Brooklyn's Progress
May 2001

Monica Rump recently assumed the position of Director of Brooklyn Goes Global, the Chamber’s sales and marketing program serving the borough’s manufacturers. Ms. Rump has been with Brooklyn Goes Global since February 1999, when she joined the program as a Manager of Trade Relations and worked to promote Brooklyn’s food manufacturers in international markets, using her fluency in Spanish and bicultural background to focus on Latin America. In January 2000 Ms. Rump launched the Brooklyn Style initiative, in response to the growing number of Brooklyn-based fashion designers and manufacturers in need of assistance for their entrepreneurial businesses. Brooklyn Style was created as a business development program to help local fashion companies grow through a combination of sales, marketing, public relations and technical assistance. Since the program was launched, Brooklyn Style has facilitated nearly $300,000 in sales on behalf of fashion entrepreneurs under Ms. Rump’s direction, primarily through providing designers with the opportunity to participate in major industry trade shows at discounted costs. “I found that people in the fashion industry were very receptive to what we were trying to do for Brooklyn designers, and were very willing to work with us, especially because we’re a non-profit and such a unique program,” she said. As Director of BGG, Ms. Rump will oversee the activities of Brooklyn’s Kitchen, and Brooklyn Originals, a new initiative serving gift and home furnishing designers in the borough, in addition to running Brooklyn Style. Ms. Rump plans to breathe new life into the program with a focus on “sales” rather than “export.” “Although BGG has historically been an export promotion program, we have been successful in generating domestic sales for our clients,” says Ms. Rump. “While we will continue to work towards international sales for our clients whenever possible, we can’t ignore the role that domestic sales plays in growing a business. And from a manufacturer’s point of view, a sale is a sale no matter where it comes from.” Toward that end, Ms. Rump plans to continue her sales driven approach towards helping the borough’s manufacturers by going beyond trade shows. “While trade shows remain a very important sales component for our clients, it’s not realistic to rely on trade shows alone from an overall sales standpoint,” notes Rump. “If sales are our bottom line, we need to be working with sales consultants who can use their industry expertise to provide enhanced sales, marketing and PR services for a wider range of clients, especially during the ‘down times’ between trade shows, which only happen a few times a year. It’s my hope that we can work within our budget towards this end.” In addition to trade shows and sales consultants, Ms. Rump plans to focus BGG’s sales and marketing efforts on the implementation of a virtual catalog for BGG’s clients, currently in development. Prior to joining BGG, Ms. Rump worked as an attorney in corporate law and civil litigation. She earned her Master’s degree from Boston University Graduate School of International Relations, and her J.D. from Boston University School of Law.