[Hayden1002]

Well we've just got back from Sandown Park having gone to "The largest emigration show in the world" yes, as long as you want europe, Canada/US or OZ. :eek

The Kiwi bit- in reality about 20 desk/stalls- was very good, very nice people trying to give you as much info etc as they could (even NZIS :laugh ). Also lots of MINTIES :nice1

But the seminars were sadly lacking. We booked the 2 day tickets(£16 ea instead of £10 a day) and had been given 4 seminars for free (someone said they cost £7 a pop) 1st one was supposed to be NZIS giving a 45min presentation on how to get there etc. Well he changed it to a questions from the floor type of thing which worked to a degree.
The 2nd one "NZ here we come" needed to be about twice as long as they had an estate agent, a agency bod, a relocation bod and a couple who had been stars of a DVD following their experiences to answer questions. You couldn't just ask them, you had to wait for a hostess to come over with a microphone tell her the question and she would ask the panel (Wasted a lot of time as she kept forgetting half the question). Not only that but the 2 hostesses were reading a "witty" script.....not! It was obvious they hadn't even picked it up prior to the presentation starting due to the complete cock-up they made of it.

Anyway to cut along story short we cancelled our hotel booking and binned the other 2 seminars, as we reckoned they'd be a let down too, and drove home :exit , having got all the info we needed from the Kiwi exhibitors. :clap within 3-4 hours

Oh yeah, I really, really hate the M25
&
High food prices. At Sandown, for example, a 5 piece all day breakfast was over £6. That was about the average price for any hot meal there-scandalous :eek

[debnjohn]

Hayden,
Is it worth going just for the stalls? We did intend to go tomorrow morning.

We went to a Consyl Publishing Information Day at Hounslow back in January, where there were about 10 or 15 stalls - I remember NZIS, AlliedPickfords Removals, Tradestaff, autojobs, ASB Bank and HIFx currency brokers. We also picked up glossy brochures on Napier Life, Hawkes Bay(property) and Christchurch/Canterbury 'Pure Business'.
Do you think we'd glean much more from Sandown? We don't intend to do any of the seminars now, so is it worth the £10 apiece plus 70-odd miles down the motorway?
Cheers,
John.
PS I'd deffo go if I thought we were going to meet some other forumites!

[captainxmas]

Sandown is a bit big and busy, but good for people that haven't made their minds up. It was probably the reason for NZ House being pretty quiet yesterday though.

Hayden, I would recommend the London Show in October as it is NZ only, if you are still here.

As for breakfast prices, I agree, but at least you can go to Aggys when you get back and get a good value fry-up.

:nice1

[Hayden1002]

debnjohn
IMHO no I don't think it would be worth it unless you wanted to speak to a specific company.
There are the following stalls there:

Anglo Pacific Intl (removals)
Accent recruiting (Med employment agency)
Southern Ventures (Orientation)
Access Migration services
ASB Bank
Australian Financial services
Destination NZ (Newspaper)
Education personnel
Harcourts
Heathlink NZ
Immigration NZ group
Jennian Homes
John Mason Intl (removals)
Montfort Intl (finance)
Newjobz
NZ Migration Bureau
NZIS
Oasis Education
Overseas Pension transfer
Pensions transfer direct
PRD Nationwide (Property investment)
PSS Removals
Right Asset 4 lifestyle (Property consultants)
Teach NZ
Emigration group
Tonix healt recruiting
Visa go emigration
Working in NZ
Works infrastructure (Construction industry)
Willis Brazolot (Immigration & careers)

Some of these are obviously trying to catch Oz & NZ immigrants

Hifx partly sponsor the event so are everywhere.

If it wasn't obvious I added a bit about what they do.
You can find all these on the net.
If you are an enrolled nurse here you will struggle to get a nursing job as you are defined as a nursing assistant there.
Most of the people we spoke to had a quick chat and handed you on to someone else to take your details, "we'll email you"!
Hope it hasn't put you off you may have a better experience than us. We went on the friday as we figured it would be a bit quieter, it was busier than we expected.

One interesting observation though, during the NZIS seminar he asked how many people had actually been to NZ. He was very surprised at how few of us had, about 10% he said on previous seminars it had been about 60%. His advice go and visit before you commit yourself but be quick cos the points are the lowest they're gonna get

[debnjohn]

Thanks Hayden.
Brilliant list, must have taken you ages!
Yeah, we've decided to give it a miss.

As for the NZIS rep., was he an older gent, small built with glasses? If so it sounds like the same one who was at Honslow in January. At that time I was a bit dissapointed with the information the NZIS employee had; for example he didn't know anything about the proposed change to citizenship (3 to 5 years), nor did he know that the current pass mark for EOI withdrawls was 100 points - and had been so for the past ELEVEN draws (at that time - obviously more now).
Cheers,
John.

[Hayden1002]

Sounds like the same bloke, he'd obviously read up on some stuff since you saw him last :laugh

I think the NZIS stand is staffed by NZIS london staff and other NZ house staff, spoke to a lady initially who basically said "I haven't got a clue, speak to him, him or her they'll know but here's a web address for jobs lists". I then spoke to a lady called Sarah who answered every question no probs.
I guess it's a bit hit and miss if you get NZIS staff or another member of staff who is just plugging gaps at the show. All very nice people though, no minties on the stand though had to go foraging elsewhere :nice1

[Hannah-NL]

Sounds like you guys met Ian who was in Holland last week?
Dark haired, glasses, small face, small built, tanned, dark pants and (aubergine?) shirt?
He sure does go around ;)

[Bubbles]

hayden1002 Wrote

" I think the NZIS stand is staffed by NZIS london staff "

Yep, think you're spot on there. That's why my interview was moved from Friday to Thursday. My CO couldn't make Friday due to Sandown. I was told they were working all weekend due to this :uhoh

John

[bbq]

i went last year and the guy I met on the NZIS stand happens to be my case officer!

Spooky!

alex