Home Sweet Wake County

Early this month, I took my first trip to Orange County, Calif. for the Medical Design & Manufacturing West show, held Feb. 8 – 10 at the Anaheim Convention Center. The show is held in conjunction with sister shows focusing on packaging, electronics, automation, plastics, aerospace/defense, and sustainable manufacturing. As a medtech company you can find just about every solution you would need to design, manufacture, market, package, and distribute your product.

Wake County Economic Development has exhibited at the show for several years and has benefited from meeting with West Coast companies seeking to open an East Coast location, or smaller early stage companies looking for a less expensive business environment. This year, we had a delegation of seven representatives working the booth, including representatives from NC State University, the Research Triangle Regional Partnership, ibiliti, Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP, and a handful Triangle medtech companies.

WCED distributed the new life sciences collateral to promote the breadth and depth of the life sciences industry and the medical device community in the Triangle. Through our interactions, we discovered that the majority of the people that we spoke with knew of the Research Triangle region, but were surprised by the concentration and number of companies located here. And several individuals that we talked to were interested in finding a job in the Triangle, noting that they had visited the area and really enjoyed it or had heard that it was a great place to live.

Being this was my first visit to southern California, I was very impressed with the landscape and the weather we had in Anaheim during my visit. We had the opportunity to explore the area some in the evenings after the show and even enjoy a sunset at Laguna Beach. I could see why people and companies find the area attractive, but after seeing the cost of real estate and experiencing first-hand the eight-lane highway with bumper-to-bumper traffic, I could see why people are drawn to the Triangle. I enjoyed my first trip to Anaheim and I look forward to attending the show again next year, but there is no place like home, especially when you have the quality of life that we have in Wake County.