Rugby and business event

We are pleased to invite you to a Rugby & Business event in Armentières (near Lille, North of France), organised by the Hauts-de-France Region, within its partnership with ‘France 2023’, official organisers of next year’s Rugby World Cup, and with the support of the British Embassy in Paris and multiple other partners.

Because we believe that strengthening business relations also happens on the pitch, join us on Saturday 22^nd October and take part in a UK business delegation visit to Northern France. It will combine Franco-British business networking and experts’ insight into cross-Channel trade challenges (tax representation, customs issues, dealing with controls, market access etc.), in addition to attending a great Franco-British Rugby event.

For companies travelling with organisers’ buses from Watford: travel, accommodation and food are all paid for. But the event is also open to all other companies in the UK. Business representatives will have to pay for their return trip to Armentières, but once there, accommodation and food costs will be covered.

Timing	Place	Action
Friday, 21st October
In the afternoon	Watford-Lille	Bus trip to Lille for the delegation
19:00	Hauts-de-France Regional Council	Informal networking cocktail with UK companies, and Representatives of the Hauts-de-France Regional Council and Regional businesses
Saturday, 22nd October
8:30-9:00AM	Conference centre	Welcome coffee
9:00-9:20AM	Conference centre	Keynote speech "Cross-Channel trade in times of energy crisis", by Xavier Bourat, Hauts-de-France Regional Director, Total Energies
9:30-10:30AM	Conference centre	Session 1: dealing with the new cross-Channel trade barriers Tax representation: Michael Boulanger (CEO of RM Boulanger and Anne Sanson (Marketing Manager Customs obligations: Michelle Pisano (Unsworth, Sales assistant to Sales Director) and speakers from Bansard International/Seiko Port Boulogne-Calais: the local infrastructure (Anthony Pétillon, Strategy & Development, SEPD) and processes around customs (Jean-Baptiste Kimmel, Head of Economic action unit, Deputy regional director for customs in Dunkirk) and Sanitary and Phystosanitary controls (Julien Desatis, SPS control unit in Calais) UK Department for International Trade - Market access solutions Q&A
10:30-10:45AM	Conference centre	Coffee break
10:45-12:00AM	Conference centre	Session 2 – Cross-Channel trade opportunities Franco-British Chamber of Commerce (Catherine Le Yaouanc, General Manager) and British Chamber of Commerce and Industry Lille (Nik Haidar, Board Member) UK Department for International Trade Getlink/Eurotunnel: John Keefe (Director of Public Affairs) Nord France Invest (Artus Galiay, Director UK/Ireland) and CCI International Hauts-de-France Opportunity: 1-minute pitches from a variety of French and British companies Q&A
12:00 - 13:30	Conference centre	Networking lunch for all companies
13:30 - 16:30	Rugby Stadium	Delegates are invited to go the Armentières stadium across the road to attend the Watford vs Armentières rugby game
16:30 - 21:00	Rugby Stadium	Social event for those who wish to stay longer (for others, bus departs at 5pm to return to Watford in the evening)