Brno Expat Fair 2024: a hundred nationalities met at Tržnice
Whooping 1,800 Brno expats and their friends met at the Living in Brno Expat Fair 2024. But, we feel, an even more staggering number is this: they came to Brno from 106 different countries. For us, that’s an amazing way to understand and mark what the expat fair truly is: international Brňáci in one place, at one time. And we think the fact could be felt – and that the energy was thrumming through the walls of Tržnice that Saturday!
A quick look back:
A video by Danny Aboud.
Brno’s international vibe poured into Tržnice for one day
The 4 floors of Tržnice (Zelný trh) filled up with expat-friendly services, schools, jobs, theatres, libraries, hobby labs… The expat fair was a chance to meet with the local Indian, Turkish and Mixed Families communities. Besides them, expat-run projects showed off their creations and ideas, and on the courtyard of the Old Town Hall, their culinary prowess. Ten cuisines offered their dishes, from South African to Mexican.
A stage with expat performers set a good mood for the food festival outside, whilst inside, experts gave talks and led workshops on topics relevant to life in Brno (law, insurance, first-aid, taxes, etc). The seats filled up for Dan Murphy’s lecture about navigating an expat career from Brno, or for Don Sparling’s lecture on famous Brno exports = famous Brňáči who made their mark in the world and you might have heard about them even before knowing Brno existed.
We closed the day with an afterparty, with afro beats throbbing through Tržnice and even the whole of Zelný trh – indeed, the music attracted many Czech passersby to join us, just as the excellent food throughout the day attracted lots of Czechs to have a look inside the expat fair proper = and take a peek inside the local international community, too. How do we know this? We have hundreds of Czech walk-ins, registering for the fair on the spot.
Our thanks go to you
We thank the Brno Municipality, and the event’s partners, for their financial support, and enthusiasm for the idea. Without them, the event wouldn’t have happened.
Without you, our dear international Brňáci, the day wouldn’t have been so great. A special shout-out to our amazing team of volunteers (the picture above), without whom the event wouldn’t have run nearly as smoothly. Because of their quick minds, quick feet and ready smiles could we all have such an awesome day. Thank you, our dear team!
(And a special thank you to Alejandra Rossell, who led the troops so very efficiently.)
Main partner: Infosys. Partners: AT&T, Atlas Copco, Honeywell, Lufthansa, MANN+HUMMEL, Red Hat, Thermofisher Scientific, Zebra.
