A delegation of business, civic leaders and scientists from Toulouse, Atlanta’s sister city in France, is to return in the spring as a result of the France-Atlanta program held here Oct. 26-Nov. 12.
The delegation is to explore opportunities for exchanges and cross-investments that Toulouse’s mayor, Pierre Cohen, identified during his visit on behalf of the France-Atlanta program.
Mr. Cohen has chosen aeronautics, logistics, health and information and communication technologies as particularly conducive to trans-Atlantic collaborations.
The French consulate general announced on Nov. 17 that the delegation’s return is one of several programs being planned as a result of the second France-Atlanta program that featured 15 business, cultural, humanitarian and scientific events in cooperation with Georgia institutions.
Mr. Cohen also has proposed that in the fall of 2012 a French-American symposium on telemedicine as it applies to cancer and obesity-related illnesses be held in Toulouse with the participation of researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University.
Other events being planned as a result of this year’s program include a symposium to be held next year in Nantes, France, with French kidney transplant specialists. An ongoing collaboration between Emory University and Inserm (Institut national de la sante et de la recherche medicale), the French national health and medical research institute, is to continue as well.
In addition, the French Trade Commission (UbiFrance) in Atlanta is organizing a business mission to France next year to study urban issues including public transport.
The French conglomerate Areva SA has invited officials from the Savannah River nuclear centers to visit nuclear facilities in France next year. Conversely, a delegation of French nuclear experts is to visit Plant Vogtle near Waynesboro.
Choreographer Pierre Rigal whose modern dance troupe Asphalte performed at the Rialto Center for the Performing Arts at Georgia State University, is to move to Atlanta in preparation of performances affiliated with the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s 1963 speech in Washington.
The Savannah College of Art and Design has invited the photographer Mohamed Bourouissa to an artistic residency in Atlanta and the French architect Frederic Druot, who spoke in Atlanta about his firm’s redesign of urban buildings, has been invited to lecture at the college’s campus in Lacoste, France.
The consulate general’s report also said that the cooperation between Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and Hubstart Paris, representing Paris’ airports, would continue their collaboration.
The research and commercial partnerships being developed at the Georgia Tech-Lorraine campus in Metz, France, will be further enhanced with the establishment of the Lafayette Institute, according to the announcement.
For more information about France-Atlanta go to www.france-atlanta.org
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