South Carolina hopes to ‘build relationships’ at big U.K. airshow

Gov. Nikki Haley will lead a South Carolina delegation of at least 20 people at next week’s Farnborough International Airshow, the aerospace industry event outside of London her commerce secretary called “the biggest marketing event of the year.”

The governor will fly to England on Saturday and host a reception there on Sunday, the night before the week-long expo’s official start.

Haley will stay through Wednesday morning, attending roughly one third of the 45 to 50 appointments the state’s economic development officials have arranged with Boeing-related companies, state Commerce Secretary Bobby Hitt said today.

He said the governor’s presence in those meetings is “key.”

“I can’t tell you how important it is to have CEO-to-CEO connections,” Hitt said during a morning conference call.

Haley will be joined by staff from the governor’s office and the Commerce Department as well as representatives from each of the state’s regional development alliances.

Hitt cautioned the point of the airshow is airplane sales but said his team will use the concentration of aerospace executives to “build relationships” with potential corporate immigrants to South Carolina.

He wouldn’t say who the South Carolina delegation will be meeting with — yet.

“We might give you more detail on the back end, though,” he said.

See Friday’s editions of The Post and Courier for more details.