The 13th of May the EU delegation to the United States and the European Embassies in the United States opened the doors to the Washington public. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. the embassies offered a rare look inside the buildings providing a unique opportunity to experience the country’s cultural heritage.
EU Open House is an annual event and is celebrated during Europe Week drawing +50.000 visitors in total to the embassies. The Danish Embassy opened the doors to share with the local community what Denmark is about; Danish culture, our commercial strengths and solutions and our contributions to a global society.
Promotion of Danish solutions
As Denmark is a global leader in renewable energy, sustainable production and healthy living, we chose ‘Smart Cities’ as our focus area at EU Open House this year. Smart solutions and sustainability was a continuous subject at our EU Open House in our promotion of Danish entrepreneurship and the Danish ‘way of living’. This year of EU Open House the Danish companies Terma and Novo Nordisk were invited to the event showcasing their products and services to the public, both of which are ADBC members.
As something new this year the exhibit – Denmark in the U.S. – was on display showcasing Denmark’s deep and longstanding cultural, political and commercial ties with the U.S. The exhibit had focus on creating of trade, jobs and investments between the U.S. and Denmark underlining the Danish Embassy’s focus areas. This new exhibition is developed by sponsorship from the American-Danish Business Council.
Activities
During the day the guests had the opportunity to tour the Danish Ambassador’s home a mid-century architectural gem showcasing unique contemporary works from the Danish art scene. The tour ended with cheese tasting at the Ambassador’s balcony sponsored by Danish dairy giant Arla. Furthermore, the day offered tasting of Danish sweets such as butter cookies and ‘flødeboller’ which was a big hit thanks to our sponsors Kelsen and Flødebolle. Kelsen and Lego sponsored gifts that were given to winners of a ‘Denmark Quiz’.
Despite an alarming weather forecast the weather stayed clement. We received positive feedback from the guests and overall EU Open House 2017 was a great success!