership is taking an even stronger approach to including a diverse perspective in its work program and action items:

    Minority Economic Development Working Group
    Spearheaded by Seattle Councilmember and EDD Vice President David Della, El Centro de la Raza Associate Director Estela Ortega and Nate Miles of Eli Lilly, this new working group will identify specific, tangible public policy changes that can be realized in the short term at the regional and state level to improve the ability of minority businesses and minority economic development organizations to be successful.

    "It is essential that diversity be a core principle that guides all of the Prosperity Partnership's efforts," says Seattle Councilmember David Della. "I am hopeful that our work will engage more leaders from the communities of color in our region in the work of the Partnership. The more we are able to do that, the more that focus on diversity will be internalized and become second nature in all of the Prosperity Partnership's other work."

    African American Partners for Prosperity
    The Prosperity Partnership actively supports the work of the African American Partners for Prosperity, including sponsorship of, and production support for, AAPP’s annual MBO-to-MBO Trade Conference. The event, which will take place this year on May 18 at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, helps minority business owners (MBOs) connect and learn about opportunities to grow their businesses. The leadership of the Prosperity Partnership’s Minority Economic Development Working Group will be featured during one of the afternoon panels, offering their thoughts to attendees about how to strengthen support systems for MBOs in the Puget Sound.

    To find out more about the African American Partners for Prosperity or to register for the event, visit www.aapp-wa.org.

    Assessment of Minority Businesses
    Many members of the Minority Economic Development Working Group and the AAPP have highlighted the need for better understanding of the number, size and composition of MBOs in our state, as well as the unique challenges they face. To help address this problem, the Prosperity Partnership is working with Seattle University Professor Paul Sommers on an Economic Development Administration grant to perform a statewide assessment of minority businesses. The assessment will focus in particular on identifying MBOs’ specific needs and barriers to success. The Partnership is also working with AAPP and the University of Washington’s Business and Economic Development Center on similar data collection efforts. The information learned from these surveys has the potential to frame the Partnership’s work program in the coming years.

    For more information on the Prosperity Partnership’s focus on diversity, contact Eric Schinfeld at (206) 587-5063 or eschinfeld@psrc.org.

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