RJM

Hi All,

Firstly I have spent the last 2 hours reading threads from various members ie.teebrown and newt among others and I would like to say that as we know precious little about NZ and the process of getting there, I have found your views invaluable as they answered questions I was going to post and therefore would of bored everyone senseless for covering the " same old,same old " ground. So THANK YOU.

There is an expo coming to Leeds in the next few months and I was wondering if they are worth attending. Also do you need to attend the 2 days it is running for or do think you could get most of the info covered in just 1.

Kind Regards

RJM

Yummy_Mummy

Hiya

I have never been to one personally but have heard that they are quite good. We are going to the one in Leeds in October 11th and 12th!

Kinda hoping it will be worthwhile too

Got some questions i want to ask... so hoping immigration will be able to help.

Hopefully someone on here will have been and can give you a good idea what its about.

C xx

RJM

Thanks for your reply,

The 11th and 12th is the one we are looking at also.


You never know we might bump into each other

regards

RJM

weejie

Have a look at these threads
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=517006
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...highlight=expo

Personally was disappointed in the Leeds one as not that many companies there although did find talking to NZIS at Edinburgh useful

Phyllis

Yummy_Mummy

Hmmm

Is the london expo better than leeds?
I had assumed that it would be the same people organising it! Obviously we dont want to travel to Leeds if we could travel to London and get all the answers we wanted...

Could do both, but it means alot of repitition and getting a babysitter for 2 weekends!

Confused now

C xx

TeamEmbo

We went to Manchester Expo in autumn 2006. Got OH's name down on loads of prospective employers list and gathered heaps of handouts, brochures and information from immigration, real estate, finance, reps from different towns and regions, kids ran round gathering up all the freebies they could get their hands on like pens, bags, stickers, leaflets, sweets etc.
Found it really informative and encouraging so personally I would recommend going and getting as much info as you can. Some people have even had job offers following attending. But have never been to Leeds one so can't comment on that.

howden40

We went to one in Birmingham, spoke to NZImmigration Officer, gave us a few handy tips for older children and proof of dependency - well worth attending. And yes I went round collecting all the freebies pens, sweeties, pads, mugs, post-its, magnifiers, muffins, biscuits, fruit, pop, bottled water. Didn't need to buy lunch.
Pauline

jjthefridge

Hi,

I found the expo in London very usefull, providing you know what you're going here for, I think some people think they'll go there and have a job on a plate, then you may be disapointed.

Most people are very help full, I got a job offer there but since turned it down. And in London there's a tesco over the road, which is cheap for lunch, but take a flask of coffee, the coffee bar in olymipa is very expence, and not good.

j.j.

Stoof

the 'opportunities' expos are the ones to go to... any others seem to have a fairly mixed press.... think the leeds and london ones this year are 'opportunities'

we went to edinburgh last year, and found the 'informal' crack with the immi officers very useful...

depending on what stage our eoi etc is at, we might head to leeds with cv's or not!

have heard from lots of people that if you're actually looking for a job offer, london is the place to be!

having said that, if you're field is in skills shortage, then thats what the recruiters focus on wherever you go... if not skills shortage, might be worth heading to london instead

take your cv (nz'd up - there's a brill thread that WiznTon did a while ago) a few paper copies, but take it on a flash drive too, then they can just get an electronic copy straight away...

'course if you're not ready for job-seeking just yet there's usually a load of other stuff there - international removals, money exchange etc

a month or so before the expo they will list on the website which employers/recruiters and other companies are going to be there, so you can have a look and decide if you think it will be worth your while going...

last year we had a good twenty minute crack with a really helpful immigration officer... our friend that was with us spoke to a different person and didn't have such a useful experience.... difference of people and situations, so i don't suppose anyone can say if you'll find it useful or worthwhile!

we found there were three 'types' of people attending... the ones who had already made the decision to go and were there 'meaning business' - they fell into two camps - either elbowing everyone else out of the way to get the job offer first (quite rude some of them!!) or friendly and sharing experiences (the majority) or they were there just browsing and thinking about nz as a possibility..

erm

think that covers it!

weejie

No need to go to both as run by same people. There are different companies running different expo's but looks as if Leeds and London are the same as the one we went to in Leeds in April.I think if we hadn't gone to Edinburgh then Leeds would have been a better experience,just felt although different event organisers all much of a sameness re exhibitors.

Phyllis

ScottyD

We went to the London one in April and it was a lot smaller than we were expecting, having said that it meant in 1 day we managed to speak to everyone there we wanted to and came back with a lot of info we have subsequently used.

I'd recommend going on the Sunday, less people, and so more chance to talk to exhibitors, if you get a rapport with them you can find out so much more about the whole country and the things you need to consider before leaving without commiting yourself to anyone or anything.

You also come home with the best bag of freebies for the kids! We had teddies, story books, rugby balls....

Take a note book with you to write down the things you're told and the questions you want to ask as you are like a sponge absorbing info on the day and can't remember it all when you get home!

BEVS

OPPORTUNITIES NEW ZEALAND 2008 (click the link)

We went to the London expo 4 years ago and it was helpful and interesting . It was extremely crowded though. Several of us met up and stayed overnight in London which was fun.

nena11

I guess it depends on what your expectations are, we went to London in April and we also found it smaller that what we thought it may have been, also not may job opportunities for IT as there was only 1 agency and the queue was pretty long, however we still found lots of information on things like removal companies, banks, money transfer and even talked to the INZ representatives on how to extend our ITA time-frame, even then we had a bad feeling on not getting all the documents in time

And echoing everybody else came home with lots of freebies and everybody there was really helpful

Wiz'n'Ton

Interesting reading! So, in the opinion of those that have been to expo's, are there many employment agencies there, and if there were - were they useful to you/ did you end up using them to find work?

Obviously (sorry OP!) this is an entirely self-serving question as I have always thought they would be over-run by agencies, but if there was only 1 or 2 I would be well interested in getting over there and attracting a few folks into the Select fold.

I know of several companies - including ageniceis - here in ChCh that go to the UK on recruitment drives, so it would be interesting to hear if they were of any use to you guys....?

At the very least, if I pitch it to the management in the right way, I may get a paid trip back to Blighty for a wee while!

P2L

Wiz

We went to the one in London 2 years ago. As far as agencies go, there was Canstaff, BBT, Hays ( no-one on the stand there though, just somewhere to leave your details; very unprofessional)

This is the most up to date idea of who is exhibiting
http://www.expo-newzealand.com/Success_stories.aspx

Good Luck with persuading them