AN event targeting Scottish companies looking to explore business opportunities in the USA will provide advice on how to get started in Scotland’s top international export destination – worth about £4.6 billion.
Growing Scotland’s Trade in the USA, organised by the non-profit organisation Scottish North American Business Council (SNABC) in collaboration with partners including Scottish Enterprise, will offer a practical introduction to trading in the USA with sessions on how to research and identify routes to market, legal aspects of trading there and how to protect intellectual property.
Crucially, companies attending the event will be able to hear from people who are already doing business in the USA, ask questions and also get practical tips and guidance from legal and financial experts.
Panel sessions will include contributions from Issy Urquhart, chief people officer at Craneware, the Edinburgh-based revenue management specialist that has found its niche in the US healthcare market and has offices in Atlanta and Pittsburgh.
Heather McDonald, an American living in the Highlands who established craft brewery WooHa in 2015 and began exporting to the US last year, will also share her experiences along with Cameron Graham, chief executive of StorriCare, the Glasgow-based start-up behind software dubbed the Facebook of the healthcare sector who is using his platform to help senior living providers across America remind residents of happy memories.
Another participant will be Laura Birrell, managing director of Sticky Heelz, a product which addresses the issue of loose-fitting shoes. She will explain how she is breaking into the highly-competitive ladies’ fashion market with her shoe accessories.
Other high-profile speakers will include Sharon Stead, vice-president of the Council for American States in Europe (CASE), Steve Dunlop, chief executive of Scottish Enterprise, John Simmons, minister counsellor for commercial affairs at the US Embassy and Julia Summerville, director of international tax services at RSM.
Allan Hogarth, executive director of the SNABC said: “This event provides Scottish companies with an opportunity to meet USA trade experts for a whistle-stop tour of Scotland’s top export destination.
“There will be opportunities to meet Council of American States in Europe (CASE) representatives from Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania and South Carolina. The USA’s size alone – four time zones across 50 states and vast cultural differences across regions – means it has to be treated as a series of regional markets, with difference characteristics and business practices.
“It is also important to remember that more than one-third of all foreign investment in Scotland comes from the United States, and that 600 US companies operate in Scotland, providing 90,000 jobs.
For more information on the event, which takes place at RSM in Edinburgh on September 5, email allan@snabc.org.
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