Platteville Trade Delegation Visits Japan
Representatives from UW-Platteville, Grant County Economic Development and Platteville Area Industrial Development Corporation visited Tokyo, Japan from September 27 to October 1, 2005.

The main purpose of the trip was to continue to develop the relationship with NTT-AT (one of the leading companies in Japan) that the 3 organizations have been working on for over a year and ultimately recruit the business to locate an operation in Platteville.

Visiting Japan from UW-Platteville was Dr. Duane Ford, Dean of the College of Business, Industry, Life Sciences and Agriculture and Dr. Charles Cornett, Chair of the Chemistry and Engineering Physics Department. Lon Pluckhahn, Platteville City Manager and George Krueger, Executive Director, Platteville Area Industrial Development Corporation represented Platteville. Ron Brisbois, Executive Director and Ray Saint, President-elect represented Grant County Economic Development Corporation.

Relationships are extremely important to the Japanese business leaders and we took a giant step in the relationship with our visit to Japan. The hospitality was incredible and experiencing Japanese culture firsthand was invaluable in our relationship building efforts, said George Krueger.

The delegation toured the NTT-AT world-class research facilities in Atsugi. A meeting was conducted at the research laboratory on research projects and afterward the delegation socialized with top ranking managers, researchers and executives. The NTT-AT people were impressed that we would travel to Japan to meet with them and experience Japanese culture firsthand. They will visit in November and are seriously looking at Platteville for locating an operation, said Ron Brisbois. This is another critical step in the process of recruiting a world-class business to Grant County.

The delegations also met with 9 other Japanese businesses and consulting companies in the Tokyo area and presented the advantages of doing business in Grant County and Platteville.

Photos provided by:George Krueger, Executive Director, Platteville Area Industrial Development Corporation

PlattevilleLife.com Site Administrator Note:These pictures will give you a better idea what it was like for George Krueger of the Platteville Area Industrial Development Corporation (PAIDC) during his trip. PlattevilleLife looks forward to posting any other great pictures that were taken by others on this trip.