The Most Expensive Cities of Europe

These are lists of the world’s most expensive cities for expatriate employees (not residents), according to the cost-of-living surveys. If you want to move or just to visit one of those cities, consider your conditions twice!

Various factors enter into a city’s cost-of-living for expatriate employees, such as monetary value, consumer confidence, investment, interest rates, exchange rates of the country’s currency, and housing costs. Cost of living may be much higher for expatriates than for local residents in a developing country, especially if expatriates expect a standard of living similar to a developed country.

1) Zurich

2) Geneva

3) London

4) Basel

5) Lausanne

6) Reykjavik

7) Oslo

8) Lugano

9) Dublin

10) Copenhagen

23) Munich

46) Berlin

56) Barcelona

5 Most Liveable Cities

Here are the top 5 most liveable cities in the world in terms of criteria such as health, education, stability, crime rates, and social development according to the Mercer Quality of Living Survey.

1- Vienna (Austria)

Vienna, the capital of Austria, is the most populous city in the country but also the smallest area. Due to its cultural and architectural heritage, it is now one of the most important tourism cities. But in fact, this city is great for not only to visit but also to live. A systematic functioning transportation network, properly planned living spaces, high levels of education and culture, living conditions make Austria one of the most livable cities in the world.

2- Zurich (Switzerland)

Zurich, the largest city in Switzerland, is a very touristy city. There are many places to visit in Zurich for a tourist such as museums, historical buildings, and natural beauties. What about life? Living here should be really good. Because Zurich is one of the countries that attracts attention with its security. It is also the most developed city in terms of quality of life of the world. The traffic is flowing regularly, it is almost impossible to hear the horn sound.

3- Auckland (New Zealand)

Auckland, a New Zealand city, always ranks first in the list of the world’s most livable cities. Because there is a life far from stressful conditions in this peaceful city. Although it is located in a larger area, you can go to a great beach in 20 minutes wherever you are in the city. You can also go for a walk in a magnificent forest or enjoy your sail. In this city full of calm people, the time flows quite slowly.

4- Munich (Germany)

Munich is a German city that offers people both city life and magnificent nature. Moreover, it is one of the cities with the highest quality of life. This is a peaceful city full of joyful people, and nature life. What makes Munich beautiful to living is also its glorious history.

5- Vancouver (Canada)

One of the dream cities that maintains its innocence despite all the turmoil in the world is Vancouver. Although it is a big city, you can easily find anywhere you want, thanks to its regular streets and roads, and you can easily reach anywhere you want. With its natural beauties, it gives people the chance to live experiences that you cannot live anywhere in the world. It is well-kept, peaceful, and offers people a wonderful public service …

Which city do you think is the best to live?

Here the World’s Most Interesting and Strange Cities

Bits & Pretzels Founders Festival 2018

From 30th September to 2nd October, the renowned start-up festival Bits & Pretzels was held in Munich in parallel to Oktoberfest. This year’s event was themed Diversity & Gender equality. A message from the organizers:

“Gender equality is also part of this year’s Bits & Pretzels Festival – because the topic of diversity is in the foreground! We believe that diversity helps us unleash the greatest entrepreneurial potential. Diversity in our workforce, in new markets, in our products, in our community and in our thinking in general, will be the key to more and greater opportunities ahead.”

Almost everything that has a rank and name in the industry is represented. In various conferences and lectures, everything is discussed about the digital world, specially Artificial Intelligence. One of the most awaited sessions is the Pretzel Award competition, held on the second day, where 100 startups present their product. Different from typical pitches, this under the motto “Show, do not tell”, startups should not say a word about their history, market size or financing, but only show what the product can do and which problem it solves. This year, Inveox received the esteemed “Golden Pretzel”.

Last but not least, networking is a top priority. In the course of the 3 days, GLOBALS CEO & Founder Mario Paladini, was able to participate in various discussion rounds, sessions and interview colleagues from tech scene, as you can check out in the videos below! See you at #bits19!

AiRelo – Your smart city registration assistant

AiRelo assists you to complete the city registration form. It requires no apps, no downloads, and no signups. All you have to do is chat with AiRelo on Facebook messenger. Simply select your language, your city, take a picture of your passport and/or answer some simple questions, and get the city registration form filled out and validated in the local language.

Currently, AiRelo is available for Berlin, Munich and NYC, but soon will expand to more cities. If you would like AiRelo to be in your city, or suggest a new city, you can submit a new city!

“Smart Urban Future” AiRelo at TEP Conference 2017, NYC

On October 10th, TEP Conference 2017 “Smart Urban Future” will have taken place in NYC for seven years in a row.

Every year, the TEP Conference brings together academics, policymakers, investors, media, international startups, and representatives from over 20 countries.

The aim of the event is to discuss and share opinions and knowledge about the challenges and opportunities that society, SME’s and larger corporations face around new deployed concepts. The result is an innovative, future-focused networking venue partnered with a forward-thinking conference.

Apart from the conference, TEP invites revolutionary startups from across the globe to join the venue and work with them for three days.

This way, startups have the opportunity to attend master classes from prominent figures and experts, gain better insight into how the US market works, and get a better knowledge about how to expand their startups.

Startups can also perform a one-minute pitch in the main venue in front of investors, partners, collaborators, and other relevant figures who can give them feedback and maybe build a strategic partnership.

• Kickoff & Welcome
• Pitch Clinic: 1-minute flash pitch, with:

• Morning: Scale to NYC

• Evening: Smart Urban Future; Data & Development

• Night: TEP Reception; Urban mobility in the digital age

• Business Lessons from and for New York City
• The German Accelerator
• “Early Stage Founders: Lessons from the Inside”
• Grand Central Tech & Urban Tech Hub
• Entrepreneur Roundtable Accelerator

Beyond TEP: “Steps to an NY Expansion?

• Joined the Wall Street Journal Breakfast on the Future of Smart Cities with the CEO of CISCO, Chuck Robbins
• Also joined the Women & Minority Business Owner’s Breakfast Networking
• Met with Head of Business Development of Brooklyn Borough

Zukunft Personal is considered Europe’s largest HR Management fair. This year took place from the 19th until the 21st of September in Cologne, Germany.

We brought there AiRelo to meet with worldwide HR leaders, decision-makers, and managers and to discuss how the future of HR is changing towards new technologies.

AI Bots are up to date, every time more SME and larger corporations are using them to improve their products and services. AI Bots help industries to smartly save time.

From AiRelo, we believe there is still space to improve the way bureaucracy works by reinventing the city registration process.

With its multi-language, multi-city and powered by AI; AiRelo does not only improve the hassle of administration, also engage citizens to help people arrive at their city and feel at home.

We could learn a lot from the best HR leaders, and get a lot of inspiration to continue working for making AiRelo even better!

Have a look to some of our streaming videos we recorded there! Enjoy them

Thank you so much to everyone that could come, it was really nice to meet you and of course, we are looking forward seeing you again next year. Maybe AiRelo become more than just a city registration assistant! 8)

Arriving in a new country is never easy especially when you don’t really know anyone who’s been there before. That’s what happened to me when I decided to study abroad in Munich for my exchange program.

Registration

I arrived there with my suitcase. And without a clue on how I would manage to make friends and do all the paperwork. Munich University of Applied Sciences helped me with my health insurance (Expat, Public or Private) and public transportation papers. And that’s it. Then my landlord explained to me that I had to register for something called KVR (Kreisverwaltungsreferat, it’s the registration office) and it seemed important. She gave me an address saying that I should go early in the morning because of the crowded lines; bringing with me my ID and accommodation contract. At the end, I waited 2 hours there (which is really not that bad), struggling with the registration lady since she didn’t speak any English. But with my stammering German and her patience; we did it! This was one of my hardest experience in Munich.

Life in Munich

Living the expat life at its fullest is also stepping out of its comfort zone and becoming friends with people from different countries. I truly enjoyed having an insight point of view from US citizen on Trump’s election. As well as a Brazilian opinion on Dilma Rousseff scandal, police demonstrations, and strikes. Having international friends is also a great way to improve your language skills. My first week in Munich was challenging since I was unsure about my words, sentences and my accent in English or German. At the end, I had to communicate and made progress real quickly.

Living in a Student residence (Studentenstadt) helped me meeting new people quite easily. Each Thursday there was a party in one of the buildings of the residence.

The night life in Munich was diversified and for everybody. For club lovers, there is the MMA which plays electronic music and has a really nice setting and large rooms. There is also Neuraum is with 4 floors, electro, party/ dance, hip-hop and traditional German music. Bahnwärter Thiel is a really special electro club with a nice and special interior (one part of the club is in a train) among many other clubs. For hipstery bar, there is the Stammbar where you can pour your own beer. Biergartens are also a must-see in Munich, especially during summer time. Last but not least the Oktoberfest is truly a great way to drink and mingle with your new table’s neighbors, I met a lot of foreign people but also many locals.

Visiting the doctor

The other one was when I visited the Doctor. I tried to find a “without appointment” doctor online but it was not easy. I finally asked a local friend if she knew any doctor who could accept me without an appointment. She then gave me her doctor’s address.

When I arrived, I tried to explain my situation in English to the doctor’s secretary but she didn’t speak a word of English. I had to use my not-that-great German and she understood that I needed to see the doctor. She gave me paperwork to do since it was my first time visiting a doctor in Germany. The papers were very hard to fill in: most of them were only in German. We spend an hour filling them. She explained to me what I had to write in German and google translator was also very helpful. When I finally saw the doctor, I found out that she spoke perfectly English and was really relieved because I only had some knowledge in German and it would have been difficult to explain to her what I had in German.

Discoveries

As a French person, I didn’t live a total “lost in translation” scenery. A lot of Germans spoke perfect English and some even spoke French. Here are some differences I noticed during my stay. I already knew that Germans are respectful of the law but I was still surprised when I saw that everybody was waiting for the green light to cross the street even if there was no car around. And the look people gave me when I crossed in the middle of the street kept me for doing it again. In subway stations, there is no fence to access the subway and there are not that many people who don’t pay their ticket.

The German’s politeness stroke me when I arrived, everybody was very polite and eager to help you in every way they could. Of course, there are some exceptions and some people talked to me in Bayerische so sometimes I didn’t understand anything.

Germany does not often accept credit cards, they have special cards called “giro card” to pay in supermarkets. They always use cash. At the beginning, I was not comfortable carrying 100€ on me every day for my groceries or other stuff because I was still worrying about pickpockets. In Munich, it is very safe. You can come back home after a night out at 4 am and no one will bother you in the streets or the subway.

To put it in a nutshell, these six months were very fulfilling. I gain a lot of autonomy and maturity. Making new friends allowed me to broader my horizons. I discovered how much I loved living in Germany and will do everything I can to work and live there.

by Eozena Heraud for Club GLOBALS