On Friday, 28th August, the British Chamber of Commerce Thailand (BCCT) held a double event at the Holiday Inn Pattaya on Beach Road. The co-hosts were the American, Australian, Belgian, Canadian, Dutch, German, South African and Singaporean chambers. As always, there was a big thank you to the sponsors, without which such events simply could not happen. For this networking, they were – Budget/Payless, Bangkok Hospital Pattaya, RSM and Town/Country Property and Deemoney.
The first event was a briefing by Chris Cracknell, Chairman of Grant Thornton. The subject matter was on The Covid and Post-Covid Global Economy. This was not so much a state of the nation address as a presentation on how the world is faring in the year 2020. This did, naturally, include how Thailand is as well. It was very well presented and an accurate portrayal of how things look at the moment. After an exhaustive grilling, everyone then repaired to the ballroom to meet up with other fellow networkers.
Peter Malhotra was seen chatting to BCCT Executive Director Greg Watkins about various matters. Andrew McBean, Chairman of BCCT, gave a welcome speech and thanked all the attendees for making the effort to come to the Holiday Inn in Pattaya. Kate Gerits, GM of the Holiday Inn was there making sure everything was as it should be. It was. The food was excellent and the drinks did not run out, which is one of the most vital things for such an event.
As well as Andrew, three past chairmen of the BCCT were also there – Graham Macdonald, Simon Matthews and Chris Thatcher. Fortunately, none were heard reminiscing about how things were done “in my day” and had nothing but compliments for the whole evening.
Frank Holzer, General Manager of Anca Sheet Metal Solutions, held court with various people, as was Cees Cuijpers, MD of Town & Property. Another old stalwart, Dr. Iain Corness, was there espousing the benefits of health checks and bemoaning the fact that it looks like Lewis Hamilton is going to win the F1 championship again. Oh for the days of Fangio!
John Sim, Chairman of PKF Thailand, was in attendance and saying how pleased he was with the new PKF office in Sriracha. He also has plans to open up another branch in Rayong province.
Mark Butters was waxing lyrical about how good a season Wolverhampton Wanderers had last time round and fully expected them to be challenging for honours next season. Colin Hastings, editor and owner of the Big Chilli was chatting away as was Adrian Apperley.
Simon Matthews, MD of Manpower Thailand, was heard to be quizzing Jimmy Howard on how Arsenal would fare this season and how they managed to fluke a win over Liverpool in the Community Shield.
Ian Pascoe, MD of Grant Thornton, made a special appearance to support Chris Cracknell, who is Chairman of the same company. He waxed lyrical about how spot on Chris Cracknell’s presentation had been and how we now all had to buckle under to make sure the world did not slide into an unrecoverable position in 2021.
Frank Timmons of Boyden Associates was seen tucking into the food and saying how good it was to Dr. Iain Corness and Jimmy Howard.
Must Read: To beat the virus, we must adapt to it – by Chris Cracknell
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