InterNations

Expat drinks!

Come have drinks with Hobo In Paris fans and the members of InterNations on Wednesday, March 26!

Join InterNations for details. To register, go to www.internations.org/paris. While you’re on the site, click here to check out the InterNations groups on everything from food to movies to restaurants.

Any questions or problems, just email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

InterNations vs. Meetup - What's the Difference? 

At the three InterNations events we have had so far here in Paris, there is one question I have gotten over and over:

“What’s the difference between Meetup and InterNations?”

Here’s the difference:

Meetup is all about events.  Events, events and more events.  The whole concept of Meetup is to get people online to get them offline; in other words, to use the internet not as a venue for interaction, but as a tool to organize people getting together offline, in the real world.  So the real reason that anyone joins Expats Paris is to stay informed of upcoming events taking place in Paris.

The two great advantages of Meetup are the user-friendly event management functions (the calendar, RSVP functions, email reminders, etc.) and the fact that any Meetup group is, by definition, part of a massive network of almost four million members.  The event management functions mean that it’s easy for the organizers to schedule, plan and run events and easy for the Meetup members to stay informed, RSVP and attend those events.  The fact that it’s part of a large, worldwide network means that when new arrivals get to Paris—especially coming from cities with a large Meetup presence like London, New York and San Francisco—the first thing that many of them do is think, “I wonder what Meetup events are going on here?”  And then they stumble upon us.

InterNations, on the other hand, is a social networking forum, not an event management platform.  So although there are and will continue to be events associated with InterNations, it’s primarily a place you go online to stay in touch with old friends and colleagues, as well as to find new ones.  It’s useful for finding friends, job leads and business contacts all in the same place.  It’s also a forum for online interactive exchange.

“Yeah, but what’s ‘interactive exchange’ supposed to mean anyway?” you ask.  “Well, I’ll tell you,” I then reply.

It means not just a one-way flow of information about expat events in Paris, but instead a plethora of back-and-forth, two-way conversations about anything that interests you.  On any of those thousand issues or interests that tie this expat community together.

“Plethora?”, you query.  “Now I know you’re just making this up.”

And I am.  But I’ll continue anyway.

So you sign up for InterNations and join groups—either local Paris groups or global groups—on whatever subject you want to discuss with other expats.  And what do you do when the subject you want to talk about doesn’t exist yet (Expat golf? Expat roller-blading?  Expat finger-painting?)?  Well, you just create it.  InterNations groups are free to create, moderate and participate in.  And if you want your group to hold offline events, you can do that, too.

So what are you waiting for?  A personal invitation?

Oh, okay, here it is – http://www.internations.org/andy.