Dialogue in the Dark Seoul 2010

In mid-January, Daniela and I went to South Korea for 5 full days to give consulting to one of our new Dialogue in the Dark licensees: NHN Social Enterprise (NSE) – a sub-entity of the CSR branch of NHN Corp., South Korea’s largest internet company. The objective of our visit was to give the exhibition guides an intensive refreshment training and update on new features of the exhibition. All ten of them had guiding experience from previous exhibitions in Seoul, which was of great help for us, since Daniela could move into operational detail right from the start. Apart from the guide-training and certification, NSE received technical consultation, an in-depth lobby management briefing and information on our Business Workshop concept as well as a detailed report about our consulting services, suggestions for improvement and HR assessment.

Despite a delay in construction and partly challenging working conditions for the guides (construction basically went on day and night in the exhibition venue, which is why we had to use a seminar room for some parts of our consultation services), communication and cooperation worked very smoothly, at high speed and were energized by the enthusiasm of all of NSE’s staff. Especially remarkable is the fact that NSE’s CEO, Song, Young Hee is visually impaired himself and therefore has a holistic understanding of what DiD’s mission and vision are all about. Having worked at our former South Korean venues, he also has a good idea about technical and operational necessities and prerequisites for an exhibition, apart from  his broad knowledge about the impact the DiD experience has on visitors and guides alike.

Through NHN’s outstanding online marketing power (they run www.naver.com – South Korea’s primary search engine), there were already more than 600 online reservations either through their website www.dialogueinthedark.co.kr or through their booking partner www.interpark.com before the official opening. As of today, DiD Korea has already had more than 1,000 visitors – in less than two weeks!

Daniela and I were very impressed and deeply touched by the great effort our Korean friends have made to make this exhibition work. It has a very fine design, is well organized and has a strong and very supportive partner in NHN. Having a visually impaired man lead an experienced and very highly motivated team of guides and management staff will furthermore ensure that our mission and goals are pursued according to DSE’s global quality standards.

So 감사합니다 and 행운을 빕니다 to DiD Korea!

For more information on the Korean Dialogue in the Dark exhibition, please visit their website

Dialogue in the Dark and the art of thinking together

Living in Hamburg the first picture that comes to my mind when I think about containers are those heavy metal boxes and container ships in the harbour.

Thanks to blogger Karl Dietz I realized that Dialogue in the Dark can also be seen as a “container”. In his blog entry he linked our exhibition with theories of US-scientist William Isaacs. Isaacs uses the term “container” in his work “Dialogue and the art of thinking together” as a metaphor for an abstract place or “container” that determines the atmosphere for a dialogue.

Dialogue in the Dark exhibitions and workshops would be such a place because they are a very special place for communication not only in Hamburg but worldwide. And I bet it might be the same degree of darkness in the ship containers but a Dialogue container has certainly a better atmosphere.

Take a look at Karl Diez’s blog (German)

(Ines Hennenberg, PR & Back Office, Dialogue Social Enterprise)

24 hours Munich-Dialogue-Marathon

What a day! I was for 24 hours in Munich to do a lecture but in the end it turned up to have a day with a lot of new input, ideas and fun!

But let’s start: Some weeks ago I was asked by my PhD-Director if I could do a lecture in his class at the University of Applied Languages (SDI) in Munich. We developed the idea, that I should speak about what Dialogue in the Dark is and how we are bringing it to so many countries, if there are conflicts, how we are dealing with people from different cultures… Fur sure I said “yes, no problem”. It’s always nice to do something different and to give people an inside into the Dialogue-World, but as always it was not so easy to bring the idea & concept of Dialogue Social Enterprise (DSE) into a 45 minutes presentation! But nevertheless we had a good time at the SDI, the students were all very excited to learn something about Dialogue in the Dark and the business of a social enterprise. And in the end some potential new interns showed up to ask if they could do an internship at DSE or at one of our worldwide Dialogues – so I left the university with some new project!

After the presentation I met our DSE intern from last year – Gloria – who is still infected by the Dialogue magic. Actually she is writing an article about Dialogue for the students’ newspaper and we prepared an interview for that paper, too. Hope she can join once again our DSE-network!

Beginning of the afternoon, somebody was so kind to give me a wonderful break – a tour at a Dialogue in the Dark exhibition! Best thing that can happen to you when you were already discussing and speaking since hours! Maria from the Dialogue Training Center at Allianz welcomed me and gave me a whole guided tour. Thanks to all who made this small, nice Munich exhibition it is really well done! Best experience for me was the newly designed sound installation!

The last two hours before running to the airport I spend with an old friend of mine, Melanie, whom I met when I was working at Le Vaisseau in Strasbourg, France and she was working for the Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany. Now she is in the world of social business as well – working for the well known German–Ethiopian foundation “Menschen für Menschen” and can you imagine what we did? Exactly, reflecting about museum culture in Europe and in Africa and what kind of Dialogue in the Dark we could set up together in Africa!

I came to Munich to teach and I left with a lot of new ideas and projects – great 24 hours!

Happy Birthday Japan

Today is a very special day. Dialogue Japan celebrates his 10th anniversary. What a success to enrich the social, educational and cultural map in various cities over a period of ten years. I don’t know how many blind people found work and how many visitors were emotionally impacted and changed in their understanding towards blindness and otherness.

I remember quite well when I cam to Japan for the first time in 2001. Dialogue was showcased in the Mediatheque in Sendai and from this day on I felt in love with Japan and Japanese culture. Over a long period of time I could witness Shinsuke Kanai’s passion and professionalism and make me proud to belong to such a wonderful family. Dialogue in the Dark runs across the world now for more than 20 years. Half of that long time Dialogue was present in Japan. No country apart Germany can show such a result. There is no country on earth were I feel so close connected.

Thanks Dialogue Japan for all your efforts and congratulations for all the successes you could achieve. Happy Birthday Dialogue Japan – I am sure we will celebrate lots of other birthdays together.

Dialogue in the Dark Japan

Ability During Adversity

We asked our guides worldwide to contribute to this blog and tell us their stories. Kelvin from Singapore was the first, now being followed by Eric from Atlanta, USA. Have fun reading his first story (hopefully more will follow soon):

“In Atlanta, USA, we are guiding tours everyday. September and October have been very busy. We were all trained exceptionally well by Anome, Liran, Pepe, and Daniela, and combined with that foundation and our over one year experience, we all feel like we can handle anything, and change any attitude. And we do, but that will be my next blog!!

Sometimes there are exceptions which I wanted to share. Recently we had two guides, Marshall and Brian, suffer injuries away from work and they came back to work still healing and it reminded me how much we love our jobs. Both of them had challenges to deal with, in addition to being visually impaired, and yet they returned back to work very quickly. While they were still recovering they managed to come in, and were positive, uplifting, funny and inspiring to us all and their customers.

In both cases, their bravery and courage really inspired me. In addition, it also reminded me what a gift our job is. As International Master Guide Pepe has written recently on the guides list, being a guide is…‘the best life gift to many blind partners worldwide’ and he wrote we all ‘are proudly members of the dark family around the world’. Marshall and Brian showed me they agree!! It is really the gift that keeps on giving.

I love this job, and I love being with my coworkers, and with our customers!!”

(Submitted by K. Erik Weinstock, Exhibition Tour Guide, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, kerikw@comcast.net)

my first blog entry

thanks to dialogue social enterprises for giving me this platform to share with more people from around the world about dialogue in the dark. this is officially my first blog post, and i hope i will be able to at least make 1 post a week to talk about my experiences in dialogue in the darkk.

will be busy with my singing work this too weeks, but will be back in action at ngee ann poly in the morning next friday. looking forward to it. miss the people and also the environment.

 

other methods of contacting me:

webpage:

http://www.weiliankelvin.com/

Twitter:

http://twitter.com/KelWL

Thank you Singapore

I spent the last 3 weeks in Singapore together with my dear friend and fellow Master-Guide Pepe from Mexico and Claudia, our Project- Manager from Germany.

(Pepe & me)

Even though I have travelled a lot in the past seven years, training guides for Dialogue in the Dark (DiD) literally all over the world, it always amazes me to meet new people with whom I can share knowledge, practical skills and overall the belief that visually impaired people CAN DO.

The local guides from Singapore have been wonderful colleagues for me. Sharing the same values like enjoying the life the way we are and having a common goal- the change of mindsets towards diversity- made me soon feel to be with friends other than “just” at work.

I learned from my Singaporean friends to be open to learn at any time and feeling honoured to receive any feedback furthermore integrating it in practise right away – Thank you dear Singaporean friends!

Our host – Njee Ann Polytechnic staff – together with the 17 interns were very supportive all the time – thank you!

Good luck Dialogue in the Dark Singapore and welcome to the global family of Dialogue in the Dark!

(Daniela Dimitrova, Manager Human Resources, Dialogue Social Enterprise)

Meet our new Guide Kelvin (DiD Singapore)

We welcome our 14 new guides and are looking forward to work with them for Dialogue in the Dark Singapore! One of our new guides is Kelvin. He had the honor to guide the very first tour in Singapore. This is what motivates him: “Prior to taking part in Dialogue in the Dark, I have always been kept updated about this exhibition and its program through fellow blind friends who also joined this program. I hope by taking part in the program on my part, I can not only improve myself but also help introduce/promote Dialogue in the Dark to a lot of people and help them understand that living in the dark is not as scary as they thought.”

In his personal blog, Kelvin writes about his experiences in everyday life as a professional guide and last but not least as a celebrity, being spokesperson for visually impaired people in Singapore due to his successful career as Singaporean popsinger: weiliankelvin.com/blog/

DiD @ Ngee Ann Polytechnic University

The whole Dialogue Social Enterprise team is happy to announce the opening of Dialogue in the Dark Singapore. This exhibition is our first one in an educational institution (Ngee Ann Polytechnic). During the last weeks, our project managers Claudia and Daniela trained 14 blind and visually impaired guides who will work for the exhibition now. Student interns from Ngee Ann Polytechnic will be managing the daily operation of the exhibition.

We already have a first blog post from a social entrepreneur who visited the new Dialogue in the Dark exhibition in Singapore: Dialogue in the Dark – so many lessons from the blind (and not-so-blind too)

DiD opens in Singapore (Ngee Ann Polytechnic University)

The first Dialogue in the Dark tour in Singapore started on 14 October 2009 at 9:25- 5 minutes in advance because everybody and everything was ready!!!

I (as a project manager) am very happy with the whole staff – guides, students and Ngee Ann staff Members, they are all very committed and do a wonderful job preparing Dialogue in the Dark Singapore. Guides are well trained, exhibition is ready and dark, pre- and postactivites are planned and tested from now on with Ngee Ann staff or Ngee Ann students, and the constructor was around everyday to check or to help with small details which still needed to be adjusted.

We selected after the first 8 days of intense training 14 guides who will work with us. Daniela and Pepe our two master guides are doing a brilliant job in training them! The students are working in two shifts and in every shift you find: 1 welcome host, 2 at the ticket counter (one will be later in charge of the shop & merchandising), 2 at the bookingline, 1 responsible for pre-activities and 1 responsible for post-activities.

What makes me more than happy is that you can already speak of the Dialogue in the Dark team Singapore, all are cooperating and working together!

After two days of trial tours we already have wonderful feedbacks from the visitors such as: “You’re voice was such a calming and reassuring presence in the dark. Thank you for being such a wonderful guide!” or: “Hey, you are such an inspiration beyond what words can express. You have taught me to see with my ears, nose and hands and feet. But most importantly you have taught me to see things with my heart. Thanks so much for all you do!”

Dialogue in the Dark at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Singapore – Learn to see! I wish you all the best!

(Claudia Bade, Manager Content Development, Dialogue Social Enterprise)