Ajit Kamath Wizzes

A year ago, my very dear Trainer friend Bhupesh Dave (a Magician too!) sponsored my ticket to a very vibrant session of Deepak Chopra at Shanmukhanand Hall, Mumbai. After the session, 4 of us Trainers (myself, Bhupesh, Sachin Kamath & Rajesh Tagore had an interesting conversation. Our observation was that Deepak Chopra in his 3 hour session, in his examples / andedotes / explanations dropped names of some important people like Dalai Lama etc.and surprisingly also of Trainers/Speakers. He also referenced books & articles of fellow trainers/speakers (who probably could be considered his competitors). Now cut to sessions by an Indian Trainer / Speaker. It's always about ourselves and when we do talk about other Trainers / Speakers, it would be more of Western Trainers/ Speakers/Authors whom either we have/haven't met or the audience may never have met. Rarely have I seen any Trainer mentioning about him/her having learnt from a colleague Trainer/Speaker from India itself. ...

I was recently invited by an Association to do a session for them. When I explored about fees, they told me that theirs was a charitable organisation. What does this mean? Don't these organisations pay for any services? What about their Auditors, Accountants and Staff. Y0u could be part of an organisation that does social service for the community. That's great!!! I am also a part of such organisations but that's my choice. How can your charity be my charity???? And when will you start valuing "Speakers" and the time they invest? Doctors charge, Lawyers & Accountants too, cos that's their profession. But Speakers aren't supposed to ... doesn't it sound strange. Even the Toast Master's expects a Speaker/Trainer to do a session for them gratis. Toast Masters being the flag bearers should understand that they can bring "value" to the profession. We had started a Speakers Club in Mumbai, India about 4 years back and every "Speaker...

This was a question raised by Naina Mehta in Trainers Forum. My answer: Thank you for the question which everyone probably wanted to ask but dared not? Before we get stuck-up with blaming our Indian fascination for everything 'phoren', let me offer a perspective. As I have been a 'Certified Trainer' in International programs as well as I deliver my own conceptualised "Training Programs", I hope to present a balanced opinion 1. What is an International Certification? A certification allows you to deliver a particular training program with it's modules (this generally is an Intellectual Property program which has it's base on some research, book, thought or philosophy). This certification allows one to deliver this program across the globe or pre-defined areas (as per the contract signed with the intellectual property holder). Usually these modules are very structured (a few cultural variations allowed) but the trainer can't bring in his own content...

Is mentioning as Ex employee or associate of an organisation, violates the copyright or patent rights ? .... Question asked in Trainers Forum by Manish Agarwal My thoughts: As per my knowledge, there is no law in India that prohibits you to use ex-Company as part of your profile. There could be some Companies who may have signed an agreement before you joined saying that you can't use their name in future and there could be non-competing clause too. We may have to check the legal validity of such clauses. I'm unsure but the Constitution of India (especially the Article that gives one a Right to practice a profession or vocation may support one here) Another thought is - if one can't use it then how come the Past Presidents, Past PM's etc. proudly mention it. Even MP's flaunt it.... and professionally retired Judges use it too. Further let's not forget ex-Army/Navy/Airforce who promptly put up Retd. Colonel / Captain / Cmde etc. in their business cards, letterhea...

I have uploaded the soft copy of the presentation which I delivered at the ISTD Regional Conference at Pune on 16 Jan 2010. Check out http://tinyurl.com/yfxcepr Awaiting videos ... that would be uploaded too.

The Forum of Free Enterprise is holding 2 residential camps at Lonavala; for youngsters between 20 to 24 years on 'Personal Leadership' and for teens between 14 to 18 years on 'Reaching the Zenith'. This would be in December - 21st to 28th and 28th to 31st respectively. Details of the camp are at the end of the email. Both these camps are fully supported by the Dorabji Tata Trust. Details are below the script of this email. I am the Camp Director for the 'Reaching the Zenith' Camp. If you know of youngster or teenager who would want to participate, please write to me on ajitkamath@wiztalks.com and I shall send the softcopy of the forms to you. The forms have to be sent to Forum of Free Enterprise and they would select the participants (applying doesn't guarantee you admission) Note: The last date has been extended. We are still open to a few more applications.

Most trainers are merely PPT readers - a comment I read on linkedin to which I have put forth my observations below: I have an objection to the loose use of "most" by the originator of the comment here. It assumes that the person has observed all of us Trainers and then made a comment w.r.t. "most". If you had said "Most presenters are PPT readers" I would have agreed. I have had the privilege of conducting TTT's, observing many Trainers / Presenters / Speakers in Mumbai and have a fairly decent network of training friends from whom I have realised that the following: 1. Freelancers and people who get training assignments from Companies generally tend to use PPT more as an Aid and a Cue Card for remembering the flow. They don't end up being PPT readers. 2. There are many Trainers who absolutely don't use PPT at all / or to the basic minimum. They use powerful methodologies like Story Telling, Role Plays, Acitivites, Games, Role Modeling, Grou...