gif of a character wearing a bowler hat and monocle bowling a cricket ball marked 'trade tariffs' to a batsman

Unicorns, Speed Dating and Bazball

Posted on: 29 June, 23

June was quite the month, what with London Tech Week, VivaTech in Paris and new free trade agreements coming into force. Apparently, there’s been some cricket happening too. Oury and Clark are here as always to bring you up to speed with everything.

oury intrigued

Hey Clark, what’s with the face paint?

clark excitement

Didn’t you watch the Ashes first test? So close, so exciting, England lost – but it doesn’t matter apparently. This is Bazball! It’s about entertainment.

oury confusion

What’s a Bazball? Sounds painful. Anyway, I thought that you liked Test Cricket precisely because it was boring and predictable. And that you hated losing to Australians more than anything else?

clark normal

That was the old me. I love the Australians now, and the Kiwis come to that. I mean Baz is a Kiwi after all.

oury surprised

Wow, that’s quite some change of heart. What’s happened? This can’t all be about cricket.

clark normal

It’s the free trade agreements – it’s a new world of opportunities. Or at least opportunities in the “New World”. Trade tariffs are largely disappearing, or at least being phased out between the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

oury uncertain
clark normal

Oh, for sure, and it’s not just the tariffs, there are loads of positives around things like travel, visas, access to government contracts, alignment of professional qualifications and standards.

oury intrigued

That’s a lot to take in. Do you have a handy guide I could read that summarises it?

clark laugh

I thought you’d never ask. I’ve not just got one, I’ve got two. One for Australia <link> and one for New Zealand<link> – there are a few subtle differences, but they are broadly the same. We had lots of fun talking about them (well talking about the possibilities they bring) with lots of Aussie and Kiwi companies across London Tech week with the Department for Business & Trade and Tribe Global Ventures. Surprised you weren’t around. What have you been up to?

oury normal
clark wink

Speed dating? I heard a whisper, It’s the office gossip this week! Is love in the air?

oury blush

Oh, behave Clark. Business Without Bullshit went speed dating on a train with Grow London, London and Partners and a whole bunch of fascinating business founders and investors between London and Vivatech Paris.

clark normal

Ooh, Paris, La Ville-Lumière, La Ville d’Amour. The city of a thousand stories, tell me more.

oury normal

I could tell you, but you know what would be better than that – and far more efficient in terms of space in this update?

clark excitement
oury positive

Oh, Clark, that one’s just a load of balls compared to ours – check out all about our trip to Paris

Disclaimer

We are but two fictitious characters throwing out ideas and comment to stimulate debate and collect information. As professional service firms, we are open-minded people and think independent thought and debate are essential to help us understand as well as navigate complex problems. By joves – doing business across Europe (and the world) is set to become a whole lot more complex in light of recent seismic political events. As businesses – we provide information and hopefully some wisdom – and we see this blog and its caricatures merely as a much more fun, perhaps slightly controversial, way of stimulating debate and collecting ideas. We’re searching for some true pearls of wisdom, and as we find them, we’ll share them with you.

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