Czech, Slovak delegation making connections in Cedar Rapids

CEDAR RAPIDS — Cedar Rapids and the Czech and Slovak republics share more than cultural heritage. All are committed to industry, innovation and collaboration.

Those are driving factors in bringing representatives this Friday and Saturday from Czechia and Slovakia to the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library in Cedar Rapids. The delegation includes Czech Ambassador Miloslav Stasek and Slovak Ambassador Radovan Javorcik, both based in Washington, D.C., as well as more than 30 leaders from businesses and universities from the two republics.

They will attend an international business forum Friday evening at the museum, and Saturday night the museum will host the President’s Gala, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the “Velvet Divorce,” in which Czechoslovakia separated into two countries.

“We are honored to welcome the dignitaries to Cedar Rapids as we join in celebration of peace and independence,” Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell told The Gazette via email. “This visit represents a significant opportunity for our community as well as our honored guests. I look forward to sharing the Cedar Rapids spirit of welcome, cooperation and friendship during their stay.”

The Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance has been working with the museum to make the business connections.

“Cedar Rapids has a strong history, and connection, to the Czech and Slovak culture,” Doug Neumann, executive director of the Metro Economic Alliance, said in statement. “With the world reopening after the past couple of years, we look forward to fostering new business relationships and welcoming the delegation from the Czech Republic and Slovakia into our great community for this milestone event.”

The industry clusters in which the delegation is most interested include aviation and automobiles, food processing and technology. They will meet with representatives from such diverse companies as ADM, Channel Fusion, ImOn Communications, Alliant Energy and Transamerica, among others. On Friday morning, they will have a plant tour of JRS Pharma in southwest Cedar Rapids.

The Czech and Slovak republics are leaders in technology, technological communications and automotive innovations, said Cecilia Rokusek, president and chief executive officer of the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library, 1400 Inspiration Place SW, Cedar Rapids.

“The No. 1 car production manufacturing country in the world is Slovakia, per capita, with seven major car manufacturing plants there,” she said, noting that Slovakia is leading the research and development of flying cars.

Velvet Divorce

Saturday’s invitation-only gala will celebrate 30 years of independence since Czechoslovakia split into two countries at the stroke of midnight between Dec. 31, 1992, and Jan. 1, 1993. The gala is a recent tradition held the first Saturday of May.

The event became known as the Velvet Divorce, coming on the heels of the Velvet Revolution of 1989, which ended more than 40 years of Communist rule in Czechoslovakia.

As with the Velvet Revolution, “not a drop of blood was spilled” in the Velvet Divorce, Rokusek noted.

The seeds for independence were planted in 1989, she added, when the country “started to think about this sort of freedom and individuality as Czechoslovakia.”

“If we really look at the impact of Václav Havel” — the last president of Czechoslovakia --- “he was the one early on that got people excited about it,” she said. “That’s why we at the museum are trying to espouse this whole focus on democracy and freedom, because in a non-violent way, the Czechoslovaks were among the first who really demonstrated that. There’s a story (that) they all got their keys out and were ringing their keys, and it was a non-violent, peaceful aggression. So the Czechs and Slovaks are considered the role model in Central Europe for freedom and democracy.”

Rokusek, who is fluent in Czech and understands Slovak languages, was assistant dean of the medical school at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion when Czechoslovakia divided. She had traveled to Europe in 1992 and could see the beginnings of that country’s separation.

“They were getting prepared,” she said. But she was ensconced in academia, and even though she is fourth-generation from Bohemian and Moravian ancestors, she really “didn’t think about it that much” until she “got more involved in the culture and realized how important that really was — what a statement that was.”

Even though Cedar Rapids is in what she calls “a Czech-centric region,” she believes that unless residents are direct descendants, most others knew more about the Czech part of Czechoslovakia, known today as Czechia, than about Slovakia.

“I’m not really sure that they understood the similarities and differences,” she said. “They are so complementary, the two countries. I love them both and they're like brothers and sisters. They're complementary, they enhance each other.”

And despite the challenges with inflation and other concerns coming out of the pandemic, “they are really doing well economically,” she said.

She also noted “they were quick to Westernize” after the Velvet Revolution. When she traveled there in 1992, “everything was gray. People were standing on the corner wanting to change money for you.” She saw different prices for goods and services for people who weren’t Czech, and she had to stand in line to buy coupons for gas.

“And then one year later, it all changed.”

Business connections

Bridging the two countries with the United States is an important role for the museum, Rokusek said.

“We are the only National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library in North America. We have that cultural role, we have that educational role,” she said. “But we also have to make connections to our homeland, and I certainly think that Cedar Rapids is in an ideal position to make some of those, which can just magnify or enhance what the museum can do. …

“It should also be a place that we can connect, that we can use our connections that we have across the Atlantic to maybe get one or two companies … from there to invest here, or vice versa. … Our mission says that we're here to preserve, present and create the future. That is really a future base for us — that we don't lose those connections.”

The Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance came onboard to help facilitate those connections and create what is, in essence, an educational forum, said Jamie Toledo, the organization’s economic development relationship manager.

“Our region has over 18 companies that have international ownership,” Toledo noted, so the forum is designed to raise “the overarching understanding of the industry clusters in our region where there's potential opportunities for business in the future.

“We have advanced manufacturing here, we've got food processing, we have bioscience, education, technology, and then we have a whole lot of logistics, whether that's trucking or otherwise. Those are our industry clusters.

“And there's a lot in common with Czech Republic and Slovakia,” she said. “They’re ag-based, they work with food processing. … So this is going to be an opportunity for us both to listen and learn from each other, and understand if there are opportunities” to work together. …

“One of the reasons why Cedar Rapids, in particular, has been able to show the value of international relationships is by the fact that we have so many international flags flying in our business portfolio,” Toledo said. “It's also one of the reasons diversification of that business portfolio is very important to withstand moments of time, like we have presently, when the economy is going through a rough time with interest rates.”

When a community is heavily reliant on something like automobile manufacturing, for instance, and that industry is hurting, Toledo said the entire community suffers. That’s why diversification is important. It also plays into the global supply chain.

“We learned in 2020 how important that was,” she said. “Nobody operates in a bubble, including our international counterparts. They are really coming hard and heavy the last couple of years to the United States, looking for opportunities to set up shop here so they can be closer to their customers and not in a difficult position where things turn on its ear.”

The benefit is reciprocal.

“We have the opportunity to diversify our economy” she said, “and then conversely, they have an opportunity to be closer to the customer base they have here.”

Comments: (319) 368-8508; diana.nollen@thegazette.com