FEM is thrilled to report our first event in Melbourne was absolutely phenomenal! It was our great pleasure to host our annual Australian Global Mobility Conference on 20 July at the Crown Hotel & Conference Centre in the exclusive Southbank area of Melbourne. Bringing together the best and brightest from across the Antipodean area, the attendees shared valuable insight into how global mobility has evolved and continues to change within Australia.

As Australia continues to grow both beginning to welcome more talent from across the world and the sustained outbound migration, there is more attention than ever on cultural agility. Sharing a common language doesn't mean there are not complexities in moving talent between countries such as Australia, South Africa, the UK, the USA, Canada, Ireland and New Zealand. Understanding the agility required just for those moves is critical, not to mention the adaptability of the varying nationalities and cultural differences of the APAC region, many of which feed into the Australian talent market.

This has led to a greater pressure on immigration and tax compliance issues globally and locally, including a rise in audits and checks across Australian industries. One important tip to be aware of is that more monitoring is taking place, which means moving people into the country on the right visa the first time is more important than ever. The concerns with international security and tightening immigration has led to a hardening of rules. This has removed classic flexibility, requiring better and more robust relationships with suppliers (particularly those providing immigration support) and corporate programmes.

Another trend that was revealed was around virtual teams and working cross-borders with shared services and centres of excellence. In utilising virtual teams there has been a lot of success, but it opens new security concerns for data shared and stored on the cloud.

Talent and mobility continue to be viewed as hand in hand - future leaders must have international experience and as the world continues to globalise, it isn't just different cultures mobility professionals will have to merge, but also different businesses and technologies, particularly as Australian businesses unite with European, Asian and American partners - either through mergers and acquisitions or growth patterns.

Aysegul Kayahan, our Global Lead of Chapters and Conference Chair shared her observation of the day: "I can say that people enjoyed the sessions, the level of engagement was great!"

Throughout the day our valued supplier network and sponsors exhibited in the buzzing exhibition hall and led breakout sessions on a variety of hot topics crucial to development and best practice for global mobility programmes. With lenses on expatriate compensation data, monitoring business and short-term travellers, building a business case for change, managing risks associated with international workforce, risk mitigation and a case study on how to overcome repatriation failures led by Deloitte, Fragomen, EY, Polaris Global Mobility, International SOS, Mercer, Newland Chase and Toyota attendees were able to drill deep into the details of what affects the Australian market with the best expert insight.

Our lead sponsors of Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP (BAL), EY, Fragomen Worldwide and Newland Chase in tandem with our platinum sponsors of Grace Mobility and Polaris Global Mobility made the day possible. Their kind participation allowed our corporate attendees to remain complimentary and we would like to take this time to personally recognise these organisations for their continued support and sponsorship so all global mobility professionals can come together on this important day for learning and networking.

The Australian conference may have come and gone, but the APAC summit is on its way. Scheduled for 7-8 September in Singapore, registration is now open. We are so grateful for any feedback or comments from those who attended or from those who have ideas on how we can continue to best serve the industry and bring cutting edge insight and topics to those who attend our events.

We would also like to give a final thank everyone who attended, exhibited and spoke for their dedication and commitment to not only the industry as a whole, but to making our 2016 Australia Global Mobility Conference the best one yet!

For any questions on upcoming events please contact our Events Manager, Ellie Long.

Check out the photos from the event here

Next Chapter Meeting in Melbourne - 16 August 2016

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