DENVER, CO, USA - On Tuesday, May 19th, although an unusually cold and wet day in Denver, Colorado, more than 530 international business professionals and university students made their way into the heart of downtown Denver to participate in WTC Denver’s 42nd Annual World Trade Day Conference. This year’s conference, Advancing Colorado Around the Globe, focused on showcasing Colorado’s most internationally relevant advanced industries - aerospace, bioscience, clean tech/energy, engineering/infrastructure, electronics, IT, and manufacturing.

During the morning, six breakout sessions focused on how to solve some of the most important and relevant challenges of doing business internationally. Representatives of international leaders in the advanced industries including Jeppesen, Trimble, Terumo BCT, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, all headquartered in Colorado, led these dynamic and interactive sessions. Participants in the breakouts were able to hear real world examples to get advice, role play, and more.

In the afternoon, attendees actively engaged in 10 person teams, during an interactive supply chain and trade finance simulation, called The Cool Connection, meant to offer greater understanding of the interdependencies within a company, and to improve cross-functional cooperation. At the same time, over 100 individual B2B meetings were held between local and international attendees to discuss international opportunities and challenges, as well as potential joint ventures, distribution relationships, and other partnerships.

The day included over 30 international delegates from 14 different markets, truly bringing the international perspective to World Trade Day this year. As the afternoon simulation was completed on tablets loaned by Microsoft, we took the opportunity to have attendees complete a brief survey about their experience with WTC Denver, what they find most valuable, and what offerings they would like to see in the future. With almost 300 responses, we learned that attendees would like expanded market research-which we have been working on and will launch soon, as well as offering trade missions and more cultural trainings. Responses like these help us to continue improving and expanding our trade services so that WTC Denver can continue to grow and allow international trade to flourish.

Pictures of the entire conference are available here: https://flic.kr/s/aHsk8AK1sf