From Cornwall to New York – and the power of Celtic connections

It seems like only yesterday that we weretogether in Cornwall for the Interceltic Business Forum in 2025. For me, it was a particularly important occasion as we launched the Global Cornish strategy, setting out our ambition to reconnect Cornwall with its worldwide diaspora and explore how those relationships could benefit Cornwall today and in the future.

A year on, we've certainly been busy!

One of the things I've learned through developing Global Cornish is that diaspora engagement is about much more than finding people with a shared ancestry. Cornwall has an estimated six million people around the world who can claim Cornish roots, but the real opportunity isn't simply in the numbers. It's in understanding who those people are, what matters to them, and how we can build relationships that work both ways.

Our approach has been to leverage Cornwall's past, present and promise. Heritage and identity are incredibly powerful ways of opening doors, but we also want people to discover the Cornwall of today, with its remarkable businesses, innovation, creativity and ambition.

And importantly, we've tried to be quite deliberate about how we build the network. Rather than chasing thousands of contacts, we've focused on finding people who genuinely want to get involved, who can introduce us to others, share their expertise or help create opportunities. It's very much about quality of relationships rather than quantity.

In December 2025, we held our London launch at the Houses of Parliament, bringing together around 200 people with connections to Cornwall. It was a fantastic evening and gave us our first real glimpse of what could happen when we brought people together around a shared interest in Cornwall's future. The conversations and offers of support that followed gave us plenty of encouragement to keep pushing forward.

Then, in September, we headed to America: home to 2 million Cornish Americans.
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Global Cornish in Wisconsin

Our first stop was Mineral Point in Wisconsin: “the most Cornish town in America”. I was invited to deliver the keynote at the Cornish American Heritage Society Gathering. It was a fascinating few days meeting representatives from Cornish organisations across the US, many of whom have been keeping their Cornish connections alive for generations. The Gathering coincided with Mineral Point’s annual Cornish Festival and seeing the streets lined with St Piran’s flags was pretty incredible!

What struck me was how much enthusiasm there was for doing more together. Alongside the wonderful heritage connections, we talked about opportunities for young people, educational exchanges, visits to Cornwall and ways to introduce these communities to theCornwall of today.

From Wisconsin, it was on to New York forsomething rather different!

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Global Cornish takes NYC

We brought a fantastic group of Cornish businesses to Manhattan for an evening showcasing some of the exciting things happening in Cornwall, from space and critical minerals to life sciences, clean technology and creative industries.

The room was full of investors, business leaders, diaspora connections and people who were simply curious to find out more about Cornwall. It was a real pleasure to watch our businesses tell their stories and see the reaction from an audience that, in many cases, had no idea of the scale of innovation happening back home.

We've already seen some promising investor conversations and new business connections coming out of the evening, and we're now busy following those up.

I should also say that our Celtic connections played a part in making New York happen. Some of the relationships built through the Interceltic Business Forum and the wider Celtic network helped us reach people and open doors. The connections we make at gatherings like IBF are hugely powerful.

If there's one thing this experience has reinforced for me, it's that diaspora engagement works best when it feels personal. People respond to genuine relationships, a sense of shared purpose and the opportunity to be part of something. And sometimes the most valuable contribution isn't a cheque or an investment, but a conversation, an introduction or someone saying, "I know just the person you should speak to."

Of course, we're still learning. The challenge now is to turn all that enthusiasm and goodwill into a sustainable model that can bring lasting opportunities for Cornwall; whether that's business investment, educational partnerships, cultural exchanges or simply stronger international relationships.

A special thanks to friends across the Celtic nations, I hope there's plenty more opportunity for us to share what we're learning, support one another and see what we can achieve together.

Global Cornish additional resources
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Global Cornish is building a global community

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