Gov. Gregoire announces Washington to again host major aerospace supplier summit

For Immediate Release: September 13, 2012

SPOKANE � During the Governor�s Aerospace Summit in Spokane, Gov. Chris Gregoire today announced that Washington will again be the venue for the Aerospace & Defense Suppliers Summit at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center, March 10-12, 2014. The event is the largest of its kind in North America.

�There is no better location than Washington state for the aerospace industry�s top manufacturers and suppliers to connect and explore business opportunities,� Gregoire said. �With some 740 aerospace manufacturers and supplier companies in Washington, we supply every major final assembly manufacturer in the world.�

The inaugural ADSS in the United States was held this past March in Seattle, and organized by French-based BCI Aerospace with the support of Boeing and the Washington State Department of Commerce. The event was a major success that exceeded expectations of organizers and participants. With more than 800 companies from 25 countries, ADSS is one of the world�s largest networking events connecting buyers and sellers in the global aerospace industry.

Since the summit last March, Washington companies that attended have reported $1.3 million in sales, and several million more dollars in contracts are in the works.

Gregoire today also announced that through an executive order, she is disbanding the Washington Council on Aerospace and reassigning its duties to the Office of Aerospace, the Aerospace Workforce Pipeline Committee, the Joint Center for Aerospace Innovation, and the Washington Aerospace Partnership.

Gregoire created the council in 2009 to keep up with changing aerospace needs and demands � and credited the group with a healthy and growing aerospace industry. Since it�s inception, the Council has issued two annual reports to the Legislature and many of its activities and recommendations have been enacted. Additionally, several new and focused entities have been created to further the goals originally established for the Council.

�In short, the Washington Council on Aerospace has done such a good job of setting all this up that it has worked itself out of a job,� Gregoire said. �And to me, that�s the highest compliment you can pay. Three years after the Council convened, everybody involved agrees that the Council has served its purpose in helping to create new, more focused efforts, and now it is time to disband.�

Prior to speaking at the Governor�s Aerospace Summit, Gregoire this morning toured Kaiser Aluminum�s Spokane Valley facility, where she also met with Kaiser executives and representatives of the Steelworkers Union to discuss the investments, workforce and products that reflect the new aerospace focus of the company.