Our reasons for living abroad or choosing Rotterdam as the city we live in might differ, but we probably have similar struggles, challenges, good and bad experiences as being expats. These personal experiences were discussed during the Expat Spouse Mingling session at Talent Night.
Collaboration
IWNG was collaborating on the 14th of March with Venture Cafe, Madame Rotterdam, Expat on the Move, and The Expat Rotterdam Centre/Rotterdam Partners to bring you an event just for Expat Spouses living in Rotterdam. The event started at 4PM in the afternoon, when registration was open and there was the possibility to mingle with other expats, whilst enjoying some refreshments and snacks.
Registration
Visitors who registered, not only received a label with your name and number of how many times you visited Venture Café before, they also got a stylish black wristband from the company Shake On. I had never seen them before, but it’s such a smart invention!
When shaking hands with somebody that wears a wristband too, the wristbands connect and exchange information from and to both parties. And some hours after the event, I received an email with notifications and data from all the people I shook hands with. It seems business cards will be history soon.
Presentations
Master of Ceremony Maria Bahamam, from Madam Rotterdam, kicked-off the start of the presentations with a welcome word and setting the theme of this event: “Reinvent yourself”. After an entertaining, interactive poll and a quiz about Rotterdam via our smartphones led by Laura Salm from Expat Centre Rotterdam, several speakers (including four of our group) took the stage to share their experience as being an expat or working with expats. It was nice to hear their stories and see the reactions of the audience. They could relate a lot to the topics discussed.
After the presentations, there was time to mingle some more and we did our best to promote IWNG :).
Talent Night
For those looking for jobs, the rest of the Talent Night program was held at the main event space of Venture Café and several break-out rooms. And it was very crowded! The Spouse program ended earlier than planned, so I was lucky to find a seat at the table during the break-out session “Effective Online Networking” by Erasmus University. Unfortunately, the presenter was more focused on helping people finding the right H&R connection on LinkedIn to land a job, than giving more examples of hów to effectively network online with different social media channels. So, not quite what I was looking for, but I got at least one good tip from it.
Summary
It was very nice to cooperate with Venture Cafe, Madame Rotterdam, Expat on the Move, and The Expat Rotterdam Centre/Rotterdam Partners and organize an Expat Spouse break-out program to reach out to more expat women and offer to help them (YOU!) to settle in and give guidance in their new personal and professional life in Rotterdam. There are plans to run the Expat Spouse program monthly, so if you were not able to make it this time, please come to one of our next events!
