Mentor lauded for its global trade efforts

Making the right connections can play an important part in activities such as business and economic development.

But initial connections ideally need to evolve into longterm working relationships to produce a lasting impact.

Based on these two principles, we applaud the city of Mentor for how it is going about nurturing its relationship with an organization from the United Kingdom in an attempt to promote international trade.

A small contingent from the United Kingdom recently visited Mentor for the city’s inaugural International Trade Conference, Oct. 22-24.

The group included several business owners and representatives of Medilink Midlands, a life sciences industry association aimed at helping to establish, develop and grow companies in the Birmingham, England area.

The UK has the third-largest medical technology sector in Europe, and the Midlands has the largest regional cluster in this sector.

Earlier this year, Mentor leaders entered into an agreement to collaborate with Medilink on international trade efforts. The organization has about 300 member companies and a network of more than 8,000 contacts, plus supports and promotes 1,700-plus organizations.

We’re pleased to see that Mentor invited a delegation from Medilink to the conference. It reflects a sincere desire on Mentor’s part to cultivate deeper relations with the group, which hopefully will create future trade opportunities.

In our opinion, Mentor also made a smart move to schedule the conference at the same time as Cleveland Clinic’s Medical Innovation Summit, which the group from the United Kingdom attended. During its visit, the group’s agenda also was packed with visits to Lakeland Community College’s Health Technologies building, STERIS Corp, Case Western Reserve University and BioEnterprise Corp. in Cleveland.

Meetings also were arranged with key economic development officials in the area, such as representatives from Team NEO and the Lake County Ohio Port and Economic Development Authority.

Clearly, Mentor ensured that the delegation made the most of its visit to Northeast Ohio.

Keith Widdowson, Medilink Midlands chairman, cited the importance of the memorandum of understanding signed previously between Medilink and the city of Mentor. He also said attending the Mentor conference “seemed a great opportunity to get a small group over from the UK to see what we can do to collaborate, incorporate and develop relations, and take the business forward from here.”

With Mentor proving to be attentive and thoughtful hosts, Widdowson said Medilink wants to return the favor in the near future.

“We’re hoping to get a delegation (from Mentor) over to the UK next year to make more progress and cement relations.”

Mentor leaders traveled to the Midlands in the spring as part of its annual mission to Germany’s Hannover Messe, the world’s largest international trade show.

“The main theme is better understanding the advantages of biomedical companies in the state of Ohio and the city of Mentor, recognizing the strong biomedical cluster that exists in Northeast Ohio,” Mentor City Manager Ken Filipiak said.

“We are exposing companies to beneficial partner organizations, and to the tools and business advantages of the region, should they be interested in doing business in the biomedical sector.”

Advantages include the relatively low cost of doing business this area, as compared to other biomedical hubs in the nation.

“They are able to identify our community and our program as an asset,” Filipiak said.

“We like to think of our city as a soft landing for companies who are maybe looking to do business in the U.S.”

Mentor, in turn, will be supporting Medilink stateside. Filipiak noted similarities in the Greater Birmingham and Greater Cleveland areas, such as a common work ethic, as well as business sector.

Give credit to Mentor for choosing a well-suited partner for an international trade collaboration.

“We don’t do this randomly,” Filipiak said. “We try to identify these areas of common sectors and try to take advantage of that.”

Also, it’s good to see that Mentor views its efforts to bolster international trade opportunities as more of a marathon than a sprint.

As Mentor Economic Development Director Kevin Malecek stated, it takes time to build such relationships to the point of this level of investment.

We believe that Mentor is taking the right steps in building an enduring international trade collaboration with Medilink.

Hopefully these efforts will pay off for both entities in the years to come.