Jobs top list for LI group visiting Quebec City

Ray Donnelly of the Long Island Forum for Technology leads a group of four companies affiliated with the Bethpage-based Morrelly Homeland Security Center to Quebec City this week. He and the businesses hope the trip will bring contracts and jobs to Nassau and Suffolk.

The companies are to spend two days in Quebec City beginning Wednesday, meeting with companies, government officials and leaders of police, fire and safety organizations.

LIFT and the Homeland Security Center have already established strong relations with businesses in Quebec City, and signed an agreement in 2009 to seek mutual business opportunities. "They [Quebec business and political leaders] came down to see us three times," said Donnelly, a LIFT director. "It was our turn to go up to them."

Among the companies going are VCORE Solutions Llc, Retlif Testing Laboratories, ATK Missile Products Group and SiCore Technologies.

VCORE chief executive Eduardo Browne said the company has already forged a relationship with RDG2, a Quebec City technology firm, and is going to explore other opportunities. "We started [a year ago] with seven employees," he said. "We now have close to 20. We're growing."

VCORE designs a browser that allows for multidimensional views of crowds at sporting events and other public places, to aid the work of safety officials and first responders.

Donnelly said Tuesday that the U.S. consul general in Quebec, Peter O'Donohue, will be on hand for a meeting Thursday.

The host of the event, INO, is a large Quebec organization specializing in optics and photonics research.