102 Cultural courses in Liverpool delivered Live Online

LOOKING FOR: PICTURE BOOKS / CHAPTER BOOKS / MG / YA / NEW ADULT inc GRAPHIC NOVELS Gyamfia Osei joined ANA in 2023 as a Literary Agent in the UK department. She was previously an agent at The Good Literary Agency, where she began building her list of authors. Recent successes include a ‘significant’ 6-figure pre-empt for Busayo Matuluko’s YA debut ‘Til Death, a 5-way auction for Quiet Storm by Kimberly Whittam and the shortlisting of Ebinehita Iyere’s Girlhood, Unfiltered at the 2023 British Book Awards. She was also a Bookseller Rising Star in 2024! At ANA, Gyamfia is focusing on developing the agency’s list of children’s authors, while also representing a bespoke list of commercial adult fiction and narrative non-fiction. In the Children’s space, Gyamfia would love to find contemporary stories that are full of heart and joy-driven books across all genres (think Clare Weze, Kimberly Whittam and Elle McNicoll). Funny middle-grade and YA horror are currently at the top of her list and she is also keen to read more teen projects (think Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging and Glow Up Lara Bloom) this year. She is very interested in finding a graphic novel or illustrated project for either MG or YA readers. In the older fiction space, Gyamfia enjoys well-plotted, fast-paced narratives with authentic characters who lodge themselves in her mind long after she’s finished reading (think Sadie, Verity and Girl A). She’s open to a broad range of genres, but would be particularly keen to see romantasy, cosy crime, contemporary romance and tightly plotted domestic noir. Please note that Gyamfia doesn’t consider literary fiction and, in the commercial space, she is not hugely interested in very high fantasy, trauma-focused stories or particularly gruesome horror. In the non-fiction space, she would be happy to consider commercial narrative non-fiction and cultural history projects (think Brit(ish), It’s Not That Radical and Everything I Know About Love). She is very open when it comes to Children’s non-fiction but would be particularly interested to consider unique cookbooks aimed at young chefs, books exploring mental health/wellness and projects that bring the experiences of marginalised children to the forefront. Gyamfia would like you to submit a covering letter, 1 page synopsis and the opening three chapters (max 5,000 words). For picture books please send two texts and a covering letter. For non-fiction please supply a cover letter and proposal with up to 5,000 words of your sample text. Please send EITHER picture books OR another genre, not both in one submission. (In addition to the paid sessions, Gyamfia is kindly offering one free session for low income/under-represented writers. Please email agent121@iaminprint.co.uk to apply, outlining your case for this option which is offered at the discretion of I Am In Print).  By booking you understand you need to conduct an internet connection test with I Am In Print prior to the event. You also agree to email your material in one document to reach I Am In Print by the stated submission deadline and note that I Am In Print take no responsibility for the advice received during your agent meeting. The submission deadline is: Friday 28th March 2025

Explore why people, groups, and states engage in conflict and why peace remains elusive. Dive into the causes of conflict, effective resolution strategies, and peacebuilding efforts worldwide. Learn how historical, cultural, and political factors shape disputes and discover insights into fostering lasting peace. #ConflictStudies #PeaceInitiatives #GlobalUnderstanding

During this live-online masterclass we will focus on understanding recent developments in the mental health and wellbeing of children in the UK, including looking at the impact of cultural and technological changes over recent years and the impact this is having in schools.

This one day masterclass is designed to provide a practical application of the content that is covered within The DEI Playbook and is aimed at anyone tasked with launching and implementing diversity and inclusion within their organisation.

Leading Cross-Cultural Virtual Teams (Virtual) High-performing teams are a must in this world of intense competition and higher expectations. Global virtual teaming has become a necessity as organizations become increasingly distributed and suppliers and clients actively engage in joint projects. Teams work across geographical and organizational boundaries to deliver solutions and services to global users where distance and differences, both geographic and cultural, amplify the effect of issues and factors that are relatively straightforward when managing a team of people in the same location. This course delivers practical concepts and techniques that participants will start using immediately on their global projects. What you will Learn At the end of this program, you will be able to: Define relationships among foundational concepts (leadership and three dimensions of diversity) and explain their potential impacts on project performance Describe key components of successful project leadership and build selected Transformational Leadership skills Prepare to convert project challenges stemming from personal or cultural diversity into potential competitive advantage Implement selected best practices to meet key challenges facing virtual project teams Foster and grow an environment that supports continued success for CCVTs Getting Started Foundation Concepts Basic definitions Critical success factors for leading cross-cultural virtual teams (CCVTs) A roadmap to success for leading CCVTs Leadership Excellence in Any Project Environment Leading effectively in a global environment Transformational leadership The four components of Transformational Leadership Leveraging Personal Diversity Overview of personal diversity Mind styles The theory of multiple intelligences Connecting Transformational Leadership and personal diversity Embracing Cultural Diversity Introduction to cultural intelligence The impact of culture Cultural Dimensions Theory The Culture Map Managing Virtual Diversity Overview of virtual diversity Virtual time management Virtual processes and technology Virtual leadership Creating an Environment for Success Supporting a cross-cultural virtual-team (CCVT-) friendly environment Building a foundation of trust Developing a team charter Recap and review Summary and Next Steps Personal action plan

Leading Cross-Cultural Virtual Teams: In-House Training High-performing teams are a must in this world of intense competition and higher expectations. Global virtual teaming has become a necessity as organizations become increasingly distributed and suppliers and clients actively engage in joint projects. Teams work across geographical and organizational boundaries to deliver solutions and services to global users where distance and differences, both geographic and cultural, amplify the effect of issues and factors that are relatively straightforward when managing a team of people in the same location. This course delivers practical concepts and techniques that participants will start using immediately on their global projects. What you will Learn At the end of this program, you will be able to: Define relationships among foundational concepts (leadership and three dimensions of diversity) and explain their potential impacts on project performance Describe key components of successful project leadership and build selected Transformational Leadership skills Prepare to convert project challenges stemming from personal or cultural diversity into potential competitive advantage Implement selected best practices to meet key challenges facing virtual project teams Foster and grow an environment that supports continued success for CCVTs Foundation Concepts Basic definitions Critical success factors for leading cross-cultural virtual teams (CCVTs) A roadmap to success for leading CCVTs Leadership Excellence in Any Project Environment Leading effectively in a global environment Transformational leadership The four components of Transformational Leadership Leveraging Personal Diversity Overview of personal diversity Mind styles The theory of multiple intelligences Connecting Transformational Leadership and personal diversity Embracing Cultural Diversity Introduction to cultural intelligence The impact of culture Cultural Dimensions Theory The Culture Map Managing Virtual Diversity Overview of virtual diversity Virtual time management Virtual processes and technology Virtual leadership Creating an Environment for Success Supporting a cross-cultural virtual-team (CCVT-) friendly environment Building a foundation of trust Developing a team charter Recap and review Summary and Next Steps Personal action plan

Our organisations are increasingly diverse and a cultural mix in training brings a fantastic variety of learning styles and sometimes barriers, too. Help managers and trainers understand the impact of different cultures and nationalities in the training room and make simple adjustments to ensure training is effective for all. Who are you training? Culture and its impact on learning Breaking down cultural learning barriers Intercultural communication Cultural competency and its importance in the training room Training techniques for the diverse classroom Effective questioning and concept checking Having a global mindset

Build successful and effective multi-cultural teams with our practical, bespoke training courses. Help team members to embrace and harness the skills and abilities their different ages, nationalities, generations and life experiences bring. Courses include: Knowing your team Communication styles Communicative competency in multi-cultural teams Cultural intelligence – understanding our strengths A global mindset Breaking down barriers for better team working Experiential learning – a session in a second language Team dynamics

Polarization, or the “polarized mind,” is a fixation on one view, causing widespread destructiveness. It needs presence and love to address. We aim to explore the lived experiences on irregular perceptions of reality with an open mind. Each Saturday includes: a live dialogue between Prof. Ernesto Spinelli and an International Existential Therapist; a moment to share your thoughts and feelings with the teachers; and a final integration facilitated by Bárbara Godoy. This series of ten dialogues set out to explore the multifaceted dimentions and complexities associated with Existential Therapies. It attempts to engage with various interpretations of insanity through the lens of patients often painful, confounding, and deeply unsettling life experiences. Polarisation - between Prof. Ernesto Spinelli and Prof. Kirk Schneider “I view polarization or that which I call the “polarized mind” as the fixation on a single point of view to the utter exclusion of competing points of view, and I see it as a core dimension of human destructiveness both individually and collectively. Arguably, polarization or the polarized mind is responsible for more devaluation and abuse than any other general psychological dimension, and it crosses cultures, parties, disciplines and so-called diagnosed and undiagnosed populations. In fact it is the undiagnosed populations—polarized cultural, political, and religious leaders and their followers–who have arguably caused the most human destructiveness by far, over those whom we conventionally termed the diagnosed The polarized mind may be partly dispositional but appears to be largely fear-driven and requires abiding presence and love to address it. We are in a race against time to avail people to these “nutrients.” Prof. Kirk Schneider. Prof. Kirk J. Schneider, Ph.D. is a leading spokesperson for contemporary existential-humanistic and existential-integrative psychology. Dr Schneider was a 2022 Candidate for President of the American Psychological Association (APA), a co-founder and current president of the Existential-Humanistic Institute (an award-winning psychotherapy training center), and a two-term Member of the Council of Representatives of the APA. He is also past president (2015-2016) of the Society for Humanistic Psychology (Division 32) of the APA, recent past editor of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology (2005-2012), a founder and frequent presenter/facilitator of the bridge-building dialogue approach the Experiential Democracy Dialogue and a trained moderator for the conflict mediation group Braver Angels. Dr Schneider is also an adjunct faculty member at Saybrook University and Teachers College, Columbia University and an Honorary Member of the Society for Existential Analysis of the UK and the East European Association for Existential Therapy. He received the Rollo May Award for “outstanding and independent contributions” to the field of humanistic psychology from the Society for Humanistic Psychology, APA and is a Fellow of seven Divisions of the APA (5, 9, 32, 42, 12, 29, and 24). His work on existential-integrative psychotherapy has been featured in a special issue of the Journal of Psychotherapy Integration (March 2016), as well as The Wiley World Handbook of Existential Therapy and the APA’s forthcoming Handbook of Psychotherapy. Dr Schneider has published over 200 articles, interviews and chapters and has authored or edited 14 books including The Paradoxical Self, Horror and the Holy, Rediscovery of Awe, Awakening to Awe, The Spirituality of Awe, The Polarized Mind, The Handbook of Humanistic Psychology, Existential-Humanistic therapy, Existential-Integrative Psychotherapy, The Wiley World Handbook of Existential Therapy, The Depolarizing of America: A Guidebook for Social Healing and his latest volume (February, 2023) Life-Enhancing Anxiety: Key to a Sane World. Dr. Schneider’s work has been featured in Scientific American, the New York Times, USA Today, The Guardian, Vanity Fair, Forbes Health, Psychology Today, BBC World News and many other health and psychology outlets. Prof. Ernesto Spinelli was Chair of the Society for Existential Analysis between 1993 and 1999 and is a Life Member of the Society. His writings, lectures and seminars focus on the application of existential phenomenology to the arenas of therapy, supervision, psychology, and executive coaching. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society (BPS) as well as an APECS accredited executive coach and coaching supervisor. In 2000, he was the Recipient of BPS Division of Counselling Psychology Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Profession. And in 2019, Ernesto received the BPS Award for Distinguished Contribution to Practice. His most recent book, Practising Existential Therapy: The Relational World 2nd edition (Sage, 2015) has been widely praised as a major contribution to the advancement of existential theory and practice. Living up to the existential dictum that life is absurd, Ernesto is also the author of an on-going series of Private Eye novels. Date and Time: Saturday 12 April from 2 pm to 3 pm – (UK time) Individual Dialogue Fee: £70 Venue: Online Zoom FULL PROGRAMME 2025: 25 January “Knots” with Prof. Ernesto Spinelli and Bárbara Godoy 22 February “Healing” with Dr. Michael Guy Thompson and Prof. Ernesto Spinelli 22 March “Difference” with Prof. Tod DuBose and Prof. Ernesto Spinelli 12 April “Polarisation” with Prof. Kirk Schneider and Prof. Ernesto Spinelli 3 May “Character” with Prof. Robert Romanyshyn and Prof. Ernesto Spinelli 21 June “Opening” with Dr. Yaqui Martinez and Prof. Ernesto Spinelli 19 July “Meaning” with Dr. Jan Resnick and Prof. Ernesto Spinelli 25 October “Invention” with Dr. Betty Cannon and Prof. Ernesto Spinelli 15 November “Hallucination” with Prof. Simon du Plock and Prof. Ernesto Spinelli 13 December “Hysteria” with Bárbara Godoy and Prof. Ernesto Spinelli Read the full programme here > Course Organised by:

Intercultural Competence: In-House Training In a world that conducts business across continents and geographical borders, more than ever it is essential for team and organizational leaders to not only understand but also embrace the diversity of cultures; this is intercultural competence. Intercultural competence gives one the ability to effectively and appropriately communicate with people from other cultures in a competitively complex world. The participant in this program will gain cultural insights needed to build intercultural teams and navigate cultural diversities, without knowingly violating what are deemed to be acceptable or unacceptable cultural norms. What you will Learn At the end of this program, you will be able to: Articulate on the meaning of culture and intercultural competence Express the importance of body language and appropriately demonstrate its emblems Describe three cultural models and consider their application in assimilating cultural behaviors Define emotional intelligence and explain how it is linked to cultural intelligence Examine the four cultural intelligence capabilities and give examples of how each is developed Develop a personal cultural profile and compare its dimensions to gain an appreciation for intercultural competence Foundation Concepts Fundamentals of culture Culture and body language Culture and proxemics Cultural Models Iceberg culture model The onion model of culture Hofstede's model of national cultures High-context and low-context cultures Cultural Intelligence Emotional intelligence overview Cultural intelligence overview Cultural Profile Cultural profile dimensions Understanding your cultural profile