By Jay Forte, Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Rio Times TALKS speaking event is tonight (Wednesday, May 27th) from 7PM-9:30 PM, and is bringing together a panel of experts in three essential areas for foreigners in Rio; setting up a business, buying real estate and investing in Brazil. To warm up the crowd, American expatriate and comedy producer Kim Levone of Improbable Comedy will be emceeing and bringing one of the group’s comedians to open the event.
Comedian Michelle Lenzen will be performing with Levone at the TALKS event. She is a freelance writer who has lived in Chicago and Houston before Rio, and has taken the mic at Improbable Comedy shows several times and is a crowd favorite.
Levone explains, “Of course, I’m happy to have Improbable Comedy be part of such a cool event. We will just do a little bit of funny at the beginning of the night to lighten things up and showcase our fledgling stand-up comedy show in Rio.”
Describing what to expect, she adds, “We have been thinking of how we can be most helpful to this audience so we have been working on bits such as ‘Top Ten Ways Brazilians Say No’, ‘Carioca Lifehacks’ and the ever-popular: ‘Other Ideas for making that First Million in Rio’.”
However Levone and the Improbable Comedy group understand that the topics of the TALKS event are serious, and confirms, “First of all, I am looking forward to hearing from the speakers! Having a network of expats here is key to getting things done in Rio (and staying sane in the process) and these speakers seem to really know what they are talking about.”
Speakers for the event include Mathieu Piques from Europartner who will speak about the legal and financial process of creating a business in Brazil. Alessandra Marzano from Rio Exclusive will speak about how to buy property in Rio de Janeiro and Brazil, and Amit Ramnani from Ipanema Wealth will speak about financial planning and investment options in Brazil.
Lisa Flueckiger, Managing Partner of The Rio Times shares, “The TALKS Speakers Series event is different to what we have done in the past. We’ve always tried to bring the foreigners community in Rio together and serve as a platform for people to come together and share their experience with each other. But this is the first event where we have experts on some of the most difficult issues for foreigners in Brazil with us giving information to our audience and answering their questions.”
Flueckiger adds, “The feedback so far has been great. We really hit the nerve with the selection of our topics and our experts. What they will talk about are things every foreigner in Brazil has already asked him- or herself and where gathering the right information is very difficult and time consuming.”
Entrance to this event will be limited to sixty places, and a guaranteed seat requires pre-purchasing a ticket for R$50 online before 1PM on Wednesday (today). If seating is still available on the night of the event, entrance will be R$80 (cash only).
In addition, the hosts La Calaca will have a small R$30 minimum consumption with special promotions of: R$10 margaritas and R$20 gourmet taco plates. Find out more and stay updated on new announcements and promotions by joining the Facebook Event page.
What: The Rio Times TALKS Series
When: Wednesday, May 27th, 7-9:30 PM
Where: La Calaca Restaurant, Av. Ataulfo de Paiva 1240, Leblon
Entrance: R$50 reserved online/R$80 without (cash only), plus R$30 minimum consumption