Creating Connections to Grow: City of Surprise

by Mike Langley

The City of Surprise has received an innovation award for working with international companies landing in the U.S. that have chosen Surprise as their landing point. Those companies are taken through programming that supports their success. AZ TechCelerator, a city-owned West Valley business innovation center, offers international businesses a unique Global Concierge Services program, otherwise known as a “Soft Landing” program.

The program is intended to help international companies who want to expand into the U.S. market with less upfront costs and risks but with more support resources. In March 2018, the International Business Incubation Association (lnBIA) formally accepted the program into the Global Soft Landings Network. It is now one of 31 members in more than eight countries with lnBIA Soft Landings designation.

Launching this program and achieving the formal designation at the AZ TechCelerator was both a competitive and an enormous accomplishment that brings tremendous benefits to the West Valley, including elevated global branding, visibility, credibility and opportunities to collaborate with lnBIA on international projects and grant proposals. AZ TechCelerator has already initiated several agreements with international companies, including: Glympt (Portugal), Excoro (Romania), Tellspec (Canada), Valtx (Canada), Meditar (Argentina) and MagQu (Taiwan). 

Global Chamber® member Meditar leveraged the location to do a $US multi-million deal with Scottsdale-based healthcare technology provider and fellow Global Chamber® member GlobalMed, a global telemedicine leader. Connections matter, and so, when AZ TechCelerator and Global Chamber work with members like Meditar to create valuable connections, there is no stone unturned. In this case, a successful connection was made and now telemedicine solutions from Arizona are rolling out across Argentina.

The Surprise AZ TechCelerator Global Concierge Program stands out because it is a first-of-its-kind to directly connect global companies to the West Valley of Metro Phoenix. The AZ TechCelerator, itself, has helped foster more than 500 West Valley jobs, and this innovative program stands to even further diversify the job growth in the West Valley in the long term. The Surprise Economic Development Department utilizes the strengths of its successful business incubation program to help remove costs, risks and obstacles to foreign-owned companies. 

Congratulations, Jeanine Jerkovic and the entire team at City of Surprise, for your innovation and winning this award! We were pleased to participate in the process of supporting client success and in the awards ceremony!

Mike Langley is deputy director of Global Chamber® Phoenix.

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