Innovation

We had been very pleased to welcome 44 IT and cleantech startups for the Global Tech Showcase GTS and the Transatlantic Green Platform TGP last week in La Baule among all the 800 speakers, attendees and exhibitors of La Baule World Investment Conference WIC.

Among the 44 IT and cleantech startups :
-> 32 exhibited at GTS :
- 18 from the US, 11 from Europe  & 1 from Israel, 1 from Canada and 1 from New Zealand
-> 12 exhibited at TGP : 
- 5 from the US, 6 from Europe & 1 from Canada.

Last year, we also welcomed 44 startups : 26 CTS08 and 18 TGP 
-> 26 for CTS (previous name of GTS) :
- 18 from the US & 8 from Europe
-> 18 for TGP
- 7 from the US & 11 from Europe

This year, we also focused on the local startups to make them meet the foreign ones. 
It had been a good opportunity for OBEO to be shown (OBEO was one of the exhibitors, so this company could have had some interesting planned business meetings).
Obeo is a member of Alliance Libre, the association that gathers the companies involved in free software in the Nantes area.

OBEO took the opportunity to be one of the exhibitors thanks to the WIN Atlantic programme which aim is to develop a European network gathering innovative startups, science parks and universities.

It was also a good mean for the startups of Atlantic 2.0 to have some good contacts. The Atlantic 2.0 network gathers companies that want to develop meetings and the information  in the web, innovation and digital creation sectors. 

In other words, it was really useful to let the attendees/exhibitors of the GTS know that the Western France territory has some innovative and promising companies. So the foreign companies could understand what our territory could offer if they want to develop their business here. 
That’s also why we organised a leisure programme in the Friday afternoon, so the American and European startups visited a part of Western France (especially in Saint Nazaire).

Who will be the next GTS exhibitors in 2010 ? If you want to develop your business in Europe, be prepared to be one.