Lunches
Niels Boserup's title for his talk at lunch on Friday 21 April promises that travelling will never be the same again. Busy business travellers would like to know more about the changes in the aviation industry that will bring this about. Those of us who do not travel so much will be interested to learn how the President and CEO of Copenhagen Airports A/S can make so confident an assertion about his business. Now is the time to sign up at www.bccd.dk for this lunch. Drinks begin at 11.45 and lunch begins at 12.15 at the Imperial Hotel.
Please remember the two changes for the May lunch: firstly, it will take place in TIVOLI and not in the Imperial Hotel as usual, and secondly, it will be held on THURSDAY, 18 May, and not Friday as usual. Having said that, it promises to be a special event with lunch in the Nimb Restaurant and Lars Liebst talking about Tivloi and new thinking.
Details of lunches for the rest of 2006 will be available on the website so that members can book the dates and line up their guests in plenty of time.
Members and guests present for Jørgen Stock Melchior's talk at lunch on Friday 17 March were pleased to find that there was more substantial business content than the title - "Match Racing - competitively, for fun and for companies" - perhaps implied.
New Members
In April the BCCD welcomes:
DFDS A/S, and
RS Components A/S as Corporate Members.
Nick Sharpe, Director of OnePint A/S as an Individual Member.
Networking Successes
BCCD Member Graham Tully of GT Translation, gttrans@get2get.dk, writes:
In recent years the former 'British Business Lunch Club' has given itself a thorough dusting-off and transformed into the slicker, more streamlined BCCD.
Since then, the BCCD has established itself as a dynamic, forward-looking organisation serving the needs of upper-level executives and business-active individuals - with the emphasis on trade and commerce between the UK and Denmark - and for those who can bring to the table an aptitude that is in demand, there is certainly no dearth of opportunities for striking strategic deals.
Under the aegis of the BCCD, monthly networking lunch meetings with guest speakers drawn from both the Danish and British corporate and political spectrum, supplemented by a diversity of special events throughout the year, offer an informal forum in which to establish key contacts that one is unlikely to collectively encounter in any other active forum in Denmark today.
Not only does this mark a turnaround on the part of the BCCD, but also a marked about-turn in my own perceptions of the organisation. I first came to the BCCD - or rather, its predecessor, the British Business Lunch Club - slightly sceptical as to what the organisation could actually offer me as a one-man company, and I was prepared to walk again pretty quickly if it didn't deliver the goods. But how quickly the sea change occurred on my part! For every year of membership, I have established sufficient new business contacts to generate a flow of work that places the cost of membership among my premium investments in recent years. And these are by no means 'lightweight' associations: the first - and still flourishing - contact to come about via the BCCD was with Copenhagen Capacity, an organisation instrumental in attracting foreign businesses to the Greater Copenhagen area and a recommended first 'port of call' for companies considering Copenhagen as a base for their northern European and pan-Scandinavian activities; and my most recent work-generating contact is with the UK Trade & Investment section of the British Embassy.
The networking opportunities afforded by the BCCD keep you in the know about the latest business developments - and being aware, weeks or even months before news breaks in the media, of key players on the move and strategic alliances in the making, positions you to prime your own ball-play to perfection.
Which leaves me only to say on the subject of BCCD membership: take the decision, make the investment - and make it pay!
Graham Tully
If you have experienced similar networking successes through your contact with the British Chamber of Commerce in Denmark please do not hesitate to contact us at pp@bccd.dk
New Board Member
Gareth Garvey has been co-opted to the Board. Former BBLC members know Gareth well from his days with IBM in Denmark as a long-standing and active supporter. He is now turning his energy towards the next phase in the development of the BCCD and has already started work with the Board.
Web site
News items and up-dates are regularly put on the web site now. If you have any feedback for us, please contact Pam Pourzanjani at pp@bccd.dk or use the Extranet Forum.
World's best business environment
Denmark has again been named the world's best country in which to do business in the Economist Intelligence Unit's annual analysis. Denmark was first among 82 countries for economic stability and for business, competition and foreign investment policies.
The biggest threat to this situation was seen to be cultural. Denmark's perceived increasingly hostile attitude towards foreigners and immigrants might detract from its attractiveness as a place to do business.
John Mott
Executive Director
03 April 2006