Tech Delegation With 60 Belgian Business Leaders Wraps Up Atlanta Trip

A large Belgian technology delegation has wrapped up a trip to Atlanta, building on momentum from last year’s royal trade mission and showing again how the city’s tech sector is drawing attention from the highest levels of Belgian government and society.

While Prime Minister Alexander de Croo canceled his participation due to nuclear-power negotiations at home, the high-profile mission led by the Agoria tech association brought some 60 participants to the metro area to explore “the future of digital” while meeting with influencers in Atlanta’s tech ecosystem.

The trip came a year and a half after Belgium’s Princess Astrid led some 300 companies here, a group some billed as the largest delegation to Atlanta since the Olympics. It also came about a month after Belgian Ambassador Jean-Arthur Régibeau visited the city.

Fittingly, for a country known for its beer, the Belgian group capped visits to Atlanta Tech Village and beyond with a reception at New Realm Brewing on the Atlanta Beltline organized by the Atlanta-based Belgian-American Chamber of the South.

Atlanta boosters did their best to seize the moment, saying that Georgia is at once the top state for doing business and home to more Belgian-owned companies than any other in the U.S.

Metro Atlanta Chamber President Katie Kirkpatrick, who visited Belgium this summer, said she was grateful to be able to return the welcome she experienced in the country.

“That was my first trip to Belgium. I was thoroughly impressed with the people, the innovation that I witnessed, the technology, but quite honestly the warm hospitality that reminded me here of home,” she said.

She pitched Atlanta as a place where a strong corporate community mingles with a growing cast of innovators in the sectors the Belgian companies were exploring, like Web3 and artificial intelligence. She also pointed to the “Atlanta ethos” blending civil rights and progress.

“It’ s very important for us as we grow in this region that we do it in an inclusive and equitable manner,” she said, alluding to a theme that was underscored during the prior princess-led mission in 2022.

During a morning meeting at the Atlanta Tech Village, the group met with Jay Bailey, CEO of the Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs, which focuses on building Black-owned businesses, as well as Marlon Williams, head of the Atlanta Blockchain Center. In addition to visits to local companies, they also heard from Sensolus, a Belgian company that picked Atlanta as its entry point into the U.S. market.

That’s what many on the trip were looking for, said Bart Steukers, CEO of Agoria, who last visited Atlanta long ago and said the changes he saw were stark.

“Fifteen years ago it was just Coca-Cola and something else, but now it’s completely different,” he told Global Atlanta.

Agoria is Belgium’s largest tech organization, with 325,000 people in the country of 11 million employed by Agoria member companies — and about that many more jobs indirectly created by their activity. Its members include both digital companies and manufacturers, a blend that helps keep Belgium’s broader sectors like plastics, flooring, space and biotech on the digital cutting edge.

Agoria chose the city as part of its periodic exploration of “new tech hubs,” places around the world that have had success in building strong ecosystems where entrepreneurial companies can thrive.

“It’s part of our mission to inspire our companies to see what’s going on — how can they become next-level,” he said.

Atlanta and Miami, which the group was slated to visit later in the week, were places that emerged on the map.

“We look for new ground, new areas that are not so obvious,” Mr. Steukers added.

Brigitte Vantieghem, chair of the Belgian-American Chamber, encouraged the assembled companies to get acquainted not just with Atlanta but also with the whole region.

“I call it the Southern spell,” she said. “There is something magical here.”

Ms. Vantieghem, the founder of cybersecurity firm Syba, spoke after being inducted as an Officer of the Order of the Crown by Belgian Consul General Michel Gerebtzoff, who bestowed the honor on behalf of King Philippe in recognition of Ms. Vantieghem’s work promoting economic relations between Belgium and the United States.

Of particular importance was the chamber’s role in pulling off a “walking dinner” on the Midtown rooftop of King & Spalding during the princess’s visit last year — with little to no government funding.

Mr. Gerebtzoff said this individual award was also a “collective thank you” to former chamber Executive Director Bram Vandenbroucke and the current occupant of that role, Michael Chen, for their day-to-day coordinating work.

Much like the dinner with the princess, the chamber rallied member companies to sponsor this week’s reception. Among them: OMP, UCB and Navigator Consulting.

The 60-strong delegation brought companies like digital media production firm EVS, proton-therapy provider IBA, the Port of Antwerp, global nanoelectronics research company Imec and schools like Howest and the Vlerick Business School.

During the Atlanta Tech Village event, the group met with local startups Presso and Appraisal Bureau.