Spanish Chamber of Commerce in the United Kingdom

Author: admspanish

  • The Graduate European Programme – Induction Week

    This year’s intake from the Chambers’ GEP (Graduate European Programme) enjoyed their first day of professional London life, as they attended their induction seminar at the Spanish Chamber of Commerce premises on Wigmore Street. These young, aspiring, and sharply dressed recent-graduates were keen to take in the practical information that their six month stay in Britain’s capital city would entail, and also enjoyed hearing the personal advice provided by a participant of the programme from last year, who has since been offered a full-time role in the company that she was interning with.

    Cristina Carmona, the Programme Coordinator, on the left and Rosa del Campo on the right.

    During their induction experience, the Chambers’ Deputy Secretary General, Ms. Rosa del Campo, and our Events Officer and Coordinator of the GEP, Ms. Cristina Carmona Aliaga, provided practical advice to the participating graduates on the upcoming interviews which they will be facing throughout this week. These interviews will determine which companies and sectors our participants will be placed in, and is an important part of the process of cultivating a positive professional attitude in this ever increasingly competitive world.

    After a short break, Rosa introduced Mr. Antoni Riera of the International Credit Management company Advantium, which has previously been involved within the programme, as well as to Ms. Marta Sala, who was a participant in the GEP last year and who proceeded to be offered a permanent position at Advantium, member of the Chamber, after her six month placement with the company was complete.

    Rosa del Campo, Deputy Secretary General of the Chamber, and Antoni Riera from Advantium.

    Mr. Riera spoke of the importance of “connecting the dots” of a broad range of professional experiences and of networking, in his advice to the young attendees. Marta went on to talk about her personal experience of the programme, and poignantly said that throughout the next six months; “you can be a rock, or you can be a sponge”, in reference to the variety of opportunities available in learning new and constructive things.

    We will be closely following the progress of this year’s participants, and we wish them all the best in making the most of this unique experience.

  • Save the date: The London Spanish Film Festival (28 September – 10 October)

    Spanish Cinema has gained lots of fans over the years all around the world. There are many great talented young and consolidate directors creating masterpieces. It is definitely not all about Almodovar, although his work has drawn the line of the Contemporary Spanish Cinema.

    Soon we will have the chance to watch a selection of  recent Spanish films in London thanks to the Spanish Film Festival that will take place from Friday 28th September until Wednesday 10th October. Most of the films that will be shown are UK premières and will only be released within this occasion.

    From engaging thrillers to exhilarating comedies, from moving dramas and action movies to documentaries and shorts, this selection will demonstrate the compelling variety of Spanish cinema in all its richness. Also, as in previous editions, some of the films will be presented by their directors and actors, such as Manuela Vellés, Emma Suárez, Paco León or Luis Tosar, amongst others.

    This is a initiative to promote the Spanish culture that Tristana Media , member of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Great Britain, has been organising since 2005 when its main developer, Joana Granero, created it.

    Not only this is a unique opportunity to approach  Spanish Cinema without leaving the city, but also to get it straight from its creators!

    For further information about the festival please visit: www.londonspanishfilmfestival.com

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-S-cFM6AM0&feature=player_embedded]

  • A ‘Two Weeks’ experience In London

    Last Wednesday we were happy to hold a Seminar here at the Chamber within a very interesting programme organised by the Polytechnic University of Valencia named ‘The Two Weeks’. We received 20 students in their final year willing to increase their career opportunities as well as to face their professional future with the appropriate skills.

    ‘The Two Weeks Programme’ takes place once per year during the month of July and it is mainly focused on visiting prestigious companies  to get in touch with industries on Energy, IT, Industrial Production, Technical Consultancy, Financial Engineering, Construction and Real State. The participants take also a daily course in Recruitment and Application skills.

    The Seminar was introduced by our Deputy Secretary General, Ms. Rosa del Campo, who spoke briefly about the main services the Chamber provides and more in particular about The Graduate European Programme, which shares similar goals with ‘The Two Weeks Programme’. Mr. Antonio Reig ,  Prof. Dr. Industrial Engineer from the Polytechnic University of Valencia and Co-ordinator of the programme, introduced two former participants, Sergio Soriano and Manuel Peña, both of them quite happy about their experiences during and after the programme.

    Sergio Soriano Gómez decided to come to London after finishing his studies in the Polytechnic University of Valencia. He explained his own job hunting experience in a city where there are a lot of opportunities but also high levels of competitiveness.  “In the beginning everything looked harder than expected. Things apparently simple, such as finding accommodation, turned out to be really difficult and somehow frustating. At the same time, these moments were also exciting, as they allowed me to live new ‘adventures’ and to get used to the new city.”


    Sergio has been working in different companies since he arrived to London some months ago, and he keeps taking part in selection processes for big firms such as KPMG. “It is quite complicated to get a job in a company like that, but that is what I want to do, so it’s definitely worth trying”, he pointed out.

    Manuel Peña focused his speech in the internacional professional experience as an added value for everyone’s career. He is currently working in a London-based company but before getting to this point he has lived and worked in different countries. “When someone goes to work abroad, he not only gets professional experience, but also personal, as it makes possible to meet and learn many things from people from varied and different cultures”, he said.

    And last but not least was Ms. SofíaVázquez, director of Mundialengua UK, a company specialised in finding internships and jobs for graduates. She gave us some tips on how to do an interview in the UK, as well as useful information about what to do and what to avoid during a selection process.

    We would like to thank all the people who participated in the Seminar, especially to Berta and Ana, two of the students taking part on the programme who are also writing this blog based on their experience during the two weeks. Don’t miss the opportunity to read it! http://thetwoweekslogbook.wordpress.com/

  • The Transformation of an Olympic City: Barcelona ’92

    The Olympic Games are just around the corner. The eyes of the entire world will be on London and the venues across the cities. Varied and noticeable changes are transforming a capital that needs to be prepared to receive thousands of tourists during the following weeks.

    This same situation happened to Barcelona some years ago… 20 to be precise. The Catalan capital experimented a big transformation according to a complete plan of re-urbanisation and re-equipment. It is difficult to imagine the city today without the Barcelona that emerged then. The Olympic Games allowed the city to be the cosmopolitan and international capital we know nowadays.

    The Roca London Gallery has just launched a photo exhibition on this transformation of Barcelona ’92 that will be on until Tuesday 28th July. Its opening took place last Wednesday and the Spanish Chamber was there to keep you informed on the last events of the Spanish community in London.

    Roca Gallery itself is pretty impressive and offers a great setting for exhibitions and diverse events. Part of the Catalan community in London was present, as well as many Londoners interested in knowing better how the Olympics can make an impact to a city as such the one in Barcelona 92.

    The evening started with a cocktail with some wine and cava from Catalonia. After some chatting, the attendees had the chance to listen to Josep Manuel Suàrez, Deputy for the Generalitat de Cataluña in London, who traced back to the origin of the whole development plan and talked further on the improvements that the city experimented before, during and after the Olympics. He also explained the “Barcelona brand” concept conceived, created and devoted to develop the potential of the city not only during the games but also to remain afterwards.

    If you are interested in visiting the exhibition, please see further information on the Roca London Gallery website, www.rocalondongallery.com.

  • Birra vs Cerveza: A taste from the Mediterranean

    The Italian and the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in the UK joined forces yesterday to hold a great summer party in London at the Grand Connaught Rooms Hotel.

    Now that the UEFA Euro 2012 is over, Spaniards and Italians came and “supported” a different kind of event that is quite popular in both countries: a summer party.

    The weather -of course- was not that summery but that would not stop our guests to come and join us on a delightful evening where they had the chance to do some networking in a relaxed atmosphere along with a cool beer.

    Estrella Galicia  and Moretti, sponsors of the event, kindly provided our guests with the ‘golden drink’. They were all able to try well-known beer from the 0ther country and expressed different and qualified opinions on the difference in matters of texture, flavour, etc.

    The party was very lively:  everybody was chatting and laughing and it seemed nobody wanted to leave, which means it was quite succesful! And… since it could not have turned out any other way, it ended in a very “Mediterranean way”: later than expected!

    Thanks to all the attendees and especially to the Italian Chamber team for such a fantastic evening!

    We would like to take the opportunity to wish you all a very nice summer! We’ll be working during July and August, but our events will be back in September. As always, we’ll keep you updated 🙂

  • ‘Strategies to improve your website’

    Since the birth of the internet, nearly everything has gone digital. We have e-mail which pretty much eliminates the need for traditional mail. There are smart phones and iPads that might serve as computers. We have e-books that no longer require someone to go to a bookstore and buy a physical copy of a book… and so on. In this digital era, companies that don’t show up on the internet can find it a bit hard to survive in this competitive market.

    Now we have taken a step forward and just managing a simple website for our business is not enough. It has to attract as many users as possible, be easily accesible for everyone, and get listed and ranked as high as possible in Google. In our last Seminar, ‘Strategies to improve your website’, organised by the Chamber in collaboration with MTP, Miguel Ramos, director of MTP in the UK, gave the attendees useful guidelines on how to improve the quality of our websites: “Functionality, performance, security and accessibility are four key points of any strategy we want to implement”, he started.

    A webpage needs a user-centric design, which means that we have to think from the user’s point of view. Having a really cool web design will be pointless if the user cannot find what he is looking for and most probably he will end up giving up and going to some other website.

    In addition, the security factor is much more important than we could firstly think. “88% of the organisations spend more money on coffee budget (about $30 per employee and month) than on web security applications”, Miguel pointed out. This is something quite dangerous, as the possibilities of being hacked might increase considerably.

    In order to avoid hacking and to improve the quality of our website it is possible to do different tests (performance, accesitility, security, etc) and find out what really needs to be done.

    For further information, please visit http://www.mtpinternational.co.uk/

  • 125th Annual General Meeting and Dinner

    Yesterday we celebrated the 125th AGM of the Chamber. The traditional event was presided by H.E. the Ambassador of Spain, Mr. Federico Trillo. Our pleasure to have Ms. Tamara Rojo, new Creative Director of the English National Ballet, as the Guest of Honour.

    Thanks to all the attendees for sharing such a fantastic night with us!

    PS: More pictures coming soon…

  • Launching of Padel Club in London

    Did you know that Padel is the fastest growing sport in the world? Whilst proving to be one of the most popular sports in Spain and also in Argentina it is trying to earn its place among British sports.

    On Tuesday 12th June we held the launching of the Padel Club London in Canary Wharf, which is supported by one of our members: Padel England Association

    The event took place on the Club’s courts and the attendees got to see them up close  Mr. Tom Murray, manager from the Padel England Association, was there to show the attendees the facilities the new club offers to its members and padel players,  and also to explain the range of activities they had already developed and some others that they are currently arranging.

    After a brief tour around the 4 indoor courts and the rest of the club’s  infrastructure, the attendees had the chance to taste some Spanish wine and “Serrano” ham. Some of them even decided to try and played padel for a while!

    Padel is similar to tennis, though they have some differences. As some of you may not know how to play it, you can find the basics below:

    – Always played in doubles

    – Objective is to get the ball to the other side of the net and prevent the opponent from hitting the ball back.

    – Service: Stand behind the service line, drop the ball, let it bounce back up, hit the ball underarm, cross-court. Ball is not allowed to hit the fence on the serve (but it is allowed to hit the glass walls).

    – Ball is only allowed to hit the ground once on one side.

    – When attempting to hit the ball across, players are allowed to use the glass walls on their own playing field (either waiting for the ball to rebound off the glass walls and hit it forward, or hitting the ball across the net by using the glass walls).

    – Once the ball has crossed the net , it must bounce on the playing surface before hitting either the fence or the glass walls (unless opponent decides to volley or smash the ball back).

    – Point system as in tennis.

    Now that you know the rules, you just have to give this social sport a try that will shortly become the next trend in London!

  • Come and join us to enjoy the UEFA Euro 2012 game of the day: SPAIN vs IRELAND!

    Do not miss the opportunity to support your team while networking with fellow attendees from the Anglo-Spanish Society and our institution!

    The event will be hosted at the NH Harrington Hall, member of the Spanish Chamber.

    *For further information about time and location, please click here:

    https://spanish.en-desarrollo.net/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=163

  • MAPFRE, NEW PATRON OF THE CHAMBER

    We would like to welcome MAPFRE as a new Patron of the Spanish Chamber.

    MAPFRE is the leading insurance company in Spain and has a presence in more than 40 countries. MAPFRE, which ranks as the sixth largest European Non-Life insurance company, has over 35,000 employees and more than 23 million customers worldwide. The company is listed on the Madrid and Barcelona stock exchanges, and forms part of the IBEX 35.

    Their market is focused mainly in Spain, Europe and Latin America. Furthermore, the Group has presence in USA and Turkey, among other countries. MAPFRE product range covers all fields of the insurance business.

    They work on specific competitive solution to meet each of their client needs, as well as those related to their properties and assets. In Spain, the company’s activities also involve Investment Funds, Pension Funds and Pension Plans management, and other business services.

    For additional information, please visit the website http://www.mapfre.com/

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