Kaleidoscope of Kaizen: Asia Pacific Conference 2004

Last minute travel arrangements meant that my day began at 2.30am in order to make the 4.30am take-off out of Brisbane and touch down in Perth at a little after 10am local time. I made my way to the Sheraton, checked in and met my roommate for the duration, Lee Squires of Macquarie University; we wandered down for Delegate Registration and received our complimentary Golden Key embroidered backpack, conference badge and assorted goodies. The conference Opening Ceremony wasn't due to start until late afternoon leaving plenty of time to explore the city.

At 5.30pm the conference got underway with drinks,

Justin Herald

snacks and the first of many introductions, when one person's name gets pushed out of your head to make way for the next and eventually you don't remember any. GK Asia Pacific Managing Director Kriti Colless opened proceedings and introduced special guest and GK International Board Member Professor Joan Nelson of UCLA. We were treated to an enthusiastic performance by the Variety Club Youth Choir, led by GK member Katie O'Donnell before the keynote Speaker Justin Herald took to the stage. The speakers for this year's conference were chosen for their ability to employ alternative ways of thinking for personal success, and Justin Herald is a shining example of just that. With no experience and in just 6 years, Justin turned a borrowed $50 into a $15 million business and retired at the age of 31; he delivered his inspiring story with a great deal of humour and provided no-nonsense advice for developing your own can-do attitude.

Fully motivated, we all headed down to the buses that would take us to King's Park for a BBQ dinner, stopping on the way so that the locals could show off their city's absolutely magnificent nightscape, with the huge Swan River looking like their own Harbour but lacking the iconic Sydney landmarks. At King's Park we were officially welcomed by representatives of the Nyungah Birdiyia, the traditional owners of the land, one of whom gave a cultural presentation in Nyungah with another translating into English. Message sticks were presented and we were entertained by a bush band and enjoyed more food, more drinks, more introductions....

Arriving back at the hotel about 9.45pm, those that weren't ready for bed made their way to "And the black night ran red...Murder in the 5-star", which was a farcical murder mystery set in a school and acted out by GK members of Edith Cowan and Curtin Universities. Tables of about eight people formed schoolhouses that tried to piece together the clues and identify the murderer; with riddles and other activities interspersed, this turned out to be a great bonding session with many people's names actually sinking in. At a little after midnight, we eventually called it a day.

The next morning from 7am, delegates wandered downstairs at their leisure to enjoy a full 5-star buffet breakfast before the 9am start of our next featured speaker, Glenn Capelli. This, for me and for many, was the highlight of the conference;

Glenn Capelli

Glenn is a truly gifted and dynamic speaker who effortlessly engaged the audience with his interactive presentation style. He had even the most staid of audience members literally singing along and participating in rapid-fire sign language - and enjoying it! Glenn delivered his creative thinking message and introduced the audience to the Key Word for Lifelong Learning: Kaizen, which is a Japanese word meaning small, seemingly insignificant, ongoing and continuous improvement; Kaizen became the buzzword for the conference.

Attending the conference were delegates from all regions of Australia and New Zealand, as well as 7 delegates from South Africa and about 19 from Malaysia. Over our morning tea break, we were able to inspect the Colours of South Africa Cultural Display before breaking into groups to attend the Personality Colour Workshop and the Mindset for Success Workshop.

In the Personality Colour Workshop, Brian Spencer of Macquarie University, presented the True Colors model, which helps people to discover their personality colour and to recognise others by their personality colour as an aid to enhancing relationships and appreciating the differing needs, strengths and motivations of others. Participants then wore their colour on their conference badges and it was fascinating upon meeting new people to find that you immediately knew quite a bit about their personality and what makes them tick. The Mindset for Success Workshop was presented by Rob Mallick of McKinsey & Company; this workshop lead participants to look to their earliest positive experiences to discover the personal strengths that can be channelled into their personal and professional lives and to realise that, rather than being a passive observer, we can utilise these strengths to actively participate in our lives and effect massive change.

At 1pm all groups reunited for a sumptuous buffet luncheon followed by a presentation by 2003 Regional Student Representative Tony Scoleri and the Academic Showcase Presentations, where 3 GK members were invited to present their thesis projects. First up was former University of Sydney Chapter Vice President Marta Iljadica who presented The Information Revolution in Military Affairs and the Lifting of the Fog of War, Macquarie University President Verity Greenwood then presented ADHD: A Multidimensional Agenda for Justice and finally, Dean Butters of ANU and currently Golden Key's Regional Director Australia & New Zealand presented The Dream of Orpheus: a short story in three parts.

From 3-4pm delegates could choose one of four workshops to attend: Making the Most of your Conference Experience; Making the Transition - Student to Professional; Obtaining Event Sponsorship and Stress-busters (for which Graeme Frauenfelder of UWS was later awarded "Best Workshop"). Following this was a Malaysian Cultural Dance Presentation by KUSTEM, which included afternoon tea and fruit mocktails. The final official event for the evening was the choice of one of two further workshops: Chapter Leadership or How to Run a Successful New Member Reception.

Friday night was designated a free night in which delegates were free to do as they pleased; local delegates acted as guides around the city and we explored the restaurants of Northbridge and most went on to sample Perth's nightlife and party into the early morning.

Day Three was the final official day of the conference and we were down to business. The day began at 9am with the presentation of the GK 3 Year Business Plan, Governance Review Committee Overview and Proposed Chapter Standards Amendments discussed over breakfast; we then broke up into groups for feedback sessions relating to the proposed amendments, some of which generated quite heated discussions and polarised views.

During morning tea, we had the opportunity to inspect the CAFE displays that many Chapters had set up that morning to showcase their activities or achievements, or even their University or country and culture. Then followed another round of workshops, concentrating upon Chapter Development that are of great value in sharing the ideas that have been successfully applied. It was at this round of workshops that it was a great disadvantage to have only one delegate from the University of Sydney in attendance. The workshops presented were: Raising your Profile on Campus through your Newsletter; Designing your Chapter Website; Promoting Active Participation in the General Membership and Utilising your Honorary Members.

Once again, luncheon was a sumptuous buffet after which we heard presentations from the 4 Chapter Presidents that were vying to become the 2004 Asia-Pacific Regional Student Representative: Ben Cooper of the Curtin University of Technology, James Willis, of the University of Western Sydney, Constance-May Moore of the Central Queensland University and Belinda Fairchild of the University of Ballarat. Each Chapter present at the luncheon was permitted two votes and James Willis was ultimately elected to the role.

The following two rounds of workshops were more of a general interest nature. In the first round the choices were: Green Turtle Conservation; Habitat for Humanity; Career Planning Project and Golden Fellowship Camp. The second round included: Serving the Community Through Education; Community Service in a Nutshell and twilight@the gods (sic).

The afternoon tea session included University T-shirt exchange followed by an award presentation ceremony and the Inaugural GK Great Debate. The topic of the debate was a recent statement by Brendan Nelson: "That a university education funded by the taxpayer should be exclusively vocation-based". The original intention was for the debate to be between three students and three advisors, but only one advisor chose to participate with his team completed by students. The team arguing in the affirmative took a decidedly tongue-in-cheek approach and used all the stereotypical arts graduate gags (eg if there were no arts students, there would be no-one to flip the burgers at McDonalds); they also instigated a hilarious routine of bowing down and paying homage every time the name Nelson was uttered - this turned out to be quite often as they invoked Brendan Nelson's name at every opportunity and the event was hosted by visiting UCLA Professor Joan Nelson. The team arguing the negative tried valiantly to present a seriously considered argument but lost out to the light-hearted approach of their opposition.

The final official event on the conference calendar was the Gala Cruise Along the Swan. The cruise followed the Swan River down to Fremantle and back and was a delightful way to end the festivities; with a buffet dinner and drinks provided, everyone let their hair down and celebrated the conclusion of a fabulous 3-day event.

The next morning people started making their way home after enjoying their last buffet breakfast. Gerald Goodwin, President of the Edith Cowan University Chapter, organised a significant group discount on a trip to Rottnest Island for those of us that had late flights; a group of about 35 took advantage and found ourselves back at the ferry at 8.30am. The tour guide gave a running commentary on the ownership of the many mansions along the Swan and, after picking up more passengers in Fremantle, we headed out into the Indian Ocean for the island that was once used as a penal colony, predominantly for aboriginals. When we arrived we broke into small groups and toured the island at our leisure; my group toured the old settlement and jails and took in the history of the place, we also searched out the quokkas and did a bus tour of the entire island. We all met up again at about 3pm for the ferry ride back to Fremantle, where those of us with a very late flight disembarked, toured the city and grabbed some dinner. We returned to Perth by train at about 9.30pm in plenty of time for our respective flights home; which for me was an 11.30pm direct flight landing in Brisbane at 5.45am.

All in all, the Asia-Pacific Conference is an event not to be missed; it is as equally well suited to general GK members as it is to Executive Committee members and Advisors. The conference is an incredible eye-opener to the scope of Golden Key and the benefits available to members; you really cannot help but be motivated to return to your Chapter and to participate in some way. It was a tremendous honour and privilege to be able to represent the University of Sydney Chapter but I would never again like to see our Chapter represented by so few delegates and fail to take advantage of the valuable resource that is the Asia-Pacific Conference.

Allan Toal
VP Finance
University of Sydney Chapter