For more than 15 years, Families in Global Transition has been the global leader in cross cultural education and training to support the entire expat family. It does so on a continual basis through its informative annual conferences, ever-expanding educational website, and year-round benefits such as access to webinars, presentations and ongoing research through its Membership Program.
As the leader of an active and growing global network, FIGT promotes the positive value of the international experience, empowering the family unit and those who serve it before, during and after international transitions. FIGT knows the value of the written word, and is committed to bringing you the latest and greatest information from fellow expatriates, TCKs, global nomads, serial wanderers and repatriated souls. Nowhere is this more apparent than in its efforts to make available the widest array of books, handouts and other written material to pique your interest and honor your global transitions, celebrate your victories and soothe your concerns, offer tangible advice and unswerving support.
This year’s conference theme is ‘The Global Family: Redefined’, and offers many opportunities for you to connect with words which will serve you well.
Prior to the welcoming reception and keynote speaker in the evening of Friday, March 21st, FIGT is priming the pipeline of future writings by offering a fabulous and free Writers’ Forum from 12:00-4:00 pm. Co-hosted by a pair of longtime expatriates in author, publisher and writing instructor Jo Parfitt and translator and eloquent linguaphile Eva Laszlo-Herbert, this event is for novices to novelists, aspiring writers to accomplished wordsmiths, newbies and published authors and everyone in between. The interactive program will encourage participants to explore, express and share their stories – important not only for the individual but also for the broader global community – through presentations, small group discussion, a writing exercise (sharing optional) and a panel of experienced authors to field your questions.
Throughout the conference FIGT will run an onsite bookstore where you can peruse a wide range of titles germane to the expatriate experience and globally mobile way of life. Saturday afternoon the bookstore will be abuzz as authors in attendance congregate and chat with customers at a collegial booksigning.
In keeping with the value placed on the words which educate, enlighten, inform and uplift, not only for our members but also the vast audience of interested expatriates living across cultures worldwide, we’re in the process of expanding and updating our online bookstore as well. Feel free to recommend additional titles which have meant something to you in your global journey. We know you have many options when it comes to where and how you buy books, and we hope you’ll think of the FIGT online bookstore throughout the year as each sale – at competitive prices – helps raise much-appreciated monies directly benefitting the Pollock Scholarship Fund.
FIGT believes in the capacity of the expatriate and repatriate family to transition successfully, to leverage the international experience for all of its human and global potential, and to share our stories along the way.
[For additional information on the 2014 conference schedule, Writer’s Forum, or the FIGT policies regarding selling your book(s) in the onsite bookstore and/or participating in the author book signings, check http://www.figt.org/2014_conference.]
Contributed by Linda A. Janssen, recently repatriated to the US after four years in the Netherlands. A Resilience and Cross-Cultural Transitions consultant/trainer and author of the Emotionally Resilient Expat: Engage, Adapt and Thrive Across Cultures, Linda manages the online and onsite FIGT bookstores, and blogs at www.AdventuresinExpatLand.com
