Since 2007, the cross-municipal cooperation the City Circle has partnered with the Chinese city of Wuxi. C3 Consulting's training and advice has facilitated the cooperation with the Chinese partner.

The City Circle – a cooperation between the municipalities Frederikssund, Egedal and Ballerup – has cooperated with the major Chinese city of Wuxi since 2007.

C3 Consulting is a permanent partner of the City Circle regarding advice and sparring on the cooperation with Wuxi, and we have conducted several Chinese cultural awareness workshops for The City Circle’s employees. The participants include administrative staff, business development staff, and teachers and lecturers from various educational institutions.

The workshops have enabled the participants to better understand the Chinese partner and have provided them with tools to strengthen the collaboration and communication with Chinese authorities and educational institutions.

C3’s support helps obtain the desired results

CEO at the Municipality of Ballerup Anders Agger says about the cooperation with C3 Consulting:

“The City Circle has used C3 Consulting in several contexts to strengthen and prepare employees as well as politicians to handle duties and act in situations in relation to the cooperation with our Chinese partner, Wuxi.

The City Circle’s cooperation is wide-ranging and involves different disciplines and municipal employee groups (including teachers, managers, consultants, administrative staff). C3 Consulting has professionally managed to adapt and target support and advice to our specific needs and set-up. Consequently, the various employee groups have expressed great satisfaction with the support and advice C3 Consulting has provided, which they have found very useful and relevant.

The City Circle has with the support of C3 Consulting gained a valuable insight into the world and culture that our Chinese partner is acting in. Furthermore, we have been given specific tools and solutions to handle situations that may arise when you are collaborating and working with a partner so ‘different’ from you.

Due to their approach and thoroughness, C3 Consulting manages to provide advice tailored exactly to the City Circle’s requirements. More specifically, we now apply the knowledge and tools from C3 when we communicate with the Chinese, organize larger training workshops for Chinese teachers, manage student and teacher exchange, negotiate at the highest level, start up activities, and plan visits.

We believe that C3 Consulting’s advice and support has clearly helped to enhance the communication and collaboration with our Chinese partner, and in this way also helped us obtain the desired results of the cooperation.

We would particularly recommend C3 Consulting to other public institutions, municipalities or regions that have not previously worked with or have any other experience in collaborating with China – it will definitely be an advantage to you.”

Ballerup, 25 November 2013

On behalf of The City Circle

Anders Agger,
CEO at the Municipality of Ballerup

Participants well-prepared for conference in China

As part of the cooperation with China, the City Circle organized a large Danish-Chinese conference in Wuxi in 2010. Before the conference, C3 Consulting prepared the Danish participants for collaborating with their Chinese colleagues.

Birgitte Jørgensen, coordinator of the City Circle’s Education Network and Vice Rector of Borupgaard Upper Secondary School:

“In connection to the City Circle’s cooperation with China, there has been established an Education Network, consisting of five upper secondary schools and one higher education institution, and a School Network, consisting of primary and lower secondary schools in the City Circle.

In 2010, the Education Network and representatives from The City Circle’s School Network held a conference on teaching and learning in our Chinese partner city. The conference was titled Learning EXPO 2010, Creative Teaching – Teaching Creative. The purpose of the conference was mutual knowledge sharing and having a closer dialogue with the Chinese teachers on everyday teaching – and not least on how to develop the pupils’ creative skills.

As part of the preparation for the conference, we used C3 Consulting to prepare the conference participants. The Danish participants consisted of 33 teachers and leaders from the Education Network and the School Network. A number of participants had already been to China on exchange or delegation visits. Others were going to China for the first time. It was in every way a large and complex task, involving public authorities as well as school leaders and lecturers in both Denmark and China.

C3 Consulting's highly targeted course was of great value – both for participants who had previously been to China and for participants going to China for the first time to meet their Chinese counterparts. The participants expressed great satisfaction with the course, which gave us a valuable insight into Chinese culture and work culture, but also provided us with very useful tools and suggestions on how to navigate this very different world.

The conference, where approx. 400 Chinese leaders and teachers participated, was a success, and C3 Consulting’s advice has been useful both in connection to the conference and in the subsequent collaboration with our partners in China – and we believe that it has contributed in strengthening our communication with the Chinese and our cooperation in general.

I can therefore without hesitation recommend C3 Consulting to anyone in need of advice on similar projects.”

On behalf of The City Circle’s Education Network,

Ballerup, 24 November 2013

Birgitte Jørgensen,
Coordinator of the City Circle’s Education Network and Vice Rector of Borupgaard Upper Secondary School