30 March 2008

March 2008 - Networking Event - Legal Services

Our March event on 27th was another success, the theme was -Legal Services.
We invited a whole 'pack' of lawyers (about 52 of them) from around Kyiv and our guest speaker was Oleg Vysochynskyy, Partner from the law firm Grischenko & Partners, who privided a speech on bank takeovers and mergers in Ukraine.

I think my jokes about lawyers went down OK. None of them threatened legal action against me, so I guess it was acceptable. My favourite joke has to be: What's black and brown and looks good on a lawyer?.....A Doberman Pinscher!! (But some jokes just don't translate so well).

We changed the catering company and were provided with better service, I hope they can maintain the standard. Plus I want to say thanks to Peter Flanaghan who has stepped forward and volunteered to help organise our events and maybe start cleaning up our web site to improve our image. Peter has lived in Ukraine for about 12 years and knows alot about 'The Ukrainian way' of doing things.

Plus we have had more new members joining this month, so things are going according to plan.
Onward and forward.

02 March 2008

February Meeting EVEN BETTER

The BBCU February meeting on 28th was a great success, moreover it was a joint meeting with the British Ukranian Society (BUS). We had over 100 people packed into the top floor at INTER TV and our two VIP guests Nicholas Soames MP and Richard Spring MP demonstrated the very high level of professionalism people expected from British members of parliament.

Most of the formal part of the event revolved around the future expectations of Ukraine and future membership of both NATO and the EU. Both speakers made it clear that it was up to UKRAINE to decide its own future and that no pressure was being put on anyone or any government to join or not to join. But we were all happy to see from a raise of hands amongst our Ukrainian members that THEY thought Ukraine could over come the hurdles to one day join the EU.

I have now found two more people who are interested in helping to promote the BBCU and increase the membership, so the March meeting may even prove to be equally interesting.