Rhode Island Companies Attend World's Largest Medical Trade Fair
December 22, 2008 | Print this page | Share This |
In November 2008, the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation partnered with the U.S. Commercial Service, a federal trade promotion unit of the International Trade Administration, to help four leading Rhode Island medical companies participate in the “Best of New England Pavilion” at MEDICA 2008 in Dusseldorf, Germany.
Participating Rhode Island companies were: Concordia, a medical textile company based in Warwick; Guill Tool and Engineering, a company that supplies precision extrusion dies to medical tube manufacturers; American Kuhne, a producer of extruders, screws, and systems that help manufacture a wide range of products including medical tubing; and OST Medical, a manufacturer of enteral feeding devices.
The Best of New England Pavilion was coordinated by the State International Trade Offices from New Hampshire, Maine, Connecticut and Rhode Island in order to showcase leading New England medical technologies and help participating companies gain international exposure and identify new foreign business partners.
“Concordia serves a very specific technical market niche, and with the help of the RIEDC and Commercial Service Representatives we were able to uncover several excellent leads in Germany with regenerative implant companies and scientists at leading research institutions,” said Art Burghouwt, Concordia executive vice president. “The RIEDC was instrumental in organizing travel plans and exhibition booth details, forwarding leads and communicating other activities and promotional opportunities related to MEDCIA.”
With 137,000 trade visitors from more than 100 countries and 4,313 exhibitors, MEDICA is the world’s largest medical trade fair. Despite the worldwide financial crisis, MEDICA attracted record numbers of participants. German trade shows have an international reputation of being venues where decisions are made on-site and deals are negotiated. According to a survey given by the MEDICA organizer to all participants, 90 percent of trade visitors were involved in high level investment decisions.
