Consul General Andreas Launer welcomed Vienna City Councillor Peter Hanke as the head of a high-raking delegation to California from November 4 to 9, 2019. Hanke, whose portfolio includes finance, business, digitalization and international affairs, travelled to Los Angeles and the Bay Area for meetings with representatives of the media and tech sectors, as well as with scholars at Stanford University.

In Los Angeles, the delegation also met with Deputy Mayor Nina Hachigian and Steven Cheung, President of the World Trade Center to discuss cooperation projects in the area of urban technologies, city planning and creative industries. The visit concluded with an exchange of views between Hanke and the former U.S. Ambassador to Austria, Kathryn Hall on current political developments in the United States and Europe.