First of all, here at the press office of the French Trade Commission UBIFRANCE in London, we hope that you had an enjoyable end-of-year break and that the new year has started in positive fashion for you.
Despite the widely reported travails affecting the British and European economy right now, more particularly in matters monetary, fiscal and financial, we are finding that, as in previous years, January is a busy period with many clients — existing and potential — contacting us in order to finalize their blueprints (and budgets) for PR campaigns extending into 2012.
Among our existing clients, Ports of Normandy Authority (PNA), which manages and owns the French ports of Caen-Ouistreham and Cherbourg, has renewed its contract with us for 2012. There will be a lot to talk about in relation to PNA in coming months, if only because the port of Cherbourg has won a big contract from transport-and-engineering group Alstom, in connection with the construction of wind turbines. The wind turbines in question are due to be assembled in the region with a view to being deployed in the Channel, where several large offshore wind farms are being planned by the French and the British authorities.
Another of our key clients, CIV Corse, the syndicate of Corsican winegrowers, has also renewed its contract with us, so that we will continue to promote a range of quality Corsican wines throughout 2012. We have pledged not to miss a single wine tasting that CIV Corse may organise in the UK this year...
Among our new clients, ARIANE commercialises a unique variety of apple under the same name, whose origins can be traced back to the orchards of Central Asia.
Thanks to the fact the ARIANE apple is naturally resistant to apple scab — a fungus (Ventura inaequalis) that attacks apple trees — the amount of chemicals needed to treat ARIANE apples can be cut by 50%, as compared to ordinary varieties. Besides, ARIANE apples, which have been on the market since 2003, are particularly tasty and keep very well. All this makes ARIANE apples very attractive to consumers.
ARIANE will attend the Fruit Logistica trade show in Berlin (in February, from 8 to 10), and the press office is going to issue a press release very shortly about the ARIANE apple, so as to alert the British media to its unique health and environmental benefits, apart from its intrinsic quality.
Closer to home, the press office is sending a total of five journalists to Paris to take part in a press trip on the topic of e-health at the end of January. The press trip, at the French end, is organised by ParisRegion, the economic development agency for Paris and its region.
Three British journalists will join two Nordic ones (from Denmark and Sweden) in the French capital over two days (26 and 27 January), which will give them the opportunity to learn more about new technologies and electronic systems, as applied to the management of healthcare in the Paris region.
Among the companies that the press delegation will visit is Diabeo, a pioneer in innovative solutions that monitor diabetes, taking advantage of the most advanced web and mobile technologies that are available. Acclaimed by its first users — both doctors and patients — Diabeo aims to optimise the management of diabetes; pharmaceuticals group Sanofi has been instrumental in the deployment of Diabeo.
Still in the field of technology, French companies were very much in evidence on the UBIFRANCE Pavilion at the BETT show, held at Olympia (in London) from 11 to 14 January. The BETT show (formerly known as the British Educational Training and Technology Show) is one of Europe’s biggest trade fairs on technology applied to education, the trend being towards mobile and computerized applications, which enable you to brush up on your conversational Uzbek while on the move. (I have tried it and recommend it — conversational Uzbek, I mean.)
Several other, recent trade events have been of direct interest to us at the French Trade Commission UBIFRANCE in London, such as Top Drawer (15 to 17 January), which specialises in gifts, stationery items, and well-being products, or the Independent Winegrowers’ B2B event organised by our colleagues in the Food & Drink Department at Lord’s Cricket Ground on 18 January. Apart from the fantastic venue, it was hard to resist the temptation to try all the fine wines presented by the 80 French participants, whose winemaking expertise more than makes up for their lack of any knowledge of cricket. (Then again, being good at cricket would not necessarily help you produce good wines.)
We will have more exciting trade events and press trips to talk to you about in the coming months, and the range of topics and sectors we cover remains broad and varied, even if this bulletin’s crop is skewed towards IT and telecommunications.
Be it offshore energy in relation to the Pays de Loire region of Western France or the attractiveness of the Lille region, in Northern France, we have it in stock. Should you be interested in yaw bearings, you can turn to ROLLIX. If it is the combination of gastronomy and computing that tickles your fancy, Unowhy has the answer with its QOOQ touchpad, which can beat any celebrity chef you can think of at the touch of a screen.
As for me, I am thinking of purchasing one of Aldebaran Robotics’ near-human robots: I am dreaming of a fully programmable humanoid that can do the cooking, the washing, the ironing, the hoovering, the gardening, and change the odd light-bulb, so that I may have more time to devote to worthier pursuits, such as watching TV. So, NAO Next Gen, as the latest robot is known, is here with us to stay and may soon attend the BETT show in order to brush up on his conversational Uzbek.
Last but not least, the press office is proud to announce that it has launched a Twitter feed that will keep all our fans — within the media and without — informed in real time as to what the French Trade Commission UBIFRANCE in London gets up to. Katherine Woods, press officer, herself a bit of a Twitter fanatic, will keep you updated. Indeed, she has been Tweeting non-stop of late, so as to gain ever more followers in the UK and across the globe.
We already have a British MP, various interior designers, a champagne importer, and a senior American IT executive among our devoted "followers", and I would strongly encourage you to join this in-crowd: it is all happening as we speak.
The next issue of UBIFRANCE UK will come out towards the end of March. Till then, and if you can’t wait, please log on to https://twitter.com/ and follow us at @UBIFRANCE_UK in order to be kept informed of the manifold activities of the French Trade Commission UBIFRANCE in Britain and the companies that we promote.
Philip Jolly
Manager — Press Office
Mission Economique UBIFRANCE, the French Trade Commission in London
Business and manufacturing
Vialog starts contract-manufacturing revolution out of Normandy
Contract-manufacturing specialist Vialog is a collaborative group of 13 companies, based in the region of Dieppe, in Normandy. Providing a combination of industrial services and manufacturing capabilities, while covering related areas such as logistics, Vialog is the partner of choice for any international player keen to subcontract and outsource industrial production at the heart of Europe.
For further information, please go to: www.vialog.fr
To get the full story click here
Lille region given thumbs up by 85% of foreign investors
International auditing firm KPMG has confirmed the appeal of the Lille region for non-French investors. According to the independent survey conducted by KPMG and published in November 2011, 85% of respondents, representative of the 1,077 subsidiaries of foreign-owned groups established in Northern France, recommend the region.
For further information, please go to: www.investinnorthernfrance.com
To get the full story click here
Engineering and robotics
Aldebaran Robotics’ latest humanoid robot says ’hello’
Aldebaran Robotics, a world leader in humanoid robotics, has released its latest version of the NAO robot — NAO Next Gen, a new fully programmable humanoid robot that has the most extensive worldwide use.
For further information, please go to: www.aldebaran-robotics.com
To get the full story click here
ROLLIX finds its bearings with Alstom offshore turbines
ROLLIX, a key player in the French offshore wind-turbine sector, has developed pitch and yaw bearings for the new Alstom Haliade 150-6MW offshore wind turbine — the largest offshore wind turbine manufactured to date.
For further information, please go to: www.rollix.com
To get the full story click here
Pays de la Loire blows away EWEA OFFSHORE 2011
The Pays de la Loire region was present at the EWEA OFFSHORE 2011 trade show in Amsterdam (in The Netherlands), between 29 November and 1 December. The French region’s pavilion provided visitors with the opportunity to better understand its offshore-energy sector.
For further information, please go to: www.offshorewind2011.info/
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Software and IT security
WALLIX is €2m better off and joins the big league
WALLIX, a European IT-security company, has finalised an increase in share capital of €2 million to be carried out with Thierry Dassault Holding (TDH), the personal holding group of Thierry Dassault, and Auriga Partners, a venture-capital firm. As part of the deal, Thierry Dassault will acquire a stake in software developer WALLIX, which is to become a public-limited company.
For further information, please go to: www.systematic-paris-region.org/en
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WALLIX buttresses Admin Bastion with WAB 3.0
WALLIX has announced the launch of version 3.0 of the Wallix Admin Bastion (WAB), a security solution for information systems. WAB 3.0 enables companies to conform to the highest of standards, whilst observing the regulations that are in force.
For further information, please go to: www.wallix.com
To get the full story click here
CARTES & IDentification attracts 20,000 from 145 countries
CARTES & IDentification 2011, held in Paris in mid-November, attracted close to 20,000 visitors, positioning itself as a key global event for digital security and smart technologies. The CARTES team has already announced the dates of the next trade show, i.e. 6 to 8 November 2012 in Paris.
For further information, please go to: www.blogcartes.com
To get the full story click here
Software and telecommunications
France BETTs on its educational know-how
For the fifth year running, there was a French pavilion at the British Education and Training Technology (BETT) trade show, a key event for educational technology. The pavilion showcased 10 cutting-edge French players from 11 to 14 January 2012, in London.
For further information, please go to: www.bettshow.com
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Generix Group directs Carrefour’s 60 million
Generix Group’s on-demand exchange platform has processed 60 million messages from 20,000 suppliers across 14 countries for the Carrefour Group over the past 12 months, thanks to Carrefour Group’s decision to outsource its international electronic data interchange (EDI) and B2B workflow management on Generix Group’s shared data-exchange platform.
For further information, please go to: www.generixgroup.com
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AddOnMail goes for V 3.5
After publishing Microsoft Outlook plug-ins for several years, AddOnMail has announced the arrival of the latest version of its leading product, PSTStation Corporate for Outlook — the PSTStation Corporate 3.5, which is V.3.5 of the product in Exchange 2010.
For further information, please go to: www.addonmail.com
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France goes further in Near Field Communication
The card-and-identification market is expanding fast in France. Specifically, Near Field Communication (NFC), the technology used for contactless identification and transactions, experienced rapid growth across the sector in 2010-2011.
For further information, please go to: www.investinfrance.org
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Target Skills makes planning and scheduling mobile
Target Skills is the publisher of PlanningPME©, a scheduling software suite that is available in seven languages. Target Skills is launching its PlanningPME© mobile application — PlanningPME© Mobile.
For further information, please go to: http://www.planningpme.com
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Unowhy unveils QOOQ celebrity chef in Las Vegas
QOOQ, the first touchpad of its kind in the field of gastronomy, which has been developed by Unowhy, was launched in the English-language market at the 2012 International CES®. The trade event, the largest international consumer-technology trade show of its kind, took place from 10 to 13 January in Las Vegas (USA).
For further information, please go to: www.cesweb.org/
To get the full story click here