[Myrkk]

Well we made the three and a half hour drive into London to go the expo. Paid our £15 each ..............

and were thoroughly disappointed :roll

The October expo was way way better. Ah well, you live and learn.

[pleccy2000]

what was bad about it?

[pinkpiggy]

If it was anything like the Expo in Edinburgh last weekend there were hardly any stands. There were no banks there at all (part of the reason we had gone). We had been to the one in London in October and that was big but the one in Edinburgh was tiny. There can't have been more than about 20 stands. Very disappointing.

[Mr TW]

Would love some more info on this as we are expecting to drive down tomorrow from Staffordshire.

[nellyt]

We made the trip also and were very dissappointed (maybe thats because we are further throught the process now). Seemed to be half the size it was in October. Only 1 bank. A few recruitment agencies, last year there seemed to be companies there recruiting (and we were told it was 5k£ for a stand!).
If you took away Bayles, NZIS, MoneyCorps,HiFx and PSS there wasn't much there.
I'm sure it wasn't £15 last year either?
I've attached a list of the stands.

[Myrkk]

I'm sure it wasn't £15 last year either. The seminars were only £5 this time though they were fully booked.

There were hardly any stands. There weren't any recruiters we were interested in ....... well 2 stands that were worth chatting to. There were 2 banks, one stall from Bay of Plenty, Bayleys, a few medical stalls, one teacher stall, one pet stall and a few others......... all in all very disappointing.

We actually told an acquaintance about the expo and met them down there.............. they were not impressed either and thought it was a total rip off.

I would say I came away from the expo with no further info. than I already have and that this forum gives a more balanced view and better info. than I got from the expo. today.

[jewelsvani]

Well I was down in LOndon yesterday and have to say I was over the moon with the meeting itself (seperate to expo but arranged with one of the people at it) really did help, we were advised to go to the expo despite this meeting. As we respect the opinion of the person who told us we are going tommorow. Mainly for the benefit of my other half. :)

[Trigirl]

Seemed to be half the size it was in Octoberi've mentioned this a couple of times on other threads. october was the original expo. then when they started the march one as a company you could come over to exhibit in october and go to london and manchester, or you could come in march and just go to london. obviously most chose october as they got better coverage. the march one now offers edinburgh as well but it will take a while to get exhibitor interest and those companies who are settled into the routine of just coming in october may never change.

as you did, we went to both and found the march one extremely disappointing.

[Leccy-Lee]

Thanks for info, really think i may give it a miss now then, probably wasnt much use to me anyhow, just fancied a day out.. I save my cash

[Mildred]

Feel guilty, as I haven't posted for months, but did anyone notice any stands aimed at Skilled Trades?

[Tia Maria]

When we went ages ago I emailed the organisers of the expo to find out who would be there.

I asked them to let me know which banks, shippers and IT companies would be attending.

So it might be worth an email before you purchase your ticket, to make sure the areas you are interested in are covered. :yes

Cheers

Tia

[pinkpiggy]

Feel guilty, as I haven't posted for months, but did anyone notice any stands aimed at Skilled Trades?
Frances: in Edinburgh there was a stall for superhighway (a recruitment agency) and they seemed to cover skilled trades, can't really remember which as OH is in IT. What I can say is he arranged a meeting with the woman from that stall, on the Monday, and she was really good. She asked him a huge amount of questions so she had a much better idea of where his skills lie and what kind of company he might like to work for. They have a website you can visit www.nzsuperhighway.com. Amongst the trade jobs they are currently looking for :

Automotive Mechanic Jobs
Building Jobs
Electrician Jobs
Glazier Jobs
Plumbing Jobs and much more


Apparently they are a wholly owned subsidiary of workingin.com who were also at the expo.

[jewelsvani]

To be honest I don't know what people expect (probably 10 job offers there and then) but I found it extremely usefull. Even though there was no stands for scientists only enginerring and teaching by the looks. I still got a load of info from the nzis guys about jobs in my partners field and what to do next, as well as housing, morgages, bank accounts. Lifestyle, etc, etc.

I feel it was worth the money, the only big thing I noticed is we are way younger than 99% people at the expo, really suprised me how old people were, maybe this accounts for the high amount of negatinve threads about NZ?!! different stage of life different requirments I suppose. For me it was 70 quid well spent, especially as that 70 pound was paid and covered by the alliance and leicester due to them illegally charging me to much on my overdraft penalties, naughty bank. :)

[Mildred]

Well, after a two hour train ride we arrived at the Expo only to find a family who live at the end of our road standing next to us! Kids were over the moon with all the freebies. The only thing I would say was it wasn't too busy which was really good, as none of us are good with crowds. There were definitely more stalls than I expected.

Don't know whether it was useful or not - too early to say.

[saralou]

For me it was 70 quid well spent, especially as that 70 pound was paid and covered by the alliance and leicester due to them illegally charging me to much on my overdraft penalties, naughty bank. :)
Going off on a complete tangent but thats what is starting our nz fund too!!

Sara:laugh

[Cardy]

We went to an expo in york before we started our emigration and found it a complete waste of time. one guy even told me we had no chance of getting here but here we are with PR !! so dont take there advice as gospel is what i would say.We didnt use an agent either we did it all by ourselves ,went at our own speed and did it cheaper.

Cardy

[speckythecky]

I was fairly disappointed with the expo, The women on the teachers stall couldn't answer questions, I spoke to 2 people on the gov stall who directed me to others as they couldn't answer questions. the recruitment firms didn't really seem interested and didn't want my CV which I had taken down in electronic format. I though £15 was a bit steep for what I got out of it.
Having said that I had a good weekend in London, saw 2 shows, ate well, what more can you ask?

[pinkpiggy]

I though £15 was a bit steep for what I got out of it. John, a small price to pay for a weekend away without the kids. ;)

[dipaul07]

Hi Guys,

We went to the London expo and we found it to be fine, we got all the information we required met some really friendly people and may even have a job interview at the end of the week, I think you get out of it what you want, you need to ask all the questions you want answers to, we went to the ABB stand and although they dont have the jobs Paul is after they were really helpful and gave us loads of advice.

Di :nice1

[jewelsvani]

I was fairly disappointed with the expo, The women on the teachers stall couldn't answer questions, I spoke to 2 people on the gov stall who directed me to others as they couldn't answer questions. the recruitment firms didn't really seem interested and didn't want my CV which I had taken down in electronic format. I though £15 was a bit steep for what I got out of it.
Having said that I had a good weekend in London, saw 2 shows, ate well, what more can you ask?

I am suprised by this did you give Oasis a try? I have to say they are amazing at what they do and I have been very, very impressed by them.

The women at the teachers stall was also very informative, I am suprised she couldn't help. mind you I do come from a secondary school angle do you teach secondary as well or Primary?

Good luck with it.

[Myrkk]

To be honest I don't know what people expect (probably 10 job offers there and then) but I found it extremely usefull. Even though there was no stands for scientists only enginerring and teaching by the looks. I still got a load of info from the nzis guys about jobs in my partners field and what to do next, as well as housing, morgages, bank accounts. Lifestyle, etc, etc.

I feel it was worth the money, the only big thing I noticed is we are way younger than 99% people at the expo, really suprised me how old people were, maybe this accounts for the high amount of negatinve threads about NZ?!! different stage of life different requirments I suppose. For me it was 70 quid well spent, especially as that 70 pound was paid and covered by the alliance and leicester due to them illegally charging me to much on my overdraft penalties, naughty bank. :)

Nope we didn't expect job offers there and then but we are further along in our application for PR than we were last Oct. when we last went to the expo. so perhaps that is the difference. We didn't get anything further from it by going this time. And the October expo. is far better by way of stalls there.

[Twig]

As far as engineering went, OH and me came away very happy - heaps of info, so much so my OH got a headache with all the thinking!! :laugh

I have to admit, I probably wouldn't have travelled half the length of the country for it, as we were staying (my Dad's) only an hour away it was no biggie.

Wish I'd grabbed one of those pink bags whilst I had the chance though! :wah

[speckythecky]

OH hung around by the pink bags for ages but kept being ignored so in the end she gave up.:wah

[mgbridges]

I was disappointed by the Expo, certainly in comparison to the October one. Only about half as many stands and only one or two IT-related stands. No employers, only agencies too. Still I registered my details with one agency and had a useful conversation with a Real Estate agent so it wasn't a complete waste of time.

If this had been my first visit I would have been quite disappointed but would probably have got more out of it than I did having been there before.

Cheers,

Martin

[jewelsvani]

As far as engineering went, OH and me came away very happy - heaps of info, so much so my OH got a headache with all the thinking!! :laugh

I have to admit, I probably wouldn't have travelled half the length of the country for it, as we were staying (my Dad's) only an hour away it was no biggie.

Wish I'd grabbed one of those pink bags whilst I had the chance though! :wah

where was the pink bags ? can't remember seeing them:wah

[speckythecky]

Just to the right as you came through the entrance. I think they were Auckland health service or nursing or something like that.

[Chiba]

I was in the UK on holiday when the London Expo was on, so thought I should make the effort to trek down from Manchester, as it was too good a coincidental chance to miss. It wasn't really worth it. Only a couple of IT recruiters there, who now seem to be ignoring my emails...

[Debbie P.]

I am suprised by this did you give Oasis a try? I have to say they are amazing at what they do and I have been very, very impressed by them.

The women at the teachers stall was also very informative, I am suprised she couldn't help. mind you I do come from a secondary school angle do you teach secondary as well or Primary?

Good luck with it.

Sorry for late response, only just noticed this thread.

It's worth checking whether the teacher recruitment agencies are doing free evening seminars around the UK. Oasis did one in Bournemouth a couple of years ago, which my OH went to and found very useful. The man running it was very realistic - in fact, his view on how affordable NZ is on a teacher's salary was very similar to comments on this forum! i.e. 2 salaries are better than one, and you CAN manage on a teacher's salary alone if you are frugal and stay out of Auckland.

[jules1961]

Must agree about being dissapointed with the London Expo at the end of March. My hubby, Daughter, her boyfrind and I all went down on the train costing £200 then the fees to get in of £60 for all four of us. Really expensive day out and came back non the wiser. I heard there was another one in November in Manchester but we won't be going. There weren't them many stands and you had to queue to see anyone.

Save your money :wah :wah :wah

[mgbridges]

I wouldn't rule out the October/November expos. I went to the London ones in October and March and the October one was far far better than the March one. About twice the number of stands and several IT recruiters. While I've been out here in Auckland this week I met the guy from Telecom who was at the October expo. He said they only do one a year, which is why they weren't at the March one. It seems a lot of employers think the same way. If only the expo organisers would be open and honest about which employers were going to be present, you'd get a much better idea of whether or not it was worth going.

Cheers,

Martin

[Trigirl]

i'd agree. the october one was a great deal better

[Cardy]

We went to the one in york a few years ago and came away thinking we had no chance!! One of the guys from nz mmigration all but told us not to bother applying and we nearly didnt. But here we are in NZ with pr and we did it all by ourselves no agents ,no outside help .

Sorry but a big raspberry for expo,s from me :D

Cardy

[janmommy]

Just booked our tickets for the expo in London.
Leaving daughter at home :clap