Georgia Companies Invited for Red-Carpet Mission to Czech Republic, Opening Doors in Central Europe and Beyond

Up to five Georgia companies this October will have a unique chance to meet top Czech government officials, rub shoulders with European manufacturers and gain access to key business meetings during one of Central Europe’s largest trade shows.

The red-carpet treatment is being arranged by Honorary Consul Monika Vintrlikova, a manufacturing entrepreneur in her own right who knows intimately the process of pioneering trans-Atlantic expansion.

Now, the Albaform CEO is lending her connections in government and industry to Georgia companies seeking to make inroads in European Union, which just entered into a trade deal with the U.S. that raises across-the-board tariffs substantially to 15 percent but averts worse outcomes feared by business leaders.

The clear articulation of the rules of the game will be welcomed by the automotive-industry leaders Global Atlanta met during a reporting trip in June, who lamented the uncertainty around transatlantic trade.

The honorary consul has arranged for a reduced-price Georgia pavilion at the Oct. 7-10 MSV Industrial Engineering Fair in Brno, the second-largest Czech city. It’s an umbrella under which participating companies can set up to meet 1,400 exhibitors and 55,000 guests from 40-plus countries. 

The privileged place for Georgia firms is the result of carefully cultivated relationships that have put it on the map for Czech investors. Learn how to participate in the Georgia mission

In the last two years, Ms. Vintrlikova has hosted a parade of dignitaries including Ambassador Miloslav Stašek (on multiple trips), Transport Minister Martin Kupka with a group of 40 companies in tow, and Jan Grolich, the governor of South Moravia, where Brno, a tech hub with some 50,000 university students, is the capital. 

The MSV will take place the week after new parliamentary elections, but Jan Kubata, CEO of BVV Trade Fairs Brno, believes the fundamental opportunity for U.S.-Czech ties goes far beyond governmental connections. 

“U.S. technology is something special, and the Czech Republic, or Czechia, has a lot of very smart and flexible and hard-working young people,” Mr. Kubata told Global Atlanta in an interview at his office, where hockey jerseys gifted during his eight years leading CzechTrade’s Chicago office hang on the wall. 

“And then I decided, I’m going to bring some ideas from the U.S. to the Czech Republic and vice versa, and put to use this platform here, this venue here, as a hub of innovation in all of central Europe,” Mr. Kubata said. 

During his time in Chicago, Mr. Kubata realized Czech economic interests were underserved in the Southern U.S., so he spearheaded the opening of a CzechTrade office in Austin. 

Ms. Vintrlikova lobbied hard for Georgia, eventually wooing Mr. Kubata, as she has so many others, on a trip to the state, where he met with Gov. Brian Kemp. 

“She is such a big engine of increasing the relations between Czechs and the U.S.,” Mr. Kubata said of Ms. Vintrlikova.

Last year, Mr. Kubata also met with Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas and Gov. Jeff Landry of Louisiana. The South, Mr. Kubata found, resembles the Midwest in its similarity to Czech business culture — it’s warm, not too fast, and relationships are as good as contracts. For an “old-fashioned guy” like Mr. Kubata, that works, and it will appeal to other Czechs, he said. 

“This is a handshake business, so if I give you my hand, you can count on me, and I will work with you,” he said of the South and Midwest.

The catch, though, is that Southerners need to come and feel the Czech Republic in the same way he has been making his way throughout the U.S., and trade shows are starting to pick up again after a post-COVID lull. 

Many predicted the demise of the trade show business as meetings went virtual, he said. 

“I told them at this time, 2020-21, that’s not true. Come on, guys, we are people. We have to meet. It’s about emotion,” he said.

But he acknowledged that trade show organizers need to add more value than in the past to get people to show up, especially on an international trip. 

“You have to bring some new agenda to the companies and to the visitors, to persuade them that it’s very important to be at this place during this specific show. And that’s what we have to do.” 

That’s why the MSV show in October is so important, he said. It’s a B2B platform looking to marry the U.S. technological edge with the manufacturing prowess and cost advantages of Central Europe, using Brno as a base. 

Ms. Vintrlikova told Global Atlanta that the same arguments that Georgia employs are true in Brno, where an ecosystem of support for foreign enterprises has emerged— not least of which is the fact that the honorary consul and her husband, Albaform’s Jan Vintrlik, hail from just down the road and are present in the city often. 

“So it’s not like you arrive here and you have to waste time and money and you don’t know anybody,” she said. “You know where to go — you come, and you are productive from the first day.” 

An example was the Peachtree Corners presence at the Urbis smart cities trade show in June, which Global Atlanta attended during a Dispatch reporting trip.

Among the sea of international guests, Peachtree Corners stood out as a singular U.S. destination — City Manager Brian Johnson sat on a panel with the transport minister and heavy-hitting Czech executives, issuing remarks in English translated to guests through earpieces. 

Ms. Vintrlikova helped the city’s economic development leaders set up meetings to promote its living lab for mobility and autonomous vehicles to universities, ecosystem partners and companies looking for a U.S. manufacturing base, reciprocating multiple Czech visits to the Gwinnett city. 

Bertrand Lapoire, economic development director for the city, likened it to the relationship Peachtree Corners has built with France since the French-American Chamber opened its office at Curiosity Lab. 

With Ms. Vintrlikova and the presence of the Czech Business Incubator Atlanta, co-located with the honorary consulate’s office at Peachtree Corners’ Atlanta Tech Park, a new dimension has opened up. 

“It’s repetition, and it’s true, whether it’s domestic or international: Whenever you’re in sales, at some point, the first thing that comes to mind when they think about the U.S. should be, ‘Oh, you know what? Those guys are fun and they have a good things going on.’” 

Mr. Kubata agreed, saying that U.S. companies need to build in a cadence of coming to Central Europe if they’d like to succeed, starting with the chance to join Ms. Vintrlikova this fall. That’s especially true if they want to compete with other markets around the world.

“I want to have more American companies here than we have Chinese. I don’t have anything against China, but my heart is somewhere over Atlantic Ocean,” he told Global Atlanta.

That kind of sentiment is exactly what will open doors for Georgia companies, Ms. Vintrlikova said, as soon as they hit the ground.

Fittingly, she has learned that lesson from doing business in the state for nearly a decade. 

“You have to go where the relationships are.” 

To learn more about joining the October mission, go here or email Ms. Vintrlikova at consul@czechconsulate.com.