A visit to Ukraine. Last week a Herculean delegation, headed by founder Yves Vekemans, joined the Economic Mission to Kiev, Ukraine organized by Flanders Investment and Trade (FIT).
The reason for joining the Economic Mission was to investigate the Ukrainian market in terms of maturity and readiness for concepts like the Hercules Trophy corporate challenge and employee wellbeing and happiness. Our goal was to meet and connect with top sport marketing agencies, leading sport event organizations, large and established business associations to learn more about their insights on the Ukrainian market.
The business mission was a success, because of numerous encounters with inspiring local and international business people. Herculean would therefore like to express its gratitude to the people and organisations who made this possible:
- Organizers FIT and its counterparts AWEX and Invest-Export Brussels, the institutions that handled the huge logistics behind the Economic Mission. Not only did the export agencies share their knowledge on the Ukrainian market, but they also made several introductions and scheduled effective B2B-meeting program with potential partners.
- The Belgian Embassy and the European Business Association (EBA) for organizing the Belgian-Ukrainian Business Forum dedicated to strengthening the business connections between Ukraine and Belgium. Our team had the opportunity to meet the EBA representative to present the Herculean business and to discuss potential collaborations. Both parties agreed that there are many synergies.
- Ambassador of Belgium to Ukraine, Luc Jacobs, and Dr. Mykola Movchan, Deputy Minister of European Integration at the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine for their time and effort of meeting our Founder in person. Ambassador Luc Jacobs introduced Herculean Coop and the experience in the field of wellbeing personally to Dr. Mykola Movchan. Both parties discussed the Ukrainian-Belgian cooperation in the field of physical culture and sport and the international/European integration. Dr. Movchan passion lies in achieving a healthy community in Ukraine, which is demonstrated by many initiatives being implementing by his Ministry.
- The American Chamber of Commerce (ACC) with whom our had the pleasure to meet several times. The ACC presented their numerous events for their members and were very interested in a concept as the Hercules Trophy. A potential collaboration is rising.
- Besides the more official networking events, Herculean organized our own networking event, the Herculean Meet & Greet in Kiev. This event was well attended by representatives of the American Chamber of Commerce, Carlsberg, Nestlé and many local corporations. This networking event served as a way to connect with local business leaders.
After participating in Economic Mission, the general conclusion of Herculean is that Ukraine is an emerging European market with huge potential. Seen the general trend towards a healthy lifestyle, corporate wellbeing is gaining importance and employee retention programs are being established. This trend offers new possibilities for Herculean.
A warm thank to all the people met during this intensive program. Everyone who shared their insights on the market and who wants to collaborate on bringing Herculean to Ukraine. To be continued!
