The City of Greer played host this week to the Global Upstate Conference on International Business and World Affairs put on by the World Affairs Council of the Upstate.
“It’s not an opportunity that everybody or every community gets, and that was one of the reasons I was so interested in bringing it here is to help expose this community to the fact that we are a gear, a cog in an international economy,” Mayor Rick Danner said.
Danner says the gathering is a unique one.
“This is a conference that brings in speakers over a wide range of issues,” Danner said.
It helps highlight big international players in our area like BMW and Greenville Spartanburg International Airport …but also smaller but equally important global companies like those finding home in the highway 14 corridor.
“Well, everybody knows those names and their certainly industry leaders there’s a whole tier tier, 2 tier 3 providers underneath them, and there’s a lot of opportunity in that,” Danner said.
Saying this conference could bring even more of those industries to Greer.
“There’s a lot of interest in seeing what’s going on in Greer, and I think it’s been a good draw for us in terms of exposing a lot of people in Greer, who would not have naturally been exposed to a Greer,” Danner said.
Explaining that Greer has a part to play in the global economy.
“The United States has got the second biggest economy in the world, and we’re a part of that we may be a small part of that, but we’re part of that,” Danner said.