On Wednesday 19th March the Spanish Chamber of Commerce took part in the official launch of a special project that has been developed by several organisations for over two years and has finally come to fruition: the CIAC, the Council of Ibero American Chambers in the UK, formed on the 10th February with the signed Memorandum of Understanding by the Chambers that participate.
The CIAC is an independent business to business (B2B) network of UK based chambers with unrivalled expertise and contacts in Latin America and Spain. This Memorandum will make stronger the support network available to British-based companies seeking to enter or expand into the Latin American and Spanish market. This initiative has been conceived with the aim to proactively stimulate trade, investment and multilateral cooperation between the UK, Spain and Latin America and represent the interest of the member companies in Latin America and the UK.
The event congregated around 200 attendees coming from different networks of the chambers involved in the CIAC: The British Argentine Chamber of Commerce, The British & Colombian Chamber of Commerce, The Caribbean Britain Business Council, The Mexican Chamber of Commerce – GB, The Cuba Initiative and The Central American Business Council.
Representatives from the companies of the different chambers involved in the CIAC had the chance to start engaging and exploring the possibilities this wide network creates.
Attendees were extremely proactive and did not miss any opportunity to introduce themselves to their colleagues from other chambers, start exploring new opportunities and meet like-minded professionals, while enjoying some food delights and nice wine.
The event kicked off with the speech from Mr. Haydon Warren-Gash, the Chairman of the British & Colombian Chamber of Commerce, who is currently holding the Presidency of the CIAC. Mr. Warren-Gash pointed out that “All the Chambers of Commerce represented encounter similar challenges but also recognise similar opportunities and common interests. By working together, we can achieve more for our members than any of us could ever do working alone; the decision to get together in this way has been widely welcomed by all. The opportunities in Spain, Latin America and the Caribbean are greater today than they’ve ever been, so let us work together to make full use of CIAC”.
The President of the CIAC thanked ONTIER, official Sponsor of the event, for their support and so gave the floor to Mr. Seamus Andrew, founder partner of this firm and CEO of the London office.
Mr. Seamus Andrew, one of the founding partners of ONTIER and CEO of their London office, pointed out the significance of this brand new forum and highlighted the reasons why ONTIER supported the initiative.
For this remarkable occasion, The Mayfair Hotel, part of Edwardian Group London, Patron of the Spanish Chamber, prepared their spectacular Crystal Room to hold the reception.
We would like to thank ONTIER, member of the Spanish Chamber, who kindly supported and sponsored the launch. ONTIER is an entirely new concept that combines the soul of a local law firm, which is very close to its clients, with the tools of a great global law firm. ONTIER takes great pride in providing a first-class service to its clients. ONTIER has offices in Madrid, Oviedo, Santander, London, Lisbon, Mexico DF, Caracas, Bogota, La Paz, Santa Cruz, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Asuncion, Lima, Panama, Miami, and Shanghai.
We would also would like to thank all the attendees, the teams from the Chambers involved and the May Fair Hotel for sharing such a wonderful evening.
The “family picture”, with the representatives of the official institutions that are members of the CIAC with some representatives of ONTIER, sponsor of the event.
If you missed it, or should you wish to have a look at the pictures from the evening, you click here.
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