400 Swedish and U.S. business leaders gathered for SACC-USA’s Entrepreneurial Days in San Diego; Los Angeles; and Washington

April 13, 2008, Alexandria, VA. Sustainable Energy, Wireless/Telecom and Life Sciences were some of the industries that were in focus at the first Swedish-American Entrepreneurial Days (Edays) of 2008. The Edays are organized by the Swedish-American Chambers of Commerce of the United States, Inc. (SACC-USA) and its 19 regional chambers located across the U.S. The first 2008 Edays event was held in partnership with SACC San Diego April 7–9 and was preceded by a program at the House of Sweden in Washington DC April 3–4 discussing US business opportunities in renewable energy for Swedish companies and followed by a focus on the Media & Entertainment industry in Los Angeles.

"The United States has a lot to offer," stated Jonas Hafström, Ambassador of Sweden to the United States in his opening remarks in San Diego. "Because of Sweden’s cutting edge hi-tech products, the U.S. is the place where great ideas and new products can grow, finding the financial support needed to accelerate on the market," continued Ambassador Hafström.

In conjunction with the U.S. Ambassador to Sweden Michael M. Wood’s visit to Washington D.C. on April 4th, the U.S. Ambassador presented an updated list of 48 Swedish renewable-energy companies to American investors. Several of these Swedish clean tech companies participated in both the Washington and the San Diego Edays activities. Through Wood’s ‘One Big Thing’ program, he is helping Swedish environmental firms and researchers with promising alternative-energy ideas to get the capital they need to put innovation into practice. "We are grateful for Ambassador Wood’s continued support and for his active participation in our Entrepreneurial Days," remarked Gunilla Girardo, President of SACC-USA.

More than 500 pre-scheduled business matchmaking meetings took place during the San Diego Edays. "Our business idea is a web-based biometric facial recognition service, which is interesting for large social networks sites like Facebook and Myspace," explained Babak Goudarzi-Pour, CEO for Optimum Biometric Labs, Karlskrona, Sweden. "The next step for us is to find venture capital so that we can expand our business to the U.S., where many of our prospective customers are. Through SACC-USA’s matchmaking program at the Edays, I actually just met with an American investor who was thrilled to hear more about our ideas," said Goudarzi-Pour.

With business matchmaking in focus, the Edays has become the biggest event of its kind, providing a platform for companies of all sizes to meet. In total, more than 400 Swedish and American business and government leaders gathered in Washington DC, San Diego and Los Angeles to further trade, commerce and investment across the Atlantic. The delegation from Sweden consisted of more than 100 people and 21 different U.S. states were represented. This spring’s Edays program was organized by SACC-USA and SACC San Diego, together with all of the regional chambers in close collaboration with the Embassy of Sweden, the Swedish Consulate General in New York and Los Angeles, Connect, Biocom, Commnexus and NanoBioNexus.

Duane Roth, CEO of Connect in San Diego, welcome Swedish companies to establish in California. "Edays is a great forum for gathering international, entrepreneurial thinking and knowledge sharing on a very high level," said Roth. "Since San Diego is home to many of the nation’s leading telecom and life science businesses it has a lot to offer Swedish companies wanting to expand and build business into the U.S.," Roth concluded.

"In conjunction with the Edays in San Diego we received the unfortunate news that the Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce-New York is departing from the SACC-USA network," said Viveka Wahlstedt, Chairman of SACC-USA adding that, "To have the right contacts and to create a business network is crucial regardless of what market you want to establish in. Our members can access the entire U.S. market via SACC-USA’s 19 chambers, and our focus is to continue serving our members and create programs that small, medium and large-size companies benefit from."

"We are thrilled to see that so many strong business relations have been initiated at our Edays, which we have organized in Sweden and the U.S. since 1997," Wahlstedt continues. The next Entrepreneurial Days will take place in Stockholm September 14-16 continuing on the theme of accelerating trade and commerce between Sweden and the U.S., offering industry ‘deep dives’ in Telecom, Clean Tech and Investment.

Contact: Viveka Wahlstedt, Chairman, the Swedish-American Chambers of Commerce of the United States, Inc.
Phone: +1 407-971-1391
E-mail: vwahlstedt@carnegieww.com

 SACC-USA is the umbrella organization for 19 regional Swedish-American Chambers of Commerce across the United States, serving more than 2,500 members. Characterized by a truly entrepreneurial way of doing business, the SACC-USA network has positioned itself as a key player in facilitating trade, commerce and investment between Sweden and the US. Through effective business matchmaking, trade missions and our Swedish-American Entrepreneurial Days we connect capital, businesses, know-how and economic development organizations.
Visit www.sacc-usa.org.