The Dragon, the Elephant and HBN

The Dragon, the Elephant and HBN

Around 20 Cambridgeshire businessmen and women and the local Members of Parliament, Andrew Lansley MP and Jim Paice MP , met in the sunlit boardroom of the Bourn Hall Clinic, set in a gentle landscape that had continuously occupied the site since the first wooden castle erected there in Norman times. Amongst them were two other HBNers with an international interest, Richard Wishart and Peter Burt.

An excellent and welcome breakfast relaxed us sufficiently to enjoy the talk by Professor Alan Barrell, FRSA and Holder of the Queen’s award for Enterprise Promotion, on the rise of the Chinese Dragon and the Indian Elephant economies. We were reminded that here were two giants that had been slumbering for a past century and were now arising to take their place at the forefront of world economies.

The talk was entertaining and informative – with quotes from Napoleon to Ghandi – and he adapted to the audience which included Thak Patel of Think India and Joan Zhou of EEI .

Networking continued after the talk itself and you can see the best pictures in my album for the event “SCGB 091107 Bourn Clinic ”.

The event was organised by Jan Mughan (jan@sccf.org.uk) of the Southern Cambridgeshire Business Group with assistance from me both as Huntingdonshire Business Network’s Mailing and Marketing Manager and through my international contacts list.

HBN’s input in the design and text of the mailer, which helped with overall attendance, and the fact that a quarter of the attendees came through our contacts was noted and commented positively on. We showed that we are an experienced network willing to support local businesses and organisations for mutual benefit.