Le Networking is designed for women who wish to meet other women and make business connections.
Last Thursday, April 24, the meeting featured Carolyn Ferguson, owner and chef of Belle Epicurean, a bakery situated inside the Fairmont Hotel downtown Seattle. Carolyn spent a few years in France studying at Cordon Bleu. She explained how she got started in Chicago with her husband, what the next strategy development for the bakery will be and her challenges as wife and mother.
The meeting started at 7:30AM until 9:00AM. As usual: very good connections for everyone, good ambiance (even though very early), and very nice breakfast (from Belle Epicurean of course!).
This kind of meeting will be developped when more speakers are proposed to us.
We witness a real interest for those American and French women to get together for the same reason: their love for France and the curiosity to learn more about other people’s experiences, professionnal as well as private challenges involved in their choices.
Next Le Networking will come back in September as the team is currently focused on the success of its new fundraising gala: Soirée Prestige (June 7 at the Sunset Club - private Club on First Hill. Calendar of events at www.faccpnw.org)
Thank you to Betty Frost, Board member of the FACCPNW and VP Program, for organizing it.
The 22nd Annual Members’ Meeting was held on Wednesday, March 12, 2008 at the World Trade Center.
The goal of this meeting was to nominate and renew the board and give an overview of the FACC’s past and future activities to its current members.
The event featured Mr. Serge Bellanger, who is the President of the French-American Chamber of Commerce in the USA. We were very pleased to have him talk about “France: A New Leadership in a New World”. This topic is very much discussed in the USA and in the Pacific Northwest in particular.
We can indeed notice that many Seattlelites are very much aware of the politics in Europe and in France more specifically.
The rest of the evening went very smoothly and people didn’t seem to be wanting to leave.
Our events are more and more well attended and increasingly appreciated by our guests, which please us very much.
I also want to warmly thank our two sponsors: Air France and MC Next, a French company newly arrived in Seattle and already supporting the FACCPNW.
I have launched a new program for the FACC called NetwWine, which stands for Networking and Wine.This is first of all an informal networking event along with a glass of local or French wines.
My goal was to enable our current members to be able to promote themselves and their companies by giving a speech of 5 to 10 minutes during the evening.
This program is also ment for people who are not members to meet our organization, learn more about the FACC activities and enjoy a nice evening in a French atmosphere. For our first NetwWine on March 6, we invited Philippe Sanchez, new Managing Director of Starbucks Coffee France. We even let the guests have a coffee tasting led by a Starbucks Coffee Master. The event was very much appreciated by the people who attended. The ambiance was warm and welcoming and good contacts were made.
The French-American Chamber of Commerce has organized its 15th Annual Beaujolais Nouveau Wine Gala on November 16.
The evening was featuring a reception, a nice meal, a live and silent auction to raise money for the FACC. The French American Chamber of Commerce is indeed a non-profit organization.
I was directly responsible for targeting and soliciting corporate contributions for the event and for developing and managing promotional and publicity materials.
The Chamber has been contacted by the French laboratory Cerep, Inc., subsidiary of Cerep HQ in Paris, to organize it’s 10 Years of Successful Service in the USA.
I took over this task and organized the whole event at the Marriott Courtyard on Lake Union. The presentation entitled: ” Applying High Content screening to in vitro Toxicology” seemed to be quite successful as 40 people attended whereas no more than 30 people were expected. Most of the public were scientists, who also stayed until the end of the reception. The ambiance was very good and the networking very effective.
3 sponsors were present: Air France, LabTemps (Recruiting staff agency) and Falco&Sult Cie (auditing firm), which I really thank for participating.
I also need to thank Marie-Christine Bodinier, Cerep, who was great to working with!
My first task at the FACCPNW was to be in charge of the wine tasting for Bastille Day 2007. Different wines were presented (Muscadet, Sauvignon..). About 90 persons participated in the tasting, which is a lot more than last year!
