Trade group payback.  Inverness IT company is first to benefit from trade group participation.
In September 2004, 12 aimhi companies represented Scotland in a networking event in Sweden. The three-day event targeted sectors such as embedded systems, e-learning, multi-media, audio-visual, film, games, software, geo-information, e-commerce, content generation, mobile messaging, and systems integration. There were a diverse selection of international companies on display, ranging from a Georgia Institute of Technology linked e-learning consortium to an Austrian architectural firm doing 3-D modelling for the nuclear industry to a Swedish R&D unit specialising in communication projects for the defence industry.
In January, the Inverness Courier reported that an Inverness based IT company had become the first Scottish participating company to benefit from the visit to Sweden. Since returning from Uppsala, Momentum Business Systems had signed a sales agreement with an Irish company, secured a Swedish offer to deliver a business seminar and has been approached about a publishing deal. There was great interest amongst the Swedes to study how Highlands companies use innovative ways to work in remote, farflung regions.
”We were attracted to aimhi because its members are in control. We have no doubt that aimhi is the most valuable trade organisation to be in”, said John Lavender, Momentum Business Systems marketing director, to the newspaper on the 25th January.
MBS may be the first company to secure a deal from the trade visit, but it is by no means the last. At least two other companies are close to tying up business opportunities from the visit, while all twelve participating companies are upbeat about future outcomes and have been urging for a similar trade event to be staged in 2005.