Category: News

At 6pm on Monday, May 1, San Diego greeted Condor Airlines’ first ever flight from Frankfurt, Germany. Condor begins seasonal, nonstop service between San Diego and Frankfurt with up to three flights weekly.

“Germany is one of San Diego’s most important foreign markets. By providing nonstop service to Frankfurt from San Diego, we’re opening new doors to global markets that will attract exports and lucrative foreign investment for the region,” said City of San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer.

As a key global partner to the San Diego region, Germany currently ranks fourth in terms of foreign employment (2015) and seventh in terms of total exports from San Diego (2013).

Ringing in this new flight, more than 100 San Diego business and tourism officials joined WTC San Diego at Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens – Liberty Station for a kickoff event this Tuesday. Attendees included San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer; Jens Boyd, group head of long-haul, Condor Airlines; April Boling, board chairman, San Diego County Regional Airport Authority; Greg Koch, founder and Chairman, Stone Brewing; and Consul General Hans Jörg Neumann, Consulate General Germany Los Angeles. Stone Brewing Co is the only U.S. brewer to fully own and operate a brewery in Europe.

Besides Frankfurt, the service will provide travelers with convenient one-stop access to European destinations such as Paris, Vienna, Prague, Venice, Berlin, Rome, Zagreb and many more.

This year, San Diego International Airport will double its intercontinental routes. In addition to its current service to Tokyo, London and the new route to Frankfurt, it will also add a new flight to Zurich, Switzerland later this year.

“Unemployment rates are stabilizing across the region, as jobs are being filled more quickly and new businesses are coming online at the fastest rate we’ve seen in a year. Some of our biggest and best paying employers are those who are looking to hire right now.” – Phil Blair, President and CEO, Manpower

Each month the California Employment Development Department (EDD) releases unemployment data for the prior month. This edition of San Diego’s Economic Pulse covers March data, including unemployment data, new business establishments, job postings and who’s hiring in San Diego.

Highlights include:

• With a total of 4,601 new establishments, March saw the largest number of new establishments in the past 12 months.
• San Diego’s unemployment rate of 4.2 continues to be lower than both the California rate of 5.1 percent and the national rate of 4.6 percent.
• Compared to a year ago, total nonfarm employment is up 29,600, or 2.1 percent, with 22,900 of those jobs coming from the private sector.

Read San Diego’s Economic Pulse here.

Last time San Diego hosted BIO in 2014, San Diego companies were inundated with requests for meetings from visitors looking to make connections outside of the convention center. After all, if you are going to visit one of the world’s preeminent biotech hubs, you better take advantage of your surroundings. Many of these meetings result in inbound investment opportunities for San Diego businesses and research institutions.

WTC San Diego, in partnership with Biocom, has launched discoversdbio.com, a website that will track, vet and expand investment opportunities for San Diego businesses during the BIO International Convention

The 2017 BIO International Convention, the world’s leading biotechnology conference, comes to San Diego June 19 – June 21. In 2017, BIO is projected to attract more than 16,500 attendees, with more than 2,000 individuals coming from international destinations. These delegations, comprised of venture capitalists, foreign dignitaries, private companies and others, collectively send hundreds of requests to businesses and organizations for tours and meetings outside of the San Diego Convention Center.

Foreign investment (FDI) is an integral part of San Diego’s life sciences cluster. In Q1 2017 alone,

San Diego’s life sciences cluster received more than $1.7 billion in FDI – more than 75 percent of the region’s total FDI during that quarter.

Discoversdbio.com will function as a one-stop-shop for delegations seeking opportunities in the broader San Diego community during BIO 2017. The tool will streamline requests, improve the tracking of visitors and strengthen the follow through. Delegations are directed to a website that captures contact information, delegation make-up, requested company tours and more.

“The annual BIO convention offers significant opportunities for companies to network at the conference, and because San Diego has a vibrant life sciences ecosystem, many visiting delegations are eager to make connections outside of the conference,” said Jennifer Landress, senior vice president and COO at Biocom. “However, sifting through a high volume of requests can be difficult. This tool will help track and vet the opportunities for San Diego organizations, giving them the information they need to make the decisions about which meetings to hold.”

San Diego life sciences companies and/or research institutions that are interested in hosting delegations, please contact Drew Garrison at dg@sandiegobusiness.org to be added to the website.

San Diego Regional EDC, the parent organization of WTC San Diego, will also be running subsequent programming during BIO 2017 as a way to market the region and attract additional inbound investment. EDC will launch an economic impact study on San Diego’s genomics industry, making San Diego the first region in the U.S. to quantify its genomics industry.

This week, World Trade Center San Diego and UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy (GPS) hosted Former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta at the second Global Forum program of the year. Prime Minister Letta, currently dean of the Paris School of International Affairs at Sciences Po, addressed the causes of Brexit and the ensuing European Migration Crisis drawing from his experiences as head of state of an EU border country.

The presentation touched on the linkages between major world events leading up to now, the future of the EU in light of upcoming French and German elections and flashpoints to monitor should internal negotiations in the EU fail to deliver workable solutions. During the Q&A session following the keynote, Prime Minister Letta expanded on the bureaucratic process of Brexit negotiations and the effect a final deal would have on stakeholders in the global market.

Sponsored by Bank of America, the Global Forum series is a partnership between GPS and WTC San Diego to give high-profile visiting scholars at UC San Diego a chance to address the region’s local business community. The third and final Global Forum of 2017 will take place on May 9. Alan Beebe, President of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, will present on the opportunities and challenges American businesses face in an increasingly competitive and complex Chinese market. Join us.

According to the Brookings Institution, more than 98 percent of San Diego’s economic growth is going to come from focusing on companies already in the region. While poaching companies from other states may command headlines, focusing on helping companies already in San Diego is what will actually move the needle. And according to the Kauffman Foundation, one of the primary reasons a startup or company chooses to grow in a region is because of its talent pool.

So how do we ensure that San Diego has the workforce to compete?

We start by telling a cohesive story. San Diego wears many hats – we have a high concentration of tech jobs. We’re one of the top life sciences ecosystems in the country. And we’re also a pretty awesome place to live. This is what the research tells us.

But when you’re marketing a region, perception – not fact – is reality.

At EDC, everything we do begins and ends with research. Understanding our story and strengths is no different. With the help of two local firms, we set out to test baseline perceptions of our region. What we found is that many senior level HR managers feel like they are missing out on key recruits because these potential employees don’t know what San Diego has to offer, both in terms of career progression and lifestyle. EDC set out to figure out what our message is, what makes us different from other regions and how we tell that story to the rest of the world.

Since January, EDC has shared this message platform with more than 100 regional companies and organizations – our Brand Alliance. Next up, we are building out a website that will look at unique neighborhoods, companies and activities and a digital toolkit (fast facts, logos, imagery, etc.). The goal is to arm companies with the resources they need to better tell San Diego’s story to the world.

Our Brand Alliance is comprised of diverse companies and opinions, but we’ve all agreed on one thing: San Diego’s story is worth telling.

Interested in joining the alliance? Click here.

For questions or sponsorship, please contact Sarah Lubeck at sl@sandiegobusiness.org.

Each year at our Annual Dinner, EDC honors a business executive who has demonstrated outstanding leadership in addressing challenges and making significant contributions to improving our region. We are honored to announce Thella F. Bowens as the 2017 Honoree of the Herb Klein Civic Leadership Award.

The Herb Klein Civic Leadership Award is presented by:

Thella Bowens was appointed the first president and CEO of the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority in 2003. In this role, Ms. Bowens was responsible for management oversight of the Airport Authority and its operating budget, which generates more than $9 billion in annual economic impact for the region.

Throughout Ms. Bowens tenure, she has been dedicated to expanding route service domestically and internationally, and making our region a more competitive business and tourism destination. Under her leadership, San Diego International Airport has grown to become the busiest, single-runway in the country. San Diego now has non-stop daily service to London, Tokyo and Los Cabos. Beginning later this year, we will also have non-stop daily service to Frankfurt and Zurich. Building upon its infrastructure, the airport has expanded Terminal 2 and added a new Rental Car Center. Ms. Bowens has worked tirelessly with the business community to promote San Diego as a global destination.

Ms. Bowens is a member of the California Airports Council Board of Directors, a member of the World Governing Board of Airports Council International, and a board member of the American Association of Airport Executives Policy Review Committee.

Locally, she is a member of the boards of San Diego Regional EDC, San Diego Tourism Authority, San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce and Kyoto Symposium Organization. Ms. Bowens has previously served on the boards of the San Diego United Way, the San Diego Symphony and the National Conflict Resolution Center.

Please join us at SeaWorld on April 20 to celebrate Thella Bowens and more.

In preparation for BIO 2017, Biocom and World Trade Center San Diego developed a digital platform to help facilitate meetings between inbound delegations and local organizations. The website collects key data points such as size of delegation, country of origin, industry of interest, plans for future investment and more. The tool connects delegations to the appropriate representatives and provides companies and institutions a resource to vet inbound delegations and more efficiently allocate their time. Check it out at discoversdbiz.com.