See the President’s New Year message for more details or go directly to the membership subscription page here.

In 2010 and 2011, the MAABN joined forces with the British Consulate to organise two conferences on the development of international education in the Aix-Marseille area.

The conferences, which took place in the presence of Jean-Paul de Gaudemar, Rector of the Academie d’Aix-Marseille, Kathy Riley, the then-US Consul General, and British Consul Simon Taylor, were well-attended by representatives of all the leading schools (both public and private), universities and businesses and development agencies (Provence Promotion) with stakes in the organisation of successful bilingual education programmes.

Lively debate took place involving audiences of English-speaking expatriate families and organisations, resident English-speakers, French families and both French and foreign-owned companies working with the English-speaking world.

A lot of interest was raised by the conferences. Indeed, further to the first conference on the subject of primary and secondary international schooling, Jean-Paul de Gaudemar asked the MAABN to conduct a survey of its members to obtain a clearer picture of the concerns businesses and families have regarding international education.

The survey was conducted online throughout 2011 and attracted 129 responses, of which 98% were from families residing in the Aix-Marseille area. It revealed that:

♦ 75% of the 220 children concerned are aged between 6 and 18, with 40% of these between the ages of 11 and 15;

♦ 34.5% live in Marseille, 63.5% in the Aix area;

♦ 59% of families and 80% of businesses say they feel they lack information on the bilingual education facilities available;

♦ Although 90% of families are interested in their children receiving a bilingual education, 60% say their children aren’t currently getting one;

♦ 75% say they do not know the difference between the different types of high school qualifications available (European, IB and “international option” Baccalaureates) and 65% do not know the difference between a “European section” and an “international section” in French lycées;

♦ 51% of families consider transport difficulties to the schools in question to be a major concern;

♦ 68% are concerned about the quality of the teaching staff;

♦ 59% cite cost as a major issue (this would apply particularly to the primary/elementary sector where there is no public school currently offering a bilingual section);

♦ 50% of businesses claim to have encountered problems recruiting staff because of a lack of bilingual teaching facilities available for their families.

Both conferences highlighted the need for bilingual teaching programmes to satisfy the needs of the local business community, whether through training a bilingual workforce (with young people attending university-level classes taught in English and ready to enter the job market with written and spoken English on their CVs), or through better availability of international sections in schools, thus making the region more attractive to highly-qualified personnel and their families.

It was made clear in both conferences that great strides have been made, and continue to be made, in the provision of international programmes at university and grande école level, as well as at secondary school level, in particular at the lycées in Luynes and Manosque and the collèges in Aix and Les Pennes Mirabeau. Private schools such as the IBS and EPIM continue to provide quality bilingual education to a growing number of children at primary and secondary levels.

However, it should be pointed out that none of the public schools in the area provide bilingual classes at primary level. Furthermore, the City of Marseille still does not provide any English-speaking secondary-level bilingual education whatsoever. The MAABN feels that this is a key issue that makes Marseille less attractive to overseas investors and one that should be addressed by opening an international section in both a collège and a lycée, along the lines of those in place in Aix, Luynes and Les Pennes Mirabeau. Failing this, providing better transportation to the establishments hosting the existing sections in Les Pennes Mirabeau and Luynes would be the minimum  for bilingual education to be made accessible to those families living in Marseille.

A full list of our small business members can be found here

Where
La Boate
35 rue de la Paix
13001 Marseille

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Your Local HSBC Point of Contact

Olivier GARCIN: HSBC international business developer for the Marseille-Provence region (15 branches: 8 in Marseille, 3 in Toulon, 1 in Salon, 1 in Montpellier and 2 in Aix).

Olivier will deliver a short presentation on making the most of HSBC from a personal or professional banking perspective. He invites you to send your questions in advance by mail to Olivier.garcin@hsbc.fr or by phone to 06.08.50.78.02.

His areas of  expertise include:

• Developing synergies between the personal banking and professional banking worlds
• Working with organisations to offer employee banking benefits programs
• Delivering timely products and services to  individuals or businesses relocating to the region

HSBC in France:

HSBC offers universal banking services in France:

- through its global businesses:

• Retail banking and wealth management, personal financial services and wealth management, insurance, asset management, private banking, commercial banking;

• Global Banking and Markets.

- through the expertise of its 10,850 employees;

- through its 393 branch locations;

- to more than 800,000 private and 116,000 corporate clients.

 The HSBC Group

 Who we are

The HSBC Group is one of the largest banking and financial services organisations in the world, with well-established businesses in Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, the Americas, the Middle East and Africa.

International reach: around 10,000 offices in 83 countries and territories.

Staff : 330,000 employees worldwide.

Customers : around 128 million worldwide, with a total of 46 million customers registered for internet banking.

Where
La Boate
35 rue de la Paix
13001 Marseille

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The International Bilingual School of Provence (IBS), an independent secondary school, has been welcoming students from around the world since 1984.  With over 460 day and boarding students of more than 40 different nationalities, IBS offers a bilingual curriculum in a diversified learning environment.

Students follow a rigorous academic programme which is completely bilingual for the younger students (6ème/5ème/4ème), with the option of following either the French national curriculum (Brevet, Baccalauréat) or the International Curriculum (IGCSEs, International Baccalaureate Diploma) thereafter. Beyond being one of only nine IB-accredited World Schools in France, IBS is also an international exam centre offering, among others, the SATs, PSATs, APs, TOEIC and ESOL exams.

During the holidays, academic camps are offered with language immersion and academic revision for over 400 internal and external students. For more information, please visit our website at www.ibsofprovence.com or come and join us for our “Open House” on Saturday, April 14th from 9am-12 pm.

Where
Chateau Pontet-Bagatelle (see introduction below)
Route de Pélissanne
13410 LAMBESC

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Time
18h30 -21h00
Price
€5 MAABN members
€15  Non-members

A word about Chateau Pontet-Bagatelle…

3rd January, 2012

Dear Sponsors, Members, Partners and Participants,

The MAABN team and Board send you all their best wishes for a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year 2012! And a big thank you for having made 2011 really successful.

A Message From the President

The year 2011 ended with a well attended and well appreciated Christmas party in the presence of the US and UK consuls at the Marseille Pullman Beach Hotel and for which we would like to extend our thanks to its Director, Eric Lelouch. Similarly, our summer party at Chateau Ricard, with the help of Nicolas Geoffroy and his team at Provence Riviera DMC, was a huge success. Thank you Ricard International and Provence Riviera DMC!

Our Sponsors’ Lunch with the consuls at the Reserve (Pullman Palm Beach) also marked a highlight and will be repeated this year.

Our Language Apéros were an ongoing feature and we will continue to allow members to present their businesses and projects in English throughout 2012.

We were very pleased to welcome a number of new small business members in 2011 and we thank them for their support.

Finally, we completely re-vamped our website; take a look! (maabn.fr)

William Peterson, MAABN President

Sponsors & Partners

The MAABN succeeds thanks to the energy and participation of our sponsors. We are delighted to be able to thank our loyal sponsors and partners and to welcome many new ones. We continually try to innovate and improve our offering to sponsors so that they can continue to benefit from the close relationship with the MAABN’s board and members and from our mutual support of each other’s events, providing a connection with the wider English-speaking community.

Each month of 2012 will see our regular Language Apéros ‘hosted’ by a named sponsor, a great way for a sponsor to present a regular event -and an interesting theme for each LA.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our corporate sponsors and partners for their support:

CG 13, Ricard International, La Boâte, FBCCI, Marseille Pullman Palm Beach, Chocolats Puyricard, AmCham, Angloinfo, UCCCAB, Marseille Provence Greeters, EPWN, Dolce Frégate, KPMG, Wall Street Institute-Aix en Provence and Marseilles, The Dale Carnegie Institute, Tanyer Management Ltd., Euromed Management, CERAN,   Currencies Direct, Deloitte, IAE, IBS, Neville Peterson LLP, Provence Promotion, Ringlé, Roy & Associés and Provence Rivera DMC.

In addition, we are very pleased to welcome several new names:

Barclays’ Bank         HSBC        Home Hunts        Real Land Group

Our small business membership saw real growth through 2011, with a really diverse range of businesses joining. Feel free to take a look on our new website for more information and click through to their websites.

Members

Thank you to all of you for your enthusiastic participation throughout 2011; we look forward to welcoming you back in 2012. If you have regularly attended our events without having become a member, 2012 should be the year you consider formally joining the MAABN. We continue to steadily increase individual memberships every year. Your membership allows us to offer increased benefits to all. Thank you again to renewing members and thank you in advance to new members.

Membership benefits include:

•    Savings on your Language Apéro entrance fees (€5 instead of €15 per event)

•    Savings on all special events at member rates

•    Member-only offers from partners and sponsors

•    Exclusive access to our online member community – ability to post about your business

•    Three ways to promote you or your business: presentation at an LA; follow-up summary on our NEW e-newsletter; online via our member webspace

•    You will be the first to hear about special events and have priority to sign up

You save €70 on the price of attending all Language Apéro events in Marseille ALONE!!!

Events for 2012

Our events are aimed at professionals including -amongst others- company directors and independent consultants. The MAABN’s events provide YOU with an excellent opportunity to build and enlarge your network and to meet and exchange with local business and community leaders with an international dimension, while conversing in English. You are also welcome to invite others to join you at events as non-members. Through the MAABN’s participation in the UCCCAB (Union des Chambres de Commerce & Clubs d’Affaires Bilateraux), not only do we offer you connections with the British Consulate, American Consulate, American Chamber of Commerce and Franco-British Chamber of Commerce, but also with members of the UCCCAB (we will add a page to our website to announce their events), whose founding members come from many different countries including Belgium, Germany, USA, UK, Armenia, Morocco, Greece, Italy and Turkey.

Language Apéros in Marseille & Aix (see calendar for dates)

The format of our Language Apéro is designed to make EVERYONE feel welcome. We encourage you to bring friends and contacts to enjoy an evening of business networking in English. Each LA is “hosted” by one of our main sponsors, giving you the opportunity to find out more about them and their activities. The evening continues with plenty of time for networking and the opportunity for several members to make short 5-minute presentations on their business activities.

The opening Language Apéro on 26/01 in Marseille will include New Year Wishes from British Consul Simon Taylor and American Consul Philip Richards and a presentation from MAABN sponsor Euromed Management.

Summer (22/6 tbc) & Christmas Parties (8/12 tbc)

These events are hot property, combining as they do great venues with great food and wine, music and entertainment for a moment of relaxation and enjoyment in the company of our dynamic English-speaking association’s members. The summer party will be held in the gardens of Chateau Ricard and the Christmas party at the exclusive Pullman Palm Beach Hotel on the Corniche in Marseille. Thanks to our sponsors we always have fantastic lottery prizes at these events.

“Artisans 13”: 13, 14 & 15 April 2012 – Hôtel du Département

The MAABN and the British Consulate have agreed to be partners of the Conseil Général des Bouches-du-Rhône for this high-profile and well attended arts and crafts event. This year, the guest foreign country of Artisans 13 is the UK, with a particular focus on Scotland, with the MAABN handling all arrangements for the UK delegation. Some of the best Scottish designers and chefs will showcase their know-how in front of an expected 30,000 visitors. For further details and the comprehensive list of participants, please check the MAABN website and future newsletters.

Please note that we will be holding a special Language Apéro on Friday the 13th April at 17:00 featuring whisky making and tasting.

New for 2012

We plan to organize a conference on the potential demand for a direct air link to Heathrow this year and to hold events on the subject of British and American tourism in the region, including the impact of Marseille-Provence 2013. The tentative date for the first event is 15th May at La Boâte.

Having launched our new look website in 2011, we are making changes to the way we communicate with you. In order to reduce the number of e-mails sent out regarding events –plus the reminders-, we are switching to a twice-monthly e-newsletter that will include all the latest information. The newsletter will also provide additional sponsorship opportunities.

The MAABN Team:

Active Honorary Co-Presidents:

• Philip Richards; American Consul, Marseille
• Simon Taylor; British Consul, Marseille

Managing Director, Member Relations

• Anya Penney (American)

Board of Directors and Executive Committee:

• William Peterson, President (Franco-American): Attorney, founding member of the MAABN; partner at Ringlé, Roy & Associés, lecturer at the Institute of Business Law in Aix-en-Provence, co-chair of the Marseille Bar’s international commission.
• Richard Bower, Vice-President (British): Founding member of the MAABN; project manager tourist development at the CCIMP.
• Daniel Eisenberg, Vice-President (Franco-American): Management consultant/business owner, former European managing director of an American group.
• Rebecca Penna (British): Founding member of the MAABN; director of Refervescence and former commercial attaché at the British Consulate.
• Pascal Agostini (French): Founding member of the MAABN; former director in different French groups; MAABN treasurer.
• Pierre Distinguin (French): Founding member of the MAABN; in-charge of international development at Provence Promotion.
• Francois Coulomb (French): In-charge of quality management and support to the communication department and project managers at Provence Promotion.
• Eric Lelouch (French): Managing director of the Pullman Beach Hotel, formally VP Sales & Marketing, Europe of an American hotel group.
• Rebecca White (British): Business owner.
• Pascale Gauthier-Keogh (French): Press & public affairs officer at the British Consulate in Marseille.

And the rest of the team:

Daniel East; Graphic Designer http://www.theassociates.fr/

Robert Hale; Photographer http://www.rhalefoto.com/

Pamela King; Cultural events

Martin Pachy; E-newsletter

Thierry Ramirez; Webmaster http://www.thierryramirez.fr

Bernard Royo; Photographer http://brprod.darqroom.fr/

On behalf of the MAABN team, we look forward to seeing you at future events.

William Peterson, President

26/01    Language Apéro, Marseille
23/02    Language Apéro, Marseille
29/03    Language Apéro, Marseille
10/04    Language Apéro, Aix (date and place to be confirmed)
13/04    Language Apéro: Whisky making and tasting (Artisans 13)
26/04    Language Apéro, Marseille
10/05    Language Apéro, Aix
15/05    Conference/debate (date to be confirmed): British and American tourism; Impact of MP 2013; Demand for a direct Marseille-Heathrow air link
31/05    Language Apéro, Marseille
22/06    Summer Party (Château Ricard)

11/09    Language Apéro, Aix
27/09    Language Apéro, Marseille
09/10    Language Apéro, Aix
25/10    Language Apéro, Marseille
29/11    Language Apéro, Marseille
08/12    Christmas Party (Pullman Palm Beach)

The food and wine were absolutely superb. We would like to say a warm thank you to Garry Stephen for donating the wine from his Château Pontet Bagatelle winery and to Eric Lelouch – Director of the Pullman Palm Beach Hotel- and his staff for a perfect evening.

The atmosphere was festive with entertainment from DJ Laurent Versini who had everyone on the dance floor! A number of lucky attendees walked away with great lottery prizes generously donated by our sponsors.

Thank you to all the MAABN team members who helped organise such a successful event again this year!

Photos by our special reporter Robert Hale.

Euromed Management, founded in 1872, is one of the oldest and most respected schools of management in France and one of only 57 schools worldwide with a ‘Triple Crown’ accreditation (AACSB,AMBA and EQUIS). An internationally-recognized institution with an Executive MBA program ranked 61 in the 2011 Financial Times Top 100 -the highest-ranking French school outside of Paris- Euromed Management is based in Marseilles, with other campuses in Toulon (France), Suzhou (China) and Marrakech (Morocco). It also has exchange agreements with over 150 universities worldwide. Euromed Management offers Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programs taught in English and/or French, specialist diploma-track adult education programs and tailored further education and training programs. The Euromed Management Executive MBA program, taught in English and available in both Marseilles and Shanghai, exemplifies the school’s mission to “train, educate and inspire responsible leaders and entrepreneurs”.

Where
La Boate 35 rue de la Paix 13001 Marseille

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Dale Carnegie® Training will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2012. Today DC is a “Global reach, local touch” organization with 288 offices in over 86 countries, all locally operated.
Jean-Hubert Robin (Franchise owner) and Sylvie Cler (senior consultant) will present you Dale Carnegie® Training and the best from the new website: free guide, white papers, weekly tips, Smartphone apps…In addition a “Business card competition” will give you the chance to win Dale Carnegie Prizes!

Where
La Boate 35 rue de la Paix 13001 Marseille – 18h30 until 21h

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