Select your chamber:
Home » Events

E-Days Lidkoping 2006

 

Published: 8-29-06

The Entrepreneurial Days has become the most important business, trade and networking event between Sweden and the US. This year event in Lidköping on Aug 21 – 23 was another success story organized by SACC-USA and its business partners, the City of Lidköping and Region Västra Götaland. Over 700 delegates incl 150 from the US participated in the conference, business matchmaking and the exhibition.

The first day featured “deep dive” industry programs covering sector like automotive, production technology, design, biotech, security and defence. In the evening the City of Lidköping and the County of Västra Götaland hosted a VIP-reception at the Läckö Castle beautifully located by the lake of Vänern. The County Governor, Göte Bernardsson welcomed the distinguished crowd to the Castle, which history goes back to year 1298 (www.lackoslott.se). During the evening the guests were entertained by highlights from an opera by Rossini. An Industrial Collaboration Agreement was signed by the Mayor of Rockford, IL and the Mayor of Lidköping and the partnership between the two cities were officially launched.

 

    

Bo Hedfors 

The second day started with the opening of the interactive exhibition. The SACC SD/TJ booth was staffed by Bo Hedfors and two former marketing managers, Helena Bengtsson and David Piehl. Running in parallel the business matchmaking was kicked off. Several hundreds of preregistered matchmaking events took place at over 30 tables in the conference center during 1,5 days. One participant commented: “My first matchmaking session paid for the whole trip”.  8 companies, which had registered for meeting with SACC SD/TJ had discussions with Bo Hedfors. Companies representing different sector such as health products, production technology, home textiles, travel, flooring and consulting.

The conference part of the Edays featured many high caliber speaker and panelists, such as Torsten Jansson, CEO of New Wave Group, Inge Thulin, VP international Operations at 3M and Sven-Eric Söder, State Secretary of the Swedish Ministry of Industry.

 

 

Helena Bengtson

During the Edays the delegates could also listen to Michael Woods, the Ambassador of the US to Sweden, Gunnar Lund, the Ambassador of Sweden to the US and Michael Treschow, Chairman of Ericsson. The second day ended with the Swedish-American Entrepreneurial Banquet Dinner at the Skaraborg Wing (Skaraborgs flygflottilj, F7), one of the Swedish Air Force three wings. The commander of the Skaraborg Wing, Colonel Fredrik Heden, invited 500 guests to a spectacular air show by a JAS Gripen pilot followed by a Nobel style dinner in the main hangar.

The third day continued with more matchmaking and panel discussions. The exhibit closed at 2 pm.

The Chairman of SACC-USA, Jan Lindelow, was very pleased with the turnout and the program and thanked all chamber members and volunteers for a superb job done. The winner of the 2006 Entrepreneurial Award was Absolent from Lidköping based on its success in the US with their unique air filtering technology. Finally the SACC Special Director and Project Manager of the 2006 Edays, Urban Lundberg, handed over the baton to Tom Thorelli, President of SACC Chicago. They will host the Spring Entrepreneurial Days in Chicago on April 16-18, 2007.

Bo Hedfors