The Americas Competitiveness Forum (ACF) is a business focused conference, where companies interact with one another, conduct meetings with over 30 foreign government delegations from throughout the Hemisphere, and learn about market opportunities directly from foreign governments and our own Foreign Commercial Service. We received very positive feedback from the private sector on previous forums and expect this year’s event to be even better! For further details on ACF 2010, please visit http://ping.fm/v4grW

The ACF’s main tracks are:

· Innovation and Green Technologies

· Education and Workforce Development

· Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development
· Supply Chain Connections


Why would your organization want to be involved in the Americas Competitiveness Forum?

Insight on Market Opportunities: The ACF is a unique combination of a business conference coupled with a policy brainstorming session. Governments from the Hemisphere are coming prepared to share market opportunities in their countries with the private sector. Additionally, our Senior Commercial Service Officers (SCOs) who are posted at the U.S. embassies throughout the Americas will be in Atlanta to conduct one-on-one export counseling sessions with interested U.S. businesses who register for this service. These sessions will be held on Wednesday, November 17, 2010.

Opportunity to Shape Policy: The ACF panels will be interactive discussions on pressing topics relevant to the competitiveness of the region. This is a perfect opportunity to let governments know about the kind of problems your company/organization encounters when trying to do business in the region and make a positive difference for the future economic prosperity of the Americas.

Dynamic Participants: The last three ACF events have welcomed up to 1000 high-level government and private sector participants. More than 30 countries from the Western Hemisphere brought high-level delegations, including country delegations lead by presidents and vice presidents.

Interaction with Government Delegations: The Department of Commerce will help facilitate meetings between companies and the foreign government officials who attend the ACF. This is a wonderful opportunity to meet with representatives from many different countries and only travel to Atlanta!

For more information please contact: Tom Strauss, Tel: 404-897-6080, Fax: 404-897-6085, Email: Thomas.strauss@trade.gov