Families In Global Transition
Conference
Highlights 2008 Houston, Texas, US (March 2008)
An ExpatWomen Interview with
FIGT Participant Robin Pascoe
ExpatWomen: Robin, this year was your sixth FIGT conference. What inspired you to go to your first conference - and why do you keep going?
Robin: I was inspired to go my first conference in 2000 because Ruth Van Reken had included me on a list of people she wanted to have attend and I was so flattered and honoured that Ruth knew me and contacted me personally I couldn't say no the Third Culture Kid (TCK) guru!
I think I keep going because even though we call it a 'reunion of strangers' (because everyone feels like they know everyone else from the common experience we share), the people who attend are truly those who are committed to working on behalf of the expatriate community worldwide without thinking about whether they will make money out of it (not that there is anything wrong with making money). My point is that attendees tend to be passionate about their particular niche in the global living area (whether it is cross-cultural training, emotional support, or research) and are wonderful at helping others feel welcome if it is their first time. There is a lot of networking and a lot of laughing! Personally, I really like bringing new people to it as well. This year I brought someone I had met in Santiago who told me afterwards she was overwhelmed by the experience of the conference. She had recently repatriated from The Hague to her home country, Chile, and just to be back with expats or former expats really made her feel 'at home'.
ExpatWomen: How many participants attended this year and where did they come from?
Robin: This year was actually the 10th anniversary of the conference since Ruth and a few of her colleagues in Indianapolis in the cross-cultural field first conceived of the idea - at her kitchen table - back in 1998. I think the first conference was quite small and still held in her home town of Indianapolis before moving first to Dallas and now permanently to Houston.
Attendence was about 200 this year. The conference does tend to have a large American presence (I am Canadian so I can say that!) but I can certainly also say that South America was represented this year, South Africa, Britain and several European countries like Italy, the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. Some of the US military representatives came in from Korea and Japan. There was a wide variety of expat-related fields there: interculturalists; coaches; psychotherapists; researchers; career counsellors; educational consultants; writers; and representatives of corporate spousal organizations.
FIGT Participants
David C. Pollock Scholarship recipients, with Nancy Hartman and Ruth Van Reken
Drumming Divas (N8Rhythum)
Barbara Schaetti, Betty Lou Pollock, Norma McCaig and Ruth Van Reken
Having Fun!
ExpatWomen: What were some of the overall themes this year? Were they different from last year?
Robin: The theme this year was "Supporting the Family - Accomplishing the Assignment" so I suppose you could say that many of the sessions really centered around how to better contribute to the success of both the family and the assignment - to create a win/win scenario for everyone involved in an international assignment, long or short term.
The overall (important) themes never really change except for the new perspectives and research brought by new presenters and there were many new faces this year giving concurrent sessions. Of course there were the basics: third culture kids; education; corporate policies about family; spouses and their needs; and transition in general - and repatriation in particular. New sectors were also included this year, for example the non-governmental agencies (NGO) communities and how they fit into the overall picture.
ExpatWomen: Can you please give us some idea of the individual topics/speakers/sessions covered this year?
Robin: As usual, there were way too many sessions that I wanted to attend. One of the great things about the programming is that they do offer sessions for people who are new to the subjects and others that are for the older hands like me.
One new kind of session they introduced which I found particularly interesting was a focus on research that is being done, especially by some young third culture kids who have taken their own experiences growing up and turned that into college research projects or research in general. So that was a new addition to the program: early morning research presentations. Of course I could only get to one of them, but I found it fascinating. It was called TCKs: Identity and Well-Being After Repatriation presented by a young Smith College student Laila Plamondon. That was one presentation I quickly wanted to follow up on!
But of course you had everything from panels on spouses, to handling repatriation effectively, to identity issues and challenges and of course short term assignments and how the family can better deal with them. Corporate policies were dissected - again - and during a cross-sector plenary session, best practices of relocation support were exchanged. The cracker barrel (when many subjects are discussed in 20 minute bursts before people move onto another subject) was a huge success in my opinion as it had everything from marriage to how to set up a family support organization within a company. A guidance counselor from the Lincoln School in Buenos Aires gave a session on transition programming in international schools which was well-received (and very useful) and there was lots about helping children thrive in new scholastic environments. Jo Parfitt, who did the closing keynote last year, spoke several times this year about expat entrepreneurship and of course, writing about expat experiences. Another new interesting dimension was an expat art show where artists expressed their experiences living abroad through art work rather than words. And of course there were practical sessions on careers for spouses, setting financial goals while being an expat, and how TCKs adapt in today's workplace.
ExpatWomen: Finally, Robin, we would be grateful if you could please share with us some of your personal highlights and favourite messages from FIGT 2008?
Robin: One of my favourite sessions was called "Grieving and Leaving: A Developmental Approach to Viewing Moving and Loss". The title may sound sad but it really was joyful session as it was conducted by the mother-daughter team of Barbara and Jennifer Berthiaume (which certainly gave me an idea of trying to bring my own daughter to the conference next year as Jennifer is the same age as mine, 25). It was not only informative but listening to the younger woman give her perspective on their many moves was fantastic... and seeing how well she turned out (she had just returned from 2 years in the Peace Corps) I think was reassuring for all the worry-warts in the room!
The absolute highlight, though, was sentimental. As this year was the 10th anniversary, we honoured the roots of the conference and the people who pioneered so much of the work. Norma McCaig was honoured for her work in coining the term 'global nomads' and really setting it all off back in the early 80's. The widow of the late Dave Pollock (TCK guru and co-author of "Third Culture Kids" with Ruth Van Reken), Betty Lou, who traveled with him everywhere and was so much part of his work, represented Dave and honestly, there was not a dry eye in the place! I think that was truly a wonderful moment. Bittersweet to be sure, but for people like me, a reminder of why I do what I do. Dave was definitely my mentor and I had a great time wandering around the conference finding people I could mentor too.
ExpatWomen: Many, many thanks Robin - both for sharing with us about FIGT this year - and for your non-stop dedication to helping expats abroad.
If you would like to read more about what Robin is up to, I invite you to visit the blog on her site: http://www.expatexpert.com
