 Did you know that if California was a country it would be the fourth largest economy in the world? Well, I'm here at LAX Airport and just about to go home after hosting the Ireland Business Forum in Association with South County EDC, Tracy Riviera, the West Coast 7s, I-I-B-N, Department of Foreign Affairs and lots more besides and I just wanted to record a little bit about what we spoke about on the day You see the thing is is that I met a woman called Tracy Riviera in Bangkok at the Asian County Games And this was where a thousand players from all over Asia had come together to play GA and also a business forum took place at the same time So Tracy and I had a chat anyway Tracy runs the West Coast 7s Which is the GA tournament over here in San Diego and she said I'd love to put on a business event around our own Sporting occasion and I said why don't you and by the end of the conversation I had agreed to work with her and to make it happen So we did and here's what happened So first of all I gave a keynote Presentation about what's really going on in the Irish economy So I spoke about the key challenge that we're facing regarding housing and I spoke about the bright spots as regards that as well for example that Completed dwellings are now up 25% this year And the fact that wages are now up the average earnings hourly earnings in Ireland at the moment is 23 euros 46 cents That the labour participation rate is up to 62.2 percent And also of course that a mortgage drawdown in terms of volume and value are up almost 20% each when it in comparison to last year So I spoke about that but I spoke about the absolute acute challenges that we face in housing people At a social level and making housing affordable to people who are starting off And of course making the market fluid for those people who want to right size and particularly in the context of what's going on Brexit as we anticipate an influx of new foreign direct investment as a result So I spoke about that and I also spoke about the fact that while technology is amazing in lots of ways in Ireland We have got fantastic investment in technology development and also a lot of our universities are Progressing in great strides as regards research and development as well I did also speak about the fact that we are a digital services importer in other words. Sorry from an e-commerce point of view I mean in other words that we in Ireland are going to spend 12 billion euros this year online But 70% of that is going to go outside of the country And you would have heard me talk about that before when I recorded the future of retail video a little while ago So I spoke about that, but then I also spoke about the fact overnight and the news had come through about three some a So I also spoke about what Ireland is doing as regards Brexit and particularly what the agencies are all doing and again You would have heard me speak about that a while ago in the context of the brakes at all island So that so I spoke about a wide variety of things there and also mentioned You know a lot of people talk about the tax rate and that's why you should come to Ireland and you know really and truly I don't think that we're really being sold on that to a large degree What we are being sold on is our talent is our access the only English-speaking country in the European Union after After the UK Brexit's and also of course the talent of our people and I mentioned the fact that one in 15 adults today is in full-time or sorry is in third-level education one in 15 adults So that includes of course people who are graduating from secondary school as well as people who are returning To third-level education after maybe they've taken time out for a variety of reasons now that was the keynote But in addition we held a panel discussion And I just want to give you a couple of statistics around and or maybe not statistics I'll give you those two but a couple of insights from the panel. So first of all, here's who we have So we had Paul Robin who is from he's the assistant vice-chancellor of innovation and commercialization The University of California, San Diego now that university is the largest campus in the world Has spends 1.2 billion dollars annually on research and it's the city of San Diego has 10,000 people working in research So he was coming from that perspective. We also had Paul Burfield He was down from Enterprise Ireland who was down from San Francisco and his responsibility for 14 states in developing opportunities for Irish businesses there We derma d'ochay from tout glass an exceptionally impressive business person and has has built that business right around the world met his business partner in Taiwan and Told me as he told the audience of course That that they could see pretty early on that if they were wanted to be serious in America Well, then one of them needed to move over so he's now over He's got a base here in in San Diego Well, I was in San Diego at the time and he shared his story in addition Then we had Ken Behan from Cistern and he spoke about what life is like here to build a lifestyle to build a career But also to build or to be part of a business, which is truly international and to have San Diego as the base separate to that then all the way from San Francisco as well We had Consul General Robert O'Driscoll who came down from and San Francisco And in the fall as he described work the Irish government is going to open a consulate in LA also right here where I am right now So that's going to be happening in the fall, which will be instrumental for the conversation that we had Now here's here's what came out of that discussion right for a start They spoke about the fact that we don't as Irish people and as Irish business people tend to look to San Diego First second third fourth really it's not it's not a key city that we're looking at from the point of view of developing Irish-California trade despite the fact that San Diego is the eighth largest city in the US and In addition as well they spoke about the fact that there isn't a direct flight now It's brilliant the fact that you can land here in LA. I got here on Wednesday had a dinner meeting within an hour With somebody from Liola Marymount University here, and I could make it drove down and had a couple of other meetings as well along The way but drove down and I could get down to LA now take into account traffic in that kind of thing You're probably looking at about three hours really to get there But that's all that's all of a drive and also of course there's a train service now public transport in the US isn't amazing But em it's doable and it's an awful lot more doable than having to get multiple flights along the way so they spoke about the what a direct flight in San Diego would mean and And not just from the point of view of convenience because of course it's not about that It's about increased trade links. Did you know also that San Diego is the most? Popular destination for J ones so for students who are coming out on the J one visa from summer Who are coming out for the summer into the US? San Diego is the number one destination that they choose round about a thousand students a year come out here And I spoke to people at the Irish outreach center who are particularly the landing pad and for them So they spoke about that this book about visas this book about Awareness that's that really is the challenge and I mean we had 80 people who registered to come to our event on Friday morning So the interest is there and of course now it's up to us to consider what we're going to do there after about that And we used our back search technology as you know and back search is our new business Focusing on breaking down silos and capturing tacit our tacit Information within corporates and organizations so we did that we recorded the views of people within the room And we'll be producing a report on that and submitting it to the Irish government Later on in the week as well when I get a chance to get my breath when I go home So we did that and we captured a wide variety of views But I have to say there really was a strong view that you know There's an awful lot of untapped potential here and not an awful lot standing in the way now of course, right? It's a 10-hour flight home Obviously it was a 10-hour flight out here And you've got an eight-hour time difference and it takes your deal with a very expensive market very very expensive market But at the same time there's a lot of benefits to here and and the access points are all here So it's going to be interesting to see how we can how we can develop that along the way And I just want to mention as well is that you know what I loved about a working with Tracy of the area and putting this together Is that there's a fantastic? Network and I mean you hear me say that all the time you hear me constantly talking about the global Irish and where they are in the world But there's a fantastic network of people out here between LA and San Diego and Chula Vista Carl's bad I had I had a chance to talk to a number of people around around the occasion and that was the Irish business forum and Also, of course working with people and spreading the word about the event that we were going to be running as well So and I'm it's it's really a comment on anybody who wants to look at a region like this And in order to really tap into that and to see where it could go But certainly the view was that it's not being it's not being harnessed to the same degree And of course the consulate the consulate in LA is going to make a difference in that regard But of course, it's also up to you and me as well And separately then at the games at the weekend so there was almost 600 people who came to to the games from all over I met people from dent well, sorry I met a lot of Irish people who were living in Vancouver Edmonton and LA and Denver a lot of people from large County and Texas a Houston in Texas Washington San Diego of course themselves So again the GA continues to act I mean as such a landing pad for these people and a great confluence for people to be able to connect as well And then of course couldn't actually you know I had at the same time too had to make sure that I got a got a chance to catch up with some family So I met Ardell's cousin Ardell my husband and met the California branch of his family too So on that note been a hugely productive week as you all know The real work now is in the follow-up Going to be making sure that uh that I take care of that now over the next coming days But just thought that you might like to know what's been going on Stateside over the last couple of days here in San Diego And now as I say I'm just about to head down here to the direct flight home with two to Dublin with air links. Thank you