LUNCHEON - 16TH JULY 2014

Speaker:  Geoffrey Widmer, Hon. Colombian Consul for the Republic of Colombia - Melbourne

Topic:  'Who and what is Colombia - "Perception is not Reality". Where to now post the 2014 Presidential election in June 15 2014?'

Chairperson:  Elaine Saunders

Geoffrey R Widmer is the Principal in the Palliser Group. He is a graduate from Monash University (Economics} and Queen's University, Canada (MBA}. He is also a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, Member of the Governance Institute of Australia and the Society of Petroleum Engineers.

Geoff is a director and company secretary. He has extensive board and executive commercial experience in energy, infrastructure and technology industries. Besides being the Hon. Consul for Colombia, he operates a bouquet consulting firm Palliser Group which specialises in energy, secretariat and financial management services. He is currently involved in the Australian Colombia Business Group and previously as the Victorian Vice-President of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce.

He speaks Spanish and is a frequent visitor to both Colombia and Spain.

 Synopsis Of The Lunch:

The Honorary Consul of Colombia Geoffrey R Widmer described Colombia as a mystery to Australians as they have no real information on its size and scale, its location, culture, biodiversity and its political and economic attributes of this modern economy in Latin America. Further there are about 12-15,000 Colombian post graduate students in Australia.

The presentation focussed on the theme that “Perception is not Reality” and that the headlines views of an image of drugs and guerrilla insurgency are not relevant in to-days modern Colombia. The presentation noted the strategic geographical position of Colombia and its ready access to markets in Europe and the Americas.