Training groups from India

This summer we are hosting four training groups from India through the NIFM = National Institute for Financial Management. The training groups are either new hires, mid-career or late-career managers of State-owned companies and organizations in India. This is the third year that we are hosting these groups. It is a training contract that gives Seneca excellent reputation building in India which is our largest market for student recruitment.

Images Rotary Convention

With 35,000 participants the plenary sessions were held each day in the Air Canada Center (where the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team and the Toronto Raptors basketball team play their home games and where many music concerts are hosted). Above an impression of the crowd. Today former USA First Lady Laura Bush was one of the speakers.

At the large Toronto convention center all the other activities were hosted including the many concurrent break-out sessions each day and the so-called "House of Friendship" where many Rotary groups and other organizations had booths in a "trade show" kind of setting.

Many "RAGs" (Rotary Action Groups) had their booth at this convention; most of them on very serious topics and development issues. Others on not-so-serious topics (under the "fellowship" flag for which Rotary Clubs are also famous for).

There are Rotary members of all sorts: the fellow in the yellow shirt and barefoot with a large water bucket on his head was making the point that still so many people around the world walk distances to collect fresh water each day. Water will become a major issue in our future and might become more and more a destabilizing and peace-threatening aspect world-wide.

It is nice to see the Rotary movement now also grow in China. And every four years the Rotary Convention happens to be at the same time as the FIFA Football World Cup, this year hosted in Russia. Today Nigeria played Argentina; a nail-biter for both sides.....

Rotarians from around the world

Rotarians from around the world are visiting Toronto these days during the annual international Rotary Convention. On Sunday I was able to catch up with my dear friends Jorge & Alejandra from Iguazu in Argentina (where we did many years of project work with the team of Niagara College). Today there were many concurrent sessions going on. I assisted during one session with the project evaluators to attract new evaluators.

She was doing work on the floor of the hallways in between sessions (on the Rotary Action Group on Environmental Sustainability). With the Markham Rotary Club we hosted tonight a number of the international visiting Rotarians together with interested local folks who are thinking of joining one of the two Rotary Clubs in Markham.

Rotary Convention 2018

This weekend the Rotary International Foundation is hosting its annual conference in Toronto with around 35,000 participants (I attended this conference in Chicago about ten years ago - its 100th anniversary as an organization - with close to 50,000 participants). Before the convention there are always a few pre-conference events such as this year a "Peace Summit" and a training session for the Rotarians who act as volunteer project evaluators, a group called the "Cadre".

Today the convention starts with an opening session in the Air Canada center followed by three days of presentations, workshops and fellowship with like-minded people from around the world.

Peace Building by Rotarians

Attending these few days the annual Rotary International convention this year hosted in Toronto. The first day is a "Peace Summit". Tomorrow (Saturday) will be a training day for the few hundred project evaluators within the Rotary movement. Sunday to Wednesday are the regular convention days. On Monday evening we host ten convention participants in our Markham Rotary club. The last time I attended was in Montreal during one of the previous FIFA world cup events (2010). A few years before that I attended the 100th convention of Rotary in its "birth" city of Chicago. That event hosted almost 50,000 participants and was an incredible experience. The convention here in Toronto has close to 30,000 participants....

North East Normal University

A short walk away from our hotel is one of the the two campuses of NENU. An institution with a focus on training teachers for all the levels of education in China (from ECE to PhD). NENU is the partner institution of Seneca with our Confucius Institute and on this visit we brought colleagues from our Early Childhood Education program and our Faculty of Communication, Arts & Design to explore further cooperation opportunities.

I gave a few presentations on leadership to students in the programs of politics & law and the school for language training: what to expect from our new generation of learners and the impact of AI.

Michael and Heather gave presentations at the faculty of Education (on ECE) and the School of Fine Arts. And both of them got hosted to several work lunches and dinners...

The city of Changchun has a population of about 7 million; not nearly as much influenced yet by the western world interactions as places where I visited more frequently such as Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou and Guangzhou in the south-east provinces.

On Saturday our hosts showed us around in the city and again took us for elaborate lunches and dinners. The decisions on what ends up on the round table is always a team-effort...

Always lots of things to observe and to learn with each trip to each part of the world; it never stops amazing me. And this time I could feel - just before we left again - for a moment the "Last Emperor" in a chair like that....

Fast trains in China

On Wednesday last week we took a high speed train from Beijing to the city of Changchun in the north-eastern province of Jilin. The train station in Beijing is already an experience in itself...

The train ride of six hours was comfortable and remarkably smooth considering that the train reaches as times a speed of around 250 km/hour. And only a few people not on their cell phones...

Our in-house artist Michael made me a nice drawing of one of his fellow travelers...