The Melbourne Chapter of FEM was founded in late 2012 by Aysegul Kayahan after the successes of the Brisbane and Sydney Chapters. Aysegul wanted to be part of a community of global mobility professionals that met regularly and felt the FEM ethos of networking and shared learning was ideal and set about introducing the global community to Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. Aysegul has been involved in the industry since 1993 as the owner of a couple of boutique relocation management companies (the most recent being Relocation Specialists) providing destination services throughout Australia (consultants working directly for Relocation Specialists) and overseas (through a network of trusted contacts providing similar services in their countries).

While Aysegul is chapter lead, she is supported by a wonderful steering committee of Melbourne-based professionals from both the corporate and the supply side of the global mobility continuum; many of whom have been supporting the community from the inception of the chapter. The Melbourne chapter holds meetings on a quarterly basis during the months of February, May, August and November. Topics encompass every aspect of global mobility from immigration, tax, relocation support, program delivery, cultural intelligence, compensation, pension plans, repatriation, security, health, compliance related issues (and many more). The steering committee with input from the community determine topics from one quarter to the next, so content remains current and relevant to the fast paced nature of the industry. Most sessions are panel discussions or workshops exploring the topic of the day.

Generally meetings are held either in the morning (over breakfast) from 07:30am to 09:30am or over lunch 12:00 to 2:00pm at the offices of our various hosts (members of the global mobility community), after registration we have a period of networking (catching up with each other) and then the final 60-90min is devoted to the topic discussion. Audience participation is encouraged as this is when the best “peer to peer” learning is achieved.

If you are interested in joining the Melbourne Chapter for one of their upcoming events please contact Aysegul Kayahan for more information.