London Visit II

Well the London trade mission seems to have gone well with no casualties reported so far. I’m so glad we finally achieved this long-overdue milestone and am more than a little irked that I couldn’t make it this time. The photo is from the end-of-trip visit to the Red Lion, an Estonian run Pub. Thanks to BECC London contact Andres Klaar for setting this up. Of course there are lots of other people to thank for their part in this trip – not least Agnes!

How to do a chamber?

Last week Petriina and I gave our first consultation on setting up a Chamber of Commerce. We met with Aleksandr Khachaturyan (wonder if that's a common name ...) who wants to start the Armenain – British Chamber of Commerce in the coming months. Preparing for the meeting was really quite salutary for me in that it served to remind me of just how far the BECC has come in the past 10 years. It was nice to be able to speak from an experienced perspecive and advise on some fundamental issues which are important to get right from the get go. In other words it was a rare opportunity to talk about all those lessons learned !

October Monthly Mingle

We enjoyed another pleasant evening yesterday - this time with the Spanish Chamber of Commerce at Gallery M. Jennifer Mitchell gave a short presentation of some really decent Cotes du Rhones that she served up - and I believe may now be importing - and also made some exquisite pate and hubby Howard Shernoff told us something about the exhibition of antique French posters at the Gallery. I made a short speech in my execrable Spanish (tha-tha-thaaa!) and met some old friends. All in all, it was everything the monthly mingle should be:)

BECC Outreach. What do we do?

Outreach, Charity, Corporate responsibility, whatever you want to call it, the BECC donates about 100 000 EEK a year to worthy causes and has done so for the past few years. Our aim is primarily to link our donations to the world of work or business but this is not exclusively the case. In fact we will consider giving to any chaitable cause which demonstrates that it is in need, is well run and can write a half decent application for support.

Each Autumn the BECC puts out a call for registered charities to send their proposals for funding. We tend to favor stand alone projects with clear goals. For example, in 2006 we financed the construction of living accommodation for men who were taking part in the Salvation army ‘back to work’ programme. The goal was to create an environment for people who had, so to say ‘afallen through the safety net’ to get back into the workforce and society after prolonged periods out of action.

This year we have supported 3 causes including stipendiums for TTÜ grad students and donations for projects to the Cystic Fibrosis Association and the Estonian Union of Persons with Mobility Impairment.

This month we’re looking forward to getting some well written project proposals for 2010!