A Successful Book Launch!

The Book Launch of The Introvert Teacher was a success!

A culmination of weeks of planning, coordination and organisation, the event truly came together a mere 2 - 3 days before it happened.

The vision of the Book Launch was for it to be a bazaar of connections and learning points. There were timeslots for focused, value-adding networking as well as mini-workshops for experiential learning.

To run the activities, I got the assistance of my fellow trainers to set up spaces where they will conduct sessions of their speciality topics and guests would come and learn something from them.

The reason behind this unusual move was to make this a different, more memorable launch event. A typical launch event consisted of an emcee coming up to introduce the 'main character', who will then give a speech, including some thank-you's. After the speech, there will be little else going on as the guests hang around until they get an opportunity to talk to the 'main character'.

I didn't want that unproductive downtime. It made much more sense to use that time wisely for learning and networking instead of wasting it doing nothing useful.

As it turned out, my guests had nothing but high praise for this decision. Many of them told me that they learned a lot and that the event was well-thought-out and executed.

I can only thank the others who came alongside me to help me make the event what it was.

Apart from booking the venue (at MOX), we had to order catering (from Liang Food Caterer), make arrangements to see the space and plan the allocation of activity spaces, get the books and other stuff there on the day itself, as well as make sure that all the finances were properly handled.

There was no way that I could have done all that on my own.

Thank you, each one of you, for helping me out. I am deeply appreciative of what you've done.

Book Signing
With Fellow Trainers

Nature Nurtured - Listening to Mr. Subaraj Rajathurai

On Monday night, at the SG100 Foundation Meeting, our speaker was Mr. Subaraj Rajathurai, a lifelong naturalist and a wildlife consultant. Honestly, I can think of very few professions cooler than that.

When he took the platform, I could feel the passion behind his words as he told us about his humble beginnings and the immense work he had done to push for the conversation of what we now know as Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, amongst other little-known but no-less-massive efforts to preserve Singapore's wildlife and its habitats.

He highlighted some of his favourite animals and showed us that Singapore, despite being a tiny country, has some of the richest biodiversity in the world due both to our geographical location (close to the equator) and the age of our rainforests (older than even the majestic Amazon).

When he came to the topic of rapid development and urbanisation of Singapore, he emphasised that he saw this as a necessary part of Singapore's growth, though he was firm in his belief that it needs to be done in a responsible manner and with respect to the natural environment.

To this day, he works in his favourite classroom - The Great Outdoors - both as a teacher and as a student. He gives guided tours, conducts nature programmes, and does field surveys alongside other researchers and nature enthusiasts.

Mr. Subaraj is a man I highly respect. He lives his life in the pursuit of learning and passing on what he has learned, and he encourages others to do the same.

He reminds us that we cannot live apart from our natural environment, that if we care for nature, nature takes care of us.

Thank you for sharing your life and your passion, Mr. Subaraj. Through your words, I am inspired.

Mr Subaraj

Almost Ready With The Book Launch

Now that The Introvert Teacher is printed, it's time to get copies out the door and into the hands of readers.

There have been a number of pre-orders already and we have already gotten some of them to friends and family. 

Of course, we aren't stopping there. So, there is going to be a...

BOOK LAUNCH!

We are in the midst of confirming the venue and the time, so stay tuned!

Launch