For the first time in the history of Estonia, the government sponsored a program which sent a group of 17 business executives and government officials to the United States with the purpose of meeting companies in both Seattle, Washington and the California’s Bay Area’s Silicon Valley. As this was a very historic and important trip, even the Vice Major of Tallinn(capital of Estonia) honored us with his participation. The visit was made possible by Enterprise Estonia.The delegations objectives were to meet with companies to learn about business development opportunities (especially in Estonia and the U.S.) and to learn about the Silicon Valley business environment; how this region developed and what public and private sector has done to foster its growth.

While the group was in Seattle, they met with Microsoft and Boeing; this was independent of GEP. While in the Silicon Valley, GEP arranged visits to Cisco, US Market Access Center, Google Inc., Plug and Play Tech Center, City Hall in San Jose and San Jose State University. To end the trip, we arranged a luncheon at the famous Mountain Winery in Saratoga which overlooked the entire Bay Area. The group arrived on September 11th and departed on September 15th, 2007.

The executives and government officials learned a great deal from this trip and the discussion between the executives and companies such as Google and Cisco were very productive and may just lead to some business opportunities in the future. Both the group and the hosting companies found the introductions and dialogue significant to their business development. And, in fact, this was a historic visit for both Cisco and Google as they have never had a group from Estonia visit them.

GEP was proud to work with the government of Estonia – Enterprise Estonia - to provide this group with a Professional Study Tour™. It was a pleasure to spend time with the group and watch as they explored the companies and business opportunities and the famous Silicon Valley.