The provision of trade missions aimed at connecting ConnectEO beneficiaries with the relevant stakeholders from the targeted country and sector. Within ConnectEO four (4) trade missions have been organized – to Australia in agriculture sector, to Australia in maritime sector, to Chile in agriculture sector, and to Chile in maritime sector. Here is an overview of the actions and outcomes for the Australian part.
The ConnectEO partners engaged FrontierSI for the Australian market, as a specialised technical spatial services firm with a proven track record in industry engagement, innovation and facilitation to deliver a B2B program between late March to mid July 2022 and organize the online Trade Mission to Australia in both agriculture and maritime sectors.
Methodology
FrontierSI was working with 13 ConnectEO SMEs targeting Australian market, 4 of them were focusing on agriculture, and 6 on both sectors (maritime and agriculture), and 3 on maritime.
The Trade Mission was divided into 3 days, each of them dedicated to different topic:
- Day 1 was a generic introduction presenting the opportunities in Australia and the current relevant topics for business
- Day 2 focused on agriculture sector
- Day 3 targeted maritime sector in Australia
Regarding the B2B meetings for SMEs, several tools were chosen to support the beneficiaries:
- Community catalogue, where ConnectEO SMEs could promote their profiles and express their needs and expectations regarding partnerships and prospects they are looking for
- Trade mission follow up sessions, where B2B sessions were organized after the talks
- Meetings organized by FrontierSI, who got in touch entities via email and scheduled and hosted the calls through Zoom platform.
Main outcomes
In total, 46 meetings were organized by FrontierSI with Australian stakeholders in agriculture sector and 42 meetings in the maritime sector. ConnectEO SMEs interested in agriculture sector in Australia were introduced to 140 stakeholders, 161 stakeholders for the maritime sector. The impact of created links and conducted introductions will surpass the duration of the project, boosting the internationalization of beneficiaries in a long-term perspective.
Conclusion and remarks
The Australian Trade Mission was a success – each day gathered 50 attendees. Participants reported enjoying the events, finding value from the speakers, learning new things and would recommend to their colleagues. Presenters and Australian attendees very much enjoyed the opportunity to meet with the European SMEs.
European companies will benefit from a market with a great potential, and in turn, Australian companies and organizations will benefit from greater visibility in the international market, as well as better positioning at European level.
Internationalization activities between European companies and local Australian stakeholders have proved useful and even needed by the EU SMEs to support them in their export activities abroad the EU.
