Dear AMCHAM members, partners and friends,
Last week was a very busy week for us here in AMCHAM. We worked hard nailing down the last-minute details for our annual Thanksgiving Gala dinner at the Doubletree Hilton next Friday, 24 November. Although, as already announced, we are fully sold out and have a waiting list of attendees (but please write to Daniel@amcham.lu to be on the waiting list in the event of last minute cancellations), we have continued to work on the seating arrangements and on the tombola prizes, both arranging additional prizes and working on the Member Benefits Club Holiday catalogue which each guest will receive in their “Goody Bag” at the end of the evening. We have additionally decided to give each Thanksgiving attendee a free MBC card as our gift to them and to ensure that each guest is instantly ready to take advantage of the discounts offered by our MBC retail partners. We hope our attendees will all like these gifts and take the opportunity to become acquainted with the retail organizations providing the gifts! Of course, in addition to great food and drinks, we are excited to be hosting United States Ambassador Thomas Barrett, Minister Yuriko Backes, Professor Jean Ehret, the Director of the Luxembourg School of Religion & Society, our other distinguished guests and most especially all of you, our friends and partners, who will be joining us with your friends and partners. Marco Boesen assures me he and his team will be in top form to give you all the music you will want to dance your feet off (except when you are taking advantage to make use of our fun photo stand and their costumes)!
This past Friday evening, I was honored to be a guest of Polish Ambassador Piotr Wojtczak and his wife to attend a music concert they were hosting to celebrate Polish independence. The musical interlude was fantastic, as were the post-event refreshments and the networking with such a high quality group of invitees. My Thanks to the Polish Ambassador and his wife for including me among their guests! Please enjoy the included photos of this event.
Saturday morning, as you all will remember, was cold and wet. Despite the weather, I dressed warmly and drove to the Luxembourg American Cemetery in Hamm to participate in the Veterans Day ceremony honoring those who have given their lives so we today can live in prosperity and freedom. The Deputy Chief of Mission of the US Embassy, Michael Konstantino, gave an excellent speech which we are including below. Also visiting from out of town was, Bud Pettigrew, who holds the position as Commissioner in the 100-year-old US Government organization running all of the US military cemeteries around the world, The American Battle Monuments Commission. Wing Commander Crafton from Spangdahlem Air Force Base across the border in Germany, his wife, two children and his visiting brother and parents from the United States also honored the day with their presence and support.
Our weekly interview this week is with Gül Sönmez, who has developed quite a reputation and following for helping people to optimize their performance, reduce their levels of stress and gain the skills to help themselves to be successful and happy in their work and their lives. Several weeks ago, Ms. Sönmez put on a program for our Resourcing, Training and Development committee, hosted kindly by Amazon, to talk about managing stress and optimizing performance which was very well received by the attendees. We were so impressed by her empathy, understanding and outstanding advice that we wanted to introduce her more broadly and give her a bit of a platform to share her message with you all. Please read and enjoy the information she shares below and pay attention to her wise advice! You will be glad you did!
Please also read about the post event report about the conference organized by our Diversity committee on 20 September and kindly hosted by Baker & McKenzie. The topic was very interesting and focused on AI: hopes and fears for an inclusive workplace, which you can find as usual in the column AMCHAM EVENTS Highlights from AmCham Past Events
Among the special treats we offer in our Newsletter every week are food preparation recipes very generously shared with us from the Kachen cookbook and lifestyle website authored by Bibi Wintersdorf. This lady really knows her stuff and I have to admit that even I, who has no cooking ability at all, have taken the time to follow some of the recipes, and very much enjoyed the results. Thank you very much Bibi for kindly sharing these recipes with our Newsletter readers. I gently suggest to you our readers, a Kachen cookbook will make a great Christmas present… and it will be quite useful for guidance and advice to have these cookbooks in your kitchen to help you gain skill and satisfy your guests! You can find these cookbooks at newsstands and, of course, at the Ernster bookstores.
In addition to our annual Thanksgiving, our last two events of this year will be our 6 December Christmas lunch at Le Royal with Claude Marx, the Director General of the CSSF, as our guest speaker and guest of honor (contact Daniel@amcham.lu ), and our Christmas Gala Dinner Dance on Saturday 16 December. We hope to close our year at this party with all of our friends and family enjoying great food, drinks, networking and the entertainment with Marco Boesen and his team providing us all with great music for entertainment and dancing (sign up here). In addition to online signups, please feel free to talk with Daniel@amcham.lu if you want to make special arrangements to come as a group of colleagues and friends. We hope to see you all at this last event of this year!
Dear members, partners and friends, thank you for letting us serve you. Thank you for being part of our AMCHAM family!
With respect and our very best wishes,
Paul Schonenberg
Chairman and CEO
AMCHAM.lu
