The geographical boundaries of business have shifted irrevocably. And, since many South African businesses comprise immensely talented people, who have the capacity to operate successfully on an international scale, Qualia SA"s MD, Richard Holt, saw an opportunity to connect some of these businesses and entrepreneurs with like-minded counterparts from the UK.

This led to Qualia SA, the SA arm of the Qualia Group, a coaching and business development company, recently facilitating Business Quest, an international entrepreneur"s program that aims to bring business leaders from the UK and SA together to innovate, share learning to explore new business partnerships, joint ventures and outsource opportunities.

The primary objective was to provide an integrated service both in England and SA, matching companies so as to maximize business penetration. The Business Quest week was structured around a series of individual company to company meetings, group events, and personal meetings with the British Council and the World Cup organizing committee.

When asked what were the best things about Business Quest, Christopher Lloyd, from Dinosaur, a UK advertising agency, responded: "An amazing opportunity to free my mind from the day to day procedures of running a small business in the UK, and be creative again, while meeting like-minded UK and SA people. The businesses from the UK were perfectly matched with interested and talented companies in SA."