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Dear Members and Friends,
One year ago, we closed the year 2019 with a big end of year and Christmas event and we were all looking forward to a great start of 2020. Little did we know that year 2020 would become a year filled with enormous challenges and changes.
The COVID19 pandemic impacted every single level in our society and with borders closed and heavy restrictions on group gatherings it made it impossible to run and conduct traditional in person events. It pushed us to quickly adapt, re-think and innovate. In April we launched our first ever SACC Webinar “COVID-19 impact on business, trade and investments” and since then we have made +40 webinars and online events available for our members and have been able to connect and engage a very large amount of guests, members and participants. It is also pleasing to see how we have further strengthened our collaboration across other chambers, both within Australia but also outside of Australia, including being a part of the Swedish Chambers in Asia Pacific Network. Our cooperation and alignment between the Swedish Embassy, Business Sweden and SACC, under the name “Team Sweden”, is stronger than ever.
When we now will be able to start organising traditional in person meetings and arrange bigger social events and mixing this into the full portfolio of national, regional and global webinar activities + developing the mentorship program, we are coming out stronger and have a more attractive and value adding SACC activity calendar than ever. We have turned the challenges we faced into opportunities! We will continue to transform our activities and member value creation model, built on the new learnings from 2020, to be fit for purpose and become even stronger in delivering towards membership needs, while continuously growing the membership base.
Thank You to all Board Members, Directors, Chapter Board Members and Working Committee members who have invested more time than ever to help navigate through a very challenging year. And the biggest thank you go to all of You members, for whom we serve and would not exist without. With Your continuous support, engagement, sharing of ideas and contributions, in both small and big ways, we will as the Swedish Australian Chamber of Commerce, together, continue to grow and deliver added value for all members. I’m sure that next year will become an extraordinary year to remember as we now gear up to take a historical leap and will in 2021 celebrate 110 years of existence!
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!
Jan Gardberg, President of SACC |
