Later that day, the Mayor Parker met Vice- Mayor Zamora to discuss about a “World Energy Cities Partnership (WECP),” the growth of city to city relationships, and the cooperation in different fields, especially education, energy, healthcare, tourism and mobility. After this meeting Mayor Parker met with the Bogota Mayor’s Office of Diversity to share experiences, best practices and establish a cooperation channel between the two cities for the LGBT community”.

Following, one of the top restaurants in Colombia, Harry Sasson, was scenario of a VIP luncheon with Ecopetrol. Offshore opportunities in GOM for Ecopetrol America, seismic and offshore drillers for Ecopetrol Colombia, and Offshore and unconventional opportunities for Houston Companies in Colombia were discussed.

 
After the lunch, a visit to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce was scheduled to exchange topics such as the commercial exchange between Colombia and Houston, and priorities, opportunities, challenges and resources available in Houston to support the growth of Colombian companies in the city.
 
To finish the day the trade Mission visited the Gold Museum and then went to a cocktail reception at the residency of the US Ambassador, Kevin Whitaker. Over 90 people were invited.

 

The following day, November 19^th, The Colombia Texas Chamber of Commerce, the greater Houston Partnership Houston and the City of Houston organized the Business Forum and One on One meetings at the Hotel Casa Medina. This forum promoted the business and investment opportunities in Houston and gave the possibility to the Colombian companies to speak with the US companies participants in the Trade Mision.
Claudia Rojas, Founder and Executive Director of The Colombia Texas Chamber of Commerce opened the forum; Mayor Annise D. Parker from City of Houston made  opening remarks; Jeff Hamilton, Commercial Attaché from the US Embassy in Colombia, presented “Select USA Presentation: Investing in the U.S.”; and Andy Icken, Chief Development Officer from the City of Houston presented “Opportunities in Houston”.  Also, Bob Pertierra, SVP and Chief Economic Dev. Officer presented “Houston Overview, Greater Houston Partnership”; Ancizar Guerrero, Director of Colombian Investment Abroad, Proexport, presented Proexport as an organization; Jose Perez, Partner from Foster LLP, presented Immigration Issues.
After the forum, the session for the one-on-one started. 36 meetings were held in one hour.
A Meeting with Ministry of Mines and Energy was scheduled after the forum to discuss “deep water and unconventional opportunities for both operators and service providers, as these markets are new to Colombia; training and education opportunities for universities in Houston”
 
Juan Valdes, the real character, showed up during the forum giving a coffee flavor to the mission.
 
Half day had passed and the Trade Mission started the road to Barranquilla. The trade mission arrived to Barranquilla and visited the Port of Palermo. They witnessed the signature of an MOU between Houston based Intermarine and Barranquilla based Port of Palermo, as a great example of trade and investment interaction between the two cities.
Later that day, the trade Mission visited the Mayor of Barranquilla and had a signature of an MOU between Cities of Houston and Barranquilla at the Superintendencia de Barranquilla.  To finish off the day, a wonderful reception was held at the Vives-Hernandez residency.

The next day of their arrival to Barranquilla, on November 20^th, a forum was organized by ProBarranquilla and Intermarine.  It was called “Infrastructure and Ports Forum” and took place at the Hotel Dann Carlton Barranquilla. The forum promoted Business opportunities and best practices between Houston and Barranquilla.

Claudia Rojas, Founder and Executive Director from The Colombia Texas Chamber of Commerce, Mayor Annise Parker, and Ed Gonzalez, Vice Mayor from the city of Houston made the welcome remarks; Edgar Iguera, Director Infrastructure and Logistics from ANDI, presented “Colombia’s Infrastructure Plan; Probarranquilla and the State of Atlántico presented “New era in Barranquilla and State of Atlántico”; Andrew Iken, Chief Development Officer from the City of Houston presented “The City of Houston”; Antonio Felfle, Director from Asoportuaria presented “Barranquilla: Plataforma Logística del Rio Magdalena”; Arturo Gamez, Latin America Director Port of Houston and Vice-president of Trade Development presented “Port of Houston”; Comité Intergremial del Atlántico,Aeronáutica Civil presented Aeropuerto Internacional Ernesto Cortizos; Mario Diaz, Director of Aviation from Houston Airport, presented “Houston Airport.”
Once the Trade Mission was finished, they visited the Heraldo –a local newspaper- for an interview and then had lunch with the Mayor of Cartagena, Dionisio Velez, at the Club the Pesca.
The Trade Mission had a farewell tour on a horse carriage around the Old Cartagena city, followed by a reception dinner at La Vitrola.
 
This Trade Mission had excellent results and met all the expectations of the participants.