Back to Romania for Business Days and Book Signing

I’m very happy that in 2 weeks I will be in Romania speaking at a great event, the second edition of Business Days, organized by JCI Targu Mures, September 29 and 30, more information is available at http://businessdays.ro/ .

It will be a full program, and will be present in several events. I invite you join me in any or all of these moments:

- September 28, Brasov presentation of my book “Networking - Ghid de supravietuire pentru profesionisti”
- September 29 and 30 presentations at Targu Mures Business Days.
- October 1, Networking Workshop at Made In Mures and JCI Gala
- October 2, Sibiu, presentation of my book “Networking - Ghid de supravietuire pentru profesionisti”, organized by JCI Sibiu.

Hope to see you there :-)

An Adventure in the Middle East

Before leaving Portugal I informed some of my friends and colleagues that I would travel soon to Syria and I got more or less the same reaction, a mixture of sincere concern about my safety and admiration for my courageous attitude. So in order to look even bolder, I would say with a smile: “And if I’m lucky I will jump into Beirut!” At that moment I could see eyes opening even more.

Now, it is hard to explain the experience I lived in Syria and in Lebanon, how safe are cities like Damascus and Beirut, in both I walked alone, much safer than Paris, Washington, Johannesburg or Rio de Janeiro.

Also it’s hard to explain how exquisite Syrian and Lebanese cuisine is. I’m so happy that check-in procedures at the airport don’t included the passenger’s weight of the, because I’m sure I gained some weight, such a good food.

And when you join good food with good people you feel great, a found great people both in Syria and Lebanon, believe that any guest in these countries will feel like a king. I hear about their great hospitality but it went beyond my expectations.

During my visit to Syria and Lebanon I had the privilege to deliver training and to do book presentations to great participants. There are some people that I have to recognize for their extra effort to make my visit unforgettable, first of JCI Syria and their fantastic members, members like Mayss that manage all my days and trainings, or Adib who show me the other Syria that we don’t see on TV, or Samer in charge of putting fun into the program, or Shaza and Omar coordinators of JCI Trainer and Presenter.

Recognition is also in order to the great members of JCI Lebanon, like Rania always available to help me with new plans, or Andre that brought me to Lebanon and show me the contrasts of this great country or Rami and Olga that welcome me in their house with a magnificent view over Beirut.

Everywhere I go I say the same, JCI made my world smaller and at the same time gave me a better understanding of the world, you have to go beyond the international news that are served the same way to you no matter where you live, where there are the good guys and the bad guys, but at the end we are all human that have dreams, aspirations and deserve a better world. I believe that the first step of getting to that better world is to know each other better, so travel as much you can, go to Syria and Lebanon you will not regret for sure :-)

Networking – Your Professional Survival Guide, now in English

After the success in the Portuguese, Angolan, Mozambican and Romanian market, the book “Networking – Your Professional Survival Guide” is now available in English.

You can get more information about this book and buy it here.

Promoting across Romania the Romanian Edition of my Networking Book

Last April, because of the Icelandic ash cloud, I couldn’t go to Romania to participate in person on the launching of my Networking Book in person. Nevertheless thanks to support of JCI Targu Mures I was present at the first launching of the Romanian edition of my book using Skype.

This time there was no ash cloud on sight and I manage to do several presentations and seminars in the two main cities in Romania, Bucharest and Iasi.

In Bucharest I counted with the support of Mihaela Stroe, Cornel Costea, my publisher Rentrop&Straton and the great leader of JCI Targu Mures, Laszlo Pacso, among others.

In Iasi I counted with the support of Marius Alexas that kindly invited me to be a speaker in his “Fresh & New” conference, Dorina Moisa from Alexander I Cuzu University that organized a very interesting session where I presented for 30 minutes and was overwhelmed by one and half hour of questions.

If I was surprised by so many questions, the next day I got even more surprised at Empower Connect organized by Genoveva Salvaras, where I did the same 30 minutes presentation and got two and half hours of questions. It was a great group so the conversations had to continue over a very nice lunch.

Finally, thanks to JCI Iasi I did a presentation in gala to recognize entrepreneurs for the Iasi region. I’m very proud that in a very small part I took part in this initiative.

So if you want to buy my book in Romania just go to: http://jcimures.ro/networking/

Being a speaker with a full room at ASTD 2010 in Chicago

My last ASTD international conference was in 2007, in Atlanta, where I made a presentation about Informal Training, at the time I was one of the few people that presented something about the importance of Informal Training and I was so happy that 120 people were at my presentation.

Now in Chicago, I presented my recent experience with Informal Training, but everything was different, this year Informal Training is a hot topic, most referred as Informal Learning or even Social Learning and my session was full with a queue of people waiting for some opening, so only 216 people were allowed to enter, the session was recorded and I did a Webinar on June 8 as part of the virtual part of the conference in order to reach more people.

Also it was a great opportunity to meet some good friends from Brazil, South Africa, Denmark USA, UK, Philippines… that I haven’t seen for a while, also I had the rare opportunity to talk face to face with speakers like Daniel Pink, Charlene Li, Donald Kirkpatrick, among others.

I got fun, inspirations and more speaking opportunities, so I will be for sure in ASTD 2011 in Orlando.

Official Launch of my Networking Book in Romania

Today, April 22, my Networking book (Networking – Ghidul supravieţuirii profesionale) was officially launched in Romania, in Romanian, during a conference organized by JCI Targu Mures.

Because of the ash cloud, I couldn't travel to Romania to present my book, so we did a press conference and a short presentation through Skype. That meant that I had to be in my office at 06.30 am to establish the connection.

Many thanks to JCI Targu Mures and it's President Laszlo Pacso for all the support and work that made possible publising and lauching my book in Romania. I want to thank Mihaela Stroe and Corneal Costea for their amazing working in promoting my seminars in Romania.

Also many others help this book to be published like: Raul Glogovețan, Simona Karner, Luana Karner, Miruna Marin, Daniela Bostaca, Crina Penteleychuk, Felicia Stoica, Loránd Soares-Szász and Genoveva Salvaras.

I will be in Romania on May 31 to launch my book in Bucharest and deliver seminars. So see you there :-)

Being Visiting Professor at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University

During the week of 8 to 12 of March I had the privilege to be Visiting Professor to “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” Universtity in Iasi, Romania.
It was a great opportunity to teach young Romanian students of graduate courses of Marketing and Tourism at the oldest University in Romania.

I also deliver a seminar about e-Marketing in partnership with Crilia and Humans. In this point I have to give a special thanks to my good friends Crina Penteleychuk (Crilia) and Felicia and Mihai Stoica (Humans), which manage in a record time, promote and put together a seminar that was a great success.

Of course, I couldn’t go to Iasi without visiting my good friend of JCI Iasi, which received me with much friendship.

And next month I will be back to Romania, this time to Bucharest and Tg. Mures where I will deliver several seminars from e-Marketing to Networking.