I don’t understand why they chose such a cold and inhospitable area when they could have chosen a nice and warm place. Most certainly it was because this state looked a lot like Sweden; forests, lakes and seasons. There is a reason why Minnesota is called the Land of Lakes or the State of Ten Thousand Lakes. The outdoors is part of everyday life for many inhabitants. A lot of people chose to settle down in the urban zone, consisting of a number of cities with app. three million people (three fourths of the state’s population). Residing in the city with all facilities and still having access to the countryside provides a very attractive life style.
A Swedish family I know live in St Paul (sister town to Minneapolis) since 20 years. The husband is a manager at an energy company. By introducing an environmentally friendly way of distributing energy to properties in the urban area, he has become very successful. Even the President visited the company to get an understanding of how energy travels in pipes to department stores and other types of properties to supply cold on hot summer days and heat in the winter. The Swede also introduced the concept of using local energy resources such as oceanic bottom water to cool down office properties in Hawaii.
The family lives in a quiet area not far from the city centre. There they found both a Swedish and an American community. This has partly been accomplished through the American-Swedish Institute and its Managing Director Bruce Karstadt. He encourages Swedish entrepreneurs to invest, to do business and exchange technology with colleagues in the area.
In 2003, I had the pleasure of supervising a delegation from Uppland to Minneapolis. The group consisted of 80 people, among them County Governor Anders Björck, City Executive Kenneth Holmstedt, Managing Director at the Chamber of Commerce Anders Lundvall and the Upland Savings Bank trust fund together with representatives from various companies. Positive results from this trip are still visible in a number of business contacts and collaboration between institutions, IT companies and Biotech companies.