CEO Report
Our Warsaw International Relocation Congress has the theme “The Power of Challenge” and our next, hugely exciting challenge, is the first EuRA Africa Conference which takes place in Cape Town in November.
This is an adventure into new directions for us and we’re delighted that our expectations in terms of delegate numbers have been met. We hoped for 50+ delegates and we have exceeded that which means the event will break even. If you would like to join us, places for the conference and dinner are now limited and our training programmes are fully booked. I have to extend a huge thank you to all of the EuRA Members in Africa and the board members who have put a great deal of hard work into structuring the content which is not only relevant for all relocation professionals in Africa, but to anyone looking at the continent in terms of future strategies. I would also like to thank our generous and supportive sponsors for the faith they have placed in us and whose contributions will make the event not just relevant and fun, but which will create memories for every attendee for years to come… you were at the very first EuRA Conference outside Europe!
We are also holding our first event in Asia! On the evening of March 2nd we will be holding the inaugural EuRA Asia Gala Dinner in Penang. Details will be on the website shortly, but like the US Reception, there will be no charge for EuRA Members. Numbers are limited to 60 so if you would like to pre-register, please email me directly - tad@eura-relocation.com We are delighted to be running this event alongside the IMC Conference also taking place in Penang on the 28th February and March 1st and 2nd. Full details of the IMC event can be found at http://www.imcworld.org/
Dominic and I attended the Canadian Employee Relocation Council’s conference in Vancouver where we were invited to deliver a session about EuRA and our commitment to Conscious Capitalism. The CERC conference is always a great event and this year was exceptional. We jointly launched the research paper “The Future of Talent Mobility”, a huge meta study of all the research on mobility undertaken since 2010. It is a fantastic piece of research and we were delighted to be involved. The white paper is available free to all members as of this week, see page 22 for details.
The Board and I were delighted to welcome over 200 guests to our annual US reception in the nations capital alongside the WERC Global Mobility Symposium. As in previous years, it was an excellent event but this year attendance was well up, with 1800 delegates in attendance.
It was an interesting time to be in Washington with the country gearing up for a presidential election that has voters spilt like never before. I had many conversations with people regarding the seismic shifts that appear to be happening in politics, from the shock of the Brexit vote to a presidential campaign dominated by how alienated voters feel from the political process. Of course uncertainty is never good for business, but as our Warsaw conference will examine, there is power in challenge and we have some challenges to face over the coming years.
Our legal team recently ran an update webinar on where we are and Dominic Tidey summarises the session on Page 19. We are all gearing up to face what a post-Brexit Europe will look like, but at this stage there are more unknowns than certainties. In our second Brexit webinar held at the end of October, our legal team at Morton Fraser attempted to shed light on what will happen over the next few months. In their opinion we are looking at a “hard Brexit” which will involve restrictions on EU - UK free movement of people which will result in limited access to the single market. This will have far reaching implications for our industry especially in terms of changes to visas and access for global companies wanting to manage their talent in the UK. It may also impact on investment decisions for the next few years. However, where there is change there is opportunity and we will follow this closely as it begins to impact on the UK and world economy.
Myself and the EuRA Board met with our EGQS team to develop the standard for 2017 and incorporate changes as a result of our annual satisfaction index drawn from EGQS holders and our auditors. Certified companies will be relieved to know that not too many changes have been made! The new standard will be distributed to members in February and will take effect for all audits taking place after July 1st 2017.
We were delighted to welcome Danielle Davis to the team during the summer. Dani takes responsibility for our social media profile so if you haven’t followed us on Twitter, liked our Facebook page, checked out our YouTube Channel or joined us on Instagram, now is the time!