Atlanta-based Weidenbach & Associates, Inc. has been chosen as the U.S. representative for the Leipzig Trade Fair, which has an 800-year history. During the Cold War, the Leipzig fair drew companies from throughout Eastern Europe and soon it will be relocated to a new $1 billion complex built to showcase eastern Germany’s economic renewal.
Bill Weidenbach, the international business assistance firm’s president, broke the news to GlobalFax during an interview at his offices in the Cain Tower downtown. He said that he was delighted with his firm’s opportunity to introduce U.S. companies to the complex that will serve as a gateway between East and West.
“This East/West connection is Leipzig’s strategic advantage among European trade fairs and should not be overlooked by U.S. businesses interested in these markets,” he added.
Mr. Weidenbach will be responsible for promoting throughout the U.S. the new facility and its 31 shows scheduled for next year. “For the first year about 60% of my time is to be spent on image building and educating Americans about the fairgrounds and 30% on getting companies to visit,” he said.
Already he is preparing for the opening which is scheduled for April 1996 and will coincide with a transportation and logistics show and an automobile show.
Mr. Weidenbach, a former marketing executive with Georgia Power, traces his association to Saxony, the German state in which Leipzig is located, to the early 1990s when he met Kajo Schommer, its minister of economics and labor. For more information, Mr. Weidenbach may be reached by calling (404) 525-6663; fax, (404) 525-6658.