Japan initiative 1 (four people): Tamotsu Sosa, Terry Brewer, Ken-Ichi Yamaguchi and Gary Miller stand beside the Grant County booth display at the Japan Aerospace Exhibition in Yokohama.

GCEDC promoting area at Japanese exhibition Video leads to positive response overseas

GRANT COUNTY — A video promoting the Grant County area in Japanese language is capturing a lot of attention.

Grant County Economic Development Council Executive Director Terry Brewer is in Yokohama, Japan, presenting a seven and a half minute long promotional video at the Japan Aerospace Exhibition.

The video, created by Sunrise Productions, is part of the GCEDC's plan for a marketing initiative to encourage new investment and ventures in the county.

In July, upon announcing the initiative, Brewer said that the GCEDC was working on marketing Grant County to aerospace sectors, particularly those involved with Boeing's new jet, the 7E7. Brewer said that a targeted approach to 35 percent of the 7E7 program would be better than no approach or a shotgun approach to 100 percent.

The ports of Warden, Royal Slope and Mattawa recently committed a combined $5,000 to the initiative, joining the ports of Moses Lake, Ephrata and Quincy in supporting the project.

Caroline Spira, GCEDC manager of communications and research, said some area business and community leaders got to see the video at a Washington CEO magazine function. She showed it at an Ephrata City Council meeting Wednesday night, and planned to show it at the Port of Moses Lake Board of Commissioners meeting Monday.

"We've been getting a lot of positive feedback from the community here," she said. "(The video) has already been shown in Japan, and we've been getting a lot of very very positive feedback to what they see on the video."

The exhibition is one of the largest aerospace trade shows, Spira said. It only occurs every four years in Yokohama, and attracts high level officials. According to Spira' s information, there were 90 exhibitors at the show, and 110,000 people were in attendance at the 2000 show. More are expected for this year.

Other officials might be at the exhibition because they do business with aerospace or related industries, Spira said, so the GCEDC is targeting aerospace industries as well as such manufacturers as electronics or high-volume chemicals.

"The Grant County trade show booth display is located on a corner right on the main aisle of the U.S. Pavilion at the trade show, across from the Boeing company's large display, so it's a central location for Grant County," Spira said.

The video is shown on a continuous loop on a plasma screen at the display, and identifies 10 reasons the county is a good place to do business, including airport facilities, the large areas of low-cost industrial land that is available, the presence of many Japanese companies already established and low-cost electricity.

Spira said that Brewer and the four GCEDC consultants with him have had a series of meetings since arriving in Japan Saturday. They have been keeping the GCEDC abreast of what's going on overseas.

"They've gotten a very good response from the meetings that were set up, and referrals to other companies that these executives felt would be interested in doing business in Grant County," she said. "That's a very positive achievement to be able to do that so early into the initiative, and it's setting a tone for what we can do as we go on."

Spira said that a lengthened, more general English version of the video is being worked on, and DVDs will be available. A version will also be done to promote further sisterhood relations with South Korea, and the GCEDC is working with a number of partners in order to prepare a tourism video as well.

Spira said that Brewer would return from Japan Tuesday.