December

A final Euro Networking event was held on Thursday, December 10 at the Christkindl Market in Downtown Denver organized by the German-American Chamber of Commerce.  

November

The 11th Annual Beaujolais & Beyond Festival took place on Thursday, November 19 at the Mile High Station in Denver. Nearly 600 people attended making this the most well-attended Festival to date! Gourmet cuisine was provided by 23 local chefs, restaurants & catering companies and several new wine stations were added. Guests once again enjoyed aerial performances from Aerial Dance Over Denver. New this year as well was a live broadcast of current bids in the silent auction, allowing guests to enjoy the food & wine while keeping an eye on their bids. The Culinary Competition was a big success once again with 4 professional judges deciding on Best Appetizer, Entree & Dessert as well as a People's Choice Competition deciding the favorites among the masses.

Winners were:

Judges Award:
Best Appetizer = Michael Long- Opus Restaurant 
Best Entree= Cade Nagy- Catering By Design
Best Dessert = Brendon Doyle- Jonesy's EatBar

People's Choice Award:
Best Appetizer = Jean-Luc Voegele - Westin Tabor Center
Best Entree= David Oliveri- Farradday's Steakhouse
Best Dessert = David Oliveri- Farradday's Steakhouse

Thank your to our sponsors, all the participating chefs and wine vendors as well as our silent auction donors.  

October

On Tuesday, October 13, The Regis University School of Management College for Professional Studies hosted the French-American Chamber and our guests for a lively presentation and discussion on Gaining Cultural Currency in International Business. Myrna Ann Adkins, President of The Spring Institute, gave an overview on the topic while sharing stories and examples from her own experience. Rachel Skanson, Director of Intercultural Services at The Spring Institute, explained the difference between monchronic vs. polychronic personalities and how it can relate to cultures. In addition, Benoit Guin, Principal at Amelie Company, shared his personal insights and experiences of being a French native working in both American & French business environments.

The week of October 19, we led a delegation to Grenoble-Isere. The Colorado delegation included the following members: David Hiller, executive director of CREC (The Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory), NREL representatives including William Farris (vice-president for commercialization and technology transfer) and Ron Benioff (manager, international programs), as well as Sunil Cherian, CEO of Spirae, Inc. The delegation spent their first day at the Rhône-Alpes regional headquarters. Next, they spent a full day at INES (The National Institute for Solar Energy) to meet with key solar PV players. The third day was dedicated to smartgrids at G2Elab at Grenoble INP (Grenoble Institute of Technology), including a visit of the PREDIS technological platform. This busy week of formal and informal discussions among research and industrial leaders of both communities will chart a course to a future of cooperative research that will serve both nations and the world at large.

September

On Wednesday, September 16 we hosted our final Small Business Roundtable event of 2009. Many new faces were in attendance to learn more about PURL's or Personalized URL's as an effective way to market your business to prospective as well as continuing customer. Yolanda Duperret of Action Coach facilitated the meeting while guest presenter Sid Sena of Avenue Marketing educated attendees on how and why using a PURL campaign could increase their bottom line. Mr. Sena also spoke about the importance of customer loyalty programs and gave ideas on how to implement them. Thanks again to Katherine's French Bakery for providing delicious pastries and coffee for our Roundtable events this year and to the Alliance Francaise for hosting these events throughout the year.

On Tuesday, September 22 Invest in France Agency sponsored “Outlook on Innovation & Trends in Software & IT in France”. It was co-hosted by the FACC/CORA and the CSIA and held at the World Trade Center building. Speakers included Marisa Guerra, Invest in France Agency, VP Business Development, Sharon Rehbinder, AEPI, Director North America, Regis Pourchet, Sogeti USA, Geographic Vice President and Josh Peterson, Hewlett Packard, Worldwide Manager, HP Workstation Product Marketing.

August

On Tuesday, August 18, nearly 100 people attended the 3rd Euro Networking event of 2009 at Indulge French Bistro in the historic Highlands neighborhood. Delicious arrays of passed hors d'oeuvres were enjoyed throughout the evening both inside the restaurant and on the patio outside. As usual, there was an eclectic mix of international attendees from the French-American, German-American and Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce as well as from the British-American Club. Bob Snyder, President of CORA, gave a presentation on "Technology and Innovation in the European Union, Rhone-Alpes Perspective" on Thursday, August 27 at the 501 Club in Boulder. This was a free event geared for business owners and their employees currently involved in international trade. The gathering offered a venue for attendees to share ideas, contacts and resources with other internationally involved business people.

July

On Wednesday, July 22 the FACC held a Small Business Roundtable. This was the first time this event was open to non-members. The focus for this Roundtable was on the biggest challenge your Small Business is facing. Yolanda Duperret of Action Coach facilitated the event and provided very useful tips and strategies for each challenge we discussed. She touched on the 6-steps of any business, starting with building the foundation with time, money, destination and delivery mastery. She also reviewed the 5-step process and offered lists of ideas on how to increase leads, conversion rates of customers, transactions & sales. Several guests said their biggest challenge was time management so we discussed the idea of having a Default Diary where you create a set schedule of when you work on different tasks each week. We would like to thank Katherine's French Bakery once again for providing the delicious pastries & coffee and the Alliance Francaise for hosting this event.

On Friday, July 31 CORA, our Colorado Rhone-Alpes Economic Development Partnership initiative, held a luncheon at the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce. Dr Nouredine Hadjsaid, director of IDEA, a research collaboration in Grenoble, and a internationally recognized expert on Smart Grid research, visited Colorado to develop conduits for international collaboration with Colorado companies and NREL. Dr Hadjsaid provided the attendees with an overview of the state of smart grid research in Europe and in particular in France. The topics covered were distributed intelligence in critical infrastructure, integration of the renewable energy in distribution networks and self-healing capacities of the grid. Co-sponsors for this event were CCIA (Colorado Cleantech Industry Association), Colorado Office of International Trade and the World Trade Center Denver.

June

On Wednesday, June 10 Scott Bemis, president & publisher of the Denver Business Journal offered an insiders look as to how the Denver economy is faring compared to the rest of the country, “Colorado's Economy: How Do We Rate?” The event was held at the Ritchie Center on the University of Denver campus. Scott touched on trends seen over the years, comparing them to what we are currently experiencing as well as how different industries look. He spoke about many positive things going on in our city and state, which was a refreshing change from what has been in the news. Guests participated in the intimate presentation as well as the Q&A session afterward while enjoying a light breakfast. Many attendees were so engaged in lively discussions with those at their table that they stayed well after the event had ended. Thank you again to all who attended and participated as well as to the Denver Business Journal and Scott Bemis.

May

We held our 3rd Annual L'Esprit de France Benefit Gala on Friday, May 15 at the Westin Tabor Center. The evening was a treat for the senses. During the cocktail hour, guests mingled and enjoyed sparkling wine and hors d'oeuvres while placing bids on the wide array of silent auction items available. Lattice arches welcomed guests into the main ballroom where each table had a unique musical-themed ice sculpture. Ralph Peterson, the guest of honor and Chairman of CH2M HILL, was recognized for his significant contribution to French-American business. Guests enjoyed a five-course French dinner paired with wines from WJ Deutsch & Sons. During the meal, Bill Clarke, the MC for the evening pumped everyone up by auctioning off 4 items in the live auction. In addition, Scott O'Neil & Robyn Julyan, members of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, offered a beautiful performance on piano and violin. The evening wrapped up with a decadent dessert buffet.

On Wednesday, May 27 we held the third Small Business Roundtable. Although attendance was smaller than usual, the discussions and conversations were invaluable to those in attendance. Yolanda Duperret of Action Coach facilitated the Roundtable whose focus this month was on creating and/or fine tuning the Mission, Vision and Culture statements of your business. Committing these to paper helps to lay down the supports on which every business is built. Thank you once again to Katherine's French Bakery for sponsoring this event.

April

On Thursday, April 9, Davis, Graham & Stubbs hosted an informational event on the topic of Labor & Employment Law in the US & France. Sybil Kisken and Christelle Bousquet Wu, both attorneys, talked about the differences and similarities between the two countries. The presentation was very informative and was followed by appetizers, drinks and networking. The Power Point presentation from this event is now availble for FACC members in our Members Only section.

On Thursday, April 23 the FACC along with the British American Club, the German-American Chamber of Commerce, the Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce and the World Trade Center Denver hosted over 100 people at their Euro Networking Event. Food and drinks were plentiful as people mingled and networked with international colleagues. Guests were able to step onto the terrace of the Try Club and watch the Rugby players practicing. At 8pm, though the official networking event was over, guests hung around deep in conversation with not only other Euro Networking acquaintences, but the Rugby players who came in from practice to meet and mingle.

March

On Wednesday, March 11 we held our second Small Business Roundtable event at the Alliance Francaise. Several members who had attended the first Roundtable in January came back to share success stories about how they used knowledge gained from the first session to better their businesses. Yolanda Duperret of Action Coach facilitated the event once again and explained how each Small Business Owner could increase their bottom line by using the Five-Way Formula. Owners also shared challenges, thoughts and ideas with each other to help get the brainstorming wheels in motion for the uncertain times that lay ahead. We would like to thank Katherine's French Bakery for sponsoring this event by providing breakfast pastries and coffee.

The delegates attended the Sustainable Opportunities Summit (March 17-19) organized by FACC member CORE. A pre-summit presentation was held on March 17 and featured three members of the delegation who spoke about the Grenoble-Isere region and sustainable technologies in that area. In addition, a schedule of appointments was customized for each delegate, and included presentations by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, meetings with prospective customers, alliance partners and heads of tech transfer offices at major Colorado universities.

The visit also included a reception on March 18 that featured remarks by Governor Bill Ritter and was attended by over 100 business and community leaders.

The delegation was led by Claude Graff, Executive Vice-President for the Renewable Energy Group for Schneider Electric, a French global company with $25 billion in sales and which employees 28,000 people in the U.S. M. Graff is also President of TENERRDIS, the French national renewable energy cluster which is based in Grenoble. Other organizations represented in the delegation were Veolia Energy North America, the Director of a major nano/micro-electronics cluster in Grenoble, the director of the tech transfer office of one of Europe's premier engineering schools and the founder and President of a fast -growing company specialized in a patented process for recycling lithium-ion batteries.

February

On Thursday, February 5 the British-American, French-American, German-American and Swedish-American Chambers of Commerce held a Euro Networking event at The Wine Loft in Downtown Denver. Over 100 people attended making it the most successful Euro Networking event to date! We appreciated the patience and flexibility of our guests as the Chambers and The Wine Loft worked hard to accommodate the impressive number of people who attended. The event was held in the private room upstairs, which quickly filled up so guests flowed over onto the main floor near the bar. Several languages could be heard throughout the evening truly making it an International event! As one guest commented "This was the best Euro Networking yet. There were so many people that no matter which way you turned you had to meet someone new!".

On Tuesday, February 24 Edith Samouillet and Kathy Pennell with Right Management presented an informative luncheon on Celebrating Diversity in the workplace and in your day-to-day life. Guests had a chance to share their experiences and questions about diversity with one another through an activity, discussion within small groups and sharing with the larger group. The event raised some great questions and everyone left with a new awareness of and techniques for embracing diversity in all aspects of life. Two lucky guests won copies of the book A Peacock in the Land of Penguins, a favorite of the presenters and a great book on diversity. The event was held at the Warwick Hotel, which provided a wonderfully filling lunch and dessert.

January

On Wednesday, January 21 we held our first Small Business Roundtable event focused on how to “Weatherproof Your Business for the 2009 Economy” at the Alliance Francaise de Denver. The event was open only to members and 12 people attended. Yolanda Duperret from Action Coach facilitated the discussion and offered her expertise on this topic. Participants discussed challenges they face with time managment, where to spend their marketing budget, the importance of creating a business plan and several other issues. Breakfast was provided by Katherine's French Bake