In July 2018, Mike Thususka, the Director of Economic Development for the City of Summerside in Eastern Canada came to visit Cyber Wales looking for innovative technologies that could add value to their ambitious Smart Cities programme.

Cluster member Steve Gallagher from 888 Group introduced Mike to the Cyber Wales Ecosystem through Bill Fraser, the Cardiff-based International Business Development expert from Fraser International.

8 Cluster members including Priszm & Interceptor Solutions from South Wales, TarianTech from Mid Wales and SI Risk from North Wales met with Mike to discuss the potential for their technologies in the North American markets.

6 of the Welsh companies were subsequently invited to visit Canada in November to demonstrate their ideas to the various Departments of the Summerside Government.

The “Living Lab” that Summerside have created across their city provides an amazing testbed for new technologies and the offer to use it was complimented by a soft landing programme for new companies, mentoring on the markets and proactive promotion of the vendors in Canada and the US through Summerside's own business development networks.

One company, Connective Touch, were so warmly received that they incorporated a company in Canada in February and are running a full scale pilot installation of their unique biometric systems across the city with plans to tackle the giant market opportunity using Summerside as their launch pad.

Many congratulations to Devi Sohanta, founder of Connective Touch. It is great to see successes like this come from global reach of Cyber Wales and we all wish Devi and her team the best of luck in this exciting venture.

Thanks also to Bill Fraser who continues to work his magic for Welsh companies who want to reach other markets around the world – keep up the good work Bill.