On February 16, dozens of returned Asia expats with adventures to recount and expat-hopefuls with career advancement questions gathered for a lively ASNC Young Professionals Group event, "Eat, Play, Live: Stories from Expats in Asia" at the offices of K&L Gates in San Francisco. The evening featured a panel discussion - moderated by former CBS-5 broadcast journalist Sydnie Kohara, who herself has lived and covered news in Singapore, Australia, and Japan - with young returned expats Adam Collardey (who was an expat in Taipei, Taiwan), Charles Thor (Singapore), Irene Tieh (China), and Wen-Chih Yu (Singapore and Kiribati). Topics covered in the moderated discussion included adjusting to cultures and customs very different from home, finding friends among both native and fellow expat communities, the different experiences female expats might have finding love abroad than their male counterparts, the "reverse culture shock" upon returning home, and advice for different stages of one's career on how to land a position in Asia.

Apart from the panel discussion, our guests and speakers were given ample time to engage in one-on-one conversations. Over a customized menu of hors d'oeuvres prepared by gourmet pop-up Whiskey Commons, attendees swapped stories about their experiences in all parts of Asia, exchanged contacts and advice for future career adventures (for both the prospective first-time expats as well as the experienced expats longing to return to Asia), and enjoyed a slideshow of "eating, playing and living in Asia" photos submitted in the days leading up to the event by members, staff and friends of ASNC.

See more photos from the event (and "Like" us on Facebook)

ASNC Young Professionals Group thanks our speakers, K&L Gates, and our co-sponsors - Hyphen Magazine, ORIENTED, and Cal-Asia Young Professionals.

This post originally appeared on Asia Blog.