Is it the fact that we’ve entered a new decade or is it just my imagination? I sense a renewed optimism in the business community about the prospects for 2010.
Certainly the sentiment around the table at recent Chamber functions and at networking events has been more positive and I take that as a good sign.
The first quarter of the year is proving to be comfortably busy for the Chamber, with a number of high-profile speakers joining us at our luncheons and a satisfying turnout by our Members and their guests to listen to what they have to say. Please do keep supporting our events programme and be sure to let us know if you have a visiting CEO or other prominent individual who you believe would make an interesting speaker at a Chamber event.
On a similar note, let me put on record my thanks to Bruce Darrington of Mazars Japan for the firm’s generous sponsorship of the January “51 Night”. If you’d like to learn how you can be a sponsor of such events, and what the benefits are, please contact the Secretariat.
My thanks also to those who supported the launch of BCCJ ACUMEN, either as advertisers in the first issue or by providing material for the editorial content. We have had a tremendously positive response to it and we are encouraged by the fact that our circulation is now in the region of 7,000 copies per issue, including those that go to some subscribers of the Financial Times, which is no mean feat. Our media partners Custom Media deserve thanks for that. But you can help increase the circulation, too. Please consider ordering multiple copies (free up to a certain number and while stocks last) and passing them on to members of staff, clients and others. Again, the Secretariat can help organise that for you.
Speaking of the Secretariat, I am always somewhat amused at Chamber and other events to see the reaction on people’s faces when I tell them it is staffed by only two people. Often, they think I am making it up. But it is true and we are grateful for their efforts. And while I’m passing out bouquets, let me also thank the members of the Executive Committee — all of whom are by definition very busy people — for their time and efforts on behalf of us all. It is an honour and a privilege to chair the Excom meetings and I am excited by some of the new ideas that are currently being discussed at this level. More information on these, of course, in future issues of ACUMEN.
