The French will be arriving in great numbers according to a Feb. 27, 2013 news item on Nanowerk about the ImagineNano 2013 event in Spain (Note: A link has been removed),

The organizers of ImagineNano are pleased to announce France as the Invited Country at this year’s edition. Forty French invited speakers among 7 conferences and a pavilion featuring the nanoscience & nanotechnology sector in this country are some of the activities planned.

2013 marks the second ImagineNano event. From the ImagineNano 2013 home page (Note: Some formatting has been lost in transit),

■  Graphene Flagship featured at Graphene 2013

■  87% of the exhibition space is sold out

■  100 exhibitors already book their space

■  SPM2013 conference is announced

■  France – invited Country represented with a pavilion

■ Russia nanotechnology featured within a Pavilion

■ Brokerage event launched

■ 40 French Invited Speakers announced

Bilbao (Spain) will host the 2nd edition of the largest European Event in Nanoscience & Nanotechnology, ImagineNano, from the 23rd until the 26th of April 2013 at Bilbao Exhibition Centre (BEC).

Following the overwhelming success of ImagineNano 2011, several conferences will be held in parallel in a new infrastructure, as well as a vast exhibition, one-to-one meetings and an industrial forum where everyone can meet and greet Nanotechnology side by side.

ImagineNano will therefore gather the global nanotechnology community, including researchers, industry policymakers and investors.

The ImagineNano 2013 Feb. 26, 2013 press release, which originated the news item, provides more details about the participation from the French and about the event,

Within the French Pavilion, governmental institutions, private companies and Laboratories of Excellence (LABEX) will be represented, among others. Several activities are being planned in order to strengthen and enhance new collaborations between France and other countries. France participation is a strategic decision planned to maximize business exposure, networking with key customers, prospects, attendees and other industry partners and will help strengthen the profile of the country as whole. The French participation will allow and encourage the development of the nanotechnology sector.

As of today, around 100 exhibitors confirmed their participation at ImagineNano 2013, among them 25 companies/institutions within the French Pavilion. ImagineNano is expected to gather the global nanotechnology community, including researchers, industry policymakers and investors. The exhibition will bring together companies/institutions from different areas: nanotechnology tools, materials, nanofabrication technology, nanomedicine, metrology, microtechnology, biotechnology, among others.

The 40 invited speakers from France are listed here.

ImagineNano events are organized by the Phantoms Foundation, from the About Foundation page,

The PHANTOMS Foundation (non-profit organisation) was established on November 26, 2002 (in Madrid, Spain) in order to provide high level Management profile to National and European scientific projects such as nanoICT (Nano-scale ICT Devices and Systems – ICT/FP7 Coordination Action), Pico-Inside (Computing Inside a Single Molecule – IST/FP6 Integrated Project) or NanoSpain (Spanish Nanotechnology Network).

The PHANTOMS Foundation is also working in close collaboration with Spanish and European Governmental Institutions such as FECyT (Spanish Foundation for Science & Technology), ICEX (Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade) or the European Commission to provide focused reports on Nanotechnology related research areas (infrastructure needs, emerging research, etc.).

The PHANTOMS Foundation (Madrid, Spain) focuses its activities on Nanotechnology and Emerging Nanoelectronics and is now a key actor in structuring and fostering European Excellence and enhancing collaborations in these fields. This non-profit Association is also playing an important role as a dissemination platform in national and 6th/7th framework programs European funded projects to spread excellence among a wider audience and help in forming new networks.

Current projects and activities:

• Coordinator of the dissemination activities within the Integrated Project AtMol (ICT-FET): Atomic Scale and single Molecule Logic gate Technologies.
• Partner within the COST Project TD1003 BioInspired: Bio-inspired nanotechnologies: from concepts to applications.
• Coordinator of the Spanish Nanotechnology Network “NanoSpain” (337 groups).
• Coordinator of the Modeling for Nanotechnology “M4nano” Initiative.
• Organisation of high-level scientific conferences/workshops on Nanoscience & Nanotechnology: “Trends in Nanotechnology” International Conference (TNT2012), NanoSpain conference (2012), Imaginenano2013 and events co-organised with the European Commission.
• Publication of a printed Newsletter on Nanotechnology (E-Nano) aiming at promoting European Nanotechnology results and enhancing collaborations between groups.
• Publication of focused reports on specific areas of interest for the Nanoscience/Nanotechnology Community (prepared in collaboration with the European Commission or Spanish Governmental Institutions). These reports provide focus and accelerate progress in identified R&D directions for the EC programs, guide public research institutions keeping Europe at the forefront in research and also provide a valid source of guidance for governmental Institutions.
• Development of a multidisplinary WEB site providing information on Nanoscience & Nanotechnology (N&N). Such initiative allows to strengthen excellence, allow research for the advancement of knowledge and its industrial application; and increase the impact of Nanotechnology worldwide.

I wonder why the Phantoms Foundation chose France as the featured country at ImagineNano 2013.