- The Honorary Consul role: trade, investment, and the UK–Florida MOU
- The BABC Central Florida: a community bridge in both directions
- Central Florida: far beyond the theme parks
- UK Florida business resources for companies expanding to the US
- DreamFlight: where community and commerce intersect
- How international business actually happens
When most people think of Florida, they think of tourism. For the international business community, UK Florida business — and Central Florida in particular — is something else entirely: one of the most active transatlantic corridors for trade, investment, and long-term commercial relationships in the United States.
In Episode 11 of the Happy Buyer Happy Seller Podcast, host Shaun Thornton sat down with Justine Assal MBE — His Majesty’s British Honorary Consul for Central Florida and co-founder of Nextpay Global — to talk about exactly that. The conversation covered how the UK–Florida relationship works on the ground, what the British business community in Central Florida actually looks like, and why so much of international business success comes down to something less glamorous than strategy: showing up, consistently, over time.
1. The Honorary Consul Role: Trade, Investment, and the UK–Florida MOU
One of the first things Shaun asked was what an Honorary Consul actually does — because most people assume it means a full-time diplomatic posting. It doesn’t. Honorary Consuls are locally based, voluntary appointees who work alongside the professional diplomatic service, and each appointment has a specific focus depending on where it is and what is needed.
Justine’s role is centred on commercial and diplomatic engagement: supporting the Consulate General in Miami to promote bilateral trade and investment between the UK and Florida, and helping to advance the objectives of the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the United Kingdom and the State of Florida. That MOU provides a formal framework for cooperation across a range of sectors — life sciences, clean energy, financial services, technology, aerospace, and advanced manufacturing — reducing friction for companies moving in both directions and creating structured pathways for collaboration between institutions and businesses on both sides of the Atlantic.
A concrete recent example: the Space Florida–UK Space Agency MOU, signed in July 2026 during a Florida trade delegation, established a joint $400,000 innovation fund for collaborative projects spanning space transportation, satellite systems, in-space research, and advanced exploration technologies. Agreements like this don’t emerge from nowhere — they are built on years of relationship development and sustained institutional engagement, much of which happens through the networks described below.
2. The BABC Central Florida: A Community Bridge in Both Directions
A significant part of the conversation focused on the British American Business Council of Central Florida (BABCCF), which Justine co-founded and where she continues to serve on the Advisory Board. The BABC is not a government body or a formal trade institution — it is a community: a membership-driven, relationship-built network that connects British and American business leaders, organisations, and institutions across the Central Florida region.
That distinction matters. What makes the BABCCF effective is not bureaucracy or official status — it’s the quality of the people in it and the genuine relationships that develop within it. Its community spans the full Central Florida corridor and includes a wide range of members and partners: Orlando International Airport, Tampa International Airport, the City of Tampa, the City of Orlando, Orange County, Seminole County EDC, Team Volusia EDC, the Orlando Economic Partnership, Tampa Bay EDC, the University of South Florida, the University of East London, Greenspoon Marder, H&Co LLP, and businesses across technology, financial services, manufacturing, banking, and professional services from Tampa to the Space Coast.
And like the MOU it operates alongside, the BABC works in both directions. For UK companies entering the US market, it provides immediate access to a senior, commercially active community that would otherwise take years to build from scratch. For Florida-based businesses with ambitions to expand to the UK or access European markets through the UK, it offers the same on the other side: relationships, context, and introductions that open doors.
3. Central Florida: Far Beyond the Theme Parks
One of the most important points in the conversation was the persistent misconception that Central Florida is primarily a leisure economy. For any business considering the region as a US entry point, understanding the real economic picture is essential — and the sectors targeted by the UK–Florida MOU give a useful map of where the opportunities are.
The MOU focuses bilateral cooperation on areas where Florida has genuine, world-class strength:
These are not aspirational categories — they reflect the actual shape of Central Florida’s economy. The region is home to the world’s largest concentration of modeling, simulation, and training activity, anchored by significant US military investment in Orlando. In life sciences, Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa is a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the University of South Florida — also in Tampa — is a top-tier research institution with established international partnerships, including with UK universities. The aerospace sector extends along the Space Coast to Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral, and the region has growing clusters in clean energy and advanced manufacturing across multiple counties.
For UK companies, the MOU does practical work: it provides a formal basis for introductions between institutions, reduces some of the friction involved in establishing partnerships, and signals to Florida’s economic development organisations that UK businesses are a priority for engagement. Combined with Florida’s 0% state income tax, its business-friendly regulatory environment, direct transatlantic flight connections, and time zone alignment with European business hours, the barrier to market entry is lower than most UK companies assume — and significantly lower than gateway markets like New York or California.
4. UK Florida Business Resources for Companies Expanding to the US
For UK businesses at any stage of considering or executing a US expansion, the Central Florida ecosystem offers wide institutional support. The organizations below are worth engaging early — ideally before arriving in market, not after.
These organizations collectively cover business development support, workforce, real estate, incentives, university partnerships, and regulatory navigation. Engaging with two or three of them before arriving in market can save months of time and significantly reduce the cost of entry.
5. DreamFlight: Where Community and Commerce Intersect
The conversation also touched on DreamFlight, the UK children’s charity that brings seriously ill and disabled children to Orlando each year for the trip of a lifetime. DreamFlight has a long-standing connection to the British business community in Central Florida, and its work is a good illustration of something the episode returned to more than once: in international business, trust is often built outside of boardrooms.
The relationships that support real commercial activity — referrals, introductions, long-term partnerships — tend to develop through community involvement, shared causes, and consistent presence over time. Causes like DreamFlight are part of what binds the British business community in Florida together, and the goodwill they generate is genuine and durable.
6. How International Business Actually Happens
Perhaps the most honest part of the episode was the discussion of how cross-border business relationships really develop. There is no shortcut. UK companies that arrive in Florida expecting to close deals at their first networking event almost always leave disappointed.
What works is a longer view: engaging with organisations like the BABC before arriving, attending trade missions, building genuine relationships with local partners and advisors, and understanding that trust in international business is earned through consistency and follow-through — not pitch decks or LinkedIn connections.
The UK Florida business community rewards patience and presence. The businesses that embed themselves in it — that show up to events, support local causes, and invest in relationships — are the ones that ultimately get the referrals, the introductions, and the deals.
Operating across the UK–Florida corridor?
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