New Things That Happened This Month

In regards to the Trainers' Synergy meeting last Wednesday (yeah, I missed an update here), it went well. I asked for feedback at the end of the session and most of them gave me something useful to work on - primarily to do with giving the audience more participation, something I reduced due to the lack of time.

So what that means is that I have to streamline the session and allocate more time to allow the audience to share their experiences, instead of me just sharing mine.

It also means that I have to separate all the material I prepared into 2 sessions or more. It would be great for a six-hour workshop or more. 1.5 hours isn't quite enough to cover so much.

With these things in mind, I will work on the material and come up with a better version. 

To all of you who gave me honest feedback, thank you very much!

Another thing that happened was that the Canadian Institute of Management published my article in their e-zine. 

I've actually updated my home page and come up with a Media page to accommodate the article's links and future media articles. 

If I want them to start appearing, I'd better get cracking!

Upcoming Trainers' Synergy Meeting

Next Wednesday, 21 Sep, I will be sharing one of my signature topics with a group of fellow trainers. It's entitled 'Trainer Techniques That Save You Energy'. It's derived from my book - The Introvert Teacher - and is the first part of a series of speaking topics that I will be developing.

The objective of the session will be to:

1) Understand and harness the motivations behind why you train

2) Move your focus away from fear towards love

3) Save your attention and energy for the people and the things that matter most

Details:

7 pm - 9.30 pm

OnePeople.sg, level 2, Speech Academy Asia (beside Braddell MRT)

21 September - Wednesday

Feel free to e-mail me at remus@remuszhong.com if you are interested in attending! Those of you who have my number may reach me there as well.

See you there!

Binge On History

In the past week or so, I've been binge-ing (is that a word?) on documentaries about history in the Middle East and the Mediterranean. 

Some of the information challenged my 'traditional' views on the area, while other bits made me want to find out more.

Certainly, all documentaries have some bias in them, depending on the angle and intent of the producer. The point, then, is to take in information from different sources and piece them together in a way that makes sense to me. 

A trio of things that struck me:

1) Historical figures are often portrayed in a good light by their own people's history texts. Accounts from other groups of people may shed light on their actual behaviours and deeds.

2) There is little consensus on historical information and what they mean. Interpretations vary according to the historian's culture, personality and mindset.

3) Events that once occurred are often very similar to situations today. It's no stretch to say that 'history repeats itself'.

Becoming More Visible Online

Taking a cue from some of the books I've been reading, I decided to spruce up my online profile. I haven't started work on my LinkedIn profile yet, but it'll be the next step.

In today's ever-connected world, if you cannot be found on the Internet, you have zero credibility. So, to ensure that I don't end up in that state, I'm going to be working on becoming more visible and accessible.

I'm intending to turn this into a more profession-oriented site (for myself, of course). So, there are going to be some changes.

If you haven't already, check out my Speaker and Trainer pages!

Let me know your thoughts.

Here's a sleepy cat I photographed while I was in Taiwan (many years ago).