Wednesday, September 30, 2009
We had many meetings scheduled Monday and Tuesday in Munich, the capital of Bavaria. Bavaria is the economic power house of Europe and this sector has the most GDP; thus, the reason for spending time here. Interestingly, Munich has the same population of Indianapolis; but, in only about one quarter of the land. So it is busy enough on a daily basis and with their infamous Oktoberfest currently on going, another 300,000 to 400,000 people flow in and out of the area per day.
Our meetings in Munich included several visits with companies, but the majority were held with Chambers, Associations and Government departments. In all of these meetings, the comments have commonly been focused on how long it has been since they have been visited by someone from Indiana. I was welcomed warmly and am grateful for scheduling this trip so that Indiana, and northeast Indiana in particular, can remain familiar to our German counterparts.
On a side note, Sunday was election day in Germany, and al-Qaeda had threatened that if the incumbent was re-elected they would attack (because of the country's involvement in Afghanistan). Therefore, we have seen a large increase of military and police presence in many public areas, especially the train station, and they have armored vehicles on the runway at Frankfurt airport...hopefully I can avoid them when I take off from there Friday, flying back to home sweet home Indiana.
-Dale Buuck
We had many meetings scheduled Monday and Tuesday in Munich, the capital of Bavaria. Bavaria is the economic power house of Europe and this sector has the most GDP; thus, the reason for spending time here. Interestingly, Munich has the same population of Indianapolis; but, in only about one quarter of the land. So it is busy enough on a daily basis and with their infamous Oktoberfest currently on going, another 300,000 to 400,000 people flow in and out of the area per day.
Our meetings in Munich included several visits with companies, but the majority were held with Chambers, Associations and Government departments. In all of these meetings, the comments have commonly been focused on how long it has been since they have been visited by someone from Indiana. I was welcomed warmly and am grateful for scheduling this trip so that Indiana, and northeast Indiana in particular, can remain familiar to our German counterparts.
On a side note, Sunday was election day in Germany, and al-Qaeda had threatened that if the incumbent was re-elected they would attack (because of the country's involvement in Afghanistan). Therefore, we have seen a large increase of military and police presence in many public areas, especially the train station, and they have armored vehicles on the runway at Frankfurt airport...hopefully I can avoid them when I take off from there Friday, flying back to home sweet home Indiana.
-Dale Buuck
Pictured above: Group meeting with the head of the AmCham (far right), Dale Buuck is pictured on the far left.
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