Presenter(s):  Svetlana Aladjem, Florence Bourdon, Vladimir Galabov

Presentation Description:  The session will explore environmental issues as common and universal human problems of all societies. It will focus on the importance of the green conscience for the future of the planet and the need to approach sustainable development knowing ecological and cultural mindsets.  The session will consist of: 

1. Presentations of the:  * findings of the Flash Eurobarometer of the European Commission Analytical Report on the Attitudes of Europeans towards the issue of biodiversity (2007) analyzed from cultural perspective; * results of the survey among Bulgarians on the understanding of the global green culture; * results of the survey on the understanding of the adoption of the transition from global/consummerist to green culture in France; 
2. “How do your green values match with those of the others” – a discussion aiming to recognize the understanding of the global green culture, and the importance of reaching as many people as possible; 
3. Drawing conclusions.         

The expected outcomes for the participants are to:  - get better understanding of the: European attitudes towards the issue of biodiversity, the correlation between global green culture and the cultural traditions in Bulgaria and France, the Homo viridis conscience conclusion;  - make contacts with colleagues who work in the field;  - draw ideas for joint future initiatives. 

Svetlana Aladjem, Bulgarian Language and Literature, Psychology (McS) obtained at Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, co-founder and manager of ELC Ltd. and a Bulgarian Culture Trainer. President of the newly forming SIETAR Bulgaria; member of SIETAR Europa since 2005. She and her team were the on the ground organizers of the SE Congress in Sofia in 2007.

Florence Bourdon, M.Sc. in Migration, Ethnic Relations and Multiculturalism (MERM) from Utrecht University, the Netherlands, teaches intercultural communication and makes propositions for the development of intercultural education at Lille Catholic University, France. She is interested in intercultural learning, deep culture, and how to transform cultural antagonism to peaceful relations.

Vladimir Galabov, a Bulgarian Culture Training Program Coordinator for ELC Ltd., has extensive experience in journalism, having worked more than 15  years for daily newspapers, the Bulgarian National Radio, Bulgarian National TV and the BBC World Serv

Presenter(s):  Kumiko Aoki, Eric Bray 

Presentation Description:  The presentation will discuss the meaning of intercultural competence in Japanese society, which is unique in its history and culture. Intercultural competence has been well defined and studied by American and European researchers. Of course, its underlying principles should not vary from culture to culture, and intercultural competence can be broadly defined as the ability to relate effectively and appropriately in a variety of cultural contexts (Bennett, Bennett & Allen, 2003, p. 244) . However, the precise conceptualization and operationalization of intercultural competence may differ depending on the context, and it should be conceptualized and operationalized considering the characteristics of the local context. In this presentation, the unique characteristics of Japanese EFL students and what intercultural competence is for them will be discussed. In addition, the paper suggests learning activities to help Japanese EFL students increase their level of intercultural competence. In order to foster intercultural competence, first students themselves have to be conscious of their own level of intercultural competence. To increase intercultural contacts in classrooms, the use of information and communication technologies is proposed and activities utilizing such technologies are suggested. Lastly, the presentation discusses the assessment methods for intercultural competence that are applicable to Japanese EFL students.

Kumiko Aoki has a Ph.D. in Communication and Information Sciences from the University of Hawaii. She has taught information technology at Rochester Institute of Technology, U.S., and communication at Boston University. Her primary research interests include the application of information and communication technologies in education.

Eric Bray has a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Nebraska (USA), and has taught English in Japan (20 years) and in Mexico (4 years). His interests include the use of technology to increase educational effectiveness and opportunity.

Presenter(s):  Nara Arutchyan

Presentation Description:  The strongest foundation for peaceful and successful co-creation between different cultures lies within us - in one world with many cultures and many styles of communication. Understanding and respect between cultures is the prerequisite of success in global arena.          Intercultural situations offer the unique opportunity to reduce our blind-spot. Other cultures act as privileged mirrors in which we can see more of our own cultural make-up as a result of being confronted and challenged by other cultural models. This leads to greater understanding of peculiarities of our own culture.          

Gaining and developing skills in intercultural communication, negotiation and conflict solving will become essential tools in future global activities.  Special efforts will thus be required to prevent clashes based on cultural differences, to develop synergies out of this diversity, especially for Armenia with her historically based conflicts.  

The nation is not an administrative contrivance, but a form of collective social identity, one that is based on a common historical linguistic, or cultural heritage. At the start of the new millennium, we are also seeing the gradual emergence of an awareness throughout the world of our common humanity and the planet as a whole rather than simply the sum of its parts.

Gyulnara Arutchyan, Yerevan, Armenia. Senior lecturer of English at Yerevan State Linguistic University; Chief Editor of AELTA quarterly newsletter; Participant in local and international conferences, seminars, trainings, workshops dedicated to interculturalism, plurilinguism, cross- cultural issues. Editing and publications of articles, study materials on related topics. Initiator of SIETAR Armenia NGO.

Presenter(s):  Noor Azizan-Gardner

Presentation Description:  Much has been discussed about the impact of globalization on multinational organizations and the new global leaders that will need to be developed now for the next generation. Yet, there has been little discussion on how globalization impacts the leadership of large research universities, especially ones in the United States which have operating budgets the size of many multinational companies; with diverse faculty, staff and students from many domestic ethnic groups and other nationalities; and research projects that impact lives in many parts of the world.          

Mid and upper-level administrators at universities in the United States were selected to key leadership positions because of their proven scholarship and research in their respective fields. Many have become effective and successful, usually by chance, and not through deliberate leadership development, coaching or mentoring.          

This facilitated discussion will explore strategies for a sustainable program to develop interculturally competent university leaders who will forge new educational paradigms for the next generation and lead an integrated and ethical research enterprise that respects and values the role of culture and the many human experiences.          

Universities hold the key to the Brave New World. There is never a more critical time to hold this discussion.

Noor Azizan-Gardner is currently the director of diversity programming and professional development with the Chancellor’s Diversity Initiative at the University of Missouri-Columbia. She has worked on cross-cultural projects in the US, Southeast Asia and Europe, previously focusing on journalism and diversity trainings and currently specializing on cross-cultural leadership workshops.

Presenter(s):  Marie-Therese Claes

Presentation Description:  A diversity case in a European company in Thailand illustrates the differences in perception of and in adaptation to diversity issues in Western and Thai cultures.   It raises several questions:

1. Can European organizations apply the same rules at home and abroad?  
2. Is Diversity a cultural concept? 
3. What are organisations  boundaries in adopting HR strategies in a globalised world? 
4. Who should adapt to whom?

Marie-Therese Claes, Marie-Therese Claes has been professor at ICHEC Brussels Business School, and at the University of Louvain in Belgium. She was Dean of the Faculty of Business at Asian University in Thailand for 2 years. She is a guest professor in universities in Europe, in Asia and in the United States of America.

Presenter(s):  Christopher Deal

Presentation Description:  The global distribution of films produced in the United States is widespread and pervasive. Such films have the power to influence the ways in which people from various national cultures perceive and communicate with one another. Therefore, they are a prime example of the effect of globalization on culture. To the extent that globally distributed films perpetuate stereotypes or inaccurate portrayals, they impede effective intercultural communication and understanding.          

The first part of this facilitated discussion will focus on the degree of accuracy of national cultures portrayed in globally distributed films produced in Hollywood. We will discuss examples of accurate and inaccurate portrayals and the subsequent effects of such portrayals both on global popular culture and on intercultural communication among individuals.          

The second part of the discussion will involve ways in which interculturalists can make the case that accurate portrayals of culture in films are in everyone’s best interest, including the film industry’s. Making the case for accurate portrayals of culture will allow the intercultural field to begin to effect positive change on an industry that has enormous power and influence but perhaps limited understanding of the depth and intricacies of culture.

Christopher Deal, Ph.D. has been involved in the intercultural field for more than 15 years, and has recently shifted the focus of his intercultural consulting to the film industry in Los Angeles. His consulting there is aimed at producing more accurate portrayals of culture and of intercultural communication in films.

Presenter(s):  Ulrike Glatz, Claudia Zysk

Presentation Description:  Nomads always existed. They change locations frequently, adapt to different cultural context and keep their possessions at a light to make moving around easz. In the past, nomads mainly moved to assure their survival. Today, nomads choose such a mobile life as a lifestyle.          Third Culture Kids live this kind of nomadic life due to their parents. But today, there are people who have not been exposed to different cultures & nomadic lifestyle in their childhood, and yet they choose the lifestyle of a New Nomad when they are young adults. They face all kinds of challenges, such as dealing with the concept of ‘home’, having to say goodbye frequently, managing relationships over distances, and they have no one to ask for advice. Their parents cannot guide them nor are there any kind of educational institutions available assisting New Nomads to develop the competence to effectively lead this lifestyle.        

In this facilitated discussion we will explore: 

• The New Nomad lifestyle as an emerging sub-culture. 
• The challenges of the New Nomad lifestyle. 
• The components of a New Nomad’s competence.  
• Possibilities to train such a New Nomad competence.

Ulrike Glatz is a New Nomad, an intercultural trainer and business consultant, specialising on emerging markets with a focus on the BPO and luxury industry.  She is running a training company in Bangalore/India (glatz-training) and is supporting European companies on their way into the Indian market (danaji-bridging the gap).

Claudia Zysk.  As Training Lead and Intercultural Subject Matter Expert at a leading global software company in Bangalore, India, Claudia Zysk is responsible for training quality, trainer readiness, intercultural training design, delivery and program evaluation. Claudia has been certified in the IDI and holds an M.A. in Intercultural Relations from Lesley University.

Presenter(s): Daniel Haeberle, Margaret Buxton

Presentation Description:  There is currently a movement towards better defining, and perhaps even certifying the work of intercultural practitioners. Yet what it is that interculturalists do seems too diverse to define, let alone measure. In any case there doesn’t seem to be any easy agreement. In this facilitated discussion we will aim to bring our contribution to the discussion around the nature of our work.
We will begin by experimenting with framing intercultural work it in terms of competency development. This will involve raising issues such as: What competencies do people require?  And what are we providing them with in practice?         

We will then introduce the work of constructive-developmentalists such as Robert Kegan and, William Torbert, adult educationalists and psychologists who argue that humans can usefully be thought of as meaning-makers functioning at different developmental levels of meta-reflective capacity or epistemological sophistication.           

We have found these theories about sense-making to be powerful, and our aim in sharing them will be to use them both to illuminate our work and to make sense of the complexities of the debate about what it is that we do.          

Participants will better understand constructive-developmental frameworks, and how they can be used to:

• make sense of the nature of intercultural work, and the debates within the “field”;
• increase our legitimacy and impact as professionals, (for example by better representing ourselves and by structuring and “labeling” our offerings more clearly);
• define and engage with our own personal and professional development challenges more effectively.

Daniel Haeberlé SARL (Director) France. Innovative independent consultant, trainer and researcher focused on how difference -any kind of difference – interfaces with personal and organizational learning processes. Has been providing the European Commission with intercultural training since 2000.  Current interests include embodiment, consciousness, sensorial theatre and the evolution of personal epistemology.

Margaret Buxton, currently Organisational and Community Development Consultant, Facilitator, Coach.  Fifteen years of successfully developing people, organisations and communities.  Areas of expertise: diagnosing systemic dynamics, facilitating cross cultural collaboration, generating transformative learning, increasing cohesion and resilience, and strengthening leadership capacity to work with complexity and difference.

Presenter(s):  Erja Haltia

Presentation Description:  The goal to raise awareness of the many faces of the global citizen and seek answers to issues like

• What is global citizenship ? Can there be such a thing ?
• Who can be defined as as a global citizen ? A person who has lived in an x number of countries ? A person who has visited the 200 countries of the world ? A person who speaks at least x languages ?
• Can a person be a global citizen if he/she has only European experience ? If not, how many continents do you have to "know" ?
• Can you become a global citizen just by surfing and IM'ing on the Internet with people in other continents ?
• Is it better to to do e.g. a student exchange the "hard way" => through total immersion, or the soft way, in an English speaking partner institution ? => Do youlearn anything at all or even minimally about your host country ?
• Are the citizens of e.g. small Scandinavian countries better at being global citizens as e.g. their TV programs come with subtitles so they hear the oroginal language compared to e.g. large Euroepan countries like Germany, Italy or France which have the films and programmes dubbed ?
• Are the anglosaxon people more global citizens as "everyone" speaks their laguage and they have it easy to communicate anywhere in the world ?
• If you go for student exchange or to work in a country where your native tongue is spoken, are you less of a global citizen ?
• What's the point of becoming a "global citizen2"? After all we all have a very real need to belong, to be loved and respected by our nearest and dearest in our own community.

Erja Haltia is a lecturer in International Marketing at Turku University of applied sciences, Finland, since 1996.  She is specialized in International Marketing, intercultural communication and SME’s, with European emphasis. Speaks six languages. Ten years experience in teaching exchange students from around the globe. Participated in several SIETAR conferences since 2002.

Presenter(s):  Shobha Naidu, Prabha Chandrasekhar

Presentation Description:  Indian Marriage Custom.  Indian marriage custom dictates that marriages be arranged in accordance with traditional stipulations of caste endogamy and arranged marriages continue to be the norm in India. However, rapid industrialization, and information technology have impacted the institution of marriage as never before as more women enter the modern workforce. Entrenched patriarchal values are being questioned and family networks get smaller and dispersed. These are increasingly unable to ensure family and community cohesion through marriage alliances.         Modern media has bridged this gap in its avatar as marriage broker Newspaper matrimonial advertisements and internet marriage sites are getting young people together. The formalities of matrimonial preliminaries have loosened up, but not the fundamental criteria on which marriage is based. Media mediation has not displaced parental and kin involvement in the mate selection process. The criteria for mate selection still continue to revolve around caste and family, but not as rigidly as before. Individual aspirations are increasingly being voiced.         

Managing Cultural Change.  This presentation highlights the angle of negotiation between two differing cultural processes. ?Sanskritization? and ?Westernization? are the two dominant cultural forces that are influencing India today. Globalization has shrunk regional divides and brought into sharp focus the question of identity. The mate selection process in India reflects this intensely.       

Shobha Naidu is a cross-cultural trainer and writer with Global Adjustments in Bangalore. She facilitates training programs for Indian and expatriate professionals. Shobha has also mobilized resources for Indian development projects with French Foundations and Corporates. Her M.phil research with the Institute for Development Studies Geneva, has been the catalyst for this presentation.

Prabha Chandrasekhar, is a Cross Culture Coach and Trainer. As Head of Cross Cultural Services at Global Adjustments, she has been training both expatriates and Indians. As a Life Coach she does one on one session with young professionals, facing the challenges at work and personal life, due to the impacts of globalization.

Presenter(s):  Adrian Pilbeam

Presentation Description:  Many people enter the intercultural field from other disciplines – language training, management training, sociology, anthropology and psychology.  Relatively few have done formal studies in the intercultural field, although several academic courses now exist. But these courses tend to focus on the theories of intercultural communication and do not teach practical skills for intercultural training. The more common route for would-be intercultural trainers is to be self-taught, picking up ideas at presentations or workshops at events such as a SIETAR congress. But the net result is often one of frustration, because people do not get a coherent development of knowledge and skills to enable them to design and deliver intercultural training sessions with the same kind of professional confidence and competence that they have in their original field. In this interactive presentation, I will consider whether some backgrounds are more ‘suitable’ than others for entry into the intercultural training field, and what are the best ways for intercultural practitioners, both those new to the field and those already with some experience, to develop their skills for intercultural training. It will be an opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences, and possibly to produce some concepts of best practice for intercultural trainer training.

Adrian Pilbeam is the director of LTS Training and Consulting in Bath, UK. He has more than 25 years’ experience in the fields of language, communication and intercultural training. He has a special interest in intercultural course design and trainer training in the intercultural field.

Presenter(s): Ildiko Polyak

Presentation Description: The International Business School Budapest was founded as a private organisation in 1994, and has since the beginnings cooperated closely with the Oxford Brookes University, currently awarding both Bachelor and Masters degrees of OBU. Due to various economic and demographic factors, the proportion of foreign students has been steadily increasing in the past 3-4 years, so much so that the share has reached close to 40 per cent in the current first-year cohort. In addition, IBS participates in the Erasmus programme, and currently receives about 80 students each semester.
The faculty is predominantly of Hungarian nationality, who needs to adapt their natural and usual ways of communication and teaching methods in two directions. On the one hand, it has to work together with colleagues at Brookes, in an attempt to reconcile differing views of learning and teaching. In this respect, the previous years have generated a good level of mutual understanding, though some problem areas persist. On the other, the teaching staff is experiencing considerable problems with achieving the learning outcomes with the mixed student population.
The talk is aimed at university and college lecturers who are similarly affected by the internationalisation of higher education, and must address the challenges that students of diverse backgrounds pose. After outlining the major problem areas together with the answers that we are trying to give, I will invite the audience to share experiences and perhaps some best practices.

Ildiko Polyak has taught intercultural communication since 1995 in Hungarian business schools. She has published articles and books, participated in projects in the area. She has been a SIETAR Europa member since 1998, and currently serves on the Board.

Presenter(s):  Patrick Schmidt

Presentation Description:  This presentation provides an overview of the Intercultural Development Inventory, more commonly known as the IDI. Based on Milton Bennett's Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS), this inventory is a short paper and pencil survey that measures an individual's awareness of and sensitivity to cultural differences. The IDI generates an individual or group profile that corresponds to a particular stage of intercultural development, ranging from ethnocentrism, in which one s own culture is experienced as central to reality, to ethnorelativism, in which one s own culture is experienced in the context of other cultures.
Milton Bennett and Mitch Hammer developed the inventory over a six-year period. It is a statistically reliable and valid measuring instrument that has been piloted and used successfully in both corporate and educational settings. It is widely used to create individual and group profiles, conduct needs analyses and evaluate programs.
In this talk, the six different stages of Milton Bennett's DMIS are first explained. Then, an overview on how the IDI was developed, i.e. the theoretical basis and the 50 statements that were chosen for the survey. Following that, a discussion on administering and presenting the results to the respondents. Finally, a concrete example on what the instrument actually measures by using the IDI results of Joe, the construction contractor in Colorado. After the talk, there will be a discussion on the IDI merits.

Patrick Schmidt has written many articles in the intercultural field and published his first book Understanding American and German Business Cultures in 1999. End of 2007, he published In Search of Intercultural Understanding.

Presenter(s): Caroline Smadja

Caroline Smadja is an independent trainer who has worked with Charis Intercultural Training Corporation, IOR, FGI-Shepell, IMA, and corporate clients that include Lucent Technologies, Communicaid, Terres Neuves, and AXA (Europe). A native of North Africa, raised in France and the Middle East, trained in Paris and California, Caroline contributes her own multicultural background, international world-view and communication skills to her professional practice.