Trip Summary

It's Sunday, September 20 in Beijing and my first real chance since I left Rockford on September 13 to post to this blog and recap our efforts. The first leg of the trip took us to Stockholm, Sweden for three days of effort with the Swedish American Chamber of Commerce "E Days" Conference. We continued to build on past relationships and efforts during the conference including our focus on green energy and environmental opportunities.

The theme of "clean and green" technology, products, and manufacturing dominated much of the conference with multiple panel discussions focusing on this area. U.S. Ambassador, Michael Wood, highlighted U.S. efforts to create jobs in both the U.S. and Sweden based on partnerships and trade opportunities that incorporate Sweden's leadership in this industry sector. Ambassador Wood was very complimentary to Rockford's efforts, publicly recognizing us in his comments, and we were invited to a private reception at the Ambassador's residence. Over the course of the conference several of us had private discussions with the Ambassador focusing on how Rockford might partner with Swedish Cities to promote opportunities for Rockford citizens.

I also had an opportunity to meet with Mayor Kjell Hedvall of the City of Lidkoping with which Rockford has an Industrial Partnership Agreement. We have had multiple interns at the Rockford Area Economic Development Council from Sweden through Mayor Hedvall's leadership including one of our great aids during our trip, Marie-Louise Pettersson. We are working to promote interns from Rockford to Sweden next year with a focus on learning about their green efforts. We also discussed efforts to promote pilot industrial and residential projects that incorporate some of Sweden's leading technologies in building design, appliances, and energy. The goal is to showcase real-world examples of "green" building design and community design in Rockford that are already part of the regular Swedish approach. In Sweden they are calling this type of integrated approach to city planning, energy systems, and building design "Symbio City". (Check it out at http://symbiocity.org/.) This is similar to what we are trying to do with efforts to improve regional planning through our new focus at the Rockford Metropolitan Agency for Planning (formerly RATS). Chairman Christiansen and I had a good chance to discuss applications and partnerships for this type of thinking at multiple areas in our community including Freedom Field as well as many redevelopment areas. Aspects of the City's new zoning ordinance and redevelopment incentives also promote more integrated, green design.

The first day of the conference included an evening Conference Banquet, which also celebrated the 20th Anniversary of the Swedish American Chamber of Commerce. The event was held at the beautiful Nordiska Museet (Nordic Museum) and included an outstanding performance by the Adolf Fredrik Youth Choir and Soprano Hannah Holgersson. David Preece of the RACVB and Anne O'Keefe of the Rockford Area Arts Council will help us explore ways to extend our cultural connections with visiting artist exchanges. We even had a chance to talk to Ms. Holgersson about visiting Rockford during her next tour of the United States. That might be a great event and cultural connection at the Coronado Theater!

The highlight of the E Days conference, however, had to be the joint venture agreement signing ceremony by Rockford Business, Leading Edge Hydraulics, with their Swedish partner. Our efforts in building econmic relationships with our partnership cities in Sweden has helped to open doors for networking and strategizing on multiple levels. But with those doors open, the real hard work begins. This partnership came after a lot of work by Russ Dennis of Leading Edge Hydraulics and travel to both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Russ and Leading Edge recognized the opportunities that their partnership with Jimec AB would offer in opening up their products to the European marketplace. Their first products should be headed to Europe soon and creating more growth for Rockford. Congratualtions on the great work!

On Tuesday afternoon after the formal confernce ended, I had a brief chance to tour Stockholm with Rockford Architect Gary Anderson. There is a lot to learn about great place making and great city design and architecture in Sweden. Gary and I visited City Hall in Stockholm, which is also the location where the Nobel Prize is awarded. We later met up later with his wife and joined other members of the delegation in the evening for a nice dinner and recap of our time in Stockholm.

The trip ended for me on Wednesday, September 17 when I left for China. Other members of the Sweden delegation continued on to Lidkoping and West Sweden where they would be visiting several plants and government partners. I want to thank our friends at the RAEDC and RACVB who did a great job in working with our City staff to keep me and our delegation organized and effective.

Well, that's all for now. Next up will be my travel to China!