We have been encouraged by various people in the know to get a facebook page. After all, it is a network with more than 800 million active users…
So, we have finally overcome our reticence and gone for it. We now proudly present our facebook page to the world. We are keen to be liked, and hope that we can get our “like this” total in to double figures! So do visit our page and press that button. Many thanks! 
Our colleague Richard who is based in Germany has been in the UK to follow up our interests in renewable energy:
This week Manchester played host to RenewableUK 2011 one of the UK’s leading wind, marine and tidal energy industry events. More than 300 companies exhibited, and over 5,000 delegates from around the world attended the conference.
This year’s event took place in light of the UK’s government recent publication of proposals for the levels of banded support available for large scale renewable electricity generation under the Renewables Obligation for the period 2013-17 in England and Wales. The Scottish Government also published a consultation paper (Oct 21) on changes to the Renewables Obligation (Scotland) with consultation closing on 13th January 2012. Information on both announcements and details of the consultation process can be found on the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s website http://www.decc.gov.uk/.
The three introductory speeches at RenewableUK all focused on the significant opportunity the wind sector offers in the UK, especially with the plans to significantly expand the offshore wind capacity around the UK coastline by 2020. It was quoted that the UK should be able to create up to 80,000 new jobs from investments in the wind sector alone. There is certainly a huge opportunity here for communities to attract significant inward investment projects (20 new factories were highlighted as possible) and at the same time develop their indigenous companies with experience in subsea engineering etc. gained from the oil and gas and offshore sectors.
There does remain however a danger that if the necessary investment in port infrastructure is not made quickly enough then the turbines and other major components for offshore projects will simply be shipped from overseas ports with access to the North Sea. In this respect the German government’s announcement, made after the Fukushima disaster, to switch off all its nuclear power stations by 2022 and invest heavily in renewable energy (notably offshore wind) and energy efficiency technologies should be noted. The government there has recently increased its offshore wind tariff to 19 Eurocents / kwh for projects completed from 2012 onwards and it has also launched a € 5 billion co-investment fund for offshore wind financing, managed by the government KfW Bank. Two projects have already won financing deals from this fund (Meerwind and Global Tech I) and we can expect to see the German offshore wind sector now enter a period of commercial development in the next two years and beyond, competing for investment, components and know-how with other European locations.
Contact us if you want to learn more about this opportunity.
The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich has been looking at the power and connections of corporations. In an article in New Scientist the Zurich team of researchers has looked at the world’s 37 million companies, identifying 43,060 transnational corporations, of which a core of 1,318 are connected to each other, forming the backbone of the global economy. Within this group, 147 of the companies are classified as highly connected to each other, accounting for 40% of the total wealth of the core network. Many of the super-connected are financial institutions, with Barclays plc placed at the top of the list. No surprise then that Financial Services has been one of the top three FDI sectors over the last decade…
Business process outsourcing (BPO) continues to play a big part in the FDI market. We are aware of several large BPO projects currently mobile in Europe. These projects can create a lot of jobs and bring the latest processes and technologies to a location. A win-win for investment promotion agencies! Next week in London, the International Outsourcing Forum will be looking at the latest trends in BPO and location selection, and the delegate list of corporates attending looks pretty impressive.
Brazil is coming to London soon for an FDI event. This continental country is the fifth largest in the world with a population of over 192 million. It is the world’s 8th largest economy and is growing fast. Exports are booming and it has lots of high tech as well as the high life.
It has also produced the coolest place marketing video
Brazil is definitely on Location Connections’ radar!
The tech geeks that we work with are thrilled by gamification. This latest buzzword in the ICT world relates to the concept of game-like activities being applied to a non-game context.
Using game tactics such as giving prizes for participation and encouraging achievement is being used by companies such as Foursquare, Topshop, and various mobile phone operators. Case studies show that rewarding customer behaviour can deepen the engagement process, helping to increase loyalty and improve the profiling and understanding of the customers.
Is gamification something that can be incorporated in the place marketing mix? We have seen some locations use this tactic (for example Scotland - see the Slainte post below), and believe it can be effective, as long as the reward on offer has a good fit with the specific promotional message being put forward, and that it is relevant and useful to the target audience. So let us play - get your best game on!
Happy birthday to fDi Magazine currently celebrating it’s tenth birthday!
As the premier publication for the FDI market, it is a valuable read for corporates going cross-border, their advisers, and the investment promotion agencies seeking to attract the corporates.
We are very honoured to be the European columnist for fDi Magazine since 2006.
Looking forward, there are the upcoming European Cities and Regions of the Future 2012/13 fDi rankings, where the European investment promotion agencies get to showcase their achievements and advantages.
The deadline for entry is Wednesday 2nd November 2011, and publication of the rankings will be in February 2012.
http://forms.fdiintelligence.com/europeancitiesandregionsofthefuture/index.php
We are big fans of cities as centres of innovation. London is one of the world’s top business and FDI locations, and an interesting report on London’s Innovators assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the city in supporting innovation.
Just back from an industry event where it was wave upon wave of people droning on using powerpoint slides. Surely the art of good storytelling is not dead?
Can we make the FDI industry a more interesting place by banning powerpoint slide presentations? With the amazing tech now available, there are many great ways of presenting your story. Let’s get creative!
FDI lead generation is an exciting mix of art and science. Although we have been doing it for a very long time, we still aren’t bored with it.
One of our methods which keeps things interesting, is our study of business body language. All businesses have characteristics and if you look at the signals, you can see if they are ready for/thinking about/would benefit from cross-border investment. Especially now that they are using social media, there is a whole range of things to look out for to find out if they are the one for you.
If you want to learn more about our approach to lead generation, do get in contact.
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