Voices from Edays
"There was a sense of urgency about Edays. People came with a purpose. To meet and exchange ideas and opportunities. Edays is a personal experience. It is not just sitting in a large room listening to presentations, no matter how interesting. It is the face to face interactions of match making that bring people together. I was there to find companies interested in bringing clean technology to the US, what I found again was that it is people, not technology that makes successfully ventures. Edays gives you the opportunity to meet the people who will form the basis of your joint success. The location was excellent. Stockholm with its architecture, water and fashion was highlighted by formal dinners and casual conversation. For me, over 40 separate networking meetings including meetings before during and after the event, has already developed into opportunities to build businesses and friendships. The Swedish American Chamber of Commerce provides a linkage between the countries. The linkage includes the alternating meetings between Sweden and the US. We have used the next E-Days event as business development milestones to meet again and continue to develop our new businesses. We are all busy and need to make the most of our investments in time and resources. Edays has provides my business with an efficient way to identify motivated business partners and develop international opportunities."
Ross Harding, Managing Partner, Energy Launch Partners LLC
“Having just returned from Europe I only now get to follow up with you on the time we spent in Stockholm. It is in the name of the entire executive team that I congratulate you to a tremendously well orchestrated event, a truly wonderful and memorable gala and most importantly a very successful matchmaking for us at BAC.
Our first round of talks leaves us with many fascinating people to follow up with. We are confident that we will get to exactly those decision makers we need on a number of the leads provided. We find the days in Stockholm were a great kick-off event for our relationship with the SACC and look forward to many more.
Having interacted with various chambers over time, the business sense within yours is what truly makes a difference. I will be in touch with each of you individually regarding further follow up and upcoming meetings and events.
Again, thank you all for working so hard on this. I know that each of you put in tremendous time and effort toward getting us off to a good start. Mission accomplished!"
Benedikt Ibing, Director of Business Development, Berlin Atlantic Capital US, LLC
“When it comes to entrepreneurship and innovation in the 21st century, Sweden is a worldwide leader”, says Sandy K. Baruah, who serves a dual role in the U.S. Government as the head of both the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) and U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). “Sweden’s success over the last several years in building an environment that fosters entrepreneurship and innovation is remarkable, and there is much that the United States and Sweden can learn from each other on this important topic.”
In his dual role leading EDA and SBA, Baruah focuses on advancing entrepreneurship and innovation as well as connecting U.S. regional economies to the worldwide marketplace. Promoting trade and bilateral investment with international partners, he believes, expands economic growth opportunities, as do international dialogues that explore best practices. Baruah sees the Swedish-American Entrepreneurial Days (Edays) as an exciting opportunity to do both, while also strengthening the strategic relationship between the two countries. “U.S. small firms are increasingly looking to foreign markets – like Sweden – as outlets for their goods and services. Representing about 97 percent of all U.S. exporting firms”, he explains, “small businesses recognize the potential and promise of doing business in Sweden.”
"Congratulations to en exceptionally well-executed event. A great program, qualified participants, professional hosts and definitely a superb dinner in a very unique surrounding. Enovation made several beneficial contacts and we are already looking forward to the next event in TelecomCity. The strong interest regarding our products tells us they are strong and sought after, and it spurs us to continue working even harder."
Peter Jörgensen, CEO, Enovation AB
"In the process of learning more about the environment and energy we are also seeing the advantages of cooperating with Sweden within the field of alternative energy. Sweden is one of the top actors in regards of development and our team has much to learn about the technology and the different processes developed and used here."
Jennifer Granholm, Governor, Michigan
"You went beyond my expectations for this event. This was my sixth event and definitely the best. We now have three potential products to launch on the American market."
Leif Boman, CEO, 3GLogix
"This event was mutually positive. We will absolutely come back. I am very impressed with the entrepreneurial spirit and innovation capacity within mobile enterprise and IT in Sweden. The Entrepreneurial Days is an excellent opportunity for Swedish companies to interact with large distributors and potential clients."
Urban Gillström, President, Ericsson Enterprise AB
“Attending the Entrepreneurial Days was well invested time and money. We got in contact with several potential customers and partners, and right now we’re negotiating to sell patent licenses in the United States.”
Benth Lönnberg, CEO & founder of Bentech
"The most important feature of the Entrepreneurial Days was the business matchmaking", says Joacim Timlon from Actea Consulting. ”During two days event that I attended more than 800 meetings were set up between Swedish and American companies with matching interests. Results were beyond my expectation.”
