SEMINAR SLIDE CASTBY DANIËL VERHULST

MY 5 SEMINARS

• Working and Living abroad

• European Council visit

• EkoLecture

• Applying for a job abroad

• When digital becomes human

VISIT TO THE EUROPEAN COUNCIL

175 RUE DE LA LOI, BRUSSELS | 06/10/2015 @ 14:00

• Institution of European Union

• Established in 1975 as informal summit

• President of the European Council : Donald Tusk

• No formal legislative power, only strategic body

Decisions made mostly during consensus

Sets the EU’s political direction and priorities

Does not negotiate or adopt EU laws

Meet 4 times/year

Made up of the heads of state/government from each EU country

Only asked one question during (actually after) this seminar which was:

How it worked out for the translators, since there were more country seats than there were translation booths.

The reply I got to this is, that countries can choose to pay (on a yearly basis) for translators, by doing so they can choose whenever they want to use a translator at the meeting. Since not all countries pay for this, there usually are booths left over.

I was satisfied with the seminar, as it had a very unique experience to it. Although I was also a little disappointed in the speaker, as the topics she discussed were fairly uninteresting. The most interesting about this seminar came afterwards when we were allowed to ask questions and when we discussed further when it had actually ended. Which was mostly with the tour guide and not the actual speaker. So I was content to have gotten to know how these meetings are held and handled.

WORKING AND LIVING ABROAD

AULA 4 KANTIENBERG | 01/12/2015 @ 18:15 BY DIRK BUYENS

• Not going in prepared – Great experience afterwards

• Don’t wait too long

• Great experience = Great suffering (e.g. Loneliness)

•Learn languages, it goes a long way• Times a

re changing

“Reality is somewhere in between, what you know might not be what it is. As different palces know it in a different way.”

TIMES ARE CHANGING• The world is “flat” vs the world will never be flat

• From “add on” to “Olympic minimum”• It used to be “Where did you go to” – Now they’ll ask “Why did u stay local?”

• “Being out there” is one thing, “having learned something” is however the question.

• Export product: The Belgian CEO• Belgian news covers more than just Belgian news while USA covers only the USA.

5 CORE COMPETENCIES FOR GOING ABROAD

1. Language skills (good enough beats perfect)

Knowing their language, even if only a little – shows interest in the country.

2. The oustide-in-view (View from the outside perspective)

3. The Multi-ethnocentric reflex

When interacting with people you can relate to people in similarities.

4. The homelessness skill (have an emotional stability so you can cope with this)

Coming back =/= Coming home

5. The seeing through the cultural façade; Look through the stereotypes!

As for my view of this seminar once it finished, I was overall happy, he gave me new insight on what some of the core competencies are for moving abroad. I think this is pretty crucial as you do not want to go abroad unprepared so having him sum up what’s most important was a big plus. He gave a lot of points that summarize what you’d all have to be prepared for, but in my opinion those competencies are the most crucial ones that I’ll remember going forward.

Didn’t prepare any questions for the seminar and thus I also ended up not asking any during or after the seminar.

The only preparation I did for this seminar was going over the slides of Intercultural Communication, as we saw a lot about working and living abroad back then. So I was looking forward what else this speaker had to tell us.

EKOLECTURE

CHARLES DEBERIOTSTRAAT 24, LEUVEN | 08/12/2015 @ 20:15 BY GUY VERHOFSTADT

“The more crises we have in Europe, the more we come to a breaking point. We have to choose: Do we follow the nationalist parties or do we step in to the shoes that our European founders had envisioned?”

• Still a weak confederation of nation States

• Decision-making power still lies in the hands of several States

• Cause to always react too late or wrongE.g. The fugitive crisis or the Eurocrisis

• Wants MORE Europe

• Return to the founding fathers of Europe

REASON WHY I CHOSE THIS SEMINAR

This was the seminar I chose myself and the reason for this is first of all is just that Guy Verhofstadt is a man that has played a big role in the European Union and the Belgian government. So to hear his vision on the current state of Europe was something I really wanted to find out as I am doubting to stay in Europe or to go live abroad in the future.

I was very happy with my choice afterwards, he gave a very interesting seminar. And what surprised me the most is how harsh he was towards the current state of Europe. I expected him to have a lot of praise for Europe, but he was being very hard on the state of Europe and how, if things would not change, it could be the downfall of the Europe as we know it. Out of this I learned a lot about the political state of Europe and to look out for changes in the future, if these changes don’t happen, odds are high I’ll move out of Europe in the future.

I didn’t ask him any questions during or after the lecture as there wasn’t anything in specific left unanswered.

APPLYING FOR A JOB ABROAD

AULA 2 KANTIENBERG | 16/02/2016 @ 15:00 BY KYRA VELDKAMPS

• Your own individual path

• Working (+ living) in a different country vs Being posted on a job in another country

• Work vs Internship

SKILLS & COMPETENCES

• Avoid cliches

• Use distinctive skills & qualities

• Skills must be relevant & honest

‘A good CV should be different & adapted to every qualification.’

I came out of this seminar with a hunger, as though I was still longing for more information on this topic. Although I must say that it was a good point to bring up about the EEA as I had no knowledge of this yet. I’ve never actually needed a visa yet because I haven’t gone outside of the EU yet. So to know how visa’s exactly work and how to obtain a work permit is something I found interesting, but that’s probably the only part I really found interesting.

I did not prepare anything in specific beforehand for this seminar and neither did I ask any questions during or after the seminar.

Reflection?

WHEN DIGITAL BECOMES HUMAN

AULA 1 KANTIENBERG | 26/04/2016 @ 15:00 BY STEVEN VAN BELLEGHEM

• Everyone is connected

• Things are speeding up

• Old days : 10 years to adapt a new reality vs Now : 1 year at most

• Machine learning & Artificial intelligence

This was probably the best seminar I attended out of the four seminars I chose from inside the school. The speaker was really creative and gave me a lot of insight on how the internet as a whole has grown to a point where u can’t exclude it. The part most fascinating to me was how he mentions what the future will look like, with companies being unable to grow unless they’re active on the internet both In ecommerce (in any shape or form, be it their own website or web shop) and social interactions. I’m glad I already have a great deal of experience in some of the ICT skills (besides the standard Microsoft Office) as these skills seem to be very valuable going forward.

I did not prepare anything in specific beforehand for this seminar and neither did I ask any questions during or after the seminar.

Reflection?

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME