Liverpool's week there ended on Saturday with the Liverpool: Sound City party attracting hundreds of people for performances by artists such as The Wombats and The Rascals.

The mission was organised by Liverpool's Music Development Agency (MDA) along with UK Trade & Investment and Merseyside ACME. Liverpool Culture Company and the Arts Council also backed the visit.

Merseyside has been represen-ted for four years and Jo Wright, enterprise development director at the MDA, said companies had been able to forge useful contacts.

He said: "The main aim is to increase export sales by musi-cians and music industry-related businesses in the North West.

"As well as the festival there's the music trade fair, which is for businesses around the world from record labels to development agencies like ourselves, instrument manufacturers or publicists. The fair is a chance for them to showcase their products and services to a worldwide audience.

"There is also the music industry conference, which is an opportunity for networking and personal development with keynote industry speakers .

"It's too early to say exactly what impact the visit has had in terms of economic measures. But anecdotally members of the delegation found it productive in terms of meeting people they could do business with."

Creative Cultures account director Chris Meehan said the event helped firms like his build up potentially vital contacts.

He said: "We weren't going to showcase anything in particular but went to meet people we work with from the US and the UK - people we couldn't really meet up with in the UK.

"We went last year and didn't sign any contracts there and then, but we ended up signing deals in the UK and the US on the back of it."