Beci 3.0, The Brussels Business Community
Voice, connect, serve: Beci verenigt, empowert en begeleidt Brusselse ondernemingen die zich op deze drie vlakken willen engageren. Toetreding betekent contact leggen met 350.000 mensen en je bedrijf ontwikkelen door middel van uitwisseling, content en advies van een echte gemeenschap van experts en professionals. Samen versterken we onze impact op de handel en industrie van vandaag.
Nieuwe horizon

Beci huldigt de “Brussels Business Community” in: een nieuwe aanpak en een andere benadering van – en ondersteuning aan – haar leden in een ultra-verbonden.
“Verbinden, delen en co-creëren” . Beci vernieuwt zijn missie rond deze drie doelstellingen om zijn relatie met de leden te veranderen en zich vastberaden op de toekomst te richten. Dat komt omdat het Gewest, het land en de wereld wellicht nog nooit zo snel zijn veranderd als in de afgelopen jaren. In het licht van de enorme uitdagingen waar bedrijven voor staan, beschouwt CEO Olivier Willocx samenwerking, partnerschap en het delen van expertise als vitaal.
But haven't connecting, sharing and co-creating always been at the heart of the Chamber's activities? ‘Perhaps what we want most of all is a change of heart that is even more in tune with the expectations of our members, the community spirit and the opportunities offered by technology,’ explains Olivier Willocx. ‘Even if digitalisation encourages exchanges, co-creation is above all a question of state of mind’, agrees Annick Hernot, President of BECI. ‘Partnerships are an essential element in the development of any organisation today. You can't evolve without them, or you risk becoming irrelevant,’ she adds. For her predecessor and still director Marc Decorte, ‘The business environment has changed fundamentally: the future is increasingly difficult to predict, the shifts are abrupt, disruptive and follow one another in rapid succession - the need to be connected between entrepreneurs has never been greater’.
Deuren wijd open
The Chamber is therefore calling on all its members to work with them to co-create the solutions they offer the community, using digital tools. To begin with, all members are invited to share their information content via the BECI digital platform, which also has a number of printed, web, radio and multimedia channels to give it resonance.
At the same time, all contributors can take advantage of the excellent search engine ranking it enjoys. ‘With our support, a young company can boost its visibility much more than it could on its own,’ says Olivier Willocx, referring to some of the content on the beci.be site that has attracted up to 60,000 views.


More than just a medium, the platform aims to play a role in bringing people together and developing business. It will, for example, open up its data to any interested member in order to provide precise information on the subjects of greatest concern to entrepreneurs and guide them in positioning their goods and services. The Chamber has a wealth of internal data on Brussels businesses and their managers. It will gradually integrate this data into the platform, enabling members who request it to segment, create personas and target their approaches.
BECI will also be making its offices at 500 Avenue Louise available to its members for the organisation of events and meetings. In keeping with its new role as a ‘Community House’, its three floors - including a café area on the ground floor - were given a complete facelift during the health crisis.
Platform
De nieuwe aanpak berust deels op het concept dat elk lid een drijvende kracht van de Brussels Business Community kan worden. “En co-creatie werkt als de partners willen samenwerken en over complementaire vaardigheden beschikken” , zegt Annick Hernot. Door zijn overstap naar een digitaal platform , hoopt Beci het trefpunt te worden waar elk van de 3.000 leden een beroep kan doen op de deskundigheid van anderen.
Subsidies and financing, taxation and accounting, commercial and property law, mobility, import-export, HR and social law... These and many other areas will be covered by the platform, which will in particular expand the legal content - advice, model correspondence and contracts, etc. - that its members can already find on legal.beci.be.
But here again, the Chamber is aiming for greater depth. The idea is to give external service contracts to those of its members whom it will turn into referents. BECI would be responsible for relaying specific requests from other members that it could not meet itself, and would then settle the bill. ‘It is not the role of a chamber to compete with a law firm or other experts,’ explains Olivier Willocx. ‘But we do have to ensure that all our members can find an answer to their problems at any time. As a result, our in-house staff profiles will gradually evolve towards less in-house expertise, and more in leadership, communication and the ability to liaise and pass on knowledge between members faced with a problem and the experts who have the solutions’. In this respect, Annick Hernot points to the unique wealth of connections that BECI has developed within the ecosystem over decades.
Marc Decorte insists: ‘The soft skills of the future consist in orchestrating multiple parties, interpreting information, translating it into opportunities and focusing on the “future” and “solutions”. It's hard to find all this in one person, hence the importance of ‘entrepreneurial communities’, which are at the heart of Beci's purpose.

All inclusive
Conform deze nieuwe aanpak stapt de Kamer van een lidmaatschap à la carte over naar een all-inclusive lidmaatschap. “ Hiermee willen wij dat de leden, ongeacht hun omvang, een beroep kunnen doen op ons volledige dienstenpakket” , zegt Olivier Willocx.
Beci handhaaft de andere historische pijler van haar activiteiten: ze blijft haar leden vertegenwoordigen in de organen waar politieke en bestuurlijke besluiten worden genomen. (zie ook pagina 06). Meer dan ooit wil de Kamer overal de belangen van de Brusselse ondernemers behartigen.
Download hier de "live drawings" van de drie interventies tijdens de lancering van “The Brussels Business Community” op 17 januari 2023.
Bekijk hier onze after-movie die we hebben gedraaid tijdens de lancering van Beci 3.0, The Brussels Business Community op 17 januari