Florida Pavilion hosts 22 small businesses, largest presence by any state
ORLANDO, Fla. – The world’s largest medical trade fair, MEDICA, again impressively confirmed its position as the global hub in the medical sector. Enterprise Florida, Inc. hosted 22 small businesses in the Florida Pavilion at the November 2016 show held in Düsseldorf, Germany. Those companies reported more than $125 million in total actual and expected export sales following the show. An additional 22 Florida small businesses exhibited outside of the Florida Pavilion at the event.
“Congratulations to all of the Florida companies on their success at MEDICA,” said Manny Mencia, Senior Vice President of International Trade & Development for Enterprise Florida. “We’re so thankful for the 22 companies that joined us in the Florida Pavilion this year and have already heard from many of them that they plan to travel with us to the next MEDICA show. Florida continues to excel at these tradeshows because of the innovative products and services companies can provide and, thanks to their success, the state is recognized around the world as a business super-state.”
This marked the 33rd year for the tradeshow. Over the four days of the fair, approximately 130,000 trade visitors from 70 countries visited, with 40 percent of those attendees coming from countries outside of Germany. More than 5,000 exhibitors displayed a broad spectrum of innovations and new products for ambulant and stationary care.
In addition to assisting the small businesses in the Florida Pavilion, the Enterprise Florida team conducted nearly 50 meetings with global leaders in the medical device manufacturing industry. Enterprise Florida co-sponsored the U.S. Pavilion reception, giving Florida companies an opportunity to meet with U.S. and international medical companies.
Florida Pavilion exhibitors:
- Airon Corporation – Melbourne
- AOTI, Inc. – Tamarac
- Atlas Specialty Lighting – Miami
- Endoscopy Replacement Parts, Inc. – Newberry
- Excite Medical – Tampa
- Gaumard Scientific – Miami
- Genadyne Biotechnologies, Inc. – Fort Lauderdale
- GENICON – Winter Park
- GEO Surgical – Clearwater
- Gulf Fiberoptics, Inc. – Oldsmar
- Infinium Medical – Largo
- Kollsut-USA, LLC – North Miami Beach
- Medicapture Digital Imaging – Stuart
- Mercury Medical – Clearwater
- Medical Safety Innovation/Métier Medical USA – Ponte Vedra Beach
- Neurovirtual, Inc. – Doral
- Orthomerica Products, Inc. – Orlando
- Scar Heal, Inc. – Largo
- Sharn Anesthesia, Inc. – Tampa
- Sunoptic Technologies – Jacksonville
- Tapmedic – Jacksonville
- US Defib Medical Technologies, LLC – Medley
- Vigilante Biosciences – Ft. Lauderdale
“As a small Florida company we depend upon the support of Enterprise Florida in both our organization and financial context to reinforce our international sales goals,” said Darwin Salls, General Manager of Scar Heal in Largo. “The services provided by the team are invaluable to achieving our objective.”
Orthomerica from Orlando exhibited in the Florida Pavilion at the show. The company’s president and CEO, Dave Kerr commented, “MEDICA was again an important trade show for Orthomerica. We were able to meet with several existing distributors and meet other prospective ones. We were able to demonstrate our new products to several important customers, which will undoubtedly bear fruit. The nature of our products is that it takes up to a year and a half from introduction to meaningful sales revenue due to the need for training, etc. Enterprise Florida is the reason we are so successful at the show – all logistics handled – a great use of our tax dollars. Bravo!”
“MEDICA is always a perfect setting for meeting our global distributor base, introducing new products, discussing and evaluating business results, as well as prospecting and evaluating new distributors for new markets,” said Dale Giedd, Director at Gaumard Scientific in Miami. “The venue gives us great exposure for our brand, being one of only a select few vendors in the industry participating. The new sales generated through this event are significant and are generated over time in the markets, which has a knock-on effect for our manufacturing operations.”
EFI maintains an extensive schedule of overseas trade missions and exhibitions worldwide. In fiscal year 2015-16, Florida small and mid-sized businesses reported more than $911 million in total projected export sales following international missions and trade shows. Last year, EFI provided 129 Target Sector Trade Grants totaling nearly $490,000 to qualified show exhibitors. Those small businesses reported more than $426 million in total expected export sales.
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Enterprise Florida, Inc. (EFI) is a partnership between Florida’s businesses and government leaders and is the principal economic development organization for Florida. EFI facilitates job growth through recruitment and retention, international trade and exporting, promotion of sporting events, and capital funding programs to assist small and minority businesses. EFI launched “Florida – The Future is Here” to promote the state as the nation’s premier business destination.