Global Expansion Conference

Meghan: [00:00:14] Hello and welcome to HRDTV. My name is Meghan Bille. Joined today by Seraj Toefy, strategic director of the Global Expansion Conference. Seraj is here to talk to us about the upcoming Global Expansion Conference. Some exciting speakers we should expect to see at the event and some of the most interesting sessions. Hi, Seraj. Now Seraj, tell us a little bit about the goals of the conference.

Seraj: [00:00:39] Thanks for that, Megan. What we're trying to achieve with the global expansion conference is we really want to grow. I mean, we want to grow the entire industry, really. There's the global expansion is such a massive growing industry at the moment. People are moving globally more than they've ever moved before. But obviously post-COVID, we found that during COVID there was a massive amount of interest and a lot of a lot of research being done. And what's happening now is that as the world is opening up, there's more and more of a drive to move people globally, both moving stuff to different parts of the world and all business is actually scaling into other regions. And so what we're trying to do with the conference is get all the thinkers and all the the role players into the same room and finally getting people face to face again and not just virtual meetings. And so we we really bringing the entire ecosystem together to talk global expansion.

Meghan: [00:01:41] Who are your most anticipated speakers at the Global Expansion Conference?

Seraj: [00:01:45] I mean, that's Megan. That's like asking, which is my favorite child, right? You can't you can't really choose. But I've made a couple of notes on some of the top speakers. I mean, we've got we've got world class speakers from Ronan Dunne, who's currently the chairman of the Six Nations Rugby, and he's a strategic advisor to the CEO of Verizon. And he's coming on board to talk about leadership and global expansion. Mike Azlen, who's CEO of Carbon Cap, he's talking about really future proofing your business and, you know, bringing in sustainability. We've got a panel of scientists talking about A.I., robotics, quantum computing. I don't even know what that is, but I'm interested and I think it's going to be it's going to be really, really interesting. We've got the former Brazilian football player, Gilberto Silva. He won the World Cup football and he's gone from footballer to kind of wellbeing and he's got a business where he talks about prioritising wellbeing in the workplace. And then, you know, then also completely another tact is Saudi Arabia. Who would have thought that that's really going to be the future of global business? We've got a panel talking about Saudi Arabia as this hub of business going forward. We've got the minister of investment from Saudi Arabia, Majed Alsaadi, who'll be joining us as well. So so we really have world class speakers speaking about things that are just, you know, interesting new developments, cutting edge about the future of business and global expansion.

Meghan: [00:03:24] What are the most exciting sessions you're looking forward to at the conference?

Seraj: [00:03:28] Yeah, good question, Meghan. I think, you know, I've mentioned some of the great speakers we have. There's 111 that I really find interesting is is going to be the future of of kind of remote work. That's another it's another thing that's come out of the pandemic is more people are working remotely. I've taken I've got the advantage of that in Cape Town, small team in Cape Town, whereas our head office is in London, we're working remotely. How does that work? What are the the HR tax implications? What are the what are the this this digital nomad? You know, everyone wants to be a digital nomad. They want to work from anywhere. But what are the impacts on your actual, you know, the entity setup? What is your tax implications? Where are you getting paid? Which public holidays do you kind of adhere to your head office or where you are? There's there's so many interesting considerations to to to to think about. And we've got a panel of experts that's going to be discussing that and unpacking it. And and throughout the two days, we've got, you know, key keynote speakers who are going to, you know, fill the stage by themselves. And then we have panels of experts really unpacking complicated topics and really drilling down into it. So, yeah, I'm really looking forward to it. I know I'm involved in putting it all together, but I'm going to be absolutely hanging on to every word that's being said at the at the event myself.

Meghan: [00:04:55] And what can attendees learn and take away from the conference?

Seraj: [00:04:59] So what can they learn? Look, it's we've got everything to do with global expansion. And I know I keep saying going on about global expansion, but it's not it's not a new topic. It's just an all encompassing one. There are many there are conferences around accounting, they're conferences around immigration, there's conferences around business. This is a specialist global expansion event where we're talking about things that, you know, HR directors, global mobility people, CEOs in VCs, venture capitalists who are investing in new startups and scale ups. They also interested in how do we how do we grow? They've invested a lot of money into a really good company, but can this company actually scale globally? So we've actually you know, we've got a we've got a session that is the VC perspective. You know, a bunch of VCs going to talk about what are they looking for in global expansion. And then not not only is it for the the scale up and the startup who are thinking of scaling, it's also for big corporates who are who are moving people around the like I said, HR directors all sharing ideas around the challenges that they are facing on a regular basis. But also what are the best best practices? What are people doing globally as at the cutting edge of global expansion? What is the best practice and how can people copy that? So there's a lot to learn, but more importantly, there's there's this huge opportunity to network. We've got people coming from all corners of the globe. We have built in many networking sessions as well. So that, you know, there's always it's not just lunch, but it's kind of we extended them and so meet up with people. We're putting we're putting key people together. I think it's going to be the place to be if you are currently involved in global expansion or if you're ever thinking of your business growing to be in that room. What you will learn there can stick with you for the next couple of years.

Meghan: [00:07:05] Can you tell us a little bit more about the Int-X Awards that will be featured at the Global Expansion Conference?

Seraj: [00:07:10] Yes, thank you. Thanks for that, Megan. It's another thing we've added to the conference. It's happening, the gala event. So it's it's the culmination of the awards. So the awards are open at the moment. It's a it's it's it's really an awards that is there to celebrate the global expansion industry companies that are scaling fast and companies that are supporting businesses that are scaling. So if your business is in any way assisting or scaling a business that is assisting a business that is scaling, we we we awarding you, we're honoring you, we're giving you some kind of extra exposure. And it all culminates in the middle evening of the conference at a gala dinner, at the venue, at the Four Seasons in London. And it's going to be a really special night. And if anyone wants to find out more, you know, you can find out more from the conference website or www.centuroglobal.com/IntXaward. Thank you.

Meghan: [00:08:12] Thank you so much, Seraj. For more information on the conference agenda speakers and to register visit the Global Expansion Conference website. This event will be held in London on May 25th and 26. Hope to see you there. Thank you.