By Caroline Breeds, ACS Corporate Relations Manager
Caroline Breeds
Last month I was delighted to welcome to the UK my colleague Andrew Kittell from our North American office, we enjoyed spending time together making off site visits to a cross-section of clients, from Embassies and corporates, to relocation professionals. We had the pleasure of meeting old and new contacts, giving us the opportunity to learn more about the latest trends within different organisations and how ACS can best assist expatriate families when relocating to the UK.
We also had the pleasure of giving presentations to relocation professionals at their offices, continuing to knowledge share, and enabling ACS to be a school of choice when relocating to the UK. We were thrilled to receive great feedback and we are looking forward to welcoming our contacts to campus later on in the academic year.
Due to the chaos caused by the snow at the beginning of the month we had to take the decision to postpone our relocation event until May, please let me know if you like to receive an invite for our next event at ACS Hillingdon, it promises to be a good one!
Relocate Magazine held their annual event at the IOD the evening before Worldwide ERC London. This is always a great opportunity to network with mobility professionals from the UK and around the world. We were able to hear from some of last year’s winners at the Relocate Awards about what the award meant to them and their business’. Relocate Magazines latest partner AOEC also talked about how coaching and leadership development can support transformational change in different organisations. ACS International Schools are very much looking forward to entering the awards this year, excited to be entering one of the new categories, specifically for Schools! We will look forward to seeing many of you in May for the Awards ceremony at this year’s venue, The Globe Theatre.
Last week I attended the Family in Global Transition conference, which took place in The Hague. FIGT has been at the forefront of global mobility, cross disciplinary research and dialogue, reaching from grass roots - those in international transition, whether as short term assignments or as migrants and refugees - across to those who make policy decisions. It has provided a voice for the people who populate a unique global nation - those who bridge borders and cross cultures on a day to day basis.
FIGT conference attracted a range of 600 delegates to the annual event, all eager to learn more about one subject, helping expat families relocate internationally. I was thrilled to be able to listen to some outstanding speakers. Sir Mark Moody-Stuart was particularly interesting, especially when describing how Outposts developed, with significant assistance from his wife. Listening to his stories it was fantastic to hear what an advocate he was in wanting to help in assisting families when relocating Internationally.
Another fantastic speaker was Robin Pascoe she was among the first wave of expat writers to create and promote the language we use to understand the strengths and challenges of the globally mobile family. Robin shared stories over the past 20 years including a clip from CNN when she was interview back in 1993! Very interesting to watch and can be found on you tube. Robin clearly enjoys sharing many stories some from years ago that are still relevant with expat families relocating today.
As well as having the opportunity to hear keynote speakers, we were also given the opportunity to listen and get involved with kitchen table discussions. One of my favourite was ‘The art of a ‘good’ good-bye – and what constitutes a meaningful and effective farewell’. This was thought provoking, many were able to share different stories around how they cope with saying goodbye to family and friends. The first evening we took the opportunity to see a snippet of The Hague whilst attending the networking reception at a local restaurant. ACS was delighted to sponsor the event, and we were invited to attend the Presidents lunch where we were able to learn more about the other sponsors at the event, as well as getting to meet the FIGT board. A mixture of sponsors form, Burdick Psychological and placement services, to International Family Law Group, all delighted and enthused to be part of FIGT.
FIGT have just announced that they are lowering fees to their membership – I would encourage you to take a look at to see how you can get involved!
Our next relocation event will now take place at ACS Hillingdon on the 24th May, if you have not received an invite and would like one please let me know.
I will be attending the EuRA conference next month in Dubrovnik, Croatia this year and look forward to seeing many of you there, if you would like a meeting do not hesitate in contacting me directly.
My colleagues and I will look forward to attending the Relocate Awards Gala Dinner in May at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London. We look forward to being entertained by professional actors with light-hearted scenes from Shakespeare!