City of Brno, Czech Republic to Hold First Brno Days in New York, October 1-2, 2012

NEW YORK, Sept. 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The City of Brno, Czech Republic, will host Brno Days-New York, a day-and-a-half long event on October 1-2 at the Bohemia National Hall in New York City designed to showcase the city's strong commercial and scientific potential as well as its exceptional cultural and architectural heritage to U.S. businesses and investors. Brno Days-New York is being held under the auspices of the Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs, the U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic, the Czech Ambassador to the U.S., the Mayor of the City of Brno, the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic and in cooperation with the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in New York, the American Chamber of Commerce in the Czech Republic and the Czech Center New York. For more details on the program or to RSVP, visit http://newyork.brno.cz.

"Since the fall of Communism in 1989, the Czech Republic has emerged as one of the most prosperous nations in Central Europe and perhaps no city more than Brno," said Norman L. Eisen, U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic. "Today, Brno is the second largest city in the Czech Republic and a center for the 'knowledge economy' in industries such as biomedicine and information technology.

"Brno's strategic location in Central Europe combined with its excellent universities, research institutions and highly skilled workforce have already attracted major global companies to open offices here, including Deloitte, IBM, Honeywell, Infosys, Siemens and Vodafone. Perhaps most importantly, Brno is a great place to live with a beautiful surrounding countryside, a rich history and multiple sports, cultural activities and heritage sites," continued Eisen.

The first day of the event, October 1, will feature a special seminar and art exhibition on Brno functionalist architecture and Villa Tugendhat, the UNESCO World Heritage site and world famous functionalist masterpiece by architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe which reopened to the public this spring. This will be followed by a social reception and will culminate in the international premiere of the documentary "The Fate of Tugendhat" shot by Czech TV.

The second day of the event, October 2, is a professional conference, "Brno – Knowledge Economy City," featuring three panel discussions designed to introduce U.S. businesses and investors to Brno's business, research and development potential. This will include presentations by representatives of the City of Brno, CzechInvest Agency, Deloitte and CTP companies, as well as presentations by representatives of companies doing business in Brno such as IBM and ModusLink. Another panel will present a general scientific research profile of Brno, featuring specific projects that are related to the U.S. or which are interested in cooperation with U.S. partners such as the International Clinical Research Center (FNUSA-ICRC), the Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC) and other centers of excellence seated in Brno. The second day will also provide various networking opportunities.

"We are tremendously grateful for the support of our U.S. corporate sponsors and other organizers for making Brno Days-New York possible and look forward to continue working with them to build even greater partnerships and opportunities between the city of Brno and the U.S," said Roman Onderka, Mayor of Brno. 

This event is made possible thanks to financial contributions from its partners. These include general partners CTP, IBM Czech Republic, ModusLink Czech Republic and Unistav, partners CERE Invest Edison Center, Honeywell Czech Republic and PSJ and other cooperating organizations including The American Chamber of Commerce in the Czech Republic, CzechInvest Investment and Business Development Agency, The South Moravian Innovation Centre, The Brno Regional Chamber of Commerce, The Moravian Association of Women Entrepreneurs, Takeplace and The Wine Fund of the Czech Republic.

SOURCE City of Brno