Speaking at the 5th Global Conference & Exhibition of ASTD South Africa

From April 21 till April 23 ASTD South Africa held in Cape Town its Global Conference & Exhibition, around 250 participants converged to hear a great group of South African and foreigner speakers, in which I had the privilege to be included.

The conference had a brilliant organization that even had to handle the challenge of a general election in South Africa, right in the middle of the conference days.

I made a presentation to more than 120 people about Informal Training that caught much attention and questions during and after the session.

Looking Around South Africa

My friends Juanita and Robin Probart were great hosts to me, with them and another speaker from the Philippines, Moje Ramos-Aquino, I had the opportunity to visit wonderful places like the Cradle of Humankind, Pilasnesberg National Park, Cape Town, Cape of Good Hope and Table Mountain.

As a Portuguese Cape Town has a special meaning because it was discovered by the Portuguese sailor Bartolomeu Dias in 1487, opening the way for the famous trip of Vasco da Gama to India in 1498.

South Africa is a country that is full of amazing surprises that deserves not only a visit, but several visits, because of its diversity and dimension.

On my way to South Africa

Today I have a long trip. Start from Lisbon and now I’m at the new Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport waiting for my flight to Johannesburg. I only have to wait for 5.5 hours.

Time to update my blog :-)


On May 21 I will be speaking at the ASTD South Africa Annual Conference that will be held in the beautiful city of Cape Town. Also a very historical place in terms of the Portuguese Discoveries.


I will speak about Informal Training, for more on that check here


Next stop Johannesburg, where I will meet my good friends Robin Probart and his wife Juanita.

Training Networking in Freiburg

To finish a great March I did my Networking training to JCI Freiburg (Germany), it was a opportunity to meet members of JCI of Switzerland, Germany and France.

It was a fun training with a very good social program that allow me to live the history and tradition of Freiburg.

My host Uli Wiener and family were very kind in having me at their home. I believe that I will return to Germany for trainings again this year.

The Breakfast Club in Frankfurt

After a wonderful adventure in Mongolia that was extend because of cancellation of my flight to Beijing, I finnally arrived to Frankfurt for a breakfast appointment with my friend Andreas.

To my surprise Andreas was not alone, Kai from Norway was also there and also join us our friend Anke. It was a typical JCI reunion, somewhere in the world, with a lot of friendship.

It was great to meet them!!!

Meeting JCI Leader

After a wonderful Mongolian Barbecue it was time to return to Ulan Bator and have dinner party with JCI Leader, a chapter of JCI of Ulan Bator.

This is the chapter of my good friend Sayanaa (Vice President of JCI) that made sure during stay in Mongolia that everything was great for me.

I had the opportunity to explain my experience in JCI and also to welcome two new members to JCI.

A True Mongolia Barbecue

Thanks to my friends Batbayar (National President of JCI Mongolia) and Ody (President of JCI Ulan Bator) I had the amazing opportunity to do some sightseeing of the Mongolian countryside to finish of with a true Mongolian barbecue on the mountains.

Mongolia is truly a country that deserves to be known by its natural beauty, for its great people and traditions.

Delivering Traininig to two Major Mongolian Companies

It was quite an experience to deliver training to two major Mongolian Companies in the same day, NewTel (mobile communications and Internet) and APU (beverages).

Both companies sent to my Networking top and middle management and it was a great success.

I specially liked the experience of delivering training in a Ger (traditional nomadic house) in APU company. This Ger was the same used by the Mongolia's President to welcome the US President.

First JCI Presenter in Mongolia Ever

The next honor and challenge was to be Head Trainer of the first JCI Presenter course in Mongolia that was held in Ulan Bator, on March 17, to a class of 18 ambitious JCI members of several LOMs.

I had as Assistant Trainer my friend Amga, by the way a great Mongolian trainer, that puts much of his professional experience into the training, creating a unique experience.

Also my friends Amca and Bayan of JCI Mongolia gave a great logistical support creating the conditions for a very successful course.

7th Presidential Academy of JCI Mongolia

Being Head Trainer of the 7th Presidential Academy of JCI Mongolia was for me an honor and a challenge. The academy was held on March 14 and 15 in the mining city of Erdenet.

Thanks to great participants, excellent team of Mongolian trainers and a very professional organization team this Academy was a success.

I had the opportunity to meet JCI Vice-President Farzana, from Bangladesh, that also deliver training during the academy.

The social program of the Academy was also lots of fun!

A train trip in Mongolia

I arrived to Ulan Bator at 16.00 and after a great dinner with my good friend Batbayar at 20.00 I was already in train to Erdenet, where the JCI Mongolia Presidential Academy.

Erdenet is a mining city 400 Km north of Ulan Bator, close to the Russian border. It was 12 hours train trip with a lot of talks to pass the time and with a great reception at the end.

A dream coming true – Training in Mongolia

I'm writing this post on the plane from Lisbon to Frankfurt and I can't wait to arrive in Mongolia tomorrow and meet many of my Mongolian friends.

This will be an opportunity to deliver JCI Presenter course and also some of my trainings at the Presidential Academy.

Also I will not miss the chance of learning even more of the history and culture of Mongolia, a country that once dominate a vast continent.

See you in Ulaanbaatar :-)

JCI Presenter and JCI Trainer in Vilnius

I can say that I feel very much at home in Vilnius, being this the 7th time that I’m here and I my respect for the Lithuanians grows in every trip that I make to their beautiful country with an remarkable history of courage.

This time I had the privilege of being Head Trainer of JCI Presenter, having as Assistant Trainers my good friends Harald from Estonia and Aldis from Latvia. The participants did a fantastic job and I loved their commitment.

On the weekend was time to do JCI Trainer, now having Per from Norway as Head Trainer and Harald from Estonia and Zanas from Lithuania as my colleagues as Assistant Trainers. It was a great learning experience for me and again we had top level participants.

In the words of a famous movie character “I’ll be back!” :-)

March 3 - JCI Achieve in Panevėžys, Lithuania

This was my third time in Panevėžys and again to deliver training, but this time as Head Trainer of JCI Achieve.

This course uses discussions and case studies to understand and establish the JCI local organization’s identity, its purpose and what to do to accomplish JCI’s Mission, effectively adopt and use recognizable and appreciated activities, understand the existing demographic groups and their characteristics and how to build a attractive organization that will bring in new members who are looking for the development opportunities and want to create positive change as active citizens.

And 10 JCI members of JCI Lithuania came to Panevėžys to invest their time and effort in a cold Tuesday to help JCI Lithuania to an even better organization.

I have to thank all participants for their commitment, Jolanta Bubneliene for the local logistics and also my unstoppable project director Aurelija Muzaite-Zavanelli.

JCI European Presidents Meeting in Portugal

In 2006 in Vilnius as president of JCI Portugal I had a dream, to host a EPM in Portugal in the near future. In 2008, Krakow we won the bid to host EPM 2009 in Estoril, Portugal.

For me it was a great pleasure to host so many JCI friends in Portugal, to have the opportunity to show the potential that we have in Portugal, but also to give JCI Portugal member a flavor of the international brotherhood that exists in JCI.

From the participants we receive many kind words about words, namely from my good friend JCI World President Jun Sup Shin, that had several gestures of great sympathy toward JCI Portugal and myself.

I will never forget that he gladly accepted my invitation to be present in the first graduation of a JCI Presenter course in Portugal, in which I had the honour to be Head Trainer, with my two good friends Alis Allikis (JCI Latvia) and Ronald Goovaerts (JCI Portugal).

New Training for New Times

As a trainer I’m always searching for new methods to be more effective. One area was a big challenge for me, technical training, mainly on the “how to do” perspective.

I'm accustomed to see training rooms filled with computers and people learning 5 to 10% of they were taught and because of that they would receive a manual that they wouldn’t see anymore.

On the other hand, companies have their knowledge dispersed between staff members and have to send people to external training when they have the knowledge inside that they seek outside.

After more than three years of research and tests I developed a methodology that I named Informal Training, which increases the training effectiveness, cutting costs dramatically.

The results are, to say the least, spectacular.

The beauty of Informal Training is that I can put working in any organization, in part of the world in a very short time.

If you want to know more about Informal Training please visit:
- YouTube – www.youtube.com/informaltraining
- iTtunes - http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=289973811
- For best image quality - www.filipecarrera.com/informaltraining/cutcosts/cutcosts.html

Questions and feedback are more than appreciated.

Back to Lithuania, for more trainings

Between November 28 and December 4 I was back in Lithuania for several seminars and contacts with some training Lithuanian companies. For some of these contact I had the help of the Portuguese Embassy in Vilnius.

I took the opportunity to revisit the centre of Vilnius, a city that I recommend, and meet friends from JCI Lithuania.

In a event outside of Vilnius, organized by JCI Lithuania, I had a lot of fun, namely with a seminar about the art of flirting.