Dear AmCham Members, Partners and Friends,
You will notice that this week I am using a different photo than normal to accompany my Chairman’s remarks. Over the last several years I have been very honored and pleased to have developed a professional and personal friendship with the Japanese Ambassador and his wife. In addition to their generous and very kind treatment of me personally, I have appreciated the full range of their respectful interactions with everyone here in Luxembourg. They are thoughtful and very hard working defending and promoting the interests of their country. They are truly an exceptional couple! This photo was taken at their recent hosting of the annual lunchtime reception honoring the birthday of the Japanese Emperor during which Mayor Lydie Polfer and Ambassador Pierre Ferring were given special medals in appreciation and recognition of their exceptional service promoting relations between Luxembourg and Japan. More than 200 distinguished guests participated in this ceremonial reception.
All work and no play is not a winning formula for living! As much as we all love to work hard, sometimes we need to take a pause to clear our minds, charge our batteries and rebuild our passion for the facing the days to come! The AmCham community did this with pleasure this past Friday evening at our third annual (and fully sold out!) Winter Carnival Dance Party in the ballroom at the Double Tree Hilton this past Friday evening. We started by taking over the Hilton’s ground floor restaurant for our cocktail reception and then went downstairs to the ballroom for food, dancing and a full evening of fun. To create a fun party atmosphere, we invited our guests to wear tuxedos, costumes with masks, or to dress all in black.
We decorated the hallway leading to the ballroom with a terrific collection of paintings from the artist Oxana Berezhna provided by Oksana Polyanska from gallery “Art-Management“, followed by the fun photo booth we hire every time to allow our guests to make photos of themselves with their friends and ran this to great success all evening long.
The Hilton served a great collection of fun good tasting food and desserts in two buffet lines on opposite sides of the room with a separate bar for drinks outside located with the fun photo booth. Marco Boesen and his two colleagues set up their fabulous sound system and put out really great mood and dance music all night long which our guests thoroughly enjoyed on the oversized dance floor centered in the middle of the room.
This event had no speeches but was rich in conversation, laughter, dancing and wonderful networking!
To add a touch of fashion and charm, we were delighted to be joined by eleven models who gave a fashion show of custom designed party gowns personally made by Luxembourg-based couturier, Morena Couture. As you can see in the photos, these ladies really put on an interesting show!
As a special surprise, Daniel McKenzie, wearing a sombrero and fun bow tie with his tuxedo, presented a prize voucher from the Hilton hotel to the couple wearing the very best costume outfit as Marie-Antoinette and Casanova!
All in all, this was a great event and evening for our AmCham family and friends! Very special thanks to LetterOne for their very generous sponsorship which allowed us to put on such a special event at such a reasonable price!
This was the third year we have presented this Winter Carnival and each year has been a bit better than the year before. We are thrilled that we have gotten to the point where we are fully sold out and with a waiting list. Our thanks to everyone of our AmCham family who joined us. We look forward to seeing all of you again next year! Enjoy the photos!!!
With respect and our very best regards,
Paul Schonenberg
Chairman and CEO
AmCham.lu
