City Leaders and Citizen Diplomats Explore Entrepreneurship, Cultural Understanding, and Smart Cities at “Cities Leading the Way” August 2-4
Aurora, Colorado will be the nexus of worldwide connections as Sister Cities International hosts their 2018 Annual Conference and 2018 Youth Leadership Summit. The conference will bring together more than 300 elected and municipal officials, business leaders, and engaged citizen diplomats and over 100 high school students from across the U.S. and the globe to learn about citizen diplomacy. The theme of the conference is “Cities Leading the Way.”
“This landmark gathering will demonstrate how citizen diplomacy forges mutual interests and ties of respect across ...
2018 Annual Awards: Congratulations to This Year’s Winners
At Sister Cities International, we know that the work our members do to promote peace through mutual understanding, respect, and cooperation changes the world--one individual, one community at a time. Since 1962, we have recognized a few of our most outstanding members all over the nation for the work they've done in the last year to advance the citizen diplomacy movement through our Annual Awards Program.
There are 4 award categories broken out by city population size: best overall, innovation, volunteer of the year, and youth leadership. The innovation category has ...
Park City Strengthens its Sister-City Partnership Through Innovative Exchange Programs
Park City, Utah is rolling out two exciting new programs this year with its Sister City, Courchevel, France. Both ski resort communities, the cities are independently known for their massive resort sizes and terrain; superior guest experiences; and small town, historic atmosphere.
Park City and Courchevel have been sister cities since 1984 and focus heavily on educational exchanges, with French and American high-school students participating in an annual homestay exchange. Over the past four years, the relationships between Courchevel and Park City municipal officials ...
Maryland Receives Visitors from South Africa and Japan
The month of March was a busy one for Maryland’s sister state programs.
The state hosted two delegations: one from the coastal South African province of KwaZulu-Natal on March 12, and the other from Japanese prefecture Kanagawa, which lies between Tokyo and Mount Fuji, on March 28.
At the first of these meetings, the Maryland-KwaZulu-Natal Sister State Committee facilitated a dialogue between the Maryland Department of Commerce (MDOC), local economic authorities in Baltimore, the South African Embassy, and the KwaZulu-Natal International Trade and Investment ...
Legislators Bring the World to Annapolis
Legislators and officials in Annapolis welcomed delegations from Maryland’s 20 sister state relationships late last month to showcase their programs’ achievements over the past year at the annual Sister States Legislative Reception.
The event also fosters greater cultural awareness in the Maryland community through special food, drinks, and items characteristic of each of Maryland’s sister states (in 17 countries total) set up at tables in an exhibit hall. This year’s reception, which was held January 30, also featured cultural performances by Chinese Taiji ...
Silver and Gold: Seattle Celebrates 25 Years of Bergen’s Oleana and 50 Years of Sister City Friendship
Contributed by Lori Ann Reinhall of Seattle Bergen Sister CitiesThe Seattle-Bergen Sister City Association has long had a reputation for its parties and galas, and when the opportunity came up to celebrate the silver jubilee of Bergen and Norway’s premier textile company Oleana together with our own golden jubilee in 2017, it was an opportunity too good to pass up. As president of the association, I reached out to Oleana’s representative in the Pacific Northwest, Laura Almaas of Chalet in the Woods in Gig Harbor, 50-some miles south of Seattle. Not before long, we put ...
Denison and Cognac
Denison, Texas and Cognac, France are celebrating their 25th Anniversary as Sister Cities on the weekend of October 13-14, 2017. The Mayor of Cognac, France, Mr. Michel Gourinchas, and a French delegation, will be in Denison as our honored guests for this most special event. This particular weekend marks the birthdate of American President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was born in Denison, Texas. His granddaughter, Ms. Mary Jean Eisenhower, will also be in Denison that weekend to dedicate a commemorative plaza surrounding the President Eisenhower statue. Ms. Eisenhower ...
Paul Bunyan Pays a Visit to France
By Jake Juliot of Meet Minneapolis.The city of Tours, France is a beautiful place full of richly historical destinations and landmarks, like the medieval center, the Botanical Garden, and. . . Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox statues? That last part isn’t true, but Paul and Babe (who are staples of Bemidji, Minnesota) did pay a visit to Tours when Minneapolis, Minnesota was chosen as the featured destination in the “Foire de Tours,” a 10-day regional festival that drew over 300,000 guests from the Loire Valley region of France. This honor was in celebration of ...
A Triangle of Sun, Sand, and Innovation: Sister Cities in Argentina, Florida, and Spain Meet to Strengthen Relations
Contributed by Marianne Winfield, Executive Director, Greater Fort Lauderdale Sister Cities, and Oscar García, Chair, Sister Cities Mar del Plata, Argentina. Click here to view the original blog post on Medium.In February 2017, Oscar García, Chair of Sister Cities in Mar del Plata, Argentina, was appointed by Greater Fort Lauderdale Sister Cities International (GFLSCI) as liaison for GFLSCI between Fort Lauderdale, Argentina and Spain, and recently took a trip to Spain to talk about GFLSCI programs and initiatives. Mr. García was received at the US Embassy in ...
Sister City Association Brings Bergen and Norway to Seattle
Blog contributed by Seattle-Bergen Sister City Association. Click here to view the original blog post on Medium.Annual fundraiser reception celebrates "Global Connections through Word Travel" with Mayor Murray, Jean Enersen, and Rick Steves.These days in Seattle there is a lot of buzz about the upcoming 2016 Seattle Sister Cities Reception at Seattle City Hall on October 6, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., and not in the least due to the efforts of the Seattle-Bergen Sister City Association. “With the theme ‘Global Connections through World Travel,’ Bergen naturally emerged ...