Today’s guest blog is by David Hughson, Trade & Investment officer for the Tech City Investment Organisation based in Boston, telling us about the recent TCIO visit to the US, and the thoughts of VCs and investors from the other side of the Atlantic on Tech City as a place to do business.

Earlier this month Eric Van Der Kleij (Tech City Investment Organisations CEO / Entrepreneur in Residence) visited 4 of the US’s key centres of technology innovation, venture capital, and entrepreneurship to meet with some of the world’s most respected and successful venture capital firms and their leading general partners. The visit aimed to spread the message about Tech City and to create dialogue with key investors about the amazing organic growth which East London has seen over the past few years. Eric’s visit also provided a great opportunity to learn from the venture investors behind some of the world’s most successful businesses, and to get their opinions on what it will take to go from strength to strength, and put East London on the map as a world leading centre of technology and innovation.

During a packed schedule of meetings in Boston, itself a recognized hub of innovation on a global scale, we heard great excitement about the recent developments in London. The word about Tech City is getting out there, and we spoke with a few VCs who are actively investing in UK tech companies today. In discussions with folks who have seen more than one “government backed” tech initiative come and go, there was real encouragement in the fact that what is happening in Tech City began entirely organically, but is being encouraged further by recent government tax and immigration policies designed to create the ideal conditions for startups.

We heard useful feedback around the ways that government can be supportive, mostly by reducing barriers to doing business, fostering collaboration between industry and universities, and helping with access to low cost office space. Most of all, the feedback we heard is that perhaps the best way government can support the growth of Tech City is to continue to shout about it, so that sooner rather than later London will have a firm place in the minds of the global tech community as a real leader.

We were very pleased to hear that a good number of the venture capitalists we met with will be coming to London in the year ahead. Many have kindly agreed to attend and participate in the entrepreneur’s festival in November in Tech City, and we are confident this will lead to even stronger relationships between the US and UK tech and VC communities.

We will continue to facilitate those connections in our role here at UK Trade & Investment in the US, and we hope that entrepreneurs, executives, and VC’s all across the US and the UK will get in touch with UKTI and the Tech City Investment Organisation if you have an interest in doing business in either direction.

As ever, let us know what you think in the comments or on Twitter.