Spring 2017 Global Connect eNews

REMINDERS:

Mar 31 Final day for 2016 claim submissions

Apr 3 2018 UES submissions due

May 29 WUSATA office closed for Memorial Day

Winter Meeting Recap

Congratulations on another successful year, and thank you to all who were able to attend the 2017 Winter Meeting! Due to your diligence, it was the smoothest budget distribution to date. We would appreciate your feedback – if you haven’t already done so, please take a few moments to complete the post-meeting survey.

A few takeaway points from the meeting:

• Contractors will send PMs a pool of ten buyer nominees for IB Missions.

• Buyers will be vetted to ensure they fit the mission.

• Buyers will be on an every-other-year rotation.

• Buyer information submitted past PM timelines require justification and approval.

• Post event – Contractors will follow up with buyers and PMs will follow up with all US suppliers (both IB & OB). The four in-country representatives will include follow-up activities in the monthly reports.

• 100% of OB Mission samples are the responsibility of the traveling company.

• Airfare – PMs and Contractors choose which itinerary best fits their agenda; only that option is sent to the buyer.

• PMs are asked to review lodging documents the night prior to departure to ensure MAP compliancy.

• Due to overall MAP funding decrease through FAS, be mindful not to duplicate efforts of existing MAP Cooperators products (i.e. apples, pears, potatoes, onions, etc.).

• Contractors were asked to have all proposals and Scope of Work to WUSATA as soon as possible in the year.

• Contractors agreed to notify WUSATA when they hire new staff and advise of their training efforts.

• WUSATA has Google and Dropbox accounts available for market groups to use for sharing documents.

• Market-specific Global Connect® Coordinators will forward contractor monthly reports and signed contracts as they arrive.

• Contractor reports are also stored on the website: https://www.wusata.org/mywusatacmspages/wusataoperations/contractorreports/

• Foreign buyers wish to know the agenda prior to committing to an event.

• Company cancellations/no-shows – let WUSATA know within 7 days after event.

• The group agreed on a 7-day turnaround time for contractor’s final invoices/reports to be reviewed and returned to WUSATA.

Wrap-up Notes:

• -Airfare Purchasing Best Practices coming soon.

• -As promised, all event descriptions are now loaded online. Please review and send Sandy and Sheila your revisions and additional details (i.e. draft itinerary, registration fee, etc.).

• -The winter meeting minutes will soon be posted to the WUSATA website for your convenience. You can find the link on your dashboard under WUSATA Operations, WUSATA Operations (drop-down on right side of page), Meeting Notes.

• -The Mexico work group announced they have set their 2018 dates! For any groups interested in competing for second place, the 2018 event list is posted online in the UES Planning section.

The Year Ahead

2018 UES Due April 3 – Start Today: On February 25, the WUSATA Global Connect® Team sent instructions for the 2018 UES. The deadline of April 3 is fast approaching – we encourage you to start early.

Request for Proposals

As we begin a new year and groups consider the Request for Proposal process, please use the following tips to guide you while reviewing the submitted form:

• Evaluators will include one WUSATA manager and three state Project Managers from different states.

• The review panel will evaluate the proposals according to a pre-determined scoring system.

• All evaluators will use the WUSATA Proposal Evaluation Sheet.

• In order to maintain the integrity of the evaluation process, reviewers must not perform scoring as a group, and we ask that you do not share a state’s individual results with other state evaluators.

• The contractor with the highest score is awarded the contract.

• WUSATA management notifies all respondents of the final determination.

IB Missions – Location Details: WUSATA frequently receives phone calls from companies who are asking where the Inbound Mission venue is located. Please send venue information to either Sandy or Sheila as soon as you have it. Please include Sheila and Sandy as the cc recipients on any of your emails sent to the participating companies. We would like to respond with confidence regarding any communications that are distributed on WUSATA’s behalf.

Inbound Mission Introduction Process:

PROJECT MANAGERS:

• Before the one-on-one meetings begin, give a warm welcome and thank you to all the companies for attending.

• Then give a brief rundown of WUSATA and the benefits of participating, quickly summarizing our programs.

• Hand out the current Event Calendar to everyone and let them know that most of WUSATA’s activities are recurring and those who are registered in MyWUSATA will receive email announcements about upcoming activities.

• Introduce the in-country contractor and distribute Buyer Profiles.

CONTRACTORS:

• Introduce yourself and give one-minute background about you and your experience.

• Provide a brief overview about how the buyer selection works.

• Introduce the buyers by stating their name, company, and position.

• Open the meetings and let everyone know that you will be there to assist in any way needed (act as a market information source and a moderator, not just a translator).

Euromonitor

Euromonitor is a system of proprietary data that WUSATA and the states all have access to in order to pull information related to the exports of food and agricultural products. This is a system with enormous benefits to both the state and your companies. It does take some training to get used to pulling data and discovering all of its opportunities. Our Euromonitor representative, Patti LaGuire, is always available for your questions or additional training. You may reach her at patti.laguire@euromonitor.com or 312-477-8932

Outreach Corner

Marketing Material Request

WUSATA’s Outreach and Marketing team has updated the Marketing Materials Request Form. The form is a fillable document, and provides examples of the marketing materials for reference. Once completed, please email export@wusata.org so the team can put together the order, and send it your way. The team will notify you when received, and when it ships. The WUSATA Materials Check Outform can be found on your dashboard, under the WUSATA Operations button, WUSATA Operations (drop-down on right side of page), News & Outreach Marketing Materials.

Events Calendar

The 2017 Events Calendar is now available in printable form, the marketing and outreach team will update the calendar weekly to ensure it’s up to date with the latest events. The events calendar is a useful and simple handout outlining the entire year of WUSATA sponsored events. It is categorized by market, date, focus, and location. The events calendar can also be found in the same location as the Marketing Material Request Form.

Program Notes: 

Domestic Long-Distance Travel

For domestic long-distance travel, if you choose to use your Privately Owned Vehicle (POV), WUSATA is required to justify the choice to use a POV rather than air travel. There is a breaking point at which traveling by car ends up costing the government more (usually longer road trips). In order to prove that travel in a POV is more economical, please pull quotes before your trip to include with your claim. We will need quotes pulled for airfare and rental cars as compared to a mileage printout like Google maps or Mapquest.If you elect to drive the long distance to a WUSATA event we will need Federal Mileage reimbursement calculated, along with M&IE and lodging (if applicable), submitted along with your airfare quote – WUSATA will reimburse whichever is less.

Updated WUSATA Forms

Recently, we received requests to update some of our online forms. Please contact the Global Connect® Team if you have any further suggestions. Here is a list of updated forms we have recently posted to the WUSATA website:

• Trade Lead Requests

• Buyer Profile Form

• Buyer Profile Template

• Visa Invitation Form

• STRE Sign-in Sheet

• US Supplier Participation Agreement

In addition to the updated forms, we would like to thank you for your suggestions to create fillable PDF forms. These versions will be posted soon. Please note: the ATO Notification form has been removed from the website as it is obsolete. Please continue to send notifications via email.

Evaluation Collections:

WUSATA interns have been busy collecting 2016 evaluations and will soon be reaching out to state members for assistance on companies that have been contacted over four times without a response. If you are in communication with companies in your state participating in WUSATA activities, please encourage them to visit their MyWUSATA dashboard regularly and complete any outstanding action items. If companies have questions regarding their dashboard action items or the evaluation process, please urge them to contact the WUSATA office for assistance.

Recruitments

During the Winter Meeting WUSATA announced that we would be creating all recruitment pieces. As this is a new process, we will need your assistance in getting started. We have sent out an email to you requesting additional information to fill in event specific details. Please review what Sandy and Sheila have entered online, then return the attachment from the email, as well as any preferred recruitment dates. If you have no announcement date preference, recruitments will go out chronologically in order of date received.

MyWUSATA Account Updates

WUSATA will soon be sending out an email reminding companies to update their MyWUSATA accounts. When talking to your companies, please encourage them to go online to review their contacts, addresses, phone numbers, and regional and product focuses. This ensures that they are receiving the recruitment emails and all applicable trade leads that suit their company’s needs.

Welcome!

State Project Managers:

Oregon – Gary Neuschwander – gneuschwander@oda.state.or.us – 503-872-6605

Oregon – Yelena Nowak – ynowak@oda.state.or.us – 503-872-6609

Utah – Andy Pierucci – apierucci@utah.gov – 801-538-7190

Wyoming – Briana Tanaka – briana.tanaka@wyo.gov – 307-777-6430

WUSATA Staff Member:

Outreach/Marketing Coordinator – Tami Pelkey – tami@wusata.org – 360-693-3373 x 310