Locate in Kent, the county’s investment promotion agency, helped put Kent firmly on the map at the world’s largest business-to-business ICT event this week.
Almost a quarter of a million ICT professionals from 120 countries visited the German city of Hannover for CeBIT.
This year the UK was partner country for the first time and there was a large UK pavilion, featuring a strong presence from Kent, which was visited by both Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
For the first time at this event, Locate in Kent worked alongside Kent County Council and its Kent International Business programme in order to promote the county as both a business location and a place with which to trade.
Locate in Kent and Kent County Council were accompanied by four successful companies based in the county who are looking to sell their products and services overseas and who could tell delegates just why Kent is such a great place to do business.
They were Elmstone Systems, from Deal; Nova IT Solutions from Stelling Minnis, near Canterbury; Abcum, which has offices in Tunbridge Wells and London; and Zead, from Westwell.
“The ICT sector is a vitally important one for the economy of Kent,” said Paul Wookey, Chief Executive of Locate in Kent.
“There are more than 2,700 technology based companies in Kent, a large number being SMEs; nearly a third are involved with software services and consultancy. There are also 13,000 skilled staff in the sector and a further labour pool of 2,500 in software development; and more than 700 students graduate from our three universities each year with ICT degrees.
“That’s an impressive hi-tech cluster, which we want to build to help drive Kent’s economy forward.”
Three-quarters of those attending CeBIT were key decision makers, people who at some point may be thinking of relocating their company, or expanding further somewhere in Europe.
It is one of a number of major international business exhibitions Locate in Kent attends across a range of key industry sectors.
Mark Dance, Cabinet Member for Economic Development at Kent County Council, said the event had proved valuable for the Kent delegates.
“I discovered that all of us in the European Community are facing similar difficulties with financial constraints,” he said. “However, I was pleasantly surprised by the ‘can do’ attitude of everyone at CeBIT and believe we can all help each other create more jobs in the ICT sector.”
“Our presence at CeBIT was important as it helped us to emphasise Kent’s unique location between London and the rest of Europe,” added Paul Wookey.
“We have great high speed rail links to the capital and across to Paris, Brussels and, thanks to Eurostar’s recent partnership with Deutsche Bahn, German destinations including Bonn, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich, as well as twice daily KLM flights to Amsterdam and beyond from Manston Airport.
“Coupled with Regional Growth Funding, this makes us a great location for companies looking to launch or locate in the UK for the first time – ideally placed to do business in London and Europe, but cheaper than setting up in a big city.”
Picture caption: Representatives from Kent County Council, Locate in Kent and Kent ICT companies Abcum, Zead, Elmstone Systems and Nova IT Solutions, on the Kent stand at CeBIT in Hannover
