Welcome Living and Working in Gent! 6th October 2016

Agenda 19h25 Welcome & introduction Guitar duo 19h30 Guitar duo performance by Pablo & Miguel 19h50 Welcome to International Friends of Gent by Jenny Bjorklof, part of the Expat working group of Community Gent 19h55 Community Gent introduction by Bart Vandesompele, CEO 20h00 Els Uytterhoeven, City of Ghent - International Relations & Networking: The new City of Ghent web guide in English 20h10 Expat survey results covering the top 5 challenges for expats in Gent + speed dating host presentation with Heather Sills & Nina Jere 20h20 Speed dating begins with the hosts and Gentse Belleman 21h00 Mingle with other international friends over a drankje and a hapje... 22h30 Event ends and it's time to go home...

Jenny Björklöf, Working group Expats @JennyBjorklof @EntAnon @decommunity

Agenda 19h55 Community Gent intro by Bart Vandesompele, CEO @decommunity Agenda 19h55 Community Gent intro by Bart Vandesompele, CEO 20h00 Els Uytterhoeven, City of Ghent - International Relations & Networking: The new City of Ghent web guide in English 20h10 Expat survey results covering the top 5 challenges for expats in Gent + speed dating host presentation with Heather Sills & Nina Jere 20h20 Speed dating begins with the hosts and Gentse Belleman 21h00 Mingle with other international friends over a drankje and a hapje... 22h30 Event ends and it's time to go home...

Bart Vandesompele, Chief Executive Officer @challenger121 @decommunity

Results Expat Survey 52.1% - Sorting out your paperwork (visas/registration to be allowed to live in Belgium) 51.3% - Learning the language (taking a course, finding locals to practise with) 47% - Meeting new people and leisure time (making friends, joining groups, sports/hobbies) 37.6% - Finding information in another language than Flemish 36.8% - Employment (job ads, interviews, CVs, contracts, fitting in with the culture)

Moving to Ghent City of Ghent - International Relations & Networking - City Guide in English - Relocation Belgium Personalised relocation services BNP Paribas Fortis advice on banking and financial matters to make your expat life in Gent easier

Living in Ghent Ethias Insurances - Partena Business & Expats Insurances for your car, your house, your family… - Partena Business & Expats Information about health insurance funds

Living in Ghent Belgian Cooking Class International Club of Flanders Promoting classic Belgian culinary heritage in Belgium and abroad - International Club of Flanders A club for Business Networking - Gentse Spruiten Gentse Spruiten is a group intended for all parents in the Gent area raising children of all ages - Gent4Humanity Calais refugee support Learn more about how it is to volunteer with helping refugees in Calais

Living in Ghent Senior Expats Guitar heroes Community Gent - Ask Me Anything sessions with international Gent residents who have lived here for a while - Guitar heroes Meet the guitar guys, also senior expats Pablo & Miguel - Community Gent stimulating dialogue, exchanging info and acting as a city challenger for making Ghent a better place to live & work - City of Ghent - Sportdienst Where, when and how to exercise in Gent

Learning Dutch in Ghent Taalcafé Macharius International Language Exchange - In-Gent Central counter if you want to follow classes of Dutch in Gent University Language Centre The UCT organizes general and specific language courses for various levels in 12 languages.

Learning Dutch in Ghent VDAB - NT² NT² at VDAB focus on learning Dutch, in combination with looking for a job - Berlitz Language School Private (Dutch) lessons suited to the needs of every customer & small group lessons

Working in Ghent Talentree VDAB Co-Searching - Teamleader CRM Connecting internationals living in Belgium to the job market - VDAB The public employment service of Flanders - Co-Searching Jobseekers helping each other in finding a job - Teamleader CRM CRM, invoicing and project management, in one online tool. Check out their open positions also for multilinguals

Working in Ghent Showpad Partena Professional Entrepreneurs Anonymous Content activation platform company with multilingual jobs Partena Professional What is needed when starting as a freelancer or opening a business in Gent? - Entrepreneurs Anonymous Monthly events for starting entrepreneurs in English - Ghent University Postdoc Community Encourages Postdocs to develop proactively their career path and to build a bridge with the non-academic job market -

Studying in Ghent De Stap - Ghent University Vlerick Business School De Stap is an information service where everyone can turn to with questions about adult education. - Ghent University Information about courses in English - Vlerick Business School A leading international business school - International School of Ghent an English-language international school that provides an international education to students aged 3 to 12

Enjoy mingles with drankjes & hapjes Thank you! Guests, organizers, hosts & Community Gent with members and partners!

Time to go home...Zzzzz