2013 The Hague International City Podium Highlights

Last week, I wrote about the International City Podium over on my Dutch Australian website.  Here’s my wrap-up of my highlights of this event which was held on the 5th November 2013 in The Hague.

Organised by the International Community Platform, in partnership with the Gemeente Den Haag, Ministrie van Buitenlandse Zaken and the West Holland Foreign Investment agency, it was a registration-only event held at the New Babylon.

There were a lot of workshops and presentations to choose from and I enjoyed listening to a presentation about The Hague, Your Business City from Marleen Zuijderhoudt and then a social media workshop from Alwin Zandvoort.  Two of my friends were also speaking – Colleen Reichrath-Smith from A Career in Your Suitcase and Roel Verseveldt on “Security – what’s in it for you” – but as these were at the same time as the social media presentation, I unfortunately missed these.  There were several other workshops that also looked interesting but they all ran simultaneously.  As several ran in areas quite close I found it was a little difficult to hear as well, but still appreciated the quality of the speakers.

Great to see the WBII (Women’s Business Initative) there (of whom I am a member) and representatives from many other international organisations in The Hague and beyond.  It was well attended by professionals looking for work and networking opportunities.

I spoke to various organisations there about the possibility of part time work but it seems it’s not really something most organisations consider here.  Shell was the only stand that responded positively – but don’t have any suitable positions currently available.  I find as a Professional Parent there is a huge gap in the market where highly skilled and motivated professionals are missing out on work opportunities as they are looking for part time work.  I hope that this is something that will change in the future.

The Hague University of Applied Sciences were there and I have considered the Master in International Communication Management – it’s wonderful that it’s offered part time but is beyond my budget at 15,200 euros.

As a social media specialist, was great to see a hashtag publicised #ICPNov5 though found that unfortunately there weren’t too many active users on Twitter to connect with.

All in all a worthwhile event to attend but would be great to see some more attention to part time work for professionals or the very least some more discussion on this, as I know there is a big demand for this in the area, not just by me personally but the many highly-educated professional partners of expats here.  Perhaps another idea is to record the presentations/workshops via a Google Hangout on Air or other method, so that those who couldn’t attend all they were interested in could watch again later.

Update April 2014: 

I’ve just revisited the website and there will be another International City Podium held on 11 November, 2014.

It’s also worth noting that after my comments above about part time work, I was contacted by one of the participants I spoke to on the day and met them about a potential job.  It turned out to not be the right fit, but I was very pleased to see that organisations are starting to consider employing professionals part time.

Renee Veldman-Tentori