Just blocks from where Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney met with Polish Soladarity leader Lech Walesa and Polish officials, Poland Business Week was steaming into its second day.
Poland Business Week started four years ago in Gdynia and has since expanded to Gdansk, Boleslawowo and Minsk. More than 500 students, adult business leaders and teachers from Poland and America are involved in the program which started in mid July and runs through late August.
American business leaders, teachers and students work side-by-side with Polish students and teachers for the hands-on experience in the market-based, Free Enterprise System. Polish business leaders also are involved in the trade-show judging, board of director presentations and as speaker.
American program sponsors include Boeing, International Paper, Microsoft and the Association of Washington Business. Washington Business Week started at the AWB in 1975 and since has spread to 26 states, Australia and now Poland.
The technical college where the program is housed is a stone's throw away from the Gdansk Shipyard. The monument in which Lech Walesa and Romney met is located at the gate where Pollsh labor leaders conducted a series of strikes which eventually was the catalyst to bring down the Berlin Wall and end years of Communist domination. That was 1990.
AWB President Don C. Brunell is in Gdansk for a second year helping with the Poland Business Week program.
