New Slovenian Consulate in Knoxville Ambassador Roman Kirn visited Knoxville, Tennessee, from October 10 to 12, to open a new Honorary Consulate led by Honorary Consul Dr. Lydia M. Pulsipher. In This Issue - New Slovenian Consulate in Knoxville - Rog aška Launched Tr ump Cr ystal - Slovenian Companies in Sillicon Valley Ambassador Kirn with Honorary Consul Dr. Pulsipher. Dr. Pulsipher is a professor at the Department of Geography at the University of Tennessee and has a prominent role in promoting Slovenia in the local community. At the opening ceremony on October 11, Ambassador Kirn met Bill Lyons from the office of Mayor of Knoxville. On behalf of the mayor, Bill Haslam, Lyons delivered Ambassador Kirn a proclamation declaring October 11 as the Republic of Slovenia Day. During his visit, Ambassador Kirn met with a number of entrepreneurs, scholars and the media. Ambassador Kirn was the guest speaker at the Rotary Club of Knoxville and at the Baker Center, university of Tennessee (UT). During his visit at the University, Ambassador Kirn opened the exhibit of young Slovenian artists, the ZEK Crew, at the UT Art and Architecture building. The Embassy of Slovenia would like to express its gratitude to the City of Knoxville for the proclamation. Also we would like to thank Dr. Lydia M. Pulsipher, Honorary Consul of Slovenia in Knoxville, for her leadership, excellent support and organization of the visit. - Small Nations Poetr y Reading - Golden Dr um Adver tising Festival - Kids Euro Festival ----------------------- - List of events: - Slovene Languag e Course in Ljubljana - FDI Summit in Slovenia - Wise Traditions 2010 Embassy Newsletter Page 1
Rogaška Crystal, the U.S. branch of Slovenian glassworks Steklarna Rogaška, officially launched cooperation with the American businessman Donald Trump at a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the 2010 New York Tabletop Show on Wednesday, October 13, 2010. BuSINESS Rogaška Launched Trump Crystal the quality and we like the people we will be working with, he said. Rogaška Crystal head Boštjan Leskovar said that the primary products in the line will be business gifts, a segment which Trump personifies with success, power and confidence. Rogaška Crystal products under the Trump brand will first be available in the U.S. and later in Slovenia and around the world at prices ranging from US$25 to US$600, with more expensive products gradually being added, said Leskovar. Ambassador Kirn with Donald Trump. The ceremony marked the start of sales and marketing of crystal products for home and business gifts in the U.S. under the Trump brand for five years, in line with the September agreement between Rogaška Crystal and the Trump Organization. On the occasion, Trump said he was proud to work with Rogaška. We have seen New line of Trump Home and Trump Crystal Gifts made by Rogaška Crystal. Slovenian Companies in Silicon Valley On Thursday, October 14, 2010, Opinno center in San Francisco hosted a Slovenian event, organized by Boundbreaker, with financial support from the Slovenian entrepreneurship fund. A group of six Slovenian tech companies (Flowr, Preona, Elaphe, Svetloba, Visionect, and Uniki) traveled to Silicon Valley after being chosen through project Boundbreaker. They came to learn, improve, and adapt their ways in order to expand into the U.S. In Opinno center, these Slovenian companies introduced themselves and presented their products to the Silicon Valley community. Embassy Newsletter Page 2
Small Nations Poetry Reading Representatives from the embassies of 10 countries, including Ambassador Roman Kirn, gathered at Katzen Center at the American University in Washington on October 14 to read poetry from their countries for the 2010 Small Nations Poetry Reading. The topic of year s reading was poems that relate to each nation s national identity. Ambassador Kirn read a poem titled The Lipizzaners (Lipicanci) by Edvard Kocbek in Slovenian and its English translation. Apart from Slovenia following small countries participated: Austria, Bahrain, Bulgaria, Cyrpus, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta and Monaco. Culture Guests also had a great opportunity to learn about each nation by visiting countrytables and to talk to representatives from various embassies. Ambassadors after reading their poems. Golden Drum Advertising Festival The 17th annual Golden Drum international advertising festival ended in the coastal town of Portorož on Saturday, October 9, 2010, with an award ceremony that saw the Golden Rose Award for the agency of the year go to Turkish agency DDB&CO. Almost 2,000 ads from 41 countries were presented during the four-day festival, which attracted more than 1,000 visitors, including President Danilo Türk, who addressed the closing ceremony. Among the key note speakers there was also John Dooner, Founder and Chairmen from McCann Worldgroup. Mr. Dooner is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of United Way Worldwide, and also sits on a St. Thomas University Board together with Slovenian Honorary Consul, Dr. Gregory Chan. Embassy Newsletter Page 3 Page 3
Referendum Initiative An initiative for the collection of citizens signatures for conducting a referendum on the Law on amending the Public Sector Wage System Act has been submitted to the National Assembly of Slovenia by Dr. Janez Posedi. The signatures are being collected until October 27, 2010. Each citizen can give only one signature to support the initiative on the appropriate form and send the form directly to: Dr. Janez Posedi, Gibina 19, 9240 Ljutomer, Slovenia. The referendum question is the following:»do you agree with the implementation of the Law on amending the Public Sector Wage System Act, which has been adopted by the National Assembly on September 7, 2010?«Announcements All Slovenian citizens temporarily or permanently residing in the U.S., who would like to give the support for the initiative to the referendum, must bring the form, along with a personal document, to the Embassy of Slovenia in Washington or respective Consulate either in Cleveland or New York, and sign it personally in front of the Consular representative. The form must be mailed by voters themselves to the: Dr. Janez Posedi, Gibina 19, 9240 Ljutomer, Slovenia. Please call (202) 386-6610 to set up an appointment for submitting the signature at the Embassy of Slovenia in Washington, DC. The form can be obtained at : www.washington.embassy.si/index.php?id=1852 Kids Euro Festival This fall, Washington, DC, will host the third annual Kids Euro Festival, one of the country s largest performing arts festivals for children, with more than 150 free events around the city. The month-long event will be geared to children aged two through twelve and will feature artists in almost every performing genre, whose talents range from bubbleblowers to a virtual orchestra to storytelling to acrobats. Kids Euro Festival is staged through the cooperation of the 27 Washington-based European Union embassies and more than a dozen major local cultural institutions. Slovenia will offer to kids a dance work shop»illusions«by Nika Kljun, teaching the young audience what all the body can do. Audience members will have the opportunity to bust some moves of their own during the demonstration segment of the show.»illusion«performances are scheduled for: 1) October 23, 2010, at 11 AM and 2 PM at the Austrian Forum (reservations at: kidseurofestival.org) 2) October 24, 2010, at 1 PM at the Washington Ballet (no reservations) 3) October 26, 2010, at 6 PM at the Kennedy Center (no reservations) Embassy Newsletter Page 4
To Do list OF EVENTS 1. Slovene Language Course in Ljubljana The Center for Slovene as a second/foreign language at the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, is organizing an Intensive morning course of Slovene language. When: November 15 to 26, 2010. From Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM to 12:30 PM Where: Pionirski dom in Ljubljana, Kongresni trg 12, 1000 Ljubljana. More information and the application form can be found on : www.centerslo.net 2. FDI Summit in Slovenia The FDI Summit Slovenia 2010 is a two-day business summit devoted to the foreign investment (FDI) environment in Slovenia and the region. When: October 21, and October 22, 2010 Where: Bled, Slovenia More info: www.fdi.si 3. Wise Traditions 2010»The Traditional Diet of Slovenia«will be presented by Janez Bogataj, Ph.D., at Wise Traditions 2010, an international conference sponsored by nutrition-education nonprofit, Weston A. Price Foundation. When: November 12-14, 2010. Where: Valley Forge Convention Plaza in King of Prussia, near Philadelphia, PA. To register call (304)724-3006. For more about the conference, please check: www.westonaprice.org/2010-conference-schedule.html CULTURE. SI The weekly e-newsletter is produced by the Embassy of Slovenia in Washington. The archive of the e-newsletter is available online. To subscribe or unsubscribe to the e-newsletter please send an e-mail to: vwa@gov.si. Culture.si is designed to help Your online explore possibilities connection for collaboration to everything with Slovene cultural Slovenian organisations. all around the world. Embassy Newsletter Page 5