MEXICO CITY — Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State Ambassador David H. Thorne led the State Department’s “Innovation Roadshow” in Mexico July 20-22. This visit was a next step in bolstering support for entrepreneurship and follows visits by Ambassador Thorne and delegations to Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines. The delegation was made up of a diverse group that includes private companies, entrepreneurship non-profits and financial investors. At each stop, the delegation met with government officials, business leaders, venture capitalists, students, and start-ups to discuss the challenges to entrepreneurship and the importance of supporting innovation.
In Mexico City on July 20-21, delegates participated in a discussion with over 200 representatives of the ecosystem at the Escuela Bancaria y Comercial. The delegation also met innovators at StartUp Mexico in addition to discussions with businesses and government officials from ProMexico and the Instituto Nacional del Emprendedor (INADEM), the latter of which is part of the Mexico-U.S. Entrepreneurship and Innovation Council (MUSEIC).
On Thursday July 21st, Ambassador Thorne arrived in Guadalajara to learn about local innovation ecosystems and to share best practices by American businesses. He led a networking and opportunities fair where he visited dynamic business accelerators from Guadalajara’s top universities along with members of the local government, universities and chambers of commerce. On Friday July 22, the delegation participated in a dialogue with local entrepreneurs and visited Tec de Monterrey’s business accelerator in Guadalajara. The delegation’s last stop was in Jalisco, where they closed their tour with a dialogue with state governments from Nayarit, Colima, Aguascalientes and Jalisco, as well as with leaders of the private sector in an executive public policy round table.
The Innovation Roadshow delegation included IBM, GE, Endeavor, Coursera, Private Advising Group, Elevar Equity, and Agora Partnerships.
U.S. EMBASSY IN MEXICO