1. Welcome Living and Working in Gent! 6th October 2016

2. 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...

4. Jenny Björklöf, Working group Expats
@decommunity

5. 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...

6. Bart Vandesompele, Chief Executive Officer

7. 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)

9. 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

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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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.

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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 -

17. 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

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

19. Time to go home...Zzzzz