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| Programme
at a Glance |
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Wednesday
16th April – Thursday 17th April 2008
Registration
7.30am
8.30am –
6.00pm
Session 1 - Positive Psychology: The Pursuit of
Happiness at Work, at School, and at Home
Session 2 - Positive Psychology: The Pursuit of
Happiness at Work, at School, and at Home (cont.)
Session 3 - The How, What, When, and Why of Mental
Health: Is it Possible To Become Lastingly Happier and, If Yes, How?
Session 4 - Happiness and the Journey of Life
Session 5 - The Scheherazade Magic: A Singaporean
Writer Shares The Joy And Power of Story-Telling
Thursday
17th April
8.30am –
6.00pm
Session 6 - The Science of Happiness and Well-Being:
Singapore Perspectives
Session7 - Positive Education: Bringing Well-Being
to Parents, Schools And Universities
Session8 - Parenting and Teaching with the Brain in
Mind
Session 9 - Positive Psychology and Culture:
Pleasure, Domains of Life, and the World of Food
Session 10 - Happiness in a Global Workplace
– Culture in your Heart or on your Back?
Session 11 -Question Time
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Finally we have our photos uploaded –
enjoy!!
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| A Big Thanks to all
our participants |
We are so thankful to all of you who helped make the 1st Asian New
Science of Happiness and Well-Being Conference such a success. After
much planning and long days we had a full house of 250 people
– people from all walks of life – parents,
executives, health workers, government officers, prison officers,
police officers, psychologists, university lecturers, coaches to name
just a few.
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Special Thanks to
Minister Lim Boon Heng
It was such a privilege to
have as guest of honour Minister in the Prime Minister’s
office Mr. Lim Boon Heng who shared many insights on what happiness
means for Singaporeans and talked about the Governments commitment to
ensuring that the conditions and policies are in place for people of
all walks of life to be happy.
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Keynote Speaker Dr.
Martin Seligman
Despite his busy schedule
Mr.Lim was kind enough to stay with us to hear the session from Dr.
Martin Seligman. As one of the founders of positive psychology Dr.
Seligman has done more than most to spread the good news from happiness
research – that all can choose to be happy by focusing on
some simple things.
The three types of happiness stemming from positive
psychology research were shared - Positive Emotion –
“the pleasant life”; Positive Character –
“the engaged life; Positive Institutions –
“the meaningful life”. Of special interest was Dr.
Seligman’s suggestion that Singapore could lead in ensuring
the happiness of its citizens. Likening Singapore to Florence of the
middle ages – he said that having secured economic
development Singapore could focus on well-being beyond material wealth.
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Wealth of Happiness
Experts from around the world
The conference progressed
with wonderful contributions from our experts who spoke on health,
education, literature, policy, culture and laughter - the audience was
given a virtual “smorgasbord” of latest thinking on
happiness and positive psychology. Focusing on in-depth of analysis
leading global experts shared their thoughts.
PROFESSOR SONJA
LYUBOMIRSKY – inspired us with her latest research
on whether it is truly possible to increase happiness;
PROFESSOR GEORGE
VAILLANT – challenged everyone to re-think their
life priorities;
DR. CATHERINE LIM
– had us all truly engaged and entertained with wonderful
stories of how each of us has our own story;
PROFESSOR DAVID CHAN
– truly engaged all of us with a wonderful and expert
analysis of happiness and well-being and the Singapore context. The
audience really appreciated his wide experience and his ability to make
positive psychology research alive and practical. He left us wanting
more!
DR. ILONA BONIWELL
– had expert advise on how to develop educational strategies
based on positive psychology;
DR. JUDY WILLIS
– brought us practical down to earth advise on how to engage
our children – helping us understand the workings of the
brain;
PROFESSOR PAUL ROZIN
– strayed far and wide into the intricacies of food and
culture;
AVI LIRAN
– got us up and moving showing how laughter and happiness are
interconnected;
PHILIP MERRY
– shared stories of Global Leadership & Well-Being
 
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SEARCH FOR
SINGAPORE’S HAPPIEST PERSON
Without doubt a highlight of
the 2 days was the announcement of Singapore’s happiest
person award. 200 participants were nominated by friends, colleagues
and family members, which was whittled down to a group of 16 short
list. The top four were announced before the conference and the winner
was announced as the last event of the conference. John Bittleston of
Terrific Mentors was emcee and generously donated $200 for each of the
15 finalists.
The top four were:
1st
Andy Goh
2nd
Ng Chai Lee
equal
3rd Stella Fernadez
equal
3rd Zaibun Siraj
Prizes
were generously donated by our generous sponsor Marriott Vacation Club
Asia Pacific and included
First Prize:
3D/2N, 2 bed villa Stay at Marriott's Phuket Beach Club worth
S$2240
Second Prize:
3D/2N Stay at Hua Hin
Marriott Resort & Spa worth S$648
Third
Prize : 2D/1N Weekend Stay at The Ritz Carlton, Millenia
Singapore worth S$410
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Press
Coverage
We
were lucky to have had incredible press coverage – by the end
of the event, the conference and search were covered 60 times in the
local press/TV/Radio – not to mention coverage all over the
world. The search and conference were picked up from Germany to South
Africa to New Zealand to Uzbekistan to India and many other countries.
Sponsors
A
big thank you to all our Academic Partner – Singapore
Management University – Sponsors – Borders,
Positive Psych, Spa Boutique, WER1 Consultants– and Media
Partner – XL Results Foundation; Suppliers –
Kinetiqbuzz, Rhema Design, Unity Printing Services - whose support and
help were truly appreciated
Global
Leadership Academy
Finally
a great big thanks to all of our staff and helpers at Global Leadership
Academy – Rachel Ang, Deborah Eeh, Manuela Estante, Marian
Lin Sheng, Tan Siew Lan, and Marnie Vergara – whose hard work
and dedication made this possible.
Normala Shamsudin and Philip
Merry
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