Tony's FAR EAST Tour
March/April 2007
'Mabuhay!' – welcome to the Phillipines...
First stop on Tony's six-week journey was Manila, capital of The Philippines. Here he delivered a series of 2-day transformational 'Mega Guru' lectures, organised by the Institute for Training and Development, entitled Unleash the Genius of Creativity & Innovation. He also launched Buzan Centres Philippines (stay tuned for more news of the exciting establishment of three new learning centres, already well into the pipeline!). In-between-times, he undertook a full schedule of press and broadcast interviews. Tony was gratified by the endlessly enthusiastic responses from all his audiences – and substantial media coverage was also achieved during a busy three days.
Thailand – magic kingdom
Then on to Thailand for more ITD events – where, at the first, Tony was introduced by Dr. Peter Chee, President and CEO of the ITD Group, as one of the 'Mega Gurus of all time', alongside such legends as best selling-author Jack Canfield, America's top success coach - and a Mind Mapper himself. That's official, then!
Between media interviews, Tony also entered into discussion with publisher Tanya Phonanan and his wife – both of whom are advanced BLIs - for twelve new book publishing contracts through their company Siam Paragon. This is on top of the existing seven already in circulation – thus making Tanya's organisation the No. 1 international publisher of the greatest number of Tony Buzan books. Truly a mega transaction, currently in the process of being contracted.
Vietnam – hidden charms
Vietnam is the 73rd country/state that Tony has visited over his lifetime – and he was overcome by his reception - both on arrival, and wherever he went for the duration of his tour there. Accompanied by ITD Vietnam's multi-linguist Manager, Dr Margaret Loan, as interpreter and 'guide', he was whisked off to Vietnam TV to film a feature and interview for 'The Breakfast Show' – the country's biggest morning television programme. The show is hosted by the former Miss Vietnam, well known for her devoted 'Queenship' of educational matters.
Tony was entranced by the beauty of Ho Chi Minh City - there is still a strong French influence from years gone by, especially in the architecture - and felt very at home there. During the war, the Vietnamese devised the most astonishingly creative survival techniques, including living in caves - which were more like termite mounds, where they existed in tunnels that were only just big enough to take a human being, breathing through straws that were placed from the tunnel to the air above. Having very little money and few weapons, they expressed their creativity in many ways - one of the extraordinary things they told Tony being that they actually used animal intelligence to aid them, training hives of bees to attack soldiers!
The 'Oprah Winfrey' of Vietnam – Miss Loan - came to the 2-day ITD seminar with her entire crew. She then invited Tony onto her chat show, which goes out to an audience of 80 million people. The whole stage was designed around a 'Tony Buzan' theme – complete with giant Mind Maps, large-scale models of the left and right sides of the brain, huge blow-up pictures of happy children and even brain cells designed to resemble stars: all looking rather like a 22nd century 'Spaceship' Brain!
On the programme, Miss Loan announced that she thought that Tony's teachings should be spread across the country - and especially throughout the education system. She therefore phoned the Vice Minister of Education (the Government official responsible for Kindergarten, Primary and Secondary School Education) who flew in from Hanoi for a 1½ hour meeting the next day. She has since asked Tony to consider providing input for training manuals which are to be distributed to all the teachers in Vietnam – numbering several millions… thus training themselves and then educating the children for whom they are responsible.
The publicity reach in Vietnam was extraordinary: with magazine front covers, features in newspapers – and the two television programmes. Tony also met many university students from Hanoi – where a Buzan/Mental Literacy/Mind Mapping movement has already begun. They were particularly enthusiastic - and immensely competent in Mind Mapping. With senior professors supporting behind the scenes, and the students themselves leading from the front, they have already formed various types and levels of learning organisations, some of which are now being formally 'groomed' to become Buzan Centres in the not too distant future.
Singapore – a world of contrasts
Next, Tony journeyed to Singapore where he undertook nine days of training organised by the Singapore Institute of Management (eight different new courses, sponsored by various of Singapore's top organisations). The courses included Brain Capital Creation (2 days), Speed Reading & Knowledge Management, Power Learning, Writing Skills, Presentation Skills – and Computer Mind-Mapping, utilising the new iMindMap software.
The latter course, co-presented with iMindMap founder, Chris Griffiths, achieved a 100% approval rating from participants; Tony's universal average rating was already 94 – so that figure will have been improved, for sure!
Following the huge success of this first tranche of SIM courses, a further series is now planned for September... click here for details.
The biggest Mind Map in the World
Teaming up with Buzan Centres Asia, the Singapore Institute of Management is also organising and sponsoring a 'Biggest Mind Map in the World' World Record attempt, to be undertaken by school children throughout the country. Expected to be four storeys high and six storeys wide, the record will be included in Buzan's Book of World Records - and the 'finished product' will be exhibited in the Atrium of the University of the Singapore Institute of Management on 13th November.
The first ever Global Mind Mapping Conference - with speakers from the main continents (with the exception of Antarctica!) is to be held on 14th/15th November. Again sponsored by the Singapore Institute of Management, it will feature applications of Mind Maps, research support for the advocacy and value of Mind Maps, individual stories of success from Mind Maps, and will also include a number of video messages from global business leaders.
As a result of all these co-operative activities, a global working partnership between Tony and The Singapore Institute of Management is now in the process of being finalised - whereby the two organisations will co-brand and Tony Buzan will represent SIM in many areas of the world, including The Gulf.
A youthful start...
Buzan Learning Centres Singapore (founded by Dr Tan Buck Chai) has recently commenced a far-reaching, experimental educational concept, which arranges for children to go, out of school, to the Learning Centre. Here they are taught, by qualified academic teachers, curriculum subjects such as English, Geography, Chemistry and Physics. The teachers are all qualified to teach these subjects, and have been further qualified by Tony himself and the Buzan Centres, to utilise Buzan techniques throughout. For instance, the physics teacher who teaches physics with Mind Maps also teaches them how to read faster, how to take notes… and how to translate these notes into essays. This is a major social and educational experience which is proving to be extremely popular with teachers, parents and children alike - and the school is currently overflowing.
...planning long-term While in Singapore, Tony was also pleased to hear that Henry Toi (founder and Managing Director of Buzan Centres Asia) was soon to get his PhD in Education. Needless to say, Henry is using Mind Maps to prepare and present his thesis, which is focusing on learning, thinking, creativity – and the applications of Mind Maps.
Buzan Centres Asia continues to go from strength to strength, and a significant event for Tony was the signing of a new Memorandum of Understanding with Henry, covering exciting strategies for three more years of continuing development and growth. It is interesting to note that the excellent work by BCA over the past few years means that Singapore now boasts the highest proportion of BLIs to adult population of any country in the world.
The Managing Director of Buzan Centres Australia - the intrepid, hardworking and immensely personable Jennifer Goddard – also made a special visit to Tony while in Singapore, to sign a 3-year MoU covering her region - Australasia. The stupendously successful efforts of Jennifer and her team are principally focusing on education, mainly in the business and government sectors.
And 'Yokoso' (welcome) - to the Japanese
Another significant event was the arrival of seven Directors of Buzan Centres Japan (led by the founder Masanory Kanda-San), who flew in from Tokyo for three days. Tony found their Mind Mapped presentations on their plans for the future of Brain Education, Mental Literacy, Mind Mapping and the Buzan enterprises in their country utterly engrossing…
46 new BLIs By way of explanation, in November 2006, Tony and the Buzan Centres Japan team initiated the training of 46 new BLIs, with a 3-day intensive course. Most of them are company presidents or their equivalents, who have decided that teaching the Japanese population, especially children, to Learn How to Learn, is a major priority for the nation. All 46 initiates have remained working together as a formidable team, totally committed to successful graduation. Over the five months since Tony had taught them, they in turn had taught a hundred Mind Map and Mental Literacy Courses - all charitably, as part of their training.
What is particularly interesting about the remarkable progress of this dedicated group is based on history and folklore. In 1867 the secretive Edo empire ruled over by Japan's Shoguns came to an end with the arrival of the 'black boats' from America. Legend has it that the country was effectively 'opened up' under the guidance of 46 Samurai. So these newly-trained gentlemen and ladies now consider themselves to be the next Samurai, structured to gather their friends and colleagues throughout the corporate world to sponsor a nationwide education initiative which will ensure that every child in Japan has access to, and will benefit from, the Buzan concepts and techniques.
Massive Japanese sales There is also a massive publishing plan being organised for The Land of the Rising Sun, covering the next 15 years. This is spearheaded by Tony's publisher in Japan, Koichi San of Diamond Publishing, who amongst many other prestigious titles, also publishes the Harvard Business Review in Japan. He also advised that sales of Tony's 'The Mind Map Book' are already well on the way to 100,000 hard back copies and that 'Mind Maps for Kids' sold 26,000 copies in its first few days on the market.
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"What has been so remarkable about these historic six weeks" says Tony, "Is just how much has been achieved in so short a time. There are six new initiatives: a new Buzan Centre is opening in the Philippines, Vietnam is poised for launch, Thailand is effectively being relaunched, our Singapore and Australia operations are all set to expand even further – plus a huge development programme is under way in Japan.
"This is the most rapid growth ever experienced in the history of Buzan Centres. The enormous enthusiasm and fast developing expertise of all those involved in the Eastern hemisphere Buzan programmes guarantees, to my mind, that this remarkable impetus will be self-perpetuating."