From Mike Leigh to chimney linings, the King’s Speech to plastic traffic barriers and young British actresses to networked TV and internet solutions.
It was just another two weeks in the life of UKTI Germany and the range of work we do to support growth in the UK.
Bautec, a construction trade fair taking place at the exhibition halls in Berlin, followed on from Berlinale, one of the world’s larger film festivals which drew celebrities to Germany’s capital. Over the two events, there were the best part of 200 businesses in town from the UK looking for the sort of export opportunities that can bring growth to our domestic economy.
On the first anniversary of the launch of the Trade and Investment White Paper, the recent events have been a timely reminder of the innovation and talent that exist in the UK.
Two strands of the Paper are ‘providing a more supportive environment for SMEs that are ready to export’ and’ strengthening the link between UKTI and the FCO in commercial diplomacy’. Both of these were dealt with within Berlin’s city limits, in completely different ways.
At Bautec, one of the team walked round with Big Wipes, a UK supplier of industrial cleaning wipes. The literally hands-on approach saw us go stand to stand with the company, translating, promoting, introducing and generally helping. You might be thinking we have other hedgehogs to brush, as the Germans would say, that it is just one company at one trade fair. But it is our contribution to export – it’s about helping a company who have successfully penetrated the domestic market, do the same thing overseas. An opportunity to add to the €40bn or so worth of goods and services that are exported each year from the UK to Europe’s largest economy.
So that’s the support for an SME, how about the commercial diplomacy.
Well how about bringing a couple of hundred business people to the embassy, the chairman of the Berlinale jury, as well as British and German producers and directors, to launch the GREAT campaign and celebrate British film.
The film industry is worth more than $32 billion every year and enjoys a 14% share of the worldwide film market and boasts a worldwide network of 100 production studios and 5000 production companies, using our embassy to promote it is exactly what the Foreign Office means by commercial diplomacy.
It was a GREAT event and a GREAT opportunity to show the very best of British.
As well lauding our achievements with films such as the Iron Lady, the King’s Speech and I, Anna, it was also an event for UK sales agents promoting everything from documentaries to mark the first anniversary of Will and Kate’s wedding to a comedy horror about Werewolves to a film starring former Bros star Luke Goss.
Support for UK companies really does come in all shapes and sizes.
2 comments
Comment by Helen Morris posted on
Support in the form of funding from the National lottery to the BFI has been great for the British economy and British film. Some great films that come to mind are obviously The King's Speech, This is England, The Loop and the recent Iron Lady which saw Meryl Streep win an Oscar. Without this crucial support and funding it wouldn't be possible to create these fantastic British films.
Comment by Helen Morris posted on
Support in the form of funding from the National lottery to the BFI has been great for the British economy and British film. Some great films that come to mind are obviously The King's Speech, This is England, The Loop and the recent Iron Lady which saw Meryl Streep win an Oscar. Without this crucial support and funding it wouldn't be possible to create these fantastic British films.