On May 12th we organised a webinar for our members to hear and discuss the challenges businesses are facing in these turbulent times. It was a great honour that Ambassador  Ines Coppoolse took the time to tell more about the Dutch economic measures to support businesses and to hear what was on the mind of the Dutch business community in Sweden. 
 
As both the Swedish and Dutch economy are heavily depending on export, it might not be a surprise that both countries have similar approaches. The current focus is still on damage control and according to the Ambassador this will be so for some time to come. But at the same time both governments and expert organisations are building post Covid scenarios that can leverage on the green economy, taking into account climate change and sustainability goals.
 
This session also provided the possibility to meet (new) members and to share our challenges. It was a pleasure to see members from Stockholm, Malmö region, The Netherlands and even Spain. Besides the plenary sessions we used break up groups to discuss how we can move forward in a more responsible way once the crisis has passed.
 
Sigrid Westman and John Dekker from the Embassy would like to encourage all entrepreneurs and businesses to keep sharing signals and reflections with them after this webinar, so they can share these with policy makers in the Netherlands, Sweden and the EU. John Dekker  also remains available for those who want to learn more about Horizon Europe.
 
A big thank you to Ruben Brunsveld from Enact Sustainable Strategies for moderating this event!
 
 

Pieter van der Meijden, partner at Vator Securities, recently became an associate member. We were curious to find out more about him and asked him a few questions to introduce himself:

"I have 15 years professional experience in finance including investment banking and equity markets and I am currently a partner at Vator Securities.
Prior to Vator Securities I took a side-step from finance and worked at an internet/tech start-up in Stockholm for 3 years before returning to finance.
Prior to moving to Sweden in 2013, I lived in Brussels, Belgium and worked at ING and Degroof Petercam."
I am married, we have 2 children and live just north of Stockholm, in Danderyd. I have a bachelors degree from the University in Eindhoven, the Netherlands and a Masters degree from the University in Bristol, the United Kingdom. 

Tell us more about Vator Securities.
"Vator Securities in Sweden is a corporate finance firm that focuses on identifying and financing growth companies as they expand and develop into tomorrow’s market leaders. We advise both private and publicly listed growth companies on raising capital and strategic business decisions."

What brought you to Sweden?
"My Swedish wife,  and her promise of white christmases and free daycare for the kids. I am Dutch after all.."

What are your expectations concerning the Dutch Chamber of Commerce? 
"I became a member to be able to extend my network and exchange ideas."

/Marion Norman

The Dutch Chamber of Commerce went digital to keep all members connected and hosted its first webinar
on Tuesday the 21th of April on the use of social media in China. During this very interesting event, over 35 participants learned from Chinese social media specialist Norah Chu about social media in China and the impact during the outbreak of Covid-19. 
Some of the key take-outs were that social media play a very important role for people before and during the crisis in China and the use of online services have increased immensely due to the lockdown in a big part of the world. In China, the social media have been penetrated into people's daily life and those platforms are not being used only for sharing moments but are a tool for social commerce, digital identification and the communication for all daily purposes.
The coronavirus has hit everyone’s life and we have learned to be more and more creative with our daily routine. We thank Norah for her inspirational presentation and all members and guests for their participation!

/Bart Berens
Team Stockholm

The Dutch company Building Blocks became SME-member in the beginning of this year. We asked Frank Hardeman, in charge of leading the Nordic activities, to tell us more about Building Blocks.

What exactly is Building Blocks doing?
​It’s our mission to empower companies to understand and act in consumers' favour by personalising their products and services. We are gurus in consumer data science and want to show others that only if you put the consumer at the center of your organisation you can stay relevant for them. This is done by guiding companies in their data science maturity journey. Together with our clients we build customisable solutions that analyse consumer interactions and translate these into valuable individual experiences in all phases of the customer journey.

​Could you tell us a bit more about your background?
My passion for data science was born during my study at the Tilburg University where I studied Econometrics. It still fascinates me how data can help to ease your day. Anyhow, this interest came in handy when I joined Building Blocks around 3.5 years ago as Strategy Manager. After a short field trip to the data science team of ASML I rejoined Building Blocks in April 2019 as Partner Manager. Currently, I’m fully focused on my most terrifying and fantastic task yet; leading Building Blocks into the Nordics. I made the decision to rejoin because at Building Blocks I have the opportunity to show others that implementing data science solutions in daily business doesn’t have to be complex or highly expensive. Where in my current role I can even extend this reach outside the Netherlands.

What are the challenges in building your business in a new country?
Starting some place new comes with challenges. Where to begin and where to look? It brings new market dynamics we still have to make our own. Especially in a country where we do not speak the native language and not yet fully understand all culture difference. Hence, one of our biggest challenges at the moment is getting in touch with the right people and know how to build strong relationships.

How can the Dutch Chamber support you in achieving your goals?
We would love to connect with people who have experience doing business in Sweden,  that can steer us in the right direction and get us started.  Or anyone who loves coffee and a good conversation. I'm just looking forward meeting you all during the next event. Can’t wait until then? I'm always in for digital Fika. Please contact me via LinkedIn. 

​/Marion Norman

Henk Hatzmann from Streetlife in Malmö has been a member since 2011 and we thought it was about time to learn more about him. 

How did you end up in Sweden?
In 2003 I went on a year-long backpacking trip to Australia during which I met my Swedish wife.
Since this trip we have been living in both Sweden and the Netherlands and in 2010 we decided to move to Malmö and try to build up a life here. In that period I was working as a design engineer for Streetlife in Leiden which is an outdoor furniture design company. As I was moving to Sweden the company showed interest in starting an office for the Nordic market and asked me to perform a market research. The research had interesting results and there seemed to be great potential for us to expand on the Nordic market. We officially started the office in January 2011 and since then I have been working on developing the business. 

What kind of company is Streetlife?
Streetlife designs and develops outdoor furniture like seating, planters, bicycle parking but also steel prefab pedestrian bridges.
Products are designed and produced in Holland. Part of our success besides the design is our flexibility to adjust our products to the plans of our clients.
Our clients are mostly municipalities, (landscape) architects, and housing corporations. Our products are placed on public squares, shopping streets and around universities, housing and commercial buildings.
Currently most specifiers know about Streetlife and most of the large Nordic cities are our clients. Because of the positive results Streetlife has used similar strategies to establish and develop in other countries/regions(EU/USA).
Besides being responsible for the Scandinavian office I am also Sales Manager for Europe and this function enables me to share my experiences and help increasing our presence in other European countries.

 Why did you become a member of the Dutch Chamber?
The Dutch chamber for me is a place to meet inspiring people and see career opportunities.
Our clients and specifiers are persons that work in various professional fields. Therefore the chance of meeting people at events that somehow are connected with our products is quite high.
 
/Marion Norman

At our Annual Meeting we elected three new board members: Håkan Westin (secretary), Annika Narling (communications) and Frank Cleeren (members and events). We asked Annika and Frank to introduce themselves below. Click here to read more about Håkan.  

On Thursday the 13th of February we combined our well-attended Annual Meeting with a very interesting keynote about the importance of the European Green Deals and mingle at the Residence organised by Ambassador Mrs. Ines Coppoolse.

During the formal part of the evening Chairman Maarten Merckx gave a.o. a further clarification of our activities in 2019, member development and operational result together with treasurer Rex Schothorst.
If you are interested to read more, use this link to get access to our Annual Report 2019.
With 44 participants of which 33 voting members and 4 proxy votes, the quorum agreed to discharge the board from their liability.  ​

On the 23rd of February, the Dutch Chamber organised its first event of the year in Malmö, region South. 
It was a great pleasure to welcome our members and guests to Starters Café Djäkne. Founder and speaker for the evening Marvin Bonsen treated us to an inspirational talk on his amazing entrepreneurial journey.
He told us about developing internet content platforms as an incubator and selling them off whenever they, as he himself states “are becoming somewhat more corporate and compliance takes over”.  He mentioned Hemnet as an example, which is well-known. 

Many questions triggered lively conversations. It shows  what a person can achieve whenever you put your mind to it, and emphasizes that determination and persistency combined with a bit of luck, feeling for what the future might hold and lots of blood, sweat and tears will lead to success.

During the evening Wouter Ridder  and Bram Nabuurs, under the watchful eye of our boardmember Els Berkers and the honorairy consul of the Netherlands in southern Sweden mrs Kerstin Lindell, introduced themselves as the new regional directors.

To those who missed this great event, stay tuned and make sure you sign up for the next one in region South.

​/Team South