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In its 10th year, the Texas-EU Business Summit is the premier event for Texas businesses, entrepreneurs and economic development professionals seeking to expand their footprint in Europe. The summit provides Texas businesses, entrepreneurs, policymakers and target businesses with an overview of trade and expansion business opportunities in Europe as well as information and connections to make the most of those opportunities.


10th Annual Texas EU Business Summit Preview

May 11, 2021

9:30am - 1:00 pm Central Daylight Time

Held via Zoom

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Register as Attendee (FREE)
Register as Summit Sponsor (Add'l Fee)

The Texas-EU Business Summit

The Lone Star State's Platform for Success in Europe

Texas Businesses are rushing to participate in this year’s Texas-EU Business Summit. Now in its tenth year, the summit is the state’s premier forum for connecting businesses, entrepreneurs, and economic development agencies with trade representatives from nations of the European Union. The EU offers Texas business a market of more than 450 million people with a combined economy of $15 trillion, encompassing many different markets, needs, and comparative advantages.


Beginning with our ten years an independent republic, Texas has always been outward-looking. Today, we pursue trading relationships more aggressively than other state. This is a key reason Texas has been America’s largest exporter for almost two decades, exporting $279 billion in 2019. The Texas-European relationship is a cornerstone of our economic success and the Texas-EU Business Summit provides businesses and entrepreneurs with the knowledge and connections to grow the partnership further.  The Summit is not only for corporations or large businesses, in 2016 small and medium-sized business accounted for 39.9% of all Texas exports.


After a year off due to the Pandemic, the Summit is back with a virtual mini-event on May 11th and a full day in-person event scheduled tentatively for September 21, 2021. Participants in the May event will be briefed on the business climate and opportunities within key EU markets and sectors. They will also have the opportunity to interact and make connections with European trade representatives. Highlights of the event include:


  • Examination of EU market access, focusing on the robust economies of Central Europe and Ireland.
  • Discussion of the future-defining healthcare and cleantech sectors in the context of Texas-EU trade.
  • Exploration of “The New Digital Humanism,” offering a European perspective on tech companies on both sides of the Atlantic.


The Texas EU-Business Summit Preview takes place May 11, 2021 via Zoom Webinar. To learn more or to register for the event, please visit the summit website: https://conferences.la.utexas.edu/texaseusummit/.

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Zuzanna Kobrzynski

Head of the Polish Investment and

Trade Agency office, Houston

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Gábor Markocsány

Consul, Vice-Consulate of Hungary,

Houston



Trends in Market Access: Hungary & Poland

Regional panels on EU market access have consistently been one of the summit’s most popular offerings. The May event brings together panelists Gábor Markocsány, Consul for Hungary in Houston, and Zuzanna Kobrzynski, Head of the Polish Investment and Trade Agency’s Foreign Trade Office in Houston, to guide attendees through market access to Hungary, Poland, and the surrounding region.


Hungary and Poland are among the fastest-growing economies in Europe. Both nations combine lower costs of doing business with a well-educated workforce. There are differences as well, highlighted by the panelists.


Kobryznski says she will frame her remarks around five good reasons to work with Poland and Polish companies. “Economic stability and investment potential; strategic location; educated labor force; innovation nation; and a plethora of industry expertise,” she explains “and why its economy is emerging relatively unscathed by COVID.”

 

Markocsány is interested in the specifics of the Hungary-Texas relationship, “Hungary and Texas have a truly solid base in business relations, Hungary does more trade with Texas than it does with Canada, and about every fifth US dollar invested in Hungary comes from Texas.”

A Year Unlike Any Other: Organizing the 2021 Summit

Canceled out of an abundance of caution in 2020, the Texas-EU Business Summit is back in 2021 with a flexible format responsive to uncertainties about the pandemic’s trajectory. When the pandemic took effect in March of last year, and the summit scheduled for May, organizers felt there simply wasn’t enough time to move the event online while ensuring participants enjoyed the high quality experience they have come to expect.


Looking at 2021, while hoping the summit could occur, organizers realized the picture for May would be complex. While the vaccination process would be well under way, many people would not yet have been immunized and it was plausible the number of new cases could still be too high to allow and in-person event.


The response was to split this year’s event. Honoring the summit’s traditional schedule, a virtual mini-summit will be he on May 11 followed by a larger in-person event set tentatively for September 21, 2021. 

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UT Austin Center for European Studies Assistant Director Dr. Michael Mosser (L) interviews H.E. Pjer Šimunović (R), Ambassador of Croatia to the United States of America at the 8th annual Texas EU Business Summit; May 16, 2019.

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Summit attendees listen to business leaders from France at the 8th annual Texas EU Business Summit; May 16, 2019.

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Doing Business for the Future: Healthcare & Cleantech

The latest trends in technology will be front and center during the May virtual event with a panel on “Healthcare and Cleantech: Sustainable Growth and New Transatlantic Opportunities in Science Innovation.” The session provides a forum for early discussions on post-pandemic collaboration between Europe and Texas on these future-defining technologies.


The United States and European Union are the world’s most technologically advanced markets and high technology forms a key component of their trading relationship. As the pandemic-driven economic slowdown recedes and America’s new administration makes its priorities clear, including cleantech, new technologies will come to forefront. Any discussion of America’s high-tech industry must include Texas, home to several significant clusters and enterprises. Technology has been behind many of the most interesting collaborations between Texas and the EU.


Globally, healthcare is a $10 trillion dollar industry, with Texas as a significant player. Houston is a significant healthcare and biomedical research cluster, Austin possesses a comprehensive strength in technology, and Texas hosts major research universities conducting innovative R&D. In addition to new drugs and treatments, opportunities for technological innovation include ancillary areas of healthcare such as data security, healthcare staffing, patient managed wellness, and telehealth/telemedicine.


In cleantech, Texas is America’s largest wind energy producer, out-generating the three next largest producers combined. Austin ranks among America’s top 10 renewable energy cities. Additionally, bipartisan calls for rethinking the Texas energy grid create a promising state-specific driver for new technologies related to reliability, maintenance, transmission, and management.

Register as Attendee (FREE)
Register as Summit Sponsor (Add'l Fee)
Visit our Website

Have further questions? Please contact the Texas EU Business Summit organizers at TXEUSummit@austin.utexas.edu

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