INTERNATIONAL FORUM
INTERNATIONAL FORUM
British Water is delighted that Balmoral Tanks and ByrneLooby continue to be principal sponsors of its International Forum.
We are also pleased to now have five International Business Mentors providing country-specific assistance for our members:
• Ian Barrett( Black & Veatch) covering the Middle East, Africa and India
• Bill Mitcheson( Export Assist International) for Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE
• Anna Whittaker( Modern Water) for Europe
• Tom Williams( Enebio) for the USA and
• Steve Pring( BHR Group) for Qatar
The past year has seen UK companies benefit from UK government support to participate in exhibitions at the:
• International Water Summit, Abu Dhabi( January)
• HydroGaïa, France( May)
• Oman Energy & Water & Conference, Muscat( May)
• Singapore International Water Week( July) and
• WATEX, Tehran( September)
We have also undertaken business development visits to India and France, hosted inward delegations from Oman and Iran and held three International Forum networking meetings. Our fourth international reception was held at the House of Commons, where our keynote speaker was Dr Analia Mendez, Unilever’ s Global Director, Social Mission Expertise, HomeCare.
As a result of our initiatives companies have been introduced to a range of municipal and industrial clients, leading to business and pilot projects. Recent examples of testimonials include:
“ The new contacts made [ at a recent British Water meeting ] have led to several new business opportunities on international sales, including our investment in a fresh and new UK design and manufacturing enterprise with an innovative water saving product, which we believe will generate significant global sales. We find the meetings open, interesting and the networking opportunities on offer are one of the key perks of membership of British Water.” Dave McDonough, Director, Export Assist International.
“ I don’ t know how you manage to pack in such a diverse range of excellent speakers. I always find the meetings useful for meeting new contacts and gaining information.” Philippe Girard, Saur.
“... along with my trip with British Water … to Saudi, we now have a culture of export in our company. This means that enquiries that we get for export are now given far more attention than previously and this has resulted in four export orders over the last 12 months. We currently have a £ 50k water pipe order being despatched to Iraq”. Duncan Frazer, FT Pipeline Systems Ltd.
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