With less than a week left to FIGT15, here's another opportunity for attendees: Initiate Early Bird Sessions during the Breakfast time slot.

The electric atmosphere at FIGT Conferences fuels inspiration. You may have a number of thoughts you want to express, discuss or test. Our Early Bird Sessions provide an opportunity to do that.

From 8:00-8:50 am on both Saturday (7th) and Sunday (8th), time will be given over to informal Early Bird Sessions at designated tables, centered around a topic of your choice. During these conversations, you can: test an idea; find like-minded individuals; discuss your insights; and share learning. Your chosen topic is displayed at the table, and as attendees enter, they can opt to join in.

The process is simple:
 

To sign up as a facilitator for Saturday morning, email us with a proposed topic and a brief description (60 words) of why it interests you. Email Board Member Maryam Afnan Ahmad at maa.zaman@gmail.com by March 5th, 5 p.m. EST.
 

If you can't think of an idea right now, you can wait for inspiration to strike on Friday or Saturday. Sign up with a proposed topic for the Sunday Early Bird sessions at the registration desk.

Get those ideas brewing with your morning cup of coffee!
 

The central question of FIGT15 is an important one: "How do today's global individuals and families 'find home' amidst global change?" We'll address this question by offering rich and varied conference content across a number of delivery methods: keynote and concurrent speakers, forums, expert panels, speed talks, facilitated conversations and videos. Presenters will be teaching practical and actionable strategies, but just as importantly, they will be attending FIGT15 to absorb, share, collaborate and connect.

In addition to the previously mentioned Early Bird sessions, you'll want to check out the talented Keynote Speakers and Plenary Panel (including Opening Keynote Teja Arboleda, Closing Keynote Doug Ota, and the Panel of Dudes: The Next Great Generation on Saturday evening).

During our Concurrent Sessions, we bring together some of the top educators and entrepreneurs in the world to learn and network. We have asked twenty-five cross-sector experts -- grouped into the four themes of perspectives, fundamentals, relationships and applications -- to share their findings, practices, and nagging questions about the changing worlds of global nomads. Their stories are inspiring, but the actions they've taken and the suggested strategies and tactics they recommend will also motivate you.

Be sure to have a look at the wonderful presenters we have scheduled for the lightning-fast Ignite talks (Norman Viss, Ginny Sampson, Michele Bar-Pereg, Naomi Hattaway, Tashi Nibber and Tayo Rockson), not to mention the Kitchen Table sessions and the Friday afternoon Writer's Forum and Research Forum.

Check out the entire conference schedule here. And if that's not enough, you can find all of the presenters' bios here. 
 

If you're attending the FIGT Conference for the first time, over the course of the weekend you'll notice an energetic band of welcoming individuals weaving their way through the hallways, meeting rooms and congregated throngs, selling raffle tickets. After having forked over your hard-earned conference fee, you may be wondering why you're being hit up for funds yet again, this time for what you assume must surely be the chance to win a cheap item you'd just as soon do without, all in the name of filling FIGT's conference coffers.

Well, you'd be wrong on both counts!

FIGT works hard to put on a premier conference event annually, financed solely by carefully constrained conference fees and the generosity of our sponsors -- Dwellworks, CORT Destination Services,  Paxton International, ACS International Schools, Summertime Publishing Ltd, Patterson Partners Ltd, and Genius Xpat, -- other donors, and volunteers.

So why are those raffle tickets for sale, and what sort of prize might you win?

As the co-author -- with FIGT co-founder Ruth Van Reken -- of the definitive TCK handbook Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds, the late David Pollock is owed a special place in the hearts and minds of those who find themselves living, working, studying and raising families in cross-cultural contexts. To honor his legacy of many decades spent helping individuals and family members in global transition, FIGT created the David C. Pollock Scholarship.

In short, the Pollock Scholarship recipients are the lifeblood of FIGT, the next generation of cross-cultural thinkers, researchers, creatives and global pioneers bringing attention to the complex issues confronting those who live across cultures.

The scholarship is funded from individual donations -- both money and prize items -- of FIGT members and conference attendees. The prize packages are then raffled off at the conference, raising funds to support the Scholarship. For FIGT15, the prizes average about $250-$300 in value, and include high-tech gifts such as an iPad and smart watch, travel-related items, sizeable gift cards, and a variety of books from emerging authors and researchers in the intercultural field.
 

Covering all the fantastic presentation sessions from last year's conference, Insights and Interviews is the go-to resource for all the valuable information shared and generated at the March 2014 Families in Global Transition Conference. This (and any future yearbooks) will create an enriching archival resource for the FIGT community, and allow you to feel as though you were there in spirit, if not in person.

If you'd like a sneak preview of an excerpt from the 2014 Yearbook, check out 2014 Parfitt-Pascoe Writing Resident Dounia Bertuccelli's interview of Sea Change Mentoring founder and FIGT Board Member Ellen Mahoney here. And don't forget to grab your copy at the special FIGT rate of $20 in the Conference Bookstore (retail price $21) -- members get 10% off. The yearbook will also be available in the FIGT online bookstore in Kindle format shortly. 

We also spoke with the members of the Parfitt Pascoe Writing Team from 2014, on the exciting publication of their yearbook, and asked them how the FIGT experience impacted them. Dounia Bertuccelli, Cristina Bertarelli, Sue Mannering, Alice Wu and Terry Anne Wilson shared their experience:
 

Checking in with the 2014 Parfitt Pascoe Writing Residents (Part 1)

Checking in with the 2014 Parfitt Pascoe Writing Residents (Part 2)