First this year, but already 7th Meetup in English for foreigners living in Tri-City has come to an end. We meet to get to know each other better, learn together and from one another, exchange experiences, establish contacts, relationships, friendships…
On the 5th of March Olivia Sky Club hosted more than 60 people from more than 10 countries. Among them, there were such distant countries as Malaysia, USA and not so distant ones like Belarus, Ukraine, Great Britain, Croatia and Ireland… In our opinion, Ewa Szabuniewicz, an experienced HR Manager from BEST S.A., proved with her presentation that multitasking simply… doesn’t work. Angelina Wormus, Finnish American from Alexander Mann Solutions, who has already lived in 14 countries (!) told us – this extremely interesting conversation was moderated by Izabela Diesterheft from Interizon – about disadvantages and advantages of nomadic lifestyle and the reasons for her relocation to Gdańsk. Małgorzata Zalewska from InvestGDA was convincingly confirming the truth about public speeches, which was put into words by W. Churchill in the following way: “A good speech should be like a woman’s skirt; long enough to cover the subject and short enough to create interest”.
– The number of foreigners who live and work in Tri-City has substantially increased in recent years. And is still increasing – said Izabela Diesterheft, CEO of ICT INTERIZON Pomeranian Cluster, an originator and organiser of the event – I know how difficult it is to settle in a new place, especially abroad because I was in such a situation. In a completely foreign city, without my friends and family, I was building everything from scratch. I was getting to know new places and was gradually founding my favourite ones… I understand people who came to Pomerania from different parts of the world. That is why I wanted to offer them what I needed at that time: opportunities to meet, get to know each other, the region and the city in which their new life has begun. On one hand meetups are a great opportunity to present us and our potential to the increasing group of participants – and there are nearly 400 Polish and English speaking people from Gdańsk, Sopot and Gdynia in our group – what surely helps expats penetrate into Pomeranian environment. On the other hand, we emphasize how important they are for us, that we want to learn from them, but also help them by showing, how to find yourself and move around in our Pomeranian reality.
So… as always, we were integrating and exchanging knowledge. In a good company and in a place full of good energy, whose mission is development – Olivia Business Centre. In addition, with a new partner of the initiative, Invest in Pomerania, which talked about joining the project in the following words:
– We have decided to co-organise meetups because we want to support the creation of an international community in Tri-City and in a wider scope – in the region. As part of Live more. Pomerania project, we are promoting Pomeranian Voivodship as a good place not only for a holiday trip, but also for living and working. We hear many opinions that on the Internet there is not much information about our region, especially in English. That is why, we are working on an Internet website, which will include all the most essential news to make it easier for people to relocate here – said Katarzyna Dziewicka from Invest in Pomerania. – But we don’t want to be active only online, we want to meet face-to-face, talk about great things in our region and what we still have to work on. Visit Live more. Pomerania project’s profiles on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn and of course see you during the next meetup!
– Foreigners constitute an increasingly larger group of employees and residents of Olivia. We really want them to feel as good as possible, that is why, from the very beginning, we have been supporting Meetups in English. During such meetings, our expats have an opportunity to meet persons from other countries, who also chose Tri-City to live and work there. We invite them to joint Olivia’s community, exchange experiences, ideas and to signalise problems. We want our metropolis to be a friendly place and real home for them. The situation in the labour market is also significant. Staff from outside Poland can be a very positive factor in the growth of companies, which are active in our country. We are glad that we create this project with our residents: INTERIZON Pomeranian Cluster and Invest in Pomerania – summarises Agnieszka Zglinicka, Project Director in Olivia Business Centre.
Partners of the event: ICT INTERIZON Pomeranian Cluster, Invest in Pomerania with the initiative: Live more. Pomerania; Olivia CONNECT, Olivia Business Centre.
The next meeting will be held in a month! You are invited already today 🙂
