An NIABT delegation including six MLAs and nine business representatives took part in a week long educational programme during the first week of June this year. The programme started off in Washington DC where Norman Houston, Director at the Northern Ireland Bureau in Washington, D.C. had arranged two days of intensive meetings and presentations. The first meeting was with David Slack, Vice President, Government Affairs Bombardier and Ashleigh de la Torre, Principal at The Bockorny Group and during the stay in Washington D.C., the group also met with Ambassador David O’Sullivan, Head of the Delegation of the European Union, Congressman Richard Neal and Gerri Fiala: Deputy Assistant Secretary of Employment and Training Administration, US Department of Labor.
The group then moved on to Baltimore for meetings with members of the Greater Baltimore Committee, Mike Gill, Secretary of the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development and Mark Montgomery, President and CEO of Ports America.
The week ended with attendance at the two day New York New Belfast Conference where NIABT members were directly involved with a number of break out sessions on a variety of topics such as Transformational Projects in Cities on the Rise and How can Belfast make itself a must-visit destination for Irish Americans?