Chamber at forefront of major transatlantic conference

Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce played a key role in transatlantic trade talks when business leaders from the UK and North America came together for a major conference in London.

BritishAmerican Business Network - the leading transatlantic trade body, of which the Greater Birmingham Transatlantic Chamber of Commerce is part - held its annual conference, hosted by the London chapter at venues across the capital, including the Bank of America 's UK headquarters.

Bringing together more than 20 chapters and 2,000 member companies from across the BAB network in the UK, United States and Canada, the multi-day conference convenes business executives and government representatives actively involved in trade and investment on both sides of the Atlantic.

The GBCC 's international director Mandy Haque had an active role in the conference.

As well as being re-elected as the UK vice-president of the BritishAmerican Business Network during the organisation 's AGM, she led a Chamber delegation which included Transatlantic Chamber president James Tait, Andy Dawson of change management consultancy Curium Solutions and Jack Keeling of new Transatlantic Chamber patron Beyond the Book.

In her role as BABN 's vice-president, Mandy attended discussions with Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham about the importance of transatlantic trade.

She also joined Transatlantic Chamber patron Flexeserve for talks about their ongoing US expansion with the Prime Minister 's trade envoy Sir Conor Burns and the US Embassy 's commercial counsellor Brenda VanHorn.

Mandy said: “Attending the annual conference for BABN was a great opportunity to hear from some high-profile speakers on transatlantic trade initiatives.

“It was also really helpful to make new connections to support our Transatlantic Chamber activity and meet up with the US Embassy commercial team and the Canadian High Commission 's Agent General for Ontario.

“Mayor Burnham provided the early fireside chat and this received rousing applause with its focus on the importance of international relationships.

“The conference brings all the BABN chapters together and allows us to come up with new ways of collaborating together for the benefit of all of our members. ”

Pictured: Mandy Haque (second left) at the conference with James Hayes (Flexeserve), James Tait, Beverley Dunn (Carousel Marketing/Flexeserve), Rosemary Gallant (Minister Counselor at the US Embassy) and Jamie Joyce (Flexeserve)