The Miami-Dade County Office of International Trade Consortium coordinated a business development mission to Italy from October 7-14, 2021. Program participants included Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava; Chairman Jose “Pepe” Diaz; ; Juan Kuryla, Director & CEO of PortMiami; Maria Dreyfus-Ulvert, ITC Interim Director; Veronica Pizzorni, Operations Manager of the Office of the Mayor.

The County’s delegation met with elected officials of Italy’s port cities – Viareggio, Florence, and Genoa — to promote cruising, tourism, cargo, and future economic opportunities in Miami-Dade County. During the visit, an International Sister Cities agreement was signed between Miami-Dade County and Viareggio, Italy and an International Sister Seaports agreement was signed between PortMiami and the Western Ligurian Sea Port Authority. 

The delegation met with four mayors and two region representatives of Tuscany and Liguria. Italian elected officials included The Hon. Giorgio del Ghingaro, Mayor of Viareggio; The Hon. Dario Nardella, Mayor of Florence; The Hon. Giovanni Toti, President of the Liguria region; The Hon. Mario Bucci, Mayor of Genoa; Paolo Emilio Signorini, President of the Port Authority of the Western Ligurian Sea;

The mission received the support of the Consulate General of Italy with the objective to increase relations and collaborations in the tourism, cultural and commercial fields.

The IACCSE will be involved in the business development aspects of this first Miami-Dade County international mission after the beginning of the pandemic.

Italy is the first European trading partner of PortMiami and the second European Trade partner of the state of Florida.

Specifically, the marine industry will be a primary focus of this collaboration.

For more information, please contact us at info@iacc-miami.com

The IACCSE will organize two webinars about the US market with the participation of industry experts. The two webinars will be focusing on bathroom fixtures and jewelry, whose major industrial districts are located in Piemonte, respectively in the areas of Novara and Valenza Po.

Specifically, the two appointments organized In collaboration with Centro Estero per l’Internazionalizzazione della Regione Piemonte (CEIP) are:

On November 11^th, ‘The bathroom fixtures market in the USA’.

The roundtable will host as panelists the executives of important companies which operate in the industry, including EOLO Design (Interior design – Miami), Watrline (Bathroom fixtures importer- North Miami Beach), CDP Holdings ( General Contractor -Miami Beach). The panel discussion will cover key topics, such as market entry requirements, strategic approaches to the US market, consumer trends and more. Gianni Toniutti, Senior Partner at TLRT International Law Firm and IACCSE Business Expert Channel contributor, will deliver a presentation on visas and corporate law issues for foreign companies doing business in the USA.

On November 18^th, ‘The jewelry market in the USA’.

The roundtable will host as panelists the executives of important jewelries which are active in the USA, including Dimo Fine Jewelry (Gainesville, GA), Jae’s Jewelers (Coral Gables, FL), Valobra (New Orleans, LA and Houston, TX) and Manfredi Jewels (Greenwich, CT). The panel discussion will cover key topics, such as market entry requirements, strategic approaches to the US market, consumer trends and more. The webinar will also count on the participation of Franco Campesato, Senior Business Developer at Distribution Factory, with a long career in top players of the jewelry industry, including Morelato and Chimento Group.

These webinars aim to provide Italian companies with valuable first-hand information and practical advice on the US market.

The Italy-America Chamber of Commerce Southeast is pleased to announce that the two recipients of the Italic Award (created by Italian designer Dodo Arslan) are:

Mr. Richard Sasso, Chairman of MSC Cruises USA and Mr. Daniele Fanara, Senior Vice President of Fincantieri Services USA.

Mr. Richard E. Sasso has been in the cruise and travel industry for more than 44 years. Mr. Sasso was named president of MSC Cruises USA in April 2004. Since then, he has effectively positioned MSC Cruises for growth in the North American market and in November 2013, MSC Cruises debuted one of its most dazzling vessels, MSC Divina, to Port Miami. In August 2016, Sasso assumed the role of Chairman of MSC Cruises for North America.

Founded by the Italian entrepreneur Gianluigi Aponte,  MSC Cruises fully reflects the essence of Made in Italy, as a symbol of cutting-edge technology, design, and first-class Italian hospitality in the global cruise industry.

Currently it is the third-largest cruise line in the world.

Furthermore, MSC Cruises is the protagonist of a major investment at the Port of Miami with its new cruise terminal.

Mr. Daniele Fanara, Senior Vice President and Head of the Business Unit of Fincantieri Services USA, is in charge of enhancing activities that include the supervision and coordination of Fincantieri Services USA after the company announced that has included its Services Division within its Merchant Ships Division thus representing a unique point of reference to optimizing the synergies between the new building and after-sales sectors in the cruise segment. Fincantieri is a global Italian leader in cruise ship design, reference player in all high-tech shipbuilding industry sectors and one of the most prestigious Italian companies with offices in Miami.

The ceremony will be also an opportunity to receive an overview, from these two distinguished guests, on the future of marine and cruise industry with the aim of establishing an ever stronger collaboration between the United States and Italy.

The Italic Award intends to acknowledge entrepreneurs or managers who have particularly distinguished themselves in promoting Italian quality products in the US market.

If you are interested in participating in this important event please find more information here : https://www.iaccse.com/italic-award-gala-3/

In the framework of the Business Expert Channel program (www.bec.iaccse.com), the IACCSE has organized a series of webinars about the US market with the participation of our BEC experts as panelists.

The IACCSE has established a partnership with different Chambers in Italy to promote the webinars among their local companies. The confirmed appointments are the following:

On September 16^th, ‘Stabilire una rete vendita negli USA. La contrattualistica con i distributori americani’, hosted by the Chamber of Commerce of Chieti and Pescara (Italy).

On September 23^rd, ‘Stabilire una rete vendita negli USA. La contrattualistica con i distributori americani’, hosted by the Chamber of Commerce of Vicenza (Italy).

On September 30^th, ‘Il settore della meccanica negli Stati Uniti: informazioni strategiche per l’ingresso sul mercato. Il caso del cluster italiano in Georgia’, hosted by VenicePromex the Agency for International trade of the Chambers of Commerce of Venice, Rovigo, Padova, Treviso and Belluno (Italy).

For further information about the program of each webinar and the speakers, please visit https://bec.iaccse.com/bec-webinar-series/.

On September 22, the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce Southeast met its members during the 2021 Annual Meeting.

The online event gave the opportunity to IACCSE members connected from different cities such as Miami, Charleston, Atlanta, Tampa and also from Italy, to attend and actively participate in the discussion about results achieved and future objectives.

Discussion revolved around on how the IACCSE is reacting to Covid-19 impact, reorganizing its activities and programs, planning a restart for in-person events.

The Financial Statements showed that the IACCSE has managed to keep its accounts in balance and is step by step returning to a path of growth while new projects for the last quarter 2021 and for 2022 are ready in the pipeline.

In 2020 The IACCSE suffered a contraction of its membership base, but in 2021 both new memberships and renewals are returning to grow

The meeting had the presence of Consul General Cristiano Musillo and was also an opportunity to welcome Carlo Angelo Bocchi, new Trade Commissioner of the Italian Trade Agency office in Miami.

Thank you to all the members that have supported us during these challenging months and to those that participated actively to the Meeting.

In the frame of the Extraordinary Italian Taste project, the IACCSE has started to map local gourmet stores selling authentic Italian products.

They will join an international directory curated by the network of the Italian Chambers around the world.

The first two stores acknowledged by the Chamber with a certificate of appreciation for the work done to promote Italian products among American consumers are:

• Origini Italian Market(originimarket.com)
• Prima Classe Italian Market(prima-classe.com)
• Mercato Miami(mercatomiami.com)

If you represent an Italian gourmet store and you want to know more about this initiative promoted by Assocamerestero (Association of Italian Chambers in the World), please contact us at info@iacc-miami.com

On September 14^th, during the event Italian Grapes in Miami, the IACCSE presented the 2021 Certificate Renewal to a first group of restaurants that have been awarded with the Marchio Ospitalita’ Italiana in the past years and kept the high standards required.

The criteria, Italian restaurants must follow to ensure the authenticity of the Italian cuisine, include: offering traditional Italian dishes in the menu, using genuine ingredients imported from Italy, having at least 30% of the wine list formed by Italian wines, and employing a chef who has been trained in Italy.

The following restaurants have been recognized with the 2021 Certificate Renewal:

• Casa Tua Cucina(casatuacucina.com)
• O’ Munaciello(munaciello-miami.com)
• Salumeria 104(salumeria104.com)
• Sardinia Ristorante(sardinia-ristorante.com)
• Toscana Divino(toscanadivino.com)
• Vero Italian(veroitalian.com)
• Via Verdi Cucina Italiana(viaverdimiami.com)
• Zucca(zuccamiami.com)

• 30 Speakers
• 161 Italian companies connected to the two industry webinars (interior design; food & wine)
• 166 Speed meetings organized between speakers and attendees during the third day of the event
• 12 Institutional partners in Italy that helped us to promote the initiative
•  4 Articles published about the event on Italian national media