THE WORSHIPFUL COMPANY OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGISTS
NEWS
Lord Mayor’s Overseas
Visits
T
he Lord Mayor is the UK Ambassador for the City of
London and the UK Financial Services and related
industries. During his/her year in office the Lord Mayor
leads a series of international visits of delegations of senior
business representatives to meet those at the highest levels of
government and industry in overseas countries. In any one
year, the Lord Mayor will visit between 20 and 30 countries
throughout the World. Two, three or four countries can make up
a single trip.
Overseas visits by the Lord Mayor offer a unique opportunity for
relevant accompanying business delegations to gain high-level
access to influencers and key international decision-makers in
government and business in the countries visited. They also
offer the prospect of participating in business forums or
seminars organised to enhance the key messages of the visit.
The Lord Mayor’s overseas programme planning is done by
Mansion House with input from the Economic Development
Office (EDO) at Guildhall, with further input from:
countries suggested/requested by the Foreign Office, UKTI
and British Ambassadors overseas
countries highlighted by members of TheCityUK
places where there are specific issues which need to be
addressed affecting business in the City of London.
The broad aims of these visits include:
To promote the UK financial, professional, maritime and
associated business services industries and the
international expertise of the City of London;
To support bilateral commercial and political relations;
To demonstrate the importance of the City of London as a
leading global financial centre, a provider of liquidity and a
model of best practice; and
To promote London as a centre of excellence for business,
education, training and professional qualifications.
For 2015/16 the Lord Mayor's theme and strapline is "Innovate
here, Succeed anywhere" to express the focus that he wants
to encourage innovation in his year as well as promoting the
successes not only in the City but in the regions of the UK. To
identify the relevant visit programme manager in the Lord
Mayor’s Office and the exact dates of visits, which are planned
well in advance, (and places to attend events and seminars are
limited), go to http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk and follow the
links to “About the City”, “The Lord Mayor” and overseas visits
programme.
In my own limited personal experience (I have been on one
Lord Mayor overseas visit), the Lord Mayor and the Guildhall
staff work out the programme but are always keen to have
suggestions which fit in with the overall visit objectives. In the
end, decisions are taken by the Lord Mayor and his staff. See
http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/about-the-city/who-we-are/keymembers/the-lord-mayor-of-the-city-of-london/Pages/overseasbusiness-visits.aspx for further information.
Liverymen or partners or senior executives of organisations can
request to participate in the Lord Mayor’s visit programme to
any country. Such people must pay their own way and be
supportive of, and relevant to, the issues being addressed by
the Lord Mayor in that country. For a request to be granted, it is
essential that these latter two conditions are met. Visits are
planned months in advance, so an early application is essential. The remaining programme for the current Mayoral year (2016)
Please note that using the visit as an opportunity to sell your
is as follows:
services to the Lord Mayor is highly frowned upon!!
25-27 May
Turkey
The WCIT is a member of the Financial Services Group of
Greece
Livery Companies (FSG), which is responsible for raising issues 4-7 June
Contributed by
relevant to each FSG member Livery company with particular
Court Assistant
25 June-1 July
USA, Costa Rica, Panama
overseas countries. A leaflet is produced annually by the FSG
Alistair Fulton,
Chairman of the
highlighting these issues to the Lord Mayor. The Industry
9-19 July
Japan, Korea, Taiwan
WCIT Industry
Committee produces the WCIT input to the FSG leaflet. See the
Committee
5-17 September China, Hong Kong
current leaflet at http://www.liveryfsg.org.uk/res/
Booklet_2015_16.pdf.
Page 5