East and West Will Meet in Unique Conference Center

On 500 hilly acres bordering the Russian River downstream from Healdsburg in Sonoma County is about to arise a unique conference center aimed at improving the increasingly intimate business relations between Japan and the United States--maybe even Europe.

Amai Sonoma Ranch & Vineyards-- amai is Japanese for sweet and the project fronts on Sweetwater Road--will bring together Japanese and American business leaders for small, low-key seminars and discussions, said Robert Brockob, chief executive of the venture. The present San Francisco Bay Area investors intend to invite foreign investors to contribute up to 49% of the project’s cost, he said.

“We’re building a facility that we hope to keep fairly quiet while having a significant say in some of the things happening on an international level--particularly in this Japanese-United States scenario as it’s unfolding,” Brockob said.

When it opens in April, 1990, Amai Sonoma will offer a microcosm of Sonoma County agriculture, he said, running some cattle, growing 20 acres of vineyards and 10 acres of vegetables and orchards to supply the kitchen, which will offer “fusion cuisine”--a sampling of cooking from Japan, California and any other foreign participants.

“The focus is to build a bridge between Japan and the United States--to provide a facility where people can reflect on what is actually happening,” Brockob said. “Our basic market is made up of high-level managers and CEOs of Japanese corporations that do business in the United States and for American corporations doing business in Japan--or wishing to do business there.”

But the venture also intends to sponsor cross-cultural training among, for example, Japanese and American workers in the so-called hospitality industry to improve the ability to serve the rapidly growing Japanese-American clientele in hotels and restaurants in both countries.