|
CNBC's Top States For Business 2010—And The Winner Is TexasThey say everything in Texas is big, and that sure goes for its stature in business. With the biggest point total in the history of our study, Texas posts a big victory as America’s Top State for Business 2010. More>>
Only two western European countries have hiked
interest rates since
the beginning of the global recession: Sweden and Norway. More >> The Swedish Wire, July 1st
Sold out Midsummer feast at IKEA FriscoBy Magnus Swenson, July 19, 2010.
"A great success!", said April Berg PR/Marketing Manager IKEA Frisco.
"Selling over over 300 tickets to the event it was definitely a success. Having a celebration & creating fun days out for our customers is what IKEA enjoys the most. We love to educate our customers on the Swedish culture, so we constructed a Swedish maypole for the restaurant and enjoyed performances by the local swedish choir."
On June 18th, IKEA served all the dishes we have come to love from our Swedish Midsummer celebration. From gravad lax, prinskorv, ham, roast beef and meatballs to dill, herring, potatoes, eggs, salads of all variaities, enjoyed with breads and dinner rolls. Assorted deserts, fruit and ice cream with your favorite beverage.
If you're in town in about a month, swing by IKEA Frisco and take part of the next feast and Swedish tradition, Crayfish - Swedish style.
Midsummer festivities at IKEA Round Rock
Copy and Photos by Hakan Thyr, June 21, 2010.
IKEA in Round Rock arranged their first annual midsummer celebration in the store on Friday June 18.Photo: Cecilia Camp (left) Public Relations Manager at IKEA Round Rock arranged the festivities
The festivities included all the components of a traditional Swedish midsummer celebration – a midsummer pole, live traditional Swedish folk music, dancing around the maypole, and a buffet of delicious Swedish food.
Full Story >>
Kiplinger’s Personal
Finance magazine, July 2010, has named Austin the "Best City for the Next Decade"
because of the city’s innovative and dynamic thinking that leads to job
creation.
As "arguably the country’s best crucible for small business, Austin
has spawned many companies with unique twists that have gone
nationwide," Kiplinger’s reports. "The city’s 200 live music venues,
lakes, parks, and funky businesses all contribute to its eclectic vibe."
In picking the top cities, Kiplinger’s looked for livability and a
good business environment for entrepreneurs and job seekers.
Conducting Business with the EU conferenceby Magnus Swenson, May 27, 2010.
The University of North Texas and Texas
A&M University held the seminar "Conducting Business with the
European Union: Trends, Ideas, and Approaches".
Sponsors of the event included: The City of
Denton, Denton Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Italy America Chamber of
Commerce-Dallas/Fort Worth, French-American Chamber of Commerce, British
American Commerce Association, German American Chamber of Commerce,
North Texas Chapter, Trade Development and Promotion Agency for the
Region of Valencia, Spain, Finnish American Business Guild, the
Dallas Regional Chamber and co-sponsored by Swedish American Chamber of Commerce - Texas, Dallas chapter.
Full story>>
Sweden tenth most attractive nation — againThe Local - April 30
Sweden retains its position as the tenth most attractive
country in the world, writes Liselott
Bergman of the Swedish Institute.
That is the result of this year’s Anholt-GfK Nation Brands Index (NBI),
which measures the global image of 50 countries in terms of
attractiveness and perceived qualities. One of Sweden’s challenges is to
promote itself as a tourist destination – without having an Eiffel Tower or any
other world-famous postcard motif to offer. More>>
Changing the Game in
Executive Recruitmentby Zezelia C. Olson, April 7, 2010.
A successful
business is formed
from a blend of 3 key ingredients: an innovative product, a viable
business plan, and the right people.
"People are the secret to
the sauce,"
says Swedish native Bjorn Kirchdorfer, Partner at Top Gun Ventures (www.topgunventures.com),
a
retained executive recruiting firm based in Austin. 
"The
current executive search model is broken.
Despite poor performance,
traditional
search
methods haven't changed in the last 3 to 4 decades"
Most business owners agree
that
finding and retaining the right people to expand their business ideas is
no
easy task. In fact, the CEO of Heidrich & Struggles recently stated
in a
Business Week Online interview that "40% of placed senior executives are
no longer in that position 18 months later."
Full story>>
Sweden Hits Austin: Swedish Band Happy
Hour at SXSW
Full article by Hannah Miller, Photo: Rebecca Miller
SACC Austin event
with Swedish artists during SXSW a smashing success!
“The Swedish
Invasion” continues
Copy and photo: Håkan Thyr,
SACC Texas
Austin is rightfully named “The Live Music Capital of the
World”. Every day of the year you can listen to live music at many of
the large
and small music venues throughout the city. Two weeks every year there is no
way you
can avoid listening to music if you are close to downtown: during the
3-day Austin City Limits Music Festival
in October when over 100 bands turn Zilker
Park into a buzzing music scene with more than 65,000 visitors every
day, and
in March during the SXSW
(South by Southwest) music, film and interactive festival when 1400
performers
play in more than 80 venues, and transform the entire downtown into a
4-day
around the clock music event. Read more 
Picture:
Miss Li
______________________________________________________________
Golf
results from 3rd Euro-Golf Scramble2009 - Dallas
The Finns with Juha Isohanni, Sakari Nikkanen, Scott Vartija and Pekka
Vaisanen once again manage to take the win for the 3rd year running. In
second place came the Swedes with Bo Bostrom, Kurt Vaneck, Mike
Fredricks and Martin Danby. The respective scores were a gross of 63 and
66. After a rained out first attempt to play at Firewheel in Garland,
TX we managed to play on a wet course the week after (October 30th,
2009). A total of 24 players played and we had some nice snacks and
drinks both on the course and after the event. We will try to arrange
the same event in 2010.
 
Crossing Geographical and Culinary
Boundaries:
A Swedish Chef at the Hilton
By: Hannah Miller
The Hilton Garden Inn in Allen receives guests from all over
the world, but so far the closest they’ve come to having Swedes stay the night
were two Norwegians who recently stopped by. The Swedish chef, Jan Loov, is
hoping this will change, especially considering the Hilton Garden Inn just
became a member of the Swedish American Chamber of Commerce.
Picture: Executive Chef Jan Loov and General Manager Angela Barfield
Full article
SACC Texas sponsors the 7th Annual Nordic
Film Fest
March 7, 2010. Text and Photo: Håkan Thyr, SACC Texas, Austin
 On Saturday, Febuary 27th the American-Scandinavia n Foundation in Austin arranged the 7th Annual Nordic Film Fest at the
Bob Bullock Texas History Museum in downtown Austin. SACC Texas Austin were
proud co-sponsors of the event together with many other organizations.
This year's main feature film was Everlasting Moments (Maria Larssons
eviga ögonblick) by the famous Swedish Director Jan Troell. The
event turned out to be a great success for the American- Scandinavian Foundation
with a capacity crowd showing up to watch a hand-picked selection of films from
the Nordic countries. Picture: John Olsson and Nikolas White from the Nordic Film
Fest Planning Committee
SAAB enters new eraThe Local, January 26 General Motors on Tuesday announced a "binding agreement" to sell its Saab division to Dutch luxury sports car maker Spyker, in an eleventh hour deal saving the storied Swedish brand. As part of the agreement, Spyker will form a new company, Saab Spyker Automobiles, which will carry the Saab nameplate forward.
GM officials said the deal calls for Spyker to pay $74 million in cash and allow GM to retain redeemable preferred shares worth an estimated $326 million. Full Story>>
A toast for Swedish gin - the Right Gin
by Peter Holmertz, SACC Texas
Does the combination of gin and Sweden sound odd to you? Well, not to Swedish Master Blender and beverage creator Henrik Facile. Living in Austin since a few years back, Henrik is proud to see one of his creations hitting the shelves in liquor stores across the country.
Photo: Kevin Stein, Store Manager Twin Liquors at the Hill Country Galleria (left) and Henrik Facile (right)
It all started when the spirit company Altamar
Brands in California went looking for a new premium product to invest
in. They realized there was a market for a new Gin product and they went
to Sweden to find one. Why Sweden when gin traditionally comes from
England? Well, Sweden has a long history of making premium aquavit with
countless combinations of herbs and spices. ”Making a gin
is in many ways similar” explains Henrik >> more
Julotta
by Håkan Thyr, SACC Texas Austin
“Julotta” is a traditional Swedish church service held early in the morning on Christmas Day. "Jul" is the Swedish word for Christmas, and "otta" is the time just before dawn.
The tradition goes back to the Middle Ages, and everyone that could, attended the Julotta. In the Swedish Church Law dated 168 6, it is stated that the Julotta should start at 6 AM. Further ba
ck, the tradition was to start at 4 AM. Today, most Swedish churches start the service at 7 AM.
>> Full story
Beyond the insults: Swedish Model 2.0(The Local, September 16, 2009)
As Sweden takes a battering in the US health care debate, Swedish Institute chief Olle Wästberg examines two of the insults most frequently flung: that Sweden is rampantly socialist, and that it's the poster child for neo-liberal market excesses. >>Full Story
SACC Texas assists NASA with Space Station broadcastHow did a small Swedish owned consulting and translation firm get to work with NASA? You guessed it SACC Texas. We helped with connecting the parties for the live Swedish/English simultaneous translation that took place during the Discovery/ISS 128 flight in September 2009.
The Audio Control Room at The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston. From left: Christopher Westerlund President Westerlund Consulting and Beth Weissinger NASA-JSC Audio Control Room
Swedish Astronaut Christer Fuglesang had two Discovery/ISS inflight events involving Swedish translation during his time in space and Westerlund Consulting was there to help both times. The first one took place Friday, September 4, 2009 and the second one took place Monday, September 7, 2009. >> Full story
The STS-128 Shuttle Crew
Sweden to close New York and LA consulates
(July 23, The Local)
The Swedish foreign ministry announced on Thursday it was closing one embassy and four consulates general, including those in New York and Los Angeles due to budget constraints. Full story >>
Stockholm selected European Green Capital 2010
The Swedish capital - which will be the first European Green Capital in 2010 - has the ambition target of saying goodbye to fossils by 2050
'The Venice of The North' is a term often used about the Swedish capital Stockholm, beautifully situated on the Baltic coast. Ten per cent of the city area is water, and the many lakes and water sheds are highly valued for recreational purposes. In fact, 95% of the population live only 300 m away from green areas, thus augmenting recreation, swimming, boating, better well being, water purification, noise reduction, enhancement of biodiversity and ecology. Full article>>
The Swedish Ambassador Mr. Jonas Hafström joined the SACC Texas 25th anniversary celebration in November 2008.
Guided tour of NASA hosted by Christer Fuglesang
With a packed 3 day program the 25th birthday celebration of SACC Texas was a memorable event. We thank all participants for sharing these special days. We are also very grateful for the sponsorships that made this event possible. >> more
Jonas Hafström - Swedish Ambassador to the United States. >> About the Ambassador
First Lady of Texas Music Shelley King put on a show at the Driskill Hotel
Why is Austin a booming IT cluster?
Read the recent report published by the Swedish Institute for Growth Policy Studies - Report title: Information technology in the United States - Environments, initiatives and trends
Abstract: "This report has been written by ITPS for Vinnova. It describes industrial and academic innovation processes as well as federal and state agencies’ involvement in innovation and research initiatives in the information technology sector. Two American innovation clusters have been investigated in more depth – Austin (Texas) and the Research Triangle Park (North Carolina). In addition, the report discusses the progress made in certain key IT initiatives such as e-government and e-health, it highlights technology trends and also describes studies in which universities and states are ranked in different IT-related subjects."  >> read the full report
|
|
3 Aug 2010 11:30 AM • SAGO at the Triangle, where Lamar and Guadalupe meet just 2 blocks North of 45th St.
20 Aug 2010 06:00 PM • IKEA Frisco, 7171 IKEA Drive, Frisco, TX 75034
9 Sep 2010 11:30 AM • Arcodoro Ristorante Italiano, 5000 Westheimer (at Post Oak), Houston, TX 77056
Click here for all planned events
Maximize your SACC network. Click to join the global SACC networking group on Linked-In.
Click to join the Swedes in Texas group on facebook
Check out the latest SACC-TX Newsletter
The Local - Sweden's News in English
The Swedish Wire - Swedish business, politics and current affairs – in English.
 Technology and Business news from Sweden (In Swedish)
|
Join SACC Texas |
|
SACC-Texas provides a meaningful business network connecting Sweden and Texas.
>> membership info |
 |