KCMO International Business Community Update

Conferences/Tradeshows

Global Entrepreneurship Congress 2016 – Medellin, Colombia

Narbeli Galindo, the EDC’s Director of International Affairs, represented Kansas City, Missouri at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress 2016 in Medellin, Colombia from March 13th to March 17th, 2016. Kansas City, Missouri was named as one of the top 5 emerging cities in the world for entrepreneur ecosystems at last year’s event in Milan, Italy. The 2016 event featured speakers, companies, and guests from more than 160 countries around the world. Among those were entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, policy makers and other startup champions looking for opportunities to expand their business worldwide.

Topics Covered:

– Discussion among leaders from Guatemala, Dominica Republic, New Zealand, and Argentina about Startup Nations
– Guest speaker from Google, mentioning Google Fiber in Kansas City, Missouri
– Priceline and VivaColombia Presidents and CEOs talking about how they both started their successful companies
– Mayor of Medellin, Colombia addresses for the event
– Award Ceremony with companies from Jamaica, Vietnam, and Moldova

Foreign Direct Investments In KCMO

Qbox Creaciones (Madrid, Spain)

Laura Jevremovitch, the founder of Qbox, a revolutionary construction system in cardboard company featuring a wide range of applications, returned to Kansas City, Missouri for the 4th time, and has plans to set up operations in Kansas City in Summer 2016. During her time in Kansas City, she presented at the 1 Million Cups event on March 23rd and met with Science City at Union Station and the Nelson Atkins Museum of Fine Arts for possible future collaboration.

IntelAg (Santiago, Chile) 

2015 LaunchKC Award recipient, IntelAg, offers climate and soil monitoring services using a variety of wireless sensors and an online platform. LaunchKC provides one year of free office space, free business consultation, and $50K to help promising startups grow their businesses in Kansas City, Missouri. This was Nikita Gulin’s, CEO/Co-Founder of IntelAg, second trip to Kansas City, Missouri and this time around, he was able to connect and meet with multiple agribusiness organizations. Galindo also assisted with connections to the Agriculture Business council and key leaders such as Mayor Pro Tem- Scott Wagner. Gulin also sat on a 1 Million Cups expert panel, offering valuable advice to startup companies in the region. He will be returning back to Kansas City, Missouri in Summer 2016.

Dignitary Visits To KCMO

Consulate General of Canada- Chicago
Consul General Roy Norton (pictured above) met with Mayor Pro-Tem Scott Wagner, and Narbeli Galindo on April 8th to discuss a variety of collaborations and to look for ways to further promote cultural and trade relationships in Kansas City, Missouri.

Consulate General of United Kingdom- Chicago
Consul General Stephen Bridges met with Mayor Sly James, and Narbeli Galindo on April 11th to discuss and look for ways to promote cultural, trade and rugby relationships. This was also the first trip back to Kansas City, Missouri for Consul General Bridges after the successful British Pop-up Consulate in October 2015.