I share Dan Deming's enthusiasm and am excited that the IMI conference is finally here! I have been looking forward to attending for quite some time. It is a joy to finally be here ~ listening to and meeting the many scholars and practitioners who have contributed so much to the field; my deepest gratitude to IMI for this opportunity to attend.
The pre-conference workshop yesterday with Judee Blohm and Chuck Needlman was chalk full of Thiagi’s interactive lecture activities designed to help trainers deliver varied content in ways more engaging than traditional lecturing. Not to make our presenters tomorrow nervous, but Judy and Chuck set the bar very high indeed. We walked away with a toolbox of NASAGA activities, practice using them, and a unanimous feeling that we could have stayed there all day. Let us not forget the lively trivia game about the U.S. penny, which revealed the playful and competitive sides in many of us – who knew that so early on in the conference we would be calling upon our basketball skills to “box each other out” in a race to ring a bell!
Highlights for me today included Richard Harris’ intriguing discussion about varied cultural conceptions “the Good”. We came to know first-hand from our small group discussions how each of our ideas of paradise underpins the logic and rational thinking we use in creating our society. I agree with Richard’s premise that the mythical has often been underestimated as a motivating force behind our “common sense” or why we do what we do.
Anita Schmied’s session on new trends in medical tourism, also known as, “international patient care” and “international health traveling”, was a hot button topic for many of us in the room. Is this the globalization of healthcare? We looked at the facts of this newly emerging area of international business and discussed some of the provocative implications for cross-cultural communication and how it is an expanding career path for interculturalists.
Looking forward to tomorrow!
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