Gallery of goods
In a bid to promote local businesses and encourage foreign investment, the city of Wroclaw last week opened its Exhibition Salon for Wroclaw Products (SWWP).
Modeled after a similar outlet in Geneva, the idea behind the salon was to create a gallery in which Wroclaw-made products and services are on display. The concept is for investors in the area to come and check out products made locally or access a database of companies operating in the region. More than 80,000 enterprises are registered in Wroclaw.
"(Foreign investors) spend enormous amounts of money to acquire knowledge," said Marek Winkowski, director of the economic initiatives department in Wroclaw's city hall.
Up to now companies had to spend their own resources researching what kinds of products and services could be purchased locally. To find local contractors, investors often ended up knocking on the doors of Wroclaw's city offices for recommendations, which often created an uncomfortable situation for local politicians.
"There is a certain duality to a situation in which we are asked what Wroclaw company guarantees the highest quality of work for a given service or production," said Andrzej Jaroch, deputy mayor of Wroclaw. "City authorities need to be able to send (investors) to the salon so that they will have a chance to learn about company activities on neutral ground not tied to city hall."
Not only did such situations put officials ill at ease, local authorities weren't always the most reliable sources of information. "I myself don't know everything that's happening today in the city," Winkowski said.
While the main aim of the salon is to display products produced locally, much of the goods on offer are actually displayed in cyberspace. Through SWWP's web page (www.swwp.pl), corporate purchasing agents can link to companies exhibiting in the salon and thus make contact with local representatives directly. The site enables some companies to get the word out about their products without having to display them in physical form.
"Can you imagine (Adtranz) Pafawag bringing a train here," said Grzegorz Reszka, marketing director at computer communications systems (CCS), which co-developed the computer system used. "Companies can show their products through the computer."
A Wroclaw-based systems integrator, CCS worked with IBM on the project. The two companies combined spent zl. 100,000 developing the system. IBM is also a sponsor for the SWWP project.
Being included in SWWP's database is not free. Companies are charged a minimum fee of zl. 160 to have their name and basic description included in the database. For an annual fee of zl. 11,000, a company will get a one-minute long promotional film produced by SWWP and a permanent exhibit in the salon and on the web site. In addition, SWWP plans to take its exhibit on the road to promote local business across Poland and abroad at trade fairs and special events.
While the city of Wroclaw has served as initiator and primary patron of the gallery, SWWP has not cost local taxpayers a zloty, city officials said. Local construction company Korpalski paid for turning the salon off Wroclaw's market square into a gallery. While the city handed over the 240 square meters of prime real estate to SWWP, Korpalski and a host of other sponsors, including IBM, Krzyzowa Foundation, CCS, Sony, Exit Audio Video, Jacobs and QAD, foot the zl. 1 million ($243,000) price tag.
To date, only 22 companies have purchased permanent exhibitions at the salon. But Ryszard Korpalski, the owner, said that a number of firms have called to inquire about the gallery.
"The phones have been ringing off the hook," Korpalski said. "I think that Wroclaw business will buy into the idea."
