It's always amazed me how training works. You take a bunch of fully autonomous adults in a room together - and there is an automatic consensus about the conventions we operate under. Yes, we socialise, crack jokes, make conversation, have fun. But it's not a social situation in the normal sense, apart from in the breaks.
The conventions around how we operate in a training context form an unwritten social contract. Most of us are unaware of it, and just naturally enter into it. Someone tells the others what to do - and they do it!
It was trainer extraordinaire Rich Allen who first made me conscious of just how extraordinary the training context is. He pointed out that as trainers, once we've built rapport with our trainees, we can say things like, "Now go back into your groups for this activity," or "Pick up your materials and move to your new places." He said we use a "special trainer voice" for this - it's friendly - but it's also clear and commanding. And he made us all burst out laughing when he said that you'd never use that tone of voice at a dinner party - imagine saying, "Pass the salt" in "trainer voice"! It's a very specialised tool to be used only in a specialised context.
So why would a roomful of adult professionals, each and very one of whom is an expert at his or her job, submit to "trainer voice" in a workshop?
Well, that's the convention!
All animals learn from each other, and humans seem to spend the longest time doing so, in our childhood, adolescence and early adulthood. But we may be more rare in that, at intervals throughout our life (if we're lucky!) we also enter into formal and informal learning situations, some spontaneous, some institutionalised. And while we know that many people end up on training courses they don't particularly want to attend, most of us (including most of our reluctant trainees) still enter into the convention of the workshop when we get there.
That convention really is a mutual contract that does two main things. It allows the trainer to use "trainer voice" and other modes that focus attention, and it engenders in the trainees a willingness to embrace the process. And those two things are possible because we all know that we are doing it in a learning context.
So the role of the trainer is to be conscious of and respect that context, and the very specialised, highly evolved behaviours that go with it.
And while trainees "submit" to the conventional behaviours that allow the training to proceed in a timely and fully inclusive manner, adult learning also offers the joys of mutual respect and celebration of each others' expertise. Some of my most enjoyable moments in training have been when trainees have raised questions or commented on things in a way that reveals the depth of their knowledge and their interrogation of the training itself. That too is part of the convention: we are all learning together, and some of our best learning comes from challenging what we are told.
Good trainers remain aware of their own and their trainees' dynamics, and operate in the full knowledge that breaching the unwritten workshop contract will result not in revolution or an overt display of bad manners, but most often in suspicion and withdrawal - and, worst of all - a failure to learn effectively or a lack of willingness to apply the training at work.
I should add that there has been a long gap between blogs, as I've travelled to the UK to collect copies of my book and meet some great people there and in Europe. I'm now starting to promote the book and the speaking and training that will accompany it - more on this soon!
Find out more about Rich Allen and subscribe to his training tips at http://www.justrightevents.biz/.
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Training that creates communities of excited professionals
The best training creates communities of excited professionals who want to communicate with each other about what they're learning.
Training is becoming both more social and more virtual as technologies enable this. It's also becoming much more collaborative – not only amongst learners, but between learners and trainers, as trainees take responsibility for their own learning and ask correspondingly more of their trainers.
Engineering ethics may not at first blush appear to be a topic that would inspire such excitement and collaboration - yet as long ago as 2009, this is just what it was doing. I attended a workshop on engineering ethics at a conference in Canada in November 2009, facilitated by the lecturer of a US-based university course on the topic.
He realised after some time that his course was a success when he discovered that his students had spontaneously started creating little skits about real ethical issues they had encountered, filming them and uploading them to YouTube.
What might this mean for your training program? Well, your students need to be able to inform each other and the trainer about their upload - this could be via a simple email list, or a listserv, or a Facebook page specific to the training course. You could then set up a wiki or online discussion board in which your students can initiate and take part in discussions and exchange ideas arising from the training and the associated activities. Where to from there? The possibilities are limited only by our imagination!
But that's the easy part.
How could we incorporate this invaluable informal activity into the more formal structure of our training workshops? How can we maximise the value of the contact we have with our trainees by making the best possible use of student-generated material? How can we generate other material that students can engage with before and after our training?
High-school science teacher Chris Clay started giving his teaching sessions on YouTube, which the students would watch before class. This meant they could then use the class time to discuss what they'd seen, clarify misunderstandings and practise the work together. The improvement in learning outcomes was spectacular.
By contrast, MIT professor Anant Agarwal found that at first, students of his circuits and electronics course would watch the videos, but by later on in the course they tackled their assignments first, watching the videos later on when they needed support or confirmation. Again, combining what he called "in-person with online" learning gave the best of both worlds.
It's mouth-watering to see the potential for making our training both more enjoyable and more effective.
You can see the engineering students' skits if you go to YouTube and search for “engineering ethics”. They are great - and I recognised many of the dilemmas they'd already encountered in their still short professional careers.
Click here to find out about Chris Clay's approach to teaching high school science.
Professor Anant Agarwal was interviewed in the 13 July 2013 New Scientist Issue 2925.
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
The cutting edge of the knowledge economy - a view from the digger bucket
Now that I've submitted an expanded second edition of my book to my publisher in the UK, Global Professional Publishing (it will be published in September this year), I find I'm having to explain the purpose and content of the book in a different way. It's not easy!
It started when I attended a 2-day VIP workshop for professional speakers and confessed to everyone there that having just submitted the book, I hadn't prepared anything at all to present. I was also struggling to get out of the detail and into my "why", to explain the book when people ask, "So what?" Facilitator Linda McDermott was totally unfazed by this, and the two days were hugely productive.
My learning was tested some weeks later, when someone said the topic of environmental training was very narrow and would only appeal to a very specialised audience. Well! I had to investigate my outrage to realise how useful that statement was for helping me distill my message.
As far as I can see, the only audiences that environmental training wouldn't appeal to are businesses who don't want to lift productivity and profitability; public agencies that don't want a cost-effective solution to just about every environmental problem you can think of; communities who don't want to work together to restore their local environments; and governments that don't want to create jobs.
As far as I can see, the only audiences that environmental training wouldn't appeal to are businesses who don't want to lift productivity and profitability; public agencies that don't want a cost-effective solution to just about every environmental problem you can think of; communities who don't want to work together to restore their local environments; and governments that don't want to create jobs.
There is a huge amount of evidence that environmental training can do all these things, with national and international agencies all round the world working hard to bring them about.
Sometimes it's difficult to understand how this can actually work on the ground, when at the policy level we are talking about the "knowledge economy" and other important but abstract concepts.
Let me tell a story about the time I was on a large civil construction site and asked the Team Leader, Erosion and Sediment Control, how he'd ended up in the job. He said he was a digger operator building the various environmental controls and became quite interested in this aspect of his work - so much so that he was promoted to Team Leader. Over the years he built up considerable skill and seniority - something he would never otherwise have done.
Of course, these people are already experts: I've been lucky enough to have a go on a digger - it was fantastic fun and I was absolutely hopeless! You can rotate the cab, turn one track to rotate the whole machine, drive forwards or backwards at any angle, raise or lower the arm and manipulate the bucket or whatever else is on the end of the arm - all at once! It was a 4-d operation like orienting a starship in the depths of the interstellar space. These guys are so good they can use their digger bucket to pour a cup of tea and add sugar without spilling a drop. If you don't believe me, check out the link below.
Another digger operator developed so much expertise on very technically demanding and environmentally sensitive projects that he would actually be named in contract documents for certain projects where his skills were particularly needed, such as stream bed and bank restoration. So while remaining a digger operator, he became increasingly valuable to his company - and would, of course, find his skills and remuneration increasing accordingly.
And think of the value of these two men as mentors to their staff and colleagues - what an asset for human resource development and overall company value they must be!
Of course, these people are already experts: I've been lucky enough to have a go on a digger - it was fantastic fun and I was absolutely hopeless! You can rotate the cab, turn one track to rotate the whole machine, drive forwards or backwards at any angle, raise or lower the arm and manipulate the bucket or whatever else is on the end of the arm - all at once! It was a 4-d operation like orienting a starship in the depths of the interstellar space. These guys are so good they can use their digger bucket to pour a cup of tea and add sugar without spilling a drop. If you don't believe me, check out the link below.
Another digger operator developed so much expertise on very technically demanding and environmentally sensitive projects that he would actually be named in contract documents for certain projects where his skills were particularly needed, such as stream bed and bank restoration. So while remaining a digger operator, he became increasingly valuable to his company - and would, of course, find his skills and remuneration increasing accordingly.
And think of the value of these two men as mentors to their staff and colleagues - what an asset for human resource development and overall company value they must be!
These men are real-life examples of the much-vaunted "knowledge economy" that many governments struggle to translate into practical realities. Of course, other types of training can deliver such benefits - especially literacy and numeracy training: I've seen environmental training become a vehicle for this, too, as people learn how to follow detailed designs, read meters and log their environmental tasks. Building these skills generates tremendous increases in staff loyalty and engagement, productivity and of course, profitability for the companies concerned.
There are also big opportunities in what Storm Cunningham calls the "restoration economy": already large but low-profile, this emerging economic sector involves reviving places damaged by human activities (war, pollution and the like) and natural disasters (earthquakes, flooding and so on). The former will grow as more of us understand the net social and economic harm of such unsustainable activities, and the latter as climate change intensifies and we learn more about the poor land use choices of the past that put people and investments in risky places.
So, better skills, more jobs, better outcomes for people and places - in some cases transforming the faltering economies of entire towns - what's not to like!
Find out more about Global Professional Publishing here.
Go to FunkeyNote to find out more about the wonderful Linda McDermott, speaking coach extraordinaire.
See the photos and hear the interview about the National Excavator Operator Competition on the Radio New Zealand website Spectrum page.
See the photos and hear the interview about the National Excavator Operator Competition on the Radio New Zealand website Spectrum page.
Click here to find out more about Storm Cunningham's work.
Monday, December 3, 2012
How to create an exam that everyone will enjoy
Over a coffee with a colleague earlier today, the conversation turned to assessing learning after a training workshop. Of the many people who've attended my workshops over the years, some have been extremely capable practitioners for whom school most definitely would have been one of the least rewarding times of their life. In fact at one workshop a delightful young man confided to me that he couldn't read, so please could I not ask him to read an excerpt out loud. (It's for this reason that I always call for volunteers to read out loud - and even when someone's workmates are laughing and pointing at one of their team to volunteer, I never accept the offer unless the hand comes out to take the paper. In the case of the nice young man, I was able to reassure him that I was looking for someone to pretend to be a grumpy judge, and that he was far too nice for the job!)
When we deliver training, we really do need some way of assessing the learning outcomes that goes beyond the level 1 "smile sheet", which basically tells you whether or not people liked the food. But sometimes we train people we won't see again, so we can't assess the improvement in their workplace skills. In these cases we need some kind of assessment at the end of the day, whether on site if the numbers are small enough, or in a "classroom" style setting.
Academic people are used to sitting exams and won't be phased by a written or text-based online test at or after the end of a workshop. But for the non-academic people who at best are not used to sitting exams or at worst are still scarred by their school experiences, the terms "test" or "exam" strike fear into their hearts and will set them up to fail.
Some years ago, I did a green building course over a weekend with Johann Bernhardt and Eddie Van Uden. Then they announced there would be a test at the end, and I was absolutely horrified! Sure, I was interested in green building and wanted to build a green home eventually - but I wasn't a builder and was convinced I'd make a complete mess of it.
To my surprise and delight, Johann and Eddie set up the exam for everyone's success. They handed round a sheet of paper with 10 questions on it and space to write the answers (so far, so normal), got us all round a table (bit of a departure from normal there) and then read out the first question and said; "Well, what do you guys think?" (- by now, definitely abnormal in terms of any exam I'd ever sat!) Someone tentatively suggested an answer, someone else asked a question, another offered a story from their experience, and at the end, our trainers asked someone to sum up, then we all wrote the answer down!
We went through all the questions in that way, with different people able to summarise the different questions, and the trainers making sure everyone had good chances to have some input. It was not only a thorough evaluation of the workshop, but also a thoroughly enjoyable way to review and consolidate our learnings.
This approach would be just as effective for people who aren't confident writers and readers, too: to ensure these people can learn comfortably, we'd need to give open reassurances at the very start of the workshop and before the "test" that we will talk through the workshop at the end so the trainers can make sure people are confident about what they've learned, and that you can make notes if you wish. See? Choice not compulsion, participation not reiteration, and co-operation not isolation - much more how it is in a good workplace.
Who among your trainees and which of your workshops could benefit from this approach?
When we deliver training, we really do need some way of assessing the learning outcomes that goes beyond the level 1 "smile sheet", which basically tells you whether or not people liked the food. But sometimes we train people we won't see again, so we can't assess the improvement in their workplace skills. In these cases we need some kind of assessment at the end of the day, whether on site if the numbers are small enough, or in a "classroom" style setting.
Academic people are used to sitting exams and won't be phased by a written or text-based online test at or after the end of a workshop. But for the non-academic people who at best are not used to sitting exams or at worst are still scarred by their school experiences, the terms "test" or "exam" strike fear into their hearts and will set them up to fail.
Some years ago, I did a green building course over a weekend with Johann Bernhardt and Eddie Van Uden. Then they announced there would be a test at the end, and I was absolutely horrified! Sure, I was interested in green building and wanted to build a green home eventually - but I wasn't a builder and was convinced I'd make a complete mess of it.
To my surprise and delight, Johann and Eddie set up the exam for everyone's success. They handed round a sheet of paper with 10 questions on it and space to write the answers (so far, so normal), got us all round a table (bit of a departure from normal there) and then read out the first question and said; "Well, what do you guys think?" (- by now, definitely abnormal in terms of any exam I'd ever sat!) Someone tentatively suggested an answer, someone else asked a question, another offered a story from their experience, and at the end, our trainers asked someone to sum up, then we all wrote the answer down!
We went through all the questions in that way, with different people able to summarise the different questions, and the trainers making sure everyone had good chances to have some input. It was not only a thorough evaluation of the workshop, but also a thoroughly enjoyable way to review and consolidate our learnings.
This approach would be just as effective for people who aren't confident writers and readers, too: to ensure these people can learn comfortably, we'd need to give open reassurances at the very start of the workshop and before the "test" that we will talk through the workshop at the end so the trainers can make sure people are confident about what they've learned, and that you can make notes if you wish. See? Choice not compulsion, participation not reiteration, and co-operation not isolation - much more how it is in a good workplace.
Who among your trainees and which of your workshops could benefit from this approach?
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
My last days at the Frankfurt Book Fair
Next year - I'm already planning it! - I will stay for the whole Fair. It was a difficult decision but with friends in Berlin and Brussels to visit in one week before my week in London, I decided to miss Sunday, the last day of the Fair. Unfortunately, this meant leaving Maggie, Richard and Adrian alone to tidy up our much-loved NZ Society of Authors stand on the Monday, and also missing a more relaxed day.
Saturday was a lovely day - Hall 3 was total madness on the Friday and over the whole weekend, as the public come in to look at the pick of German publishing (many of them in fancy dress - wonderfully entertaining!) - but in Hall 8, the English-speaking Hall, it was much more laid-back. I visited the Princeton University Press stand and had a lovely chat with the two staff there - one of my brothers is a professor in the classics department at Princeton, and I adored the town and the university when I visited them some time ago.
I decided to visit the Harvard University Press stand as well, to find their two staff also in leisurely chat mode, a big change from how busy all the stands had been from Wednesday to Friday. The more relaxed pace meant I was able to pluck up the courage to ask them what it would take to publish an article in the magnificent Harvard Business Review, to which I subscribe. They were very helpful and I came away with a great book on creativity, an area of great interest (see my other blog).
I'd been warned that authors were not really welcome at the Fair as it is a business-to-business trade affair, with publishers, agents and scouts the main players. But all the publishers I visited were extremely helpful and I was very happy to leave materials with them about Niki Harre's book and my own, for their publishing, editorial and rights staff to consider after the Fair.
Two New Zealand authors (Tui Allen and Mervyn Noel Whitley Jnr) and Sylvia, a German author living in Finland whose second name escaped me, also spoke at the seminar. I've now read Tui's book, a remarkable vision, while Mervyn and Sylvia are really pushing the boundaries of what a book can be.
Next year will be fun - Brazil is the 2013 guest of honour - so I will finish another book or two and come again.
And in one of those serendipitous encounters for which the Frankfurt Book Fair is so famous, on Sunday morning on the train to the main station en route to catch my train to Berlin, I met a charming Malaysian publisher - the second I'd met who wanted to know how to go about becoming the guest of honour. Thanks to marvellous expositions from Carole Beu and Maggie Tarver, I am confident that with their help, I can pull together a list of key New Zealand contacts for the Guest of Honour programme, including a list of contacts from the New Zealand publishing supply chain - authors, publishers, printers, booksellers and of course the Book Council. Malaysia as Guest of Honour in 2015 or 2016? A great plan!
Now for the real work - following up on the wonderful contacts made at the Fair and coming up with a plan to fund my writing!
Saturday was a lovely day - Hall 3 was total madness on the Friday and over the whole weekend, as the public come in to look at the pick of German publishing (many of them in fancy dress - wonderfully entertaining!) - but in Hall 8, the English-speaking Hall, it was much more laid-back. I visited the Princeton University Press stand and had a lovely chat with the two staff there - one of my brothers is a professor in the classics department at Princeton, and I adored the town and the university when I visited them some time ago.
I decided to visit the Harvard University Press stand as well, to find their two staff also in leisurely chat mode, a big change from how busy all the stands had been from Wednesday to Friday. The more relaxed pace meant I was able to pluck up the courage to ask them what it would take to publish an article in the magnificent Harvard Business Review, to which I subscribe. They were very helpful and I came away with a great book on creativity, an area of great interest (see my other blog).
I'd been warned that authors were not really welcome at the Fair as it is a business-to-business trade affair, with publishers, agents and scouts the main players. But all the publishers I visited were extremely helpful and I was very happy to leave materials with them about Niki Harre's book and my own, for their publishing, editorial and rights staff to consider after the Fair.
Two New Zealand authors (Tui Allen and Mervyn Noel Whitley Jnr) and Sylvia, a German author living in Finland whose second name escaped me, also spoke at the seminar. I've now read Tui's book, a remarkable vision, while Mervyn and Sylvia are really pushing the boundaries of what a book can be.
Next year will be fun - Brazil is the 2013 guest of honour - so I will finish another book or two and come again.
And in one of those serendipitous encounters for which the Frankfurt Book Fair is so famous, on Sunday morning on the train to the main station en route to catch my train to Berlin, I met a charming Malaysian publisher - the second I'd met who wanted to know how to go about becoming the guest of honour. Thanks to marvellous expositions from Carole Beu and Maggie Tarver, I am confident that with their help, I can pull together a list of key New Zealand contacts for the Guest of Honour programme, including a list of contacts from the New Zealand publishing supply chain - authors, publishers, printers, booksellers and of course the Book Council. Malaysia as Guest of Honour in 2015 or 2016? A great plan!
Now for the real work - following up on the wonderful contacts made at the Fair and coming up with a plan to fund my writing!
Friday, October 12, 2012
More New Zealand authors at the Frankfurt Book Fair
Among the other authors able to attend the Fair are Greg Scowen (The Spanish Helmet), Tui Allen (Ripple), Jenny Mortimer (Knock the bastard off), Anna Gowan (Hollie Chips), Rachel McAlpine (Scarlet Heels, as well as some very good corporate communication books), Ron Riddell (A love beyond) and Owen Scott (Deep beyond the reef). Richard Webster and Adrian Blackburn also have their recent books on display at the New Zealand Society of Authors stand, and Michael Gill (Himalayan hospitals - Sir Edmund Hillary's Everest legacy) put in an appearance yesterday, too.
And writer and performer extraordinaire Gerry Paul (Hank the wrestling shark) has been performing that book to music at 4pm every day to the delight of people at the surrounding stands and passers-by. Yesterday he also performed a joyful song about composting, reminiscent of the old song "Working on the chain gang"; "got no legs, got no arms, spend my days working on the worm farm" - the voice of the hard-working tiger worms!
One of my speaker colleagues, Sylvia Bowden, has two books on the stand (How to stop your kids from going broke; and Get out of my pocket) though she isn't at the Fair. 30-odd other authors are not at the Fair but their books have been attracting steady interest, and all comers are given the very classy catalogue of all the books on the stand.
Well-known gardening writer Kerry Carman has two books on the stand and kindly donated a dozen exquisite flower prints for a daily raffle. We all put the business cards of our publishing contacts in for the draw and each day two lucky publishers get to choose which print they would like - two of my contacts have won so far and were truly delighted. The raffle and Gerry's performances make our wee stand a "Stand-out" stand in the nicest possible way!
We've also been visited by several very happy publishers from the Publishers Association of New Zealand stand just round the corner - this collective stand is doing very well and has been a great venture for them.
And of course the parties have been happening - Tui Allen was invited to the Latvian publishers stand (the population of Latvia is only 2 million!) and feasted on very good cheese and chocolate (not somehow the cuisine I would have expected...).
Yesterday afternoon we gate-crashed the Australian publishers' stand yesterday and expect to welcome them to the Publishers Association party tonight.
Several of us were lucky enough to be interviewed for a UK publisher's journal and we've all been giving readings from or presentations about our books - excellent practice and a privilege to gain an insight into our colleagues' work.
I have more publishers to visit today and hope to have time to revisit the New Zealand Pavilion again tomorrow to see some of our very famous authors in action. And will upload some photos when I can figure out how to do it....
And writer and performer extraordinaire Gerry Paul (Hank the wrestling shark) has been performing that book to music at 4pm every day to the delight of people at the surrounding stands and passers-by. Yesterday he also performed a joyful song about composting, reminiscent of the old song "Working on the chain gang"; "got no legs, got no arms, spend my days working on the worm farm" - the voice of the hard-working tiger worms!
One of my speaker colleagues, Sylvia Bowden, has two books on the stand (How to stop your kids from going broke; and Get out of my pocket) though she isn't at the Fair. 30-odd other authors are not at the Fair but their books have been attracting steady interest, and all comers are given the very classy catalogue of all the books on the stand.
Well-known gardening writer Kerry Carman has two books on the stand and kindly donated a dozen exquisite flower prints for a daily raffle. We all put the business cards of our publishing contacts in for the draw and each day two lucky publishers get to choose which print they would like - two of my contacts have won so far and were truly delighted. The raffle and Gerry's performances make our wee stand a "Stand-out" stand in the nicest possible way!
We've also been visited by several very happy publishers from the Publishers Association of New Zealand stand just round the corner - this collective stand is doing very well and has been a great venture for them.
And of course the parties have been happening - Tui Allen was invited to the Latvian publishers stand (the population of Latvia is only 2 million!) and feasted on very good cheese and chocolate (not somehow the cuisine I would have expected...).
Yesterday afternoon we gate-crashed the Australian publishers' stand yesterday and expect to welcome them to the Publishers Association party tonight.
Several of us were lucky enough to be interviewed for a UK publisher's journal and we've all been giving readings from or presentations about our books - excellent practice and a privilege to gain an insight into our colleagues' work.
I have more publishers to visit today and hope to have time to revisit the New Zealand Pavilion again tomorrow to see some of our very famous authors in action. And will upload some photos when I can figure out how to do it....
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Being at the Frankfurt Fair is fantastic fun!
There is so much to tell already.... the happy coincidences that saw three of the independent authors share the same flights from New Zealand and hooking up with incomparable Carole Beu of the Women's bookshop on the same flights... hearing her story of being able to go as a result of an introduction from a friend in publishing ... That story is worth hearing - Carole's friend said she'd "watched Carole's growing success over more than 20 years, thoroughly enjoyed how Carole had just chaired an author interview at the NZ Writers and Readers Festival, and thought she might like an introduction..." to a young woman who is an arts reporter for one of the major daily Frankfurt papers. Sylvia, this young woman, said she had a spare room in her apartment especially for a New Zealander to stay with her over the time of the Frankfurt Fair. It couldn't have happened to a more deserving person - Carole does so much for books in New Zealand. And at the airport in Frankfurt, Sylvia was duly waiting to pick Carole up and despite our vast quantities of luggage, gave a lift to two more passengers, me and Tui Allen (author of "Ripple"), taking us to the door of our hotel. The delightful and clearly gifted Sylvia is interviewing some of New Zealand's most famous authors in some of the many events at and associated with the Fair.
It was lovely to drive through forests just turning into their autumn colours and past some exquisite old apartment buildings and houses - it made me realise how much I've missed Europe since my last trip many years ago. After a good nights sleep, what fun to explore the local centre and discover a genuine marketplace full of marvellous fruit and vegetables and more.
Later that day (Tuesday) we went to the two opening ceremonies; that of the Fair itself and of the New Zealand Pavilion - as this year's country Guest of Honour at the Fair. We hooked up with Jenny Mortimer ("Knock the bastard off") and went off in a convoy of four - we got our tickets through the extreme smarts and generosity of redoubtable Switzerland-based kiwi author, Greg Scowen ("The Spanish Helmet"). On the way in we met Louise Ryder, wife of the New Zealand Ambassador to Berlin, a charming woman, who was accompanying Mary English to the grand opening ceremony. Both women were kind enough to be genuinely interested in our work, with Mary taking photos of us with our cameras!
Bill English gave a very well-received speech which I thought was an excellent one, and Bill Manhire and Joy Cowley also gave two great speeches among those from some of Germany's and Frankfurt's leading literary and government figures.
We were late for the opening of the New Zealand Pavilion, and arrived to find it in pitch darkness with a large and very convincing moon at the entrance - our 2012 theme is "While you were sleeping" - subtext presumably "we have been writing", far away in the antipodes - to a vigorous haka performance followed by some highly imaginative excerpts of New Zealand writing in films and animations. Excellent use was made of the shallow pools of water in the Pavilion to stage some live readings including one taking place under a deluge of water!
Mingling outside, we got chatting to a mother and daughter from Frankfurt; the mother coming to sell her short ebooks to publishers and the daughter in charge of the Book Fair activities at the Frankfurt public library. She said the library has done this for the last 12 years or more, and it is absolutely huge now. Events as part of the Fair are taking place all over the city, and the city of Frankfurt itself has generously come to the party by giving all ticket-holders free transport on the wonderful public transport system.
The Fair proper got under way the following morning and a rather nervous bunch of newbie authors gathered at the New Zealand Society of Authors Stand where we were made most welcome, and taken under the protective wings of NZSA CEO Maggie Tarver, well-known journalist and author Adrian Blackburn and New Zealand writing's best-kept secret, Richard Webster. These three undertook to have someone on the Stand at all times and offered to accompany us to any meetings with publishers. I've attended a couple of workshops with Richard before, so he kindly came with me to my first meeting, with Eric Dobby of Global Professional Publishing. I was quite keyed up but Richard made some gentle opening remark that eased us into conversation, and ended up having a highly animated and enjoyable conversation with Eric and had no qualms about handing over my business card and two flyers and will email him more information after the Fair.
On the way back to the NZSA Stand, I spotted another of my target publishers, HRD (Human Resource Development) Press, and asked Richard if it was okay to bowl up without an appointment. With his blessing and deeply grateful for his support, in I went and had another great conversation with Global Marketing Manager Sam McLeod.
Publishers are very nice people! More on the other New Zealand authors and the vast Halls of the Fair in my next post....
It was lovely to drive through forests just turning into their autumn colours and past some exquisite old apartment buildings and houses - it made me realise how much I've missed Europe since my last trip many years ago. After a good nights sleep, what fun to explore the local centre and discover a genuine marketplace full of marvellous fruit and vegetables and more.
Later that day (Tuesday) we went to the two opening ceremonies; that of the Fair itself and of the New Zealand Pavilion - as this year's country Guest of Honour at the Fair. We hooked up with Jenny Mortimer ("Knock the bastard off") and went off in a convoy of four - we got our tickets through the extreme smarts and generosity of redoubtable Switzerland-based kiwi author, Greg Scowen ("The Spanish Helmet"). On the way in we met Louise Ryder, wife of the New Zealand Ambassador to Berlin, a charming woman, who was accompanying Mary English to the grand opening ceremony. Both women were kind enough to be genuinely interested in our work, with Mary taking photos of us with our cameras!
Bill English gave a very well-received speech which I thought was an excellent one, and Bill Manhire and Joy Cowley also gave two great speeches among those from some of Germany's and Frankfurt's leading literary and government figures.
We were late for the opening of the New Zealand Pavilion, and arrived to find it in pitch darkness with a large and very convincing moon at the entrance - our 2012 theme is "While you were sleeping" - subtext presumably "we have been writing", far away in the antipodes - to a vigorous haka performance followed by some highly imaginative excerpts of New Zealand writing in films and animations. Excellent use was made of the shallow pools of water in the Pavilion to stage some live readings including one taking place under a deluge of water!
Mingling outside, we got chatting to a mother and daughter from Frankfurt; the mother coming to sell her short ebooks to publishers and the daughter in charge of the Book Fair activities at the Frankfurt public library. She said the library has done this for the last 12 years or more, and it is absolutely huge now. Events as part of the Fair are taking place all over the city, and the city of Frankfurt itself has generously come to the party by giving all ticket-holders free transport on the wonderful public transport system.
The Fair proper got under way the following morning and a rather nervous bunch of newbie authors gathered at the New Zealand Society of Authors Stand where we were made most welcome, and taken under the protective wings of NZSA CEO Maggie Tarver, well-known journalist and author Adrian Blackburn and New Zealand writing's best-kept secret, Richard Webster. These three undertook to have someone on the Stand at all times and offered to accompany us to any meetings with publishers. I've attended a couple of workshops with Richard before, so he kindly came with me to my first meeting, with Eric Dobby of Global Professional Publishing. I was quite keyed up but Richard made some gentle opening remark that eased us into conversation, and ended up having a highly animated and enjoyable conversation with Eric and had no qualms about handing over my business card and two flyers and will email him more information after the Fair.
On the way back to the NZSA Stand, I spotted another of my target publishers, HRD (Human Resource Development) Press, and asked Richard if it was okay to bowl up without an appointment. With his blessing and deeply grateful for his support, in I went and had another great conversation with Global Marketing Manager Sam McLeod.
Publishers are very nice people! More on the other New Zealand authors and the vast Halls of the Fair in my next post....
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