Nicole Zwetsloot
Brainport Eindhoven
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How to Build a Region Where
Global Talent Wants to Stay
Nicole Zwetsloot
will unpack how she and her team works with international talent in a holistic way — connecting talent attraction, talent retention, place marketing, and regional branding into strategy.
Nicole will dive into:
• How to use data for strategy and activation – understanding what talents need, where to find them, and how to support them throughout their full journey
• Why talent retention is as crucial as attraction – what happens after people arrive, and what makes them feel at home
• How internationalisation strengthens regional resilience – and what conditions cities must create to remain relevant and competitive
• What a true regional talent ecosystem looks like – where employers, universities, and governments work as one
Why is this relevant to you?
Nicole knows this work at depth. As Program Manager International Talent at Brainport Development, she has spent six years shaping one of Europe’s most admired international talent strategies, bringing together 300+ partners and leading initiatives recognised by the European Commission.
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Regions across Europe and beyond face the same urgent challenge: how to stay competitive, innovative, and socially inclusive in a world defined by talent scarcity, demographic change, and accelerating technological shifts.
Nicole brings a practical, ecosystem-based perspective to this question. Her work in Brainport Eindhoven demonstrates how international talent can strengthen not only labour markets but also regional resilience, innovation capacity, and place attractiveness.
For conference participants such as policy-makers, economic developers, and regional leaders, her insights show what it takes to build a compelling value proposition, engage employers and education partners, and create the living conditions that make international talent want to stay.
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More about Nicole Zwetsloot
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Nicole Zwetsloot is Program Manager International Talent at Brainport Development, the economic development agency of the Brainport Eindhoven region. She leads the regional strategy to attract, integrate, and retain global tech and IT students and professionals, work that is essential to securing Brainport’s long-term innovation capacity and addressing its significant labour shortages.
Nicole operates at the heart of Brainport’s triple-helix collaboration model, bringing together over 300 stakeholders across employers, knowledge institutions, and government. Her work spans strategic agenda-setting, programme design, and hands-on implementation.
She steered initiatives such as the Brainport Talent Attraction Program, recognised by the European Commission as a good practice, which combines global marketing, employer support, intelligence, and innovation in attracting and retaining international talent.
She played a key role in developing the Regional Vision on International Talent (2024), setting out a shared ambition for the region and defining the preconditions internationals need to thrive, from housing and education to social inclusion and regional coordination. This work resulted in the current International Talent Program.
Before joining Brainport Development, Nicole worked in several roles across reintegration, sales, and recruitment, always focused on connecting talent with opportunity and matching supply and demand in the labour market. This background equipped her with deep insight into labour-market dynamics and the human dimensions of talent mobility, which now shape her approach at Brainport.
Driven by a commitment to impact and collaboration, Nicole helps shape Brainport’s transition into a globally connected, future-ready region where international professionals and their families can build meaningful, long-term roots.