By Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
Area business and education leaders will return to Ireland this month to continue promoting economic development between the two regions.
The group will be led by Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce Cornerstone Senior Director of International Development Mike Breen.
The travelers will attend “A World of Opportunity” hosted by Ireland’s Atlantic Way June 22-24. Atlantic Way is similar to the chamber’s Cornerstone Regional Development Partnership, which is Jacksonville and Northeast Florida’s regional economic development initiative.
Cornerstone is a private, nonprofit division of the Jacksonville chamber.
“We have developed a great relationship with the Atlantic Way and we are pursuing some exciting opportunities for Jacksonville,” said Breen.
“We will attend two days of meetings, with the first day focusing on global freight logistics with speakers from the Irish Exporters Association, DHL Global Forwarding, Dell’s Global Operations and the Atlantic Way. The second day will be focused on trans-Atlantic academic alliances with the Limerick Institute of Technology,” he said.
Breen will be joined by chamber Chair Hugh Greene, Cornerstone President Jerry Mallot, Florida State College at Jacksonville President Steven Wallace, University of North Florida Continuing Education Dean Robert Wood, Nassau County Economic Development Board Executive Director Steve Rieck and Matt Wood of Landstar Global Logistics.
Cornerstone has been working with the Atlantic Way the past three years to develop relationships between the two regions in the areas of logistics, education, small business development and sports and culture.
One of the key issues to be discussed during the visit will be the development of a rapid response humanitarian aid curriculum that will be taught at FSCJ, UNF, Jacksonville University and the Limerick Institute of Technology.
“The program is being developed to train people to work in aid organizations that help with disasters like the tsunami in Japan or the tornadoes that struck the South,” said Breen. “Students will spend a year at each school during the program.”
The trip also will involve discussion of sports and culture. The organizations are working to bring the “New York Yankees of Rugby,” Munster Rugby, to Jacksonville to train and participate in exhibition matches in 2012.
The groups also are working to develop golf tourism between the two areas.
The Atlantic Way is also similar to Jacksonville in its goals for expansion.
In the Atlantic Way’s Vision 2020 plan, it supports “an international freight logistics center at its Shannon Airport, an Open World-Open Minds program to develop alliances with other “forward-thinking” regions of the world, a “World Innovation Campus to nurture Ireland’s talent base” and a “European transhipment hub on the Shannon Estuary for use by North American, Asian and other interests.”
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