On Thursday, April 2, 2009, UGA's Office of international Public Service and Outreach (IPSO) coordinated a five-member delegation visit from the Georgia Indo-American Chamber of Commerce at the Terry College of Business, Brooks Hall in Athens, Georgia. The purpose of the visit was to showcase UGA business-friendly resources and commercialization expertise for future partnerships with Indo-American businesses throughout the state.

The GIACC delegation was lead by Roop Singh, Member of Board of Directors and Co-Chair, Trade Committee. Other delegates included:

• Neera Bahl, Member of Board of Directors, Atlanta Immigration Attorney
• Mitesh J. Patel, Atlanta Real Estate Professional
• Matthew West, Co-chair Trade Committee, Tata Communications
• Anitha Vadavatha, Co-Chair, Chamber Liaison, Financial Services and Management Consultant

Dr. Rick Watson welcomes the GIACC delegation to Terry College.				Mayor Heidi Davison welcomes the group to Athens.
Mayor Davison addresses the delegation as Roop Singh, GIACC, and Dr. Anupam Srivastava, CITS, listen attentively.				Allan Adams, SBDC, and Dr. Rick Watson

The delegation was met by Dr. Glenn Ames, Director of IPSO, and Dr. Anupam Srivastava, Director of Asia Programs for the Center for International Trade and Security at the Georgia Center Hotel and transported to the Terry College of Business.

The session began with a welcome by Dr. Rick Watson, Interim Head of Management Information Systems at Terry who introduced the group to Heidi Davison, Mayor of Athens. Mayor Davison gave an insightful overview of Athen's engagement with the Indo-American community and Athen's willingness to work with businesses to enhance economic opportunities for the city, making sure to highlight UGA's wealth of intellectual resources.

Allan Adams, Director of UGA's Small Business Development Center, then gave a brief overview of SBDC's work and its role in entrepreneurship and business development throughout the state, focusing on the Atlanta and Athens areas.

Margaret Wagner Dahl of the Georgia BioBusiness Center followed this up with a great session on "Start Up Smart" providing each delegate member with a copy of the "Start Up Smart" booklet and various insights as to how UGA can be of service to enhance their businesses. Derek Eberhart, Senior Licensing Manager for UGA's Research Foundation and Technology Commercialization Office, ended the information session with an overview of the commercialization process and other opportunities that GIACC members could explore in partnership with UGA.

Dr. Rick Watson, Pat Allen, and Dr. Santanu Chatterje, Department of Economics, Terry College				Members of the delegation and Chris Moder, Director of ICAPP
Allan Adams, SBDC, and Derek Eberhart, UGA Research Foundation				Neera Bahl, Anupam Srivastava, Deborah Gonzalez, VS Senthil (Minister Economic, India Embassy, DC), Dr. Meera Narasimahn, Anitha Vadavatha, and Roop Singh, at the Public Health Lecture and Community Reception

The GIACC delegation then joined an evening lecture and reception event held at the College of Public Health, Coverdell Building. The lecture focused on "Public Health and India." The reception was a community event organized by the Indian Association of Greater Athens for the benefit of ASHA (Hope) for Education.

The visit was a complete success. Delegates left inspired and with a desire to learn more about UGA and potential partnerships. A second, more extensive visit, is being planned. As Matt West stated: "Thank you for the hospitality and generosity of you and your team. I very much enjoyed the visit and found it interesting and informative. I am personally a serial entrepreneur in that I have owned and operated several businesses in the last twenty years. All of my experience is in running service businesses; not because I lack ideas for products, but rather that I have always been intimidated by the process and cost of product development and commercializing a concept. I walked away with some new inspiration and may come back to you in the near future to discuss some of my ideas. I will also keep your programs in mind with respect to the activities and connections of GIACC."

SEE ALSO
	• IPSO India Initiative