End of an Era (for me at least!)

After much deliberation - or should I say dithering - I decided to hang up my boots and step down from the board of the BECC after 9 years.

In fact I'd already decided at the beginning of the year ago that after the BECC AGM I would not seek re-election as chairman. This original decision led the BECC board to conclude that some space should be created to allow some new blood and more potential leaders to join.

Let's face it, sometimes people spend far too long at the helm and there are plenty of examples of that! So, when I saw some great candidates coming forward for election to the board I decided to go one step further and join Märt Hammer and Paul Taylor's exodus.

Now that I've done it and despite some mixed feelings, I think it's entirely logical for a long standing chairman, especially a busybody like me, to get off board and let his replacement get on with the job without impediment.

Team Building Seminar at Agile Saturday 19 February

Team building and communication - (Phillip Marsdale) from devtraining.ee on Vimeo.

Lecture at TTÜ

Did a lecture on British-Estonian Trade, British Business Culture and the BECC-TTÜ Stipendium today at the Business school at Tallinn Technical University which incorporates much of what used to be Audentes University. I was amazed that perhaps 75% of the people in the room were international students - including a solitary Brit. The new building houses the departments of international relations, business and public administration (among others probably) and has all the bells and whistles .... and the library looks amazing. Thanks to Tatjana Kasima of the student council (TSEBA) and Kaja Lutsoja, head of international relations for their  support.

Record sum raised for Charity

Thanks go to everyone who attended the BECC Burns supper on Friday last week in Glenni Castle. A hearty evening was had by all and credit is due to Egle and her team for organising everything. Of course, many people deserve a thank you - from the MC, Jonathan Poole to the auctioneer, Ardi Roosimaa to the speakers; Annely Lautre, Märt Haamer, James Oates, John Innes. The main sponsor Marsh Kindlustusmaakler and all the companies and individuals who donated food, drink, prizes and auctions items.

It was great to see our charity partners at the event; Janno and Rainer from the Estonian Cystic Fibrosis Association and Kaja Lusoja and Anu Johannes from Tallinn Technical University.

We raised a record sum of 7236€ for our charity fund this year which will go a long way towards fulfilling our objectives for the year.

What's Phil's day job.

Whilst sometimes it's true to say that sometimes I feel I work in my spare time - especially when something big at the BECC is on, I do have a day job at International Language Services.

Interesting fact: all of the staff at ILS - even the cleaner are qualified teachers and whilst we don't all teach all the time (someone has to write invoices after all) , I for example do get into the classroom once in a while - mostly on teacher training programmes.

Last week I ran a course for Teachers of Business English for a group of 8 teachers from schools and colleges in Tallinn and Narva. The course was an exhausting 30 hours in 5 days and culminated in an examination for the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry First Certificate in Teaching Business English.

Phil's 2010 round up Speech at BECC Christmas Party

"Peter Carter Sings" available at all good stores

"Good evening everyone. It's become a tradition for the Chairman to round up the year at this event and so I propose to spend the next eight and a half minutes of your time doing so.

BECC 2010 Round Up in Brief

11 board meetings

10 business events inc our 1st exec women’s lunch+ 1st dinner with the Prime Minister.

9 monthly mingles

3 Sporting and Cultural events

2 Signature events: Guy Fawkes, The Burns Supper

3 new management team members

1 Change to the board

Now obviously we do not have enough time to go over every business event in fine detail or to thank every speaker who gave their precious time to speak at a BECC event but I feel I should mention the speakers, some of whom are here today, for sharing this year.

I want to hightlight 2 business events. Firstly The conference "Rise and shine, Estonia" in January and also the follow up London ‘SmartEst’ Conference and Trade mission in September.          

These event required a huge effort to organize and so from the board of the BECC, I’d like single out Annely Lautre, Märt Haamer and Ardi Roosimaa as well as Andrus Alber for the huge amount of time and energy expended before the trip and for dealing with the 'bureaucracy'.

The Monthly Mingles are a relatively new but consistently popular opportunity for us to get together with each other and also to invite another chamber of commerce or business club each month.These events would not be possible without a host of hosts and sponsors so I hope you forgive me if I read out a list:

Meriton Grand Conference and Spa Hotel

Tallink Spa and Conference Hotel

Estonian Expo Centre

Von Stackelberg Hotel

3 Sisters Hotel

Nevskij Restaurant

Kaleva Travel and Baltika

The Estonian Mint

Best wines

Altia Eesti

  

The sporting events this year were both held in May. First of all many of you will remember the BECC Open Golf tournament in May which was held at the Estonian Golf and Country Club incidentally EGCC is one of our 3 Sterling Class members. Special thanks go to the E-Governance Lab for sponsoring the tournament. The second event was the Foreign Chambers Football tournament which unlike the English bid to host the work cup in 2018, we won in style.

  

Moving on the signature events which run every year: Guy Fawkes night was a great family event with more than hundred people participating and I still get the feedback that it was one of the best fireworks shows people have ever seen! Thanks to RSA Insurance Group, AS Tallinna Vesi together with United Utilities and A le Coq as well as the pupils of Tallinn International School for making the Guy.

The Burns night in January attracted 120 plus people and for the first time, speeches in Estonian as a result most of the people in the room understood what was going on at least some of the time.

Now, these two events are our 2 best chances to raise money for our charitable causes and together these events raised about 80 000 kroons this year .

This year we sponsored a programme to promote the game of cricket in Estonian schools. Cricket is a sport played by men and Australians, not to be confused with Crocket which is mostly played in movies about Edwardian England. I’m glad to announce that next year the BECC will continue to work with Tallinn Technical University in offering stipendiums to outstanding students and we’ll also continue to work with the Estonian Cystic Fibrosis Society and will hopefully be able to double the BECC contribution toward the purchase of a special massage vest which helps clear the lungs.

Now, if you overhead me saying the words Sexy Beast you might be forgiven for assuming I was referring to man in red, Hanno Kross, or man in black, Paul Emmet, in fact the BECC played a small role in supporting a film festival organized by him this year. As Tallinn is European city of culture in 2011, we have decided that we will also sponsor more cultural events in 2011 should funds be available.

That’s about it for 2011 bar my TV interview. Well before I tell you about that I should say that the most common and consequently the most tiresome 3 questions one is asked if one  has spent any length of time in Estonia are (1) Why did you come to Estonia? (2) Why are you still here? (3) When are you leaving? 

I should also say that I have 2 golden PR rules as Chairman of the BECC (1) never talk to the media (2) if you do talk to the media, never tell a joke. 

Well earlier this year I broke rule number (1) and agreed to do a short TV interview. The lights came on and the camera started rolling and the interviewer asked me ‘So, Phil . . . Why did you come to Estonia?’

That’s when I broke rule number (2).

I said . . . ‘well I come from a part of the UK that’s very flat and is full of white people. So when I arrived here, I felt right at home’*

The interview went downhill from there.

My thanks go to Egle Org  for breathing new life into the Chamber. Thank you Peter for inviting us into your home, thanks to my colleagues on the board to Diana Varik and Oliver Watts our new team members and thanks to you our members for participating this year and hopefully next year too.

                                                                                                                  * thanks go to S.D. for this pearl

Conference Season in the UK

Well conference season is upon us and that means the main political groupings in the UK are setting out their stalls and positioning themselves for the next few years.

Most recently Labour elected a new leader, Ed Milliband whose election came as a surprise to most outsiders due to the fact that his older and higher profile brother, David, was assumed to be a shoe-in. The younger Milliband (that's the one on the left) won the race for the leadership because the trades unions favoured him. Yes, despite the fact that most trade union members don’t even vote Labour anymore, the union movement finances Labour and wields a great deal of influence event today.

Interestingly, over 50% of labour party members regarded David Milliband as more likely to be able to lead the Labour party effectively. This reminds me again of the numbers of rank and file Liberals who are uneasy with their own leadership.

This disconnect between the leadership and party members – it’s all quite telling isn’t it? Regarding the Liberal democrats, we can see that the thirst for power has resulted in polls showing large numbers of voters deserting that party. When I say large, I mean about 4 million voters who went with the Lib Dems in April, would not today. In terms of percentage of the vote this puts them down to 12% from a high of almost 35% earlier in the year.

Next up: the Conservatives and the Scottish Nationalists hold their conferences in October.

A Nordic Meeting of Minds

COBCOE represents 34 British Chambers of Commerce and 10,000 businesses working in 31 countries and the BECC have been enthusiastic members at executive level for several years now.

The COBCOE (Council of British Chambers of Commerce in Europe) Nordic-Baltic Group meeting took place in Tallinn on 23-24 August 2010 with representatives from British Chambers of Commerce in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland.

I managed to attend a day of this conference myself and was taken by the fact that whilst there are 'British' chambers of commerce in many countries, there are just as many different ways of doing things.

The meeting focused on improving trade and investment flows between the COBCOE Nordic-Baltic area and the UK and future cooperation plans were discussed – including a common website, Nordic Regional Group sponsors, joint-marketing and joint events in UK. The main aim of the cooperation is of course even better network and business opportunities to our member-companies. We also discussed potential opportunities for organizations like the BECC which were made possible by a change in UK government.

“We know that the private sector, working through chambers of commerce will be a vital component in the recovery of economies in Europe and there are some tremendous business opportunities ahead of us. In this internet age and global market, personal contacts are more important than ever and COBCOE delivers to its constituent members a unique business network across Europe and to other major trading nations in the world” said Howard Rosen, the President of the COBCOE.

The Group were also dinner guests of the UK Ambassador to Estonia, HE Peter Carter and the cooperation plans between British chambers and UK Trade & Investment were also discussed during the dinner.

The Group will meet again at the COBCOE Annual Conference in London in April 2011 and the next annual meeting of the nordic group will take place next August in Reykjavik, Iceland.

The New (well newish) British Government

As I have been asked constantly for my opinion of the British Government – specificaly the Con-LibDem coalition I thought I might put a few thoughts down here – for what they are worth.

People seem to want to know what happened during those negotiations to form a coalition and what chances of survival the new government has. I don’t know the answer to either question I’m afraid but I have to confess that at the time, I was surprised at how swiftly the conservatives and liberals struck a deal.

Like many people, I assumed the Liberal Democrats (to give them their full name) and Labour were much more natural bedfellows. Perhaps I’m out of touch though. After all, when I last lived in the UK (in the 1980’s), politics and British society were far more polarised than they appear to be today.

On the other hand, I really feel that had the rank and file of the LibDem party been consulted, the vast majority would have come out in favour of a Lib-Lab deal. Only 9% of Liberal Democrats consider themselves ‘centre right’. 90% of Scottish voters (Scotland is a liberal stronghold) voted against the Conservatives. Indeed, it is common knowledge that most liberal grandees – the likes of Steele and Kennedy – favoured a pact with Labour.

I would say the importance of the relationship between two men cannot be overstated. Nick Clegg and David Cameron are both youthfull, relatively new leaders of their resepctive parties and are prepared to compromise in the face of stiff opposition from within theor own ranks. Obviously, being politicians these people are also natutally obsessed with power and after 13 years in the cold, the Conservative leader must have felt he needed to offer an extremely good deal to the Liberals to be certain of getting the top job. Hence the large number of cabinet seats going to Liberals and guarantees of a referendum on electoral reform.

Only time will tell whether the pact will work. And time is another factor. In a coalition with Labour, it is unlikely that a Lib-Lab government would have lasted for long and would not have been at all stable. There would cetainly have been an election within a year or two which in turn would probably have weakened the Liberal’s bargaining power.

The fact that Cameron and Clegg get on extremely well (these two leaders are from the same generation and elite eductional background, they fancy themselves as modernisers) helped enormously but at the end of the day and probably speeded things up. However, on reflection, the end result was inevitable in my view.

About the Executive Women’s Luncheon

On March we launched a new event series Executive Women’s Luncheons. The first lunch apparently took place at the Nordic Hotel Forum with champagne, delicious food and a great speaker. I resisted the temptation to put on a dress and attempt to gain entry but I'm told that more than thirty women came together and the feedback was very positive. Nearly all the participants mentioned how come we haven’t had these lunches earlier! Good question!

Our keynote speaker was Mrs Marina Kaljurand, who is the Undersecretary of Economic Affairs and Development Cooperation at Estonia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the moment. Of course she is better known as the ambassador of the Republic of Estonia to the Russian Federation (since 3 February 2006) who was put under some pressure during the bronze soldier affair. She talked about her personal experience and what, in her views, it takes for a woman to aim high.

I should point out that the mission of these events is not to start a feminist movement but mainly to offer opportunities for business networking and also mutual support and mental stimulation - 4 times a year.