On September 22, 2017, Austria Connect North America brought together around 100 executives of Austrian subsidiaries in the U.S. and Canada. The annual one-day conference, now in its 10th year, was organized by the Austrian Trade Commission and  held at the prestigious Stanford University in California. 

The conference focused on society-transforming technologies. It addressed methods to predict the future, disruptive and use-centered innovations, the hardware revolution and gave an opportunity to glimpse into the future of energy storage. The lineup of speakers featured Austrian-born Fritz Prinz, Finmeccanica Professor at Stanford’s School of Engineering. Ambassador Wolfgang Walder gave an overview of current economic developments in the U.S. and the endeavors by the Embassy and Open Austria, to promote and advance Austrian industry in the United States. 

On the sidelines of the conference, Ambassador Waldner visited the corporate headquarters of Apple Inc. in Cupertino and the new Open Austria Silicon Valley Office in San Francisco. Open Austria is the joint initiative of the Austrian Foreign Ministry and the Austrian Chamber of Commerce connecting Austrian entrepreneurs, innovators, scientists and creative minds to the Valley.

He also met with Awinash Bawle, Deputy Director of International Affairs and Business Development at the California Governor’s Office, with Austrian researcher Kurosh Ameri, Associate Director and Chief Scientist of UCSF Translational Cardiac Stem Cell Program, and gave Dominik Perlaki an interview for der brutkasten, an Austrian online resource for startups and innovation.