Anne Fox :: Blog :: Intercultural Management Institute conference

The last extracts from the Intercultural Management Institute's annual conference were released in Show 56 of Absolutely Intercultural yesterday. I also took the opportunity to canvas for more nominations for the Danish podcaster prize. All you need to do is send an email naming me and the podcast to nominering@podcasterprisen.dk

I must say that it is a real honour to be able to eavesdrop in this way at a conference which I wouldn't normally be able to attend. Last year was our first attempt when all we could manage were participant reports but this year we have recordings of highlights from the actual sessions. Thanks must go to Laura Hash, an intern at the Intercultural Management Institute, who did all the hard work recording and editing. Back at the conference we have extracts from Philip Deaval of the US Air Force talking about the intercultural work which needs to be done in the theatre of war. I never realised before that there would be somebody running after the American tanks in Korea working out compensation for damaged rice crops for example.

We also hear from Richard Harris, a Briton living and working in Japan, talking about the concrete visualisation of what personal space means for example when Arabs expect to 'feel the breath of the other person on their cheeks.' He also explains a novel way-finding method used by Pacific cultures in which the end of a song determines the right time to turn left or right.

Then we hear from Dr Gary Weaver of the IMI, describing the Khan simulation which is used to train Americans to deal with non-European cultures. This was new to me, although I could hear from Dr Weaver's introduction that it shouldn't have been as he describes it as 'probably the most famous inter-cultural simulation in the world'. The essence of the simulation is that an actor plays Mr Khan who comes from a high context culture in the categorisation proposed by Dr E Hall. We hear an extract of the simulation during the podcast in which the American's efficiency orientation contrasts with Mr Khan's wish to build up a good personal relationship with his new foreign partner.

Finally there was the intriguing notion of virtual consuls and Diplopedia, a wikipedia of intelligence information for use by the US state department. Not surprisingly the idea was met with sceptism when it first came into use a couple of years ago.

That was it regarding the conference and all that remained for me to do was to remind listeners of Pangea Day which is May 10th at 18.00 GMT when the winning short films will be shown all over the world and in various media. There will be time to show 24 winning films and I'll be interested to see what universal human values they touch on.