As I wrote about last week – Anglotopia was invited to join the British American Business Council of Chicago and we couldn’t be more delighted about that. Wednesday night was our first after work drinks event or ‘drinky-do’ as Jim Hacker from Yes, Minister would say.
After browsing the BABC Chicago website and seeing the caliber of people that are in the organization, I was extremely nervous to be attending. Generally, I’m shy and nervous anyway when it comes to these sorts of things. Thankfully, I had my lovely wife Jackie with me to prod me along.
I work in downtown Chicago so it was only a short cab ride away from the office to the building where the event was being held. We got there early and were some of the first to arrive. The event was on the 44th floor of a high rise – which in itself was an experience as I’ve only ever been up that high once! The views were amazing. We were so high up you could see the curvature of the earth!
We connected with Chris Brenkus, who runs the BABC in Chicago and she was kind enough to introduce us to key people – which was very lovely. It saved us from being the weird wallflowers in the corner! We met some great people – the kind of people that will help us with our goals for Anglotopia. Everyone was very interested in hearing all about Anglotopia.
It was also rather amusing – many of the people we met were Brits living in Chicago and when we said we run a website for people that love Britain – they couldn’t really understand how I could love Britain so much! Typical British self-deprecation indeed!
One person I was very shocked/excited to meet was Toni Hargis – also known as Expat Mum and author of the brilliant book Rules, Britannia: An Insider’s Guide to Life in the United Kingdom
I met a very interesting Brit who’s trying to start a business selling British style bacon and sausages in the USA – which there is a huge market for. He even brought us some samples and we can’t wait to have a good ‘ol British style breakfast fry-up this weekend. So, we will report on that! And I’ve invited him to write a guest post for Anglotopia telling us all about his business and how you can get your hands on authentic British Bangers.
We met some lovely people from the British Consulate in Chicago and I’m very much looking forward to connecting with them in the future. We also had a good chat with a fellow named Robert Gibbs – a principal at the new media marketing firm 101 Worldwide – we had a very interesting chat about how important web analytics are and the challenges facingdigital agencies when dealing with clients.
By the end of the event, we were knackered and quietly make our exit and headed back home to Indiana. Overall, it went excellently and I cannot wait for the next event. So very excited to be a part of BABC in Chicago.
Next month we’ll get inducted formally into the organization at the Consul’s residence – which I’m sure will be an amazing experience.
Author Info - Jonathan is a consummate Anglophile with an obsession for Britain that borders on psychosis. He keeps Anglotopia running in his spare time, always dreaming of his next trip to England, wishing he lived there - specifically Dorset - and is always trying to figure out a way to move to England. It will happen one day. Keep up with him on Twitter here. Read more from this author
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Anglotopia was founded by Jonathan and Jackie Thomas for people who love Britain - whether it's British TV, Culture, History or Travel - we cover it all. Anglotopia was started to get us back to the UK for a trip and it did that in 2009. Now, the goal is for Anglotopia to make our dream of living in the UK a reality.