Opportunities NZ Expo 2006: London and Manchester

The Automotive Employment NZ Expo held in both Earl's Court London and The Palace Hotel Manchester.

New Zealand's single largest off shore employment Expo was recently attended by Automotive Employment NZ with the company securing premium positioning for our exhibition right next to the entry of the Ibis Hotel exhibition centre The Expo reportedly had some 10,000 attendees in London and another 6,000 in Manchester making it the most successful Expo that "Opportunities NZ" have held in the 7 years of its existence.

The Expo was a huge success for Automotive Employment NZ Ltd, mainly due to six months lead up promotion through seven main stream publications throughout the UK The combination of long term marketing leading up to the expo and a 60 page web site that was upgraded and developed to provide free immigration support for the candidates, found our company being shown as an example of the success of the Expo in interviews conducted by Television One News and the BBC television. The former aired in New Zealand on the 26th of October.

Click images for an enlarged view:
Signing job offers	One news interview	Ready to go	Expo attendees	Candidates ten deep	Important decisions	Worn out

What this means for New Zealand employers

Candidates are available to commence work nationwide in the short term, they have had photos taken at the Expo, have had interviews face to face with an experienced consultant, they have full resumes ready for us to forward and will have reference checking completed. Immigration permits are completed free of charge for the whole family for candidates we place, this ensures NZ employers can secure this astounding high quality pool of off shore talent with the minimum of fuss and inconvenience.

The Opportunities NZ Expo teams were fantastic and also promoted the Expo in every major travel magazine in the UK as well as the top motor industry publications.

Automotive Employment NZ was fortunate to have experienced automotive recruiters from New Zealand attending the stand. Additionally managing director Russell Phillips was able to secure the assistance of former employees whom are now providing automotive recruitment services in the UK. While the Expo was in full swing in the UK, our New Zealand based recruiters were busy processing the information and making the placements back in New Zealand. Even prior to the Expo team's arrival back in New Zealand the first six placements were already made. Late in the afternoon after interviewing and candidate photos were completed the consultants representing Automotive Employment NZ were already processing immigration applications for work permits as the remaining few Expo attendees were being ushered out the door by Hotel security 45 minutes after the official closing times. Another three placements are pending and we have only just starting processing the applications. A total of 160 interviews were completed between our arrival and departure in the UK from a staggering 275 applications. Over 120 applicants were selected as being in the top level of available skill and have confirmed arrival dates in New Zealand.

The Expo was punishing work with consultants working 14 hour days, during the days the Expo and the commitment

Clients will have access to background information on the availability of the UK candidates via posted Photos of the candidates on our web sites and career backgrounds. Interview briefs have been completed on all applicants.

These top quality UK based candidates in many if not most cases are available to commence employment in the short term. Our "significant investment" in the Expo is preplanned to continue providing candidates from the UK for up to another 24 months

Candidate's backgrounds vary from automotive technicians with specialist experience in virtually every mark sold here in New Zealand, to diesel mechanics with specific skills on most franchise marques in the heavy transport, heavy equipment, marine, agricultural machinery, forklifts and hire equipment markets, to WOF/COF inspectors, parts professionals, skills sales staff, admin and management personnel in virtually every category and level of the UK motor industry.

The depth, quality and quantity of these skills are simply not available in the current candidate short market New Zealand is experiencing. No consultancy anywhere in New Zealand can currently claim to have the shear selection of these off shore candidates as Automotive Employment NZ Ltd.

A huge thank you goes out to the Opportunities NZ Expo team who were just wonderful. I cannot think of anything the company could have done to make the Expo better. It was a class effort. The same could be said of the working in NZ team who are essentially the same providing support for new immigrants. The support we received was enormous and considerably exceeded expectations.

Automotive Employment NZ Ltd has forged some great friendships with the Expo team and support staff as well many of the 55 companies and their employees. There are some truly decent people that represent virtually every area of commence in NZ from real estate, banking, removal companies, financial services, to government bodies such as NZ immigration services and various representatives from local government bodies throughout. We look forward to working with these companies and organisations to help our candidates immigrate to new Zealand with ease. The 55 companies that represented New Zealand at the Expo have contributed extensively to New Zealand's financial development. We are understandably proud to be amongst them.