Breakfast meeting of the year with this partner Global IT Solution

The Spanish Chamber of Commerce (CCE) hosted its final business breakfast of the year on Wednesday at the Hotel Meliá with a presentation entitled “Tailor made Business Solutions for small Companies : Challenges and Solutions”.

CCEBreakfast2-20141217-600After a short introduction by CCE President Sergio de Miguel-Jessel the presentation was given by Bernard Blocail, Managing Partner of Global IT Solutions, and his wife Véronique and took the form of a real life case study which highlighted how a small business was able to replace an antiquated and highly labour intensive working environment with a tailored cloud based invoicing, planning and knowledge sharing system at an acceptable price. The company understands the need to allow small companies to be able to continue to operate their own work flows while at the same time taking on a new system, and so challenges itself to provide a “semi-bespoke” service while still keeping costs reasonable. To some approval Mr. Blocail closed by explaining to the assembled audience that his company’s philosophy was that the goal of any software should be to provide a real added value to the company, otherwise it becomes a frustrating and expensive waste of time and money.

Mr. de Miguel-Jessel then closed the meeting by thanking the speaker, the attendees and particularly Guillermo Mungía Barquín of the CCE for his great organisation of the breakfasts. Watch out for an announcement in the next few weeks on the CCE’s programme for 2015.

Presentation of the company DLinea in Luxembourg

On Wednesday 10th of December the company DLinea was presented in Luxembourg. With the topic “The accessible architecture for people with visual disabilities”, José Serrano, manager of the company and participant of the contest “Young entrepreneur prize” of the Programa Jóvenes BeLux from the Chamber of Commerce, explained the audience its innovative projects and the activity of the business.

Breakfast started with Maria Catalán,  Secretary-General of the Chamber, giving a welcome message to the attendees. She also introduced to the speaker and it company, DLinea.

Then José Serrano presented DLinea, a new architecture firm based on Bereldange-Luxembourg which offers an innovative guided-system for blinds people in buildings and public places. This new system establishes  a continuous communication channel between the person and the building. It is based on relieves set up on the floor which allow to know the way to follow and integrate the person into the building. These relieves change their shape in order to indicate a change of direction, the end of a corridor or a change of height. This new tool is completed with an auditory system installed on the elevators to improve the assistance for the blind people.

Among the attendants, there were representatives of blind and disabilities organizations.

This activity  is integrated in the Programa Jóvenes Belux, supported by the Employment and Social Security Ministry. 

Company of the Year Award 2014 – Indra

The Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce of Spain in Belgium and Luxembourg celebrated its Annual Gala Dinner where the Award Company of the Year 2014 was presented, in its II Edition, in recognition of its track record for innovation and its international trajectory, to the Spanish Consulting and Technology company:

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Indra has a permanent presence in Brussels, with a corporative office in the European District (Rue Froissart nº 95-99, 4º -1040 Brussels) for the business development and support to operations at BENELUX, EU and OTAN.

The dinner took place at the Métropole Hotel in Brussels and counted, among others, with the presence of top-level management of several Spanish and international companies, members of the Spanish diplomatic community, representatives from Spanish institutions, Directors-General of the European Commission and Council, members of the European Parliament, and the EU Commissioner of Climate Action and Energy, Miguel Arias Cañete.

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The President of the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg, Juan Rodríguez-Villa Matons, addressed to the more than 110 assistants referring to the activities carried out by the Chamber during the 2014, emphasised the new Programa Jóvenes BeLux among others. The Program counts with the support and the grant of the Spanish Ministry of Employment and Social Security and it has allowed, among other goals, that a third part of the youth who have attended to the Chamber, have been able to find a job in BeLux in the last months. On the other hand, he pointed out the new Chamber of Spain, formed the last month of November, incorporates a main role to the Official Chambers abroad inside the national system of the Chamber.

Furthermore, he noted that since the Chamber applied for the creation of a mixed commission European Chamber-Parliament to give the chance to the SME’s of join this necessary dialogue to legislate. “The Chamber, is the right framework for the dialogue of the company with the European institutions and we want to continue improving the good relationships”, he argued.

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The Spanish ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium, Ignacio Matellanes, spoke at the event to highlight the evolution of the Spanish economy, the important commercial relationships with Belgium and the country as an investment destination.

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The EU Commissioner of Climate Action and Energy, Miguel Arias Cañete, presented the Award to the President of Indra in Europe. The Commissioner highlighted that Indra “represents globally the success and the competitiveness of the European Industry” and pointed out feeling “doubly satisfied because of it as European and Spanish citizen”.

Cañete added the multinational is also an “example of the continent’s industrial renaissance” and highlighted the European Commission “wants the European industry to represent the 20% of the European GDP in 2020”, a level which was already reached in the 90s, while nowadays it represents more than the 15%.

_JRC4457Santiago Roura, the President of Indra in Europe, pointed out the award “is the recognition of a collective effort and a brand”, besides “it generates illusion for the 40.000 people who work in this project”. He also added “the firm, a multinational which exists in 138 countries and leader in Spain and Latin America, is a long-term business project” and among its goals is “the immense challenge of becoming in a global company fundamental for Europe”. “We want to be in Europe and work from the world for Europe”, noted  Roura.

Indra’s represent highlighted the importance of the Spanish Chamber, “it is fundamental for the ones who try to have our products in a good position, solutions and services of the global market”.

After presented the Award Company of the year 2014, the assistants enjoyed the dinner accompanied by wonderful Spanish wines offered by the associated company La Buena Vida.

The pianist Mauricio Vallina charmed his audience with his Classic Cuba performance.

Thank you for sharing this magnificent dinner with the Chamber.

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