FTPB - News

FTPB News n°4 - 05 December 2006

As expected, the last three months have been very busy at FTPB. There is always this ‘back-to-work’ spurt of activity that seems to come after the summer break. We have also had several specific public-relations operations to keep us busy.

Between 3 and 6 October, three British journalists from leading publications in the field of electronics went on a press trip organised by FTPB that took them to South-Eastern France. They spent three days in Nice and Marseilles and had the opportunity, as part of the trip, to go to SAME (the Sophia Antipolis Microelectronics trade show).

On 19 & 20 October, another three British journalists travelled to Salernes, also in South-Eastern France. They were invited over by the Chamber of Commerce & Industry (CCI) of the département of the Var. This was a slightly unusual press trip in that it focused on the town of Salernes and its ceramics industry, the focus being more on the artistic than the technical side of the sector.

There are a lot of highly innovative and very creative SMEs in ceramics in Salernes, and they have succeeded in combining individuality with tradition and technology in order to produce high-quality products with applications in a range of areas, from pottery to bathroom tiles.

The British journalists were part of a truly international delegation, since there were also two German journalists and a Danish one who took part. The German journalists had been sent over to France by FIZIT — the sister-press bureau of FTPB — which is based in Düsseldorf.

The FTPB team was also pleased to get a good response from the press to the sending-out of a press pack devoted to CHINA EUROPA 2006, the business convention taking place from 6 to 8 December in the port-city of Le Havre (in Normandy).

At the time of writing, the event was expected to bring together over 400 Chinese and European companies, while focusing on several key sectors, from aerospace and electronics to logistics, among others. It is the first event of its kind and the largest such industrial business convention to be held in France, ever.

Pan-European magazine Industry Europe indicated that it would attend, and so did several other journalists who work for publications dealing specifically with Anglo-Chinese trade and investment. FTPB’s client in France agreed to cover the costs of the journalists’ trips and attendance, which was an added bonus for the journalists — and for us.

FTPB organised one more press trip, in fact — in the field of aerospace this time. On 29 & 30 November, two British journalists from the specialist trade press travelled to Toulouse (in South-Western France), where they met colleagues from Germany and Spain at Aeromart, which is a unique business convention devoted to the aeronautics and space sector.

As you will see, this issue of FTPB News features a wide range of interesting stories, from the packaging and food sector (and we can claim to be fast becoming experts in good wines here at the press bureau!) to architecture and the construction industry, and from high-tech time & frequency systems to a range of IT and telecoms innovations. Cutting-edge SMEs are featured, alongside larger players such as Airbus or IT group Bull.

I hope you will enjoy this issue of FTPB News, which will be the last one of the year. We will be back with the next issue of our newsletter in early February 2007.

Let me wish you, in the name of the whole of FTPB’s team, an enjoyable end-of-year break, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Philip Jolly, Managing Director, FTPB

Agriculture & Food

Construction & Architecture

Electronics & Electrical

Agriculture & Food

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