The 2011 Canadian Manufacturing Technology Show was held at the Direct Energy Centre in Toronto this past week, and Buffalo Niagara Enterprise was there to meet prospective companies face to face and promote expansion opportunities in our region.  Known as Canada's premier national manufacturing event, the roughly 250 exhibitors and over 2,000 attendees at CMTS also included a very strong presence of U.S. and European based manufacturing companies.  

A wide variety of companies participated at CMTS ranging from large original equipment manufacturers to smaller parts suppliers and distributors and large global companies to small family owned firms.  BNE met with 24 separate companies during our two-day participation at the show, generating 4 new project leads.  One of these leads is a dental manufacturing company, a subsector of life sciences that we targeted extensively last year.  Our presence at CMTS further validates our attraction efforts north of the border. 

The fact that buildings consume 40% of all energy, 72% of all electricity generated and account for 38% of all CO2 emissions are just a few reasons why "Sustainable Buildings" is the topic of the next installment in the Business of Energy series sponsored by BNE, Directed Energy and our colleagues and investors at Hodgson Russ LLP.  This event will take place on Thursday, November 17, 2011 at the Buffalo Niagara Marriott and will be preceded by a pre-conference reception the night before at Frank Lloyd Wright's Darwin Martin House.  Click here for more information on how to register for the two events.   

The conference agenda will consist of an exploration of three LEED Certified facilities - the Bank of America Building in New York City, Stratus Vineyards in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario and Ecology and Environment in our own backyard in Lancaster - that represent important lessons in sustainable buildings.  Architects and key representatives from each project will discuss the history behind these signature green buildings, challenges they overcame and ongoing improvements and documentation of performance.  This is one program that environmentally conscious companies and developers won't want to miss.

If you missed it in last Sunday's Buffalo News, click here to read Emma Sapong's article entitled "City of Hidden Treasures."  The article does a wonderful job of giving life to what Sapong calls "the urban legend" of people who may reluctantly move to western New York and then never want to leave.  It's a dynamic that we often deal with as a part of our business attraction efforts, but because of our wonderful quality of life that is unique to our region, it is oftentimes what puts our community over the top and helps us convince a company to invest and do their project here. 

The article features transplanted professionals whose perceptions of our region changed so dramatically that they have now become ambassadors for our community.  It references a number of affordability and quality of life assets that can be found on our regional accolades page on our website.  It also identifies the very real challenges we have in overcoming antiquated perceptions and stereotypes while zeroing in on one very important and undeniable fact - our region's "hidden attractiveness is an economic development opportunity waiting to be unleashed."

Thomas A. Kucharski

President & CEO

takucharski@buffaloniagara.org

Buffalo Niagara Enterprise

Regional Economic Development

Research, Marketing & Business Attraction

Contact Us.

1.800.916.9073