Katowice delegation visited the United States

From 26th of June to 1st of July, representatives of the City Hall of Katowice, including mayor Piotr Uszok, Katowice Special Economic Zone and Silesian University of Technology members and local businesspersons participated in a delegation to the United States. A key role of the delegacy was to promote Katowice among American companies and to present the City as a BPO destination.

On Monday, 27th of June, the Katowice Summit 2011 business conference was held in New York City. Over 125 guests joined the featured speakers, performers, and delegation from the City of Katowice to discuss topics related to doing business in Europe. The Katowice Summit 2011 was held at the building of the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in New York.

The Summit brought together decision makers, thought leaders, and government representatives to collaborate on subjects involving information technology outsourcing (ITO) and business process outsourcing (BPO). The participants were introduced to Katowice as an attractive ITO/BPO hub in Europe. Among 125 guests of the event were representatives of such organizations as Citigroup, HBSC, UBS, Merill Lynch, IBM, E&Y, PWC, KPMG, Wipro.

The conference was opened by mayor Piotr Uszok who invited all the participants to attend an outsourcing conference which will take place in Katowice on 29th of September 2011. The conference’s presentations were given by Paweł Panczyj, Advisor at Ernst & Young, Dr. Jacek Frączek, Assistant Professor at the Silesian University of Technology, Dr. Malgorzata Stys, Business Strategy Executive at IBM and Mateusz Skowroński from the Katowice Strategic Investors’ Center.

During the stay in the United States, the City’s representatives met with the Empire State Department deputies where collaboration between Katowice and New York, the role of metropolis in regions and the Smarter Cities initiative were discussed. Moreover, the real estate sector of Katowice was presented to developers of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce. Also, the delegacy talked over possibilities of economic collaboration between businesses from Katowice and the City of New York during the meeting in the Office of NY Mayor.

The delegation from Katowice also visited Washington where meetings with the North Virginia Technology Council and the U.S. Department of State (Eric J. Rueter – Economic & Commercial Oficer Europe, Rhonda Binda – Deputy Director Office of the Special Representative for Global Intergovernmental Affairs, Christopher J. Beede – Deputy Special Representative for Commercial and Business Affairs) were arranged. On 1st of July, Piotr Uszok met with Robert Kupiecki, Ambassador of Poland to the United States of America, and discussed future common initiatives promoting Katowice in the U.S.

During the visit, Katowice delegation met with, among others, following companies’ representatives: Citigroup, HBSC, UBS, Merill Lynch, IBM, E&Y, PWC, KPMG, Wipro, W. P. Carey International LLC, Word Trade Centers Association, MDclick, Katten, Axis Technology, ADP, RealView, Wyndham Global Partners, Bierce & Kenerson, Citibank, Kaye Scholer LLP, Optimyze, Global Coaching & Consulting Group, Infuze International, IrisGuard Corp., Starting Gate Global, Knaeco International, Continental Capital.

The Katowice Summit 2011 conference in New York is the beginning of collaboration between the Polish City and American partners. A main goal of the initiative is to attract investors from the United States to invest in Katowice and the Upper Silesia region. Another chance for the dialogue will occur in September during the outsourcing conference in Katowice.

Learn more about the conference in New York and planned events at www.katowicesummit2011.com