Reflecting Houston’s standing in the international HR community, we host a constant stream of international HR conferences.  In addition to our monthly events, Houston regularly hosts conferences by Families in Global Transition (FIGT), National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC), Texas State Council of SHRM, and Global HR News.

Please send us a tweet or say hello in person when you are in Houston.  For further information on Houston as the Global Leader in international business, please visit the Greater Houston Partnership.

Welcome to Houston!

We will have a special edition of the “Night Before” on December 1, 2009.  Think Hollywood, glamour, movie stars, and … immigration!!! This special event will be a Hollywood-style premiere for Mao’s Last Dancer.   Foster Quan is generously sponsoring this event.

Managing Your International HR Career

Our education event on December 2, 2009 will be  “Managing Your International HR Career” featuring a panel of experienced global HR professionals.  Our panel will consist of:

Ernie Northam – Director Global International HR at KBR

Pam Pfeiffer – Manager, HR Policy and Compliance US Global Functions HR – Compensation, Benefits and Policy at Shell Expat Employment US

Shelia Hughes – Regional Lead Western Hemisphere, International Mobility at BP America

Greg Shrewsbury – Senior Director of Human Resources at Aker Solutions

Patty Standley – Senior Manager, Global Mobility Advisory Services at KPMG LLP

The panel will be moderated by Janet Moore, an experienced international executive business coach.  Thank you to our friends at Deloitte for hosting.

Please register here!

We have an amazing evening planned for December 1, 2009. In addition to the excitement of the upcoming movie, the Houston International HR Roundtable will have a drawing for a signed copy of Mao’s Last Dancer courtesy of Foster Quan.

This is an extremely rare opportunity as Li Cunxin now resides in Australia. The book tells the incredible story of Li’s life from childhood until he was discovered by Ben Stevenson, one of the world’s most respected teachers, choreographer and the Artistic Director of the Houston Ballet as part of the first US cultural delegation to communist China. The story takes a dramatic turn when Li defects and was subsequently locked up in the Chinese Consulate in Houston. This created a standoff between the Chinese and the American governments. Even George Bush senior, then US Vice President intervened. FBI agents surrounded the consulate in Houston, and negotiations between Chinese and US diplomats had begun. His defection was the headline story in America. Twenty-one hours later, Li walked out of the Chinese Consulate as a free man.

You must be present to participate in the drawing and you also must be a member of the Roundtable for this event!  See you there!

Houston‘s own Charles Foster is played by Kyle MacLachlan in the soon to be released movie!

In 1972, 11-year-old Li (Huang Wen Bin) is plucked from a dirt-poor village in Shandong province and sent to Madame Mao’s Beijing Dance Academy. Here, he is subjected to years of gruelling training and Maoist claptrap. Spotted by Houston Ballet director Ben Stevenson (Bruce Greenwood), the adult Li (played by Birmingham Royal Ballet principal Chi Chao) is seconded to America, where he quickly realises that the West is not the den of poverty and decadence the party’s propagandists would make out. After falling for an American dancer called Liz (Amanda Shull), Li starts hatching plans to stay with the help of immigration lawyer Charles Foster (Kyle MacLachlan), but faces the agonising possibility of never seeing his family back in China again.

Aussie moviemakers have shown themselves adept at a range of genres this year and we should not be surprised to see a great ‘coming-to-America’ film among them. Mao’s Last Dancer’s two hours go by in a flash, and the ballet sequences choreographed by Graeme Murphy are an added visual treat in a film with an embarrassment of riches. Late in his career, Bruce Beresford has delivered one of his best movies.

From Time Out Sydney