Global Connections

But Enterprise Florida's Mencia says the key to attracting and retaining businesses in Southwest Florida is more quality of life than incentives. For example, the region has done a better job than most of Florida in preserving natural attractions, which appeals to upscale European investors, he says. They, in turn, use that carrot to entice other investors and business colleagues to the region.

"Remember that investors tend to be attracted to clustering to places where other investors from their own countries or their own regions have come from," says Mencia. "Now you have a fairly good critical mass from Europe, which will only translate into increased investment from that region."

Speaking the Language

When language is a barrier to doing business, some Southwest Florida companies turn to five-year-old Naples Language Center, which recently added a Fort Myers branch. Owner Nina Velasco has another language center in Venezuela that's been in business for 26 years.

A number of area hotels, resorts and construction companies contract NLC to teach English as a second language to employees whose primary language is Spanish, says Velasco. "We have taught Spanish to middle management or supervisors who work mainly with Hispanic employees, but we believe that [learning] English is really the best thing you can do."

Southwest Florida College's professional development center, which receives state funding for workforce development, also contracts with NLC.

In rarer cases, people like Miriela Marcano end up in the classes. Marcano worked three years for The Gartner Group before it transferred her from her native Venezuela to Fort Myers-after paying for her to learn English. Gartner offers technology research and consulting services to 75 countries worldwide, with headquarters ranging from Connecticut to Brazil to Australia.

Account representative Marcano, who now serves Texas and Mexico, says the training helped her maintain customer satisfaction and ongoing relationships. Technological terms aren't the problem.

"That's the easiest part. I'm an assistant engineer, so when I was in college, you get used to techie terminology," she says with a laugh.

But when she became regional account manager for Latin America, Marcano, who already knew Spanish, Italian and English, had to learn Portugese to work with Brazilian clients. Gartner paid for Naples Language Center to hold on-site weekly classes for Marcano and several others.

ESL courses are easy to find in Southwest Florida, Marcano adds, but after four years in the United States, she is far beyond the basics, and she hasn't found an English course yet aimed at increasing her mastery of business terms. She figures there just isn't enough demand yet.

Velasco occasionally gets that kind of request, including from some German clients coming for a few weeks. "They already speak English, but need legal terms. I had to hire an attorney to teach them," she says. "I've got people on staff, but if it's a specific thing like legal language, I wouldn't risk an ESL teacher because we don't know the terminology."