Last week I was in Singapore to give a seminar. I had last been there some twenty years ago, and I enjoyed being back. It’s a prosperous, teeming, and efficient city, and I took the opportunity to roam around a bit and sample the street food. “Asia for beginners,” I was told. That seems about right.
But traveling for seminars isn’t tourism. The seminar was what mattered, so I was delighted that 73 people had registered. That’s more than have attended any of my seminars, other than a couple of my Toronto gigs for Osgoode Professional Development.
And the concerns of those present were essentially the same as those who attend my seminars elsewhere. For example, how can we change traditional language without encountering pushback? Of course, there are local nuances. I enjoyed the ripple of groans and jeers when I put on the screen an example of all-caps text. Those crazy Americans!
It being Singapore, the amenities and food at the venue—the Marina Mandarin hotel—put U.S. CLE venues to shame. For example, one room for the seminar and another for lunch? What luxury!
I’m now in Kuala Lumpur for a two-day seminar starting Monday. I’ve been told that the response has been “overwhelming”; I look forward to finding out what that means in terms of numbers.
