Event

10th Annual Conference on Communication and Culture in the Workplace (day 1 of 2)

Saturday, March 22nd, 2003, 1:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Speaker: Garr Reynolds, formerly of Apple Computer; Ping-Nan Chang, Essex University; several others

IBC was originally founded by corporate in-house language instructors and employees of training contractors who desired to meet occasionally and discuss ways to raise professional standards and implement new ideas. Other participants have included university instructors, managers in personnel departments, language school owners, and English school instructors. The organization has promoted an inclusive 'welcome' policy to anyone serious about improving his or her work skills in teaching business English. This wide range of participation has given the yearly national conferences a vibrant and spontaneous quality. Although several presentations have been made on theory, the emphasis tends to be on hands-on issues in actual training environments. Most of our conference speakers and participants work daily in the rapidly changing corporate training field in Japan. The conference's rural venue creates a relaxing retreat-like feeling, and there are several opportunities for socializing, such as the first day's beer and wine tasting party.
Call for papers due Feb. 10, 2002 in the following areas (full details on IBC Kansai's web site):

• Methods for training business communication skills such as meetings, presentations, debate, negotiations, telephoning, and business correspondence;
• Innovative approaches for teaching business English;
• Approaches and methods for intercultural communication training;
• Alternatives/supplements to classroom-based training such as computer-assisted learning, web-based materials, training via teleconference, using the Internet, etc.;
• Learner-centered methods and programs;
• Program management;
• Aligning training with corporate goals;
• Organization Development and Human Resource Development related themes.

Organization: International Business Communicators (IBC Kansai)

Cost: 5,000 yen pre-registration; 7,000 yen same-day registration

Venue: Shiga University's Hikone Campus

Location: Hikone City, Shiga Prefecture, Japan

Contact IBC Kansai

Ron Read, Coordinator

Work phone: 06-6338-1855