January 31, 2016—The icebreaker was last year, when the city of Gloucester made its first foray to the vast and international Seafood Expo North America at the Boston Convention Center.

The mission was simple: raise Gloucester’s profile among the thousands of seafood buyers who flock to the show from just about every point on the planet and develop the kind of relationships that will thrust the city’s harvesters, processors and, of course, seafood into the international mix.

The effort, both inside and outside the city, was viewed as a raging success. So, with that precedent, Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken placed a little quest in front of point man Sal Di Stefano.

“The mayor challenged us to do it even bigger and better this year,” said Di Stefano, the city’s director of economic development.

Toward that end, Di Stefano has amassed an armada of city resources, Gloucester-based seafood businesses, volunteers, nonprofits and assistance from Endicott College to set sail for this year’s Seafood Expo North America with a more expansive plan centered on the city’s seafood marketing campaign of Gloucester Fresh Seafood.

“It’s a tremendous amount of work for everyone involved, but it’s really exciting how the entire community has responded,” Di Stefano said. “And we’re the only ones doing it like this.”

Seafood strategy

The city, which has budgeted $10,000 for the March 6-8 event and doubled the size of its booth, is the only Massachusetts municipality that will have a presence at the show.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times