The Australian Chamber (AustCham) of Commerce was the host of the March joint chambers networking which was held at the Ocean Marina. The principal sponsors were the Rugby School Thailand and Ocean Marina as the venue sponsors.
It was well attended with representatives from many of the Chambers, including the British Chamber of Commerce Thailand (BCCT) with Past Chairman Simon Matthews maintaining his heritage of multi patterned shirts and quite pleased to have passed on the mantle to Chris Thatcher who spent the evening with his Executive Director Greg Watkins discussing forthcoming events.
The AustCham Executive Director Brendan Cunningham was, however, very busy making sure everyone was enjoying themselves, as did the (soon to be a father) Harbormaster Scott Finsten representing the Ocean Marina.
School was certainly in, with Rugby and Bromsgrove both with their pencils down and hands up with Rugby’s Head of Admissions Charles Rowe looking to fill the new school with weekly students as well as boarders.
It was a long time between drinks, but it was good to see Steve Fraser of Kiwi Resource Protection looking anything but ‘sheepish’ with his trained Kiwi’s ready to put your fires out. (No more sheep jokes, thank you.)
The Bangkok Hospital Pattaya was represented by Nui, Tanya and Metas from the International Marketing Department who were happy to chat about the preventive plans promoted by the hospital. When did you last have a check-up?
A universal complaint was that the font size on the business cards was too small to read. Ladies and gentlemen, do something about it, if you want it changed. Play your cards right. Mind you, there were quite a few attendees who had forgotten their cards, or run out of them.
Another mini-font was a card from Lucy Electric, which always makes me smile as “Lucy” was the name given to the first female, to whom we are all related. So there you have it, thank Lucy every time you turn the lights on.
Possibly the worst was the card being handed out by a hotel executive complete with fine orange script on a black card. Sorry, couldn’t read it, even following my SuperSight operation where I can read the number on a bus in Bangkok from Pattaya. A business opportunity for some enterprising person to produce an ‘on the spot’ printing service.
A good networking night, at least nine out of ten, and the only black mark being running out of beer before the end of the night. To run out of beer is an Aussie ‘cataclysmic’ event, so much so that the song “The Pub with No Beer” is still sung with sorrowful voice 50 years after (words available on request).
