2011 was a year of many changes in SACC-USA’s history characterized by a new President, a new Chairman of the Board, and new officers of the Board of Directors, along with two new office locations. Therese Lindé became the new Executive Director of SACC-USA on January 1st, and then at the first board meeting, she was titled as the new President of SACC-USA. Bradley J. Olson was elected Chairman of the Board in September, replacing Urban Lundberg who served his term with honor! Since his election in the later part of 2011, Chairman Olson has put additional focus on strengthening the SACC-USA network and to trying to take advantage of its many existing contacts and resources– something we will continue to do during the coming years. By doing so, we will continue to support both the Regional Chambers and all the members of SACC-USA.
General activities
In Stockholm, we welcomed the opening of a SACC Sweden office on January 1st with Ziba Zareie as its Executive Regional Director. Having a permanent SACC staff in Sweden has meant a lot for the network, as we are now able to take part in the Swedish business life on a daily basis; promote SACC and the U.S. market; gather knowledge of business trends; and expand the network, while still serving members on both sides of the Atlantic. Throughout Sweden, SACC-USA has been represented at more than 50 seminars, conferences and information meetings for small and mid-size Swedish companies and met over 500 new contacts from businesses, universities, and organizations throughout Sweden.
Our U.S. office relocated to the House of Sweden in Washington DC. The new office space has placed SACC-USA in the midst of the transatlantic spinning wheel; lots of events and seminars are held in the building, and of course, being next door to the Swedish Embassy has really enhanced our collaboration as well as with the rest of “official Sweden,” for which we are grateful. The U.S. Department of Commerce and many other U.S. agencies are also valued partners in the Washington, DC region.
Entrepreneurial Days 2011
The Swedish-American Chambers of Commerce of the USA, The City of Växjö and Telecom City located in Blekinge Kommun, co-hosted Entrepreneurial Days in Växjö and Karlskrona on September 14th-16th; the largest business networking event held between Sweden and the U.S. during 2011. The Swedish-American Entrepreneurial Days were held for the 21st time and during the conference, over 300 matchmaking meetings took place. The incubator export challenge invited Swedish start-ups to pitch their ventures and Xbrane was awarded a SACC trade mission to the U.S., coming up this spring.
Business Accelerator Programs
We continued to focus on the clean-tech industry and ran two programs, one with support from the Swedish Energy Agency and one with Västra Götaland Region in partnership with Business Region Göteborg. As part of these programs, we have been running “Access to the U.S. Clean-tech Market” with American experts as featured speakers, which have been very successful by leveraging Swedish export-ready companies’ knowledge and connections in the U.S. marketplace. Both of these programs were completed in 2011, but we hope to continue this work during the coming years as well.
Within the clean-tech sector, we have also continued our partnership with George Washington University (GWU) and their MBA students. GWU offers a special marketing program where the students work with Swedish companies. SACC-USA identifies the clean-tech companies needing help with market expansion to the U.S., and the companies get many great strategies and U.S. knowledge from this program while the students get real life experience. A win-win situation for all! This program will continue during 2012, and a MBA Life Science Program will be added.
Trade Missions
SACC-USA and the regional chambers facilitated 10 trade missions for individual companies and organizations throughout the year by helping them arrange meetings in Sweden or in the U.S. with important people for development of their businesses. The most extensive trade mission was for representatives from City of Växjö and Telecom City who traveled across the United States visiting 20 different cities to promote the Entrepreneurial Days 2011. In addition to the above, we facilitated over 100 business meetings for potential partners across the Atlantic where our 19 chambers where involved.
Trainee Program – increased by 37%
The SACC Trainee Program placed over 100 Swedish interns in the U.S. during 2011 – an increase of 37%! 75 trainees were placed in the U.S. for training at 55 companies within fields varying from software engineering to public affairs. An additional 50 trainees contributed to the important work of SACC’s Regional Chambers. For next year we are for the first time looking into a reversed program, this time sending U.S. trainees to Sweden!
2011 For the Regional SACC Chambers
During 2011, the 19 SACC Regional Chambers were operated by 350 Directors of the Boards and supported by 50 trainees and some regular staff; all committed to helping Swedish companies enter, establish, and export to the U.S. Together, they gave everyone of our 2,300 members in the SACC-USA Network access to knowledge, contacts, and experience through organizing conferences, pitch pubs, speaker series, and seminars, as well as using traditional Swedish celebrations as networking events.
Across the network, the regional SACC Chambers hosted several prestigious events. His Royal Highness Prince Daniel visited SACC Washington DC in late October and participated in a seminar on lobbying, a prime business in the capital city. Being an entrepreneur himself, Prince Daniel was honored with a lifetime SACC-USA membership and is welcome back at any time. SACC Washington DC also successfully served as a platform for their corporate members’ lobbying events with top level politicians widely present.
Meanwhile, on the West Coast, the Eliason Merit Award, organized by SACC Greater Los Angeles, attracted over 250 attendees, was given to the two-time Academy Award-winning Sound Supervisor Per Hallberg of Soundelux, Kerstin Florian, entrepreneur and owner of an exclusive spa-line, and STOPP-LA for their revolutionizing campaign “No Right Brain Left Behind.” The 2011 SACC Achievement Awards organized by SACC San Francisco, featured former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm as the key note speaker and attracted over 160 people. The proud winners were Retail Solutions, Inc., Dr. Britt-Marie Ljung and The Scandinavian School of San Francisco.
The SACC New England chamber co-hosted the venture capital congress Boston Clean-Tech Venture Days in Boston in early November, bringing clean-tech ventures and strategic U.S. partners together across the Atlantic. SACC Arizona and SACC Colorado celebrated 15 and 20 years respectively, by hosting grand celebration dinners.
Throughout the year, we have been able to promote Swedish-American trade with the help of our members, partners and sponsors. We are greatly appreciative of your collaboration and dedication and we look forward to working together throughout this year as well.
A Glance at 2012
SACC-USA will continue to work to bring the U.S. closer to Sweden through close cooperation within the network, and with our partners. This is essential to promoting Swedish-American trade and assisting our members in transatlantic business and networking.
The coming year SACC-USA invites you to attend: (more information to come)
- SACC Summit 2012, Washington D.C. date to be set for early May (SACC Board Members only).
- SEEAC – Sustainable Energy Environment Accessibility Construction, co-organized with Enterprise Europe Network (EEN), Vasteras May 23-24.
- Almedalen SACC-USA hosts a seminar during the very acknowledged politician week in Gotland, first week of July.
- George Washington University: looking for companies who need support with market entry strategies for the U.S. market as well as company visits during their stay in Sweden, May 13-26.
- The Bridge Conference in Karlstad, organized by Swedish Council of America, September 12-15.
- Seminars on “How to expand to the U.S market” – continuously in Sweden
Furthermore, nationwide Industry Groups have and will be formed within CleanTech, Life Science and ICT. These interregional committees will serve our members across the U.S. and Sweden with information and opportunities in these industries. Read about the groups in the SpecialEditions on eCurrents during the year and on our website sacc-usa.org/saccexportguide.
Regional SACC Chambers
The regional chambers will continue to host events, organize trade missions and assist their members with knowledge, networking, and generally hard work. Throughout the year, we will for example host Monthly Speaker Series with SACC Georgia, Monthly Pitch-pubs for start-ups with SACC New England, and Monthly Business Mixers with SACC-San Diego. Please follow the updates in the Regional Chamber schedule on “Whats going on” in the monthly issue of eCurrents. Here are a few examples.
- April: the BioMass Expo in Colorado & Scandinavian Month, co-hosted by SACC Philadelphia.
- June: SACC Greater Los Angeles will be coordinating a gaming event together with Nordic Games, the Swedish Embassy and the Swedish Computer Gaming Industry in connection with the E3 Convention in L.A.
- October: SACC Achievement Award, SACC San Francisco.
- November: Eliason Merit Award at SACC Greater Los Angeles, Boston CleanTech Venture Days, at SACC New England.
In 2012 we will also celebrate the 100th year anniversary of the birth of Raoul Wallenberg, the noted Swedish businessman, heroic diplomat, and humanitarian who rescued thousands of Jews during WW II, , and is one of only seven honorary citizens of the United States awarded to this day. We will also commemorate the 100-year anniversary of the death of the great Swedish writer, August Strindberg. The Swedish Embassy has constructed a schedule around the anniversaries and their theme “Innovation and Education. Please read Ambassador Jonas Hafström’s comments on these issues in his New Year’s greeting to the Swedish American Chambers of Commerce of the USA published in eCurrents. And do not miss our exclusive interview with the new U.S. Ambassador to Stockholm, Mark Brzezinski, on his plans for SweAm Trade and our cooperation.
We thank our members and partners for a wonderful 2011 and we are now ready for 2012!
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