Expat Networking: Internations - The Community for Expatriates and Global Minds

One of the great resources I always recommend to expatriates interested in connecting with other expats is Internations. Describing itself as network for "connecting global minds", InterNations was the first international online community for people who live and work abroad.  More than 230 local communities all over the world are represented. It allows members to keep in touch with friends and business contacts. They can exchange reliable information on expat-specific topics, both on a global and a local level. And because you can join by invitation only, the community is a network of personal trust where privacy is protected.

Malte Zeek, one of the founders of Internations, was generous enough to give me some of his time and answer a few questions about Internations, its founders and how it got started:

Malte, could you tell me a little bit about the founders and how InterNations was born?  How did it grow from just an idea to being a reality?

There are three founders of Internations - Malte Zeeck, Philipp von Plato and Christian Leifield.

Christian Leifeld is a true “Kölsche Jung”. Due to his strong passion for his home town Cologne, Christian’s first international experience came relatively late at the age of 18 with a short high school exchange to London. But after that Christian was caught by the fascination for getting to know people and places around the world. After a bank trainee program, Christian completed an international master degree in business, studying at the universities of Barcelona, Cologne, and Stockholm. During extensive internships in South Africa, Spain, and Austria, he discovered the challenges of an expat’s life early on. His first job took him for four years to an international management consultancy, where he was not only working in the Middle East but also coached young entrepreneurs for Germany’s biggest start-up competition. Another fascination was born, and Christian’s biggest wish now is to work for his own company abroad soon…

Philipp von Plato  studied, worked, and lived, abroad in places such as Spain, Croatia, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. Since he was little Philipp has been looking for entrepreneurial challenges. Later on he won prizes in business plan competitions and worked for several startups. Work experiences in project management at a strategic consultancy honed his skills in working with international companies and entrepreneurs. In his leisure time, Philipp enjoys outdoor recreation whenever possible: he loves to go fishing, hunting and simply enjoying nature and wildlife together with his friends and family. Finally, Philipp seems to be taking the recruiting phase of InterNations very serioulsy: his wife Katharina will give birth to the “youngest global mind” in February this year.

I am Malte Zeeck, the third founder. I love to travel to learn more about other cultures and to meet people from all around the world. Wherever I have studied or worked, it never took me long before l went to another country, be it a high school year in the US, military service in the Netherlands and Italy or my University Studies in Switzerland, Italy, and Brazil. To see even more of the world, I worked as a flight attendant during my studies. After completing my business and film studies, I worked for various TV stations where I was able to combine my creative abilities with my love of travel by producing documentaries and working as a reporter in different countries such as India, Brazil, Spain etc. With InterNations, I am pursuing my dream of bringing people of all cultures together. I can't wait to meet all InterNations members at all of our various local communities.

We have all spent much time abroad and have always had to put an extra effort into building up an international network, as well as try and find new information on google about our new location every time we moved. It was this experience that convinced us of the usability of our idea for the Internations community. After long nights of heated discussions and a continuous balancing of the pros and cons we pulled ourselves together and so the idea turned into a concept and the concept into an organization.

We “fled” into a castle close to Bonn in order to work out the concept and spent whole four months there in session, because efficient work is best done without distractions. The challenge succeeding the ready concept was to find an IT-partner to implement our ideas. Eventually we chose a young team from Bochum that was very creative, had already won few awards and was just the right partner for us. What we liked most was that not only did they complete our IT plan but they also brought in their own ideas.

Why should expats join Internations?

InterNations is the platform for international exchange. If you want to meet interesting people and other global minds, discuss local and world political topics and support a good cause…then InterNations is the place for you!

What makes Internations so unique?

InterNations is an invitation-only community. This makes it a community of trust with high-quality members and a very personal manner with the member’s real name, genuine picture and the organization they work for- as opposed to anonymous blackboards with alias names und questionable quality. InterNations is all about the people - the more personal, the better.

Which features seem to be most popular?

InterNations has a variety of features that are tailor-made for expatriates. Our members build-up personal connections that provide them with a “first aid kit” in their new environment abroad and exchange information and ideas in the local and world forum, where expat themes and global political issues get similar amounts of attention. You can post news of events and photos of events. Through the Internations wire you can keep people updated with what you are doing.  There are many groups through which you can connect with like-minded expatriates. There are so many useful features and we are working to add new features all of the time.

How can members help you in your commitment to creating opportunities for those less fortunate to experience other cultures?

Our members are well-educated people who are eager to engage in social causes. At InterNations they can currently help providing international education to young people in underprivileged countries with our Charity Program simply by inviting new members or by acting as host families. In the future we want to develop the Charity Program further and add up new dimensions. In our long-term vision every local community has its own social project to take care of, because many spouses and partners of expatriates also want to involve in social activities. 

Thanks Malte for taking the time to share about the "global minds" behind this great resource for expats!

YOUR EXPAT SUCCESS TIP: If you are an expat (or an aspiring one), consider joining the Internations community.  Leave a comment here if you would like an invitation (membership is invitation only) and I will be happy to give you one so you can start to connect with other expats, wherever you are in the world.

YOUR THOUGHTS?  Are you a member of Internations?  Have you had positive experiences or can you recommend specific resources there that others would find particularly useful? Please share by leaving a comment.

Comments

[Emmanuelle Archer]

Hello Megan, I have been following your blog for a little while now. As a French expat living in Vancouver, BC, I often find myself nodding in agreement while reading your posts!

I would love to take you up on your offer regarding Internations.
If there is anything I can do for you in return, please do not hesitate to let me know.

Emmanuelle

[Paul Allen]

Hi Megan,
Could you send me an invitation for InterNations? I am a freelance journalist and writer living in northern Spain, with a business geared towards helping prospective expatriates decide whether moving abroad would be the right decision for them (www.expatliving101.com).
I look forward to hearing from you.
Many thanks,
Paul

[P Sen-Gupta]

InterNations is one of the only internet resource which does not have a 'Unsubscribe' option. believe it or not!

Once you are on... you cannot leave. LOL

You Have to send then a letter or a fax to request an acoount deletion according to the terms.
Beware!

[Nikita Ann]

http://www.interdations.org is the dating variant!

[Jane]

Interesting site!

[jill jordan]

4 years on from a post by Paul and you still cannot unsubscribe from internations. Unbelievable. All you can do is stop receiving newsletters but they keep your details forever - you can never leave.
Jill