When you focus your effort on bringing people together and in the process spread good energy, you have a winning concept. With our motto “All Inclusive Not Exclusive” we are not only bringing Swedes and Swedish companies to join our chamber but we are also bringing in anyone who can benefit from our organization.

It all starts with how we operate. Our organization is run with creativity and we continuously reach out to our audience. In a short time we have created trust within our community for our fun and productive networking events. The operational team, led by Hicham Larhnimi and his awesome group of young people, takes action and creates high quality work.

The Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce in Fort Lauderdale West Palm Beach is the youngest of all the SACC-USA chambers. It started with an initiative from Peter Hult (we call him our Jedi master), Len Quist, Johanna Karlsson and our past treasurer Jan Norelid. This team of four spent hours putting the concept together. Our first board meeting was held in the spring of 2013.

Since that day we have organized many successful events. Some of the most fun and unique were the Brännboll (a version of Swedish soft ball), which attracted participants from age 2 to 70, and the IKEA Pick and Mix Candy inauguration. This event really tested us Swedes, not only in eating a lot of candy but also knowing what we are eating.

To grow and create an even bigger network we started cooperating with the German, French and Canadian chambers of commerce. Through our combined networks we now reach approximately 15,000 people, and on August 26, 2015 we had our first multi-national event with a ribbon cutting at the new workspace community Axis Space (www.axisspace.com) in downtown Fort Lauderdale. The joint event was an initiative to increase the trade opportunities among the countries, adding value to our members and to have fun. We did.

Kerstin Holm
Secretary of the Board of Directors
SACC Fort Lauderdale West Palm Beach