Opening Day of the GSS

Speakers, information and getting started at the GSS convention

The day started with a busy networking breakfast overlooking the North Sea, then at 9am sharp, the lovely voice of Jana Stanfield called us to order inthe main conference room, and the flags were marched in. 

There are 200 people here, representing 20 countries.  Its a big group and many new friendshiips are being made already.

Lou Heckler was our opening keynote speaker, with a strong messsage around communities and communication.  Did you know that the meaning of Commity stems from two words:

Com - means ‘together’
Munis - means ‘gif’t’. 

As we come together and share our gifts, we are a special community.

Lou was followed by Andreas Buhr who took us through these 7 steps of clarity whiich he calls his ‘Turnaround Machine’. 

1. Clarify your Role
2. Clarify your Expertise
3. Clarify your Passion
4. Clarify your Prices
5. Clarify who is Next - Ask for referrals
6. Clarify your own Network
7. Clarify your own Quality (A detailed article about this will be posted later). We then got to laugh and be amazed by Dr Wolfgang Reiber, challenging us to Discover our Magic, and reminded us to consider the power of possibilities in all that we do. Wolfgang was not the first magician of the day - after lunch we were enthralled by the antics of Hans Kazan and his ‘collapsing dog’ fantasies.  Hans was the first of the special GSFx 20 minute speaker specials run in a TEDx style session.  Jitske Kramer asked us if we were the same, or different and how do the Rhythm of Cultures affect our work as speakers.  She had us up dancing the chicken dance, before turning us on to feeling the three different types of sound and how they made us feel, where we felt them. Jitske told us that there are three different types of culture - Multi-active which is people oriented, Linear-active which is task oriented, and Reactive, which is harmony oriented, and high context of listening. Her message was that by understanding the cultural norms, and how they shape us, when we are stressed, that we need to remember there are different rhythms.  She finished by having us all sing The Rhythm of Life as she wished us all to enjoy the Rhythms. Matthew Blomfield - the Rapping Professor challenged us to consider the different ways we look, present our messages, and how important it is to look, listen and learn from each other.  Not to judge each other.