"Wilkommen" to Pennsylvania!

Posted by Tina

Last month we hosted a visiting trade delegation from Germany in the southcentral PA region.  The group was sponsored by the  German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology  and was comprised of 9 advanced manufacturing firms who visited the East Coast in search of potential business opportunities.  Click here for a listing of the participants, their technologies and their business objectives.

The World Trade Center partnered with the German organizers of the mission, AHP International, and we were responsible for identifying and qualifying partner opportunities for a very diverse group of German manufacturers.  The project got underway several months ago and culminated with the group's visit to Reading on February 21st and 22nd.

Jon Scott with the Berks Economic Partnership
and Darrell Auterson with York County EDC
present the welcome briefing

We started in the afternoon of the 21st with a  welcome briefing at the hotel.  This was followed by a wonderful dinner at Bistro 614 in Reading, which was sponsored jointly by the Berks Economic Partnership and the York County Economic Development Corporation. 

Everyone had a wonderful evening and enjoyed the good food
and company at Bistro 614



Meetings for the team from Schragl Industrietechnik

Throughout the next day, appointments with interested American firms were set-up at the Crown Plaza hotel in Wyomissing, outside of Reading.  US companies traveled from several states to meet with the German firms, and we had also arranged for some meetings via phone.  A few on-site meetings with regional firms also took place.

During lunch, we were fortunate to host Susanne Cooke, chair of the International Business Group at Cohen and Grigsby, based in Pittsburgh PA.  Ms. Cooke specializes in helping German and other foreign firms structure their business operations in the United States and she presented a most helpful seminar on a "softlanding" approach to doing business in the United States.

The group then continued on to other parts of Pennsylvania, including Allentown and Philadelphia, before heading back to Berlin.