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A Word From the President

Gudrun Giddings

Hej Alla,

Next week, on Wednesday August 24th, its time for our yearly “Back to Business”, this year together with the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce. The B2B mixer is hosted by the newly renovated and beautiful Avalon Hotel Beverly Hills who will treat us to drinks and hors d’oeuvres together with Bank of the West. If you get your tickets today Friday, you’ll receive a nice discount. You can also get your tickets up until Wednesday next week and even at the door, for the regular price, unless we are at capacity of course. This is a great opportunity to extend your network and meet new business colleagues from not only one but two great Chambers and enjoy the kick-off to a fantastic fall season.  

We warmly welcome our new wonderful SACC-LA member GANT, established in America 1949 and now headquartered in the capital of Sweden, Stockholm. GANT has many stores around the world and two right here in Los Angeles, one on La Brea Avenue and another on Abbot Kinney Blvd., in Venice. GANT first became famous for their classic shirts and next Wednesday at “Back to Business” you have the chance to win a classic GANT “shirt of choice” !!  You can read more about GANT under today’s Membership Spotlight where you’ll also find the addresses to both of their LA stores. 

“What you seek is seeking you”  - Rumi 
 
 
 

     Happy Friday!
      Gudrun Giddings
      President of SACC-LA



 

 
 



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Welcome Back 2 Business Next Wednesday August 24th!

Photo Credit: SACC-LA
Welcome to this year's "Back 2 Business" mixer hosted by the Avalon Hotel Beverly Hills and in partnership with the Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce LA and the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce. The evening will be held at the beautiful Avalon Hotel in Beverly Hills with welcome drinks and hors d'oevres courtesy of Avalon Hotel. Come and meet the evening's sponsor Bank of the West, who will personally be on hand to answer any of your questions. A fun contest will also be held with a great prize from SACC-LA member and Swedish owned fashion brand GANT. The evening will give you an excellent opportunity to mingle with old and new colleagues and friends in a chic Beverly Hills setting. 

Wednesday, August 24th

5:30 pm - 7:30 pm

Avalon Hotel Beverly Hills
9400 W. Olympic Blvd.
Beverly Hills, CA 90212

5:30 - 7:30 pm.

Members $20 / Guests $30

(+$5 discount until 19th)

Get your tickets below!

MEMBER ATTENDANCE
NON-MEMBER ATTENDANCE

Interview with Gunilla Girardo - President and CEO of Mentor Foundation and recipient of 2016 Brava Award

Photo Credit: Gunilla Girardo

Congratulations to receiving the 2016 Brava Award! What an achievement! How did you feel when you heard you were going to receive this award?
I was very humbled and also very proud. Swedes don’t usually toot their own horn… So my first reaction was: “I hope this will benefit my work with Mentor Foundation USA so that we can have a bigger impact.”

Working for such an important cause as The Mentor Foundation must be hard, yet rewarding being able to help so many youths. Please tell our readers about how your experience working with Mentor Foundation?
Yes, indeed, it is extremely rewarding. I wake up every morning feeling grateful, eager and impatient for the opportunity that I have to help young people realize their potential while staying drug free. Youth are our most important natural resources. I think it is everyone’s business and responsibility to invest in youth. A company that’s not investing in its community is truly not investing in its own company. I invite more SACC members to engage with Mentor Foundation USA to have a positive impact on youth. You will be in good company with our corporate partners: SEB, Baker Hostetler, Yorktel, Booze Allan Hamilton, Comcast, A&E Networks, H&M, Skanska, Qlik Technologies, Accenture, Goldman Sachs, McKinsey & Co to name a few. And yes, it is hard work but when you are having fun and know that your work has an impact on youth it does not feel like hard work. To grow and expand Mentor Foundation USA is the best assignment that I have ever had. It brings together all the experience that I have in building organizations and helping companies and organizations to succeed.

What is your goal as President and CEO for Mentor Foundation USA? And how will you achieve that goal?
My goal is to make our programs accessible to youth across the U.S. and to engage more business leaders to invest in the future of our nation’s youth. We are a small but mighty team. If you can imagine it, you can create it. For Mentor Foundation USA there are four pillars to our successful business strategy in reaching more youth across the U.S:
1. We fill a need: There is a need for effective prevention programs.
2. We offer a solution:  We offer innovative, evidence based prevention programs to battle the drug epidemic and help youth realize their potential.
3. We secure grants and sponsorships. Aligning innovation with the right partners and opportunities is key to our continued national expansion.
4. We receive recognition: We are being recognized as a key partner in prevention by the National Institute on Drug Abuse as well as the White House Office for Drug Control Policy.

You used to be President of the Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce –USA for 10 years, what was the most important thing you learned or got to experience during your years at SACC-USA?
The network means everything and you have to offer a return on investment for your constituents. This is, of course, true for any environment that you work in. Companies join SACC because they want to gain access to the network and grow their business. In my ten years at the helm of SACC-USA I grew the organization to be the second largest European chamber of commerce in the U.S. with the help of a lot of volunteer capital and good corporate partners along with a big dose of innovative entrepreneurship. The programs that I am most proud of for building with SACC-USA is its Trainee Program, which brings recent Swedish graduates to the U.S. for internships, and the other one is the Swedish-American Entrepreneurial Days which brought together hundreds of companies for business matchmaking twice a year, creating new business relations between Sweden and the U.S.

Both SACC-USA and Mentor Foundation are non-profit organizations. What do you consider being the biggest difference between working in a profit organization and a non-profit organization?
For me, I think the biggest difference is that in a non-profit you have to be even more innovative than a for-profit, as we are often required to deliver twice as much for half the resources compared to the private sector.


Thank you Gunilla for this interview and the insight in your and Mentor's work!

Photo Credit: Mentor Foundation

About The Mentor Foundation

H.M. Queen Silvia of Sweden established Mentor International in 1994 in collaboration with The World Health Organization. Since then, the organization has grown to provide support to youth in over 80 countries reaching more than 6 million children. Mentor is now represented in the USA, Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, the UK, Colombia and has regional offices in Lebanon serving 22 Arab countries.

Mentor International, together with Mentor Foundation USA and the other Mentor organizations around the world, is the leading international not-for-profit network empowering youth and preventing substance abuse. 

Read more about The Mentor Foundation at:
Mentor International: http://mentorinternational.org
Mentor Foundation USA: http://mentorfoundationusa.org

Welcome to our Finance and Accounting manager,
Emma Björnson

You can contact Emma Björnson on fi.saccla@gmail.com
or at office phone
+1 424 270 3042

With a great passion for business and international relations, Emma has now arrived in LA as our new Finance and Accounting Manager. She has previously lived in Zurich, studied in Japan and is now seeking to further gain experience in a new international environment. Emma has also studied marketing at Bergh’s School of Communication and holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration with a major in Finance. Since graduation Emma has been working within corporate banking for about a year and has now found her way to SACC-LA’s Finance Internship. She is looking forward to take the overall responsibility for the chamber’s day to day finances and get to know the members. In the future Emma wants to help grow sustainable businesses through business development and brand management efforts, and SACC LA’s business will be a great opportunity to learn about these topics hands on. In her spare time, you might find her at the tennis court or at a hiking trail around the LA area.

Stockholm CA
The first ever all-Swedish festival outside of Sweden!

Photo Credits: Stockholm CA
Photo Credits: Stockholm CA
 
History will be made this fall when the first ever all-Swedish music festival is arranged outside of Sweden. Stockholm, CA inaugurates at the Shrine Expo Hall & Grounds in Downtown Los Angeles on Saturday, October 15th and features an impressive lineup exclusively consisting of Swedish artists:

Little Dragon, Icona Pop, Veronica Maggio, Otto Knows, Rebecca & Fiona, Elliphant, Mapei, AronChupa, Salvatore Ganacci & Nause

"We are always made to feel so welcome when we are in LA, super excited to come over and play for you and be part of Stockholm, CA. It’s the one and only show we are going to play in 2016! Vi ses snart!!! See you there!!!“ - Little Dragon on playing Stockholm, CA

In addition to music, other cultural areas will also be represented at the festival as well as Swedish food & beverages.

Stockholm, CA is promoted by Goldenvoice, creators of Coachella, Stagecoach, FYF, Desert Trip and more, and 7th & Hill Productions - a joint venture between Janne Kleman who booked the biggest festival in Sweden, Hultsfredsfestivalen, for 16 years and Bad Taste Events who is one of the biggest independent promoters in Sweden with 21 years in the live music business.

Acts like Little Dragon and Icona Pop have a massive following in the States, a number of the other acts are starting to get a huge buzz on the US market and for the first time ever we are bringing Veronica Maggio, who is one of the biggest artists in Sweden, to LA. Her lyrics may be in Swedish, but regardless of your knowledge of the Swedish language this is something you definitely don’t want to miss!

”LA may be the home of rock n' roll and glamorous. But I'm bringing the Snaps and Swedish sin. It could get messy. I'm really looking forward to playing with my fellow Swedish artists. Hope to see you there!” - Veronica Maggio

Tickets are available now at:
http://www.axs.com/events/312963/stockholm-ca-tickets

Grab an Early Bird ticket at a great price and secure your entry to the most exciting and unique festival experience of 2016!

SACC-LA member Film Festival Flix calling all Adventure Filmmakers to win $18,000 in cash prizes and awards

Photo Credit: Film Festival Flix
Celebrating world class athletes, explorers, filmmakers, adventures and awe-inspiring locations from the remote corners of the planet! Learn more about the festival.

2017 film submissions are FREE and are now being accepted online. Enter to win cash prizes, awards, and distribution opportunities with Film Festival Flix

Helsinki International Film Festival 2016: Love & Anarchy

View last year's video from Helsinki International Film Festival
SACC-LA sponsor The Finnish Film Affair is an initiative from the Helsinki International Film Festival – Love & Anarchy, offering an industry sidebar to the festival. The event is a showcase of Finnish films as well as a networking platform for attending industry professionals. The country’s main film industry event takes place yearly in a welcoming and laid-back but highly efficient and professional setting. This year's Helsinki International Film Festival and the Finish Film Affair will be held on September 15-25. Enjoy the short clip above from last year's festival.
 
For more information about the Helsinki International Film Festival, visit their 
webpage
 
Photo credit: Julia Widlund

Introducing GANT,  the original American lifestyle brand since 1949.

Featuring premium clothing, accessories and home furnishings for men, women and kids, GANT enjoys an active presence in over 70 markets, 750 stores and 4,000 selected retailers from around the world.

Still revered for their iconic button-down shirt, GANT continues to expand its design horizons without ever compromising on its attention to quality, character and detail.

Globally headquartered in the sophisticated Nordic capital of Stockholm, Sweden, GANT stays true to its American roots with a total of ten retail stores and two outlets across the U.S. The Los Angeles area is home to two of these stores – one on La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles, and the other on Abbot Kinney Blvd in Venice. While both stores carry all three collections for men (GANT, GANT Diamond G and GANT Rugger), the La Brea Avenue location also features a selection of GANT Rugger styles for women.

Photo credit: Julia Widlund, GANT Venice Store

To browse the latest GANT arrivals for the season, visit:



GANT La Brea

101. S La Brea Ave #104a

Los Angeles, CA 90036






GANT Venice

1308 Abbot Kinney Blvd

Venice, CA 90291

 

The House of GANT consists of three separate collections: GANT, GANT Diamond G and GANT Rugger.
To understand a bit more about each collection, we’ve narrowed it down for you:

GANT

Casual, functional and inherently American, GANT pays homage to its sportswear heritage since 1949 with classic and colorful essentials that suit a variety of active and leisure lifestyles.
http://www.gant.com/mens-gant/

GANT Diamond G

Featuring versatile tailoring and off-duty looks, GANT Diamond G focuses on modern, travel-friendly pieces with subtle sophistication and clean lines that easily transition from desk to dinner.
http://www.gant.com/gant-diamond-g/

GANT Rugger

Designed for those who prefer to make a statement with their effortlessly cool and confident approach to dressing, GANT Rugger reinvents today’s classic American sportswear pieces with an inherently “dressy yet messy” vibe.
http://www.gant.com/mens-gant-rugger/ 

Photo Credit: Julia Widlund, Venice Store
Photo credit: GANT, La Brea Store

If you want to read more about GANT, go to their website:
https://stores.gant.com

Photo Credit: Wonho Frank Lee

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ABOUT US

MEMBERSHIP

SACC-LA is a non-profit organization that enables innovative and creative exchange in order to create business opportunities and enhance trade between Swedish and American companies. The Los Angeles chamber is one of 20 regional chambers in the United States and was established in 1988. With 25 years of experience SACC-LA is skilled in navigating this hotbed for entertainment, creativity and innovation.
Copyright © 2016 SACC-LA, All rights reserved.

CONTACT US

(+1) 310 622 3616
(+1) 310 622 3617
Email 
info@sacc-la.org

Our mailing address is:
The Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce of Los Angeles (SACC-LA)
The Lot
1041 N Formosa Avenue
Formosa Building, Room 215
West Hollywood, CA 90046