Contextualized knowledge mapping on steroids. Google just acquired MetaWeb, and this inclusion may just make Google the unbeatable 900 lb gorilla of search engines.

The implications are numerous, but I see a more contextual search within the web; based on generalizations that are attached to contextualized entities.

An ingenious idea indeed. We see this approach in Knowledge management products such as TopicScape and The Personal Brain that use relational data bases.

This is also a rather good model for Mind-Visual mapping practices. What do you think?

Wallace Tait: Visualmapper

Mindjet MindManager Emerges as Must-Have Software for Business Professionals

MindManager empowers business professionals to better capture, organize and communicate ideas, information and projects for business success

San Francisco – July 13, 2010 – Mindjet®, the leading provider of software and cloud-based applications for visually organizing and managing information and ideas, today announced the latest version of the company’s flagship software – Mindjet MindManager Version 9.  Used by millions of business professionals, MindManager delivers an inherently unique value to today’s workers – a flexible, intuitive way to visually brainstorm concepts, organize information, develop actionable strategies and project plans, and communicate results.

On a daily basis, business professionals combat masses of information coming from multiple sources – web, email, documents and meetings – with no means to connect the dots and see the big picture.  MindManager provides the destination that unifies diverse information allowing users to organize, act on and communicate their ideas and strategies.  With its enhanced integration with Microsoft® Office and fluid, drag-and-drop interface, this latest release cements MindManager as the go-to software for business professionals to quickly capture, organize and reorganize information to discover new avenues of thought and new solutions – and then put those solutions immediately into action and stay ahead of the competition.

“By organizing information visually, MindManager fits the way I work and serves as a destination for me to be more productive and effective,” says Corey Sherman, Principal at Sullivan, Cotter and Associates, Inc.  “If you can think, MindManager can help you work better.  And with an ever-expanding list of features and functionality, the new MindManager Version 9 solution has more ‘ooomph’ than ever!”

MindManager provides an intuitive visual framework for individuals and teams to capture information, analyze complex relationships and identify priorities.  Taking advantage of MindManager’s tight integration with Microsoft Outlook, Office, Project and SharePoint, Mindjet is helping users to accomplish more, ensure project success and improve communication by organizing and presenting information in a visual context.  In one clear, easily modified visual “map,” information from group thinking and the web can be combined with existing documents, files, meeting notes and emails.  This visual, flexible presentation of information improves business planning and fosters better collaboration among teams.

A main feature of MindManager is data import and integration with Microsoft Outlook, Office, Project and SharePoint, which enables users to take advantage of MindManager in the context of typical workflows. MindManager version 9 for Windows integrates with Microsoft Office 2010.

“Throughout history, a key leading factor in economic growth and wealth creation has centered around productivity and creativity to drive innovation,” said Scott Raskin, CEO of Mindjet.  “Our goal with MindManager Version 9 is to dramatically improve an organization’s creativity, project planning, performance and innovation.  Whether overloaded with information, solving a problem, working with a team on an important project, or wanting to communicate more effectively, MindManager Version 9 is simply a must–have.”

Key Features in MindManager version 9 for Windows:

• MindManager Slide Show – Enables users to create and present a series of slides based off map, tree and organizational chart layouts helping to align and organize information, ideas and strategies to be more productive.

• Microsoft Outlook Integration – Features more powerful integration with Microsoft Outlook tasks, emails, notes, calendar items and contacts and enables individuals to easily assign priorities, filter on priority, and drag and drop content for better organization.  Dynamic branches of Outlook tasks can be added to maps and visualized in MindManager’s integrated Gantt chart.

• Microsoft PowerPoint Integration – Users can now easily export content from MindManager into PowerPoint slides to accomplish more, faster.
• Microsoft Project Integration – Improved integration allows for exporting of plans created within MindManager as Microsoft Project files.
• Resource Utilization – To help ensure your plan’s success, users can better understand which resources are over or underutilized.

• Gantt Chart View– Individuals can view task and project plan timelines in MindManager’s integrated and synchronized Gantt chart. Updates can be made to maps by adjusting the Gantt chart or by making changes directly into a map.

MindManager version 9 for Windows will be generally available on August 10 in three languages: English, German and French, and can be purchased through Mindjet.com for $349.

Supporting Resources

• Hear what individuals and organizations have to say about Mindjet
• Follow Mindjet on Twitter to learn more: http://twitter.com/Mindjet
• Learn more about Mindjet on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mindjet
• See the post on MindManager version 9 announcement on our Dutch Chapter site.

Visual thinkers need to take a second look at current information management practices. We must challenge current thinking regarding the tools, techniques and Mindset regarding visual mapping.

Many new Information mapping software offerings have exploded onto the scene.  Some products may be around for a while to challenge the heavy weights, and many shall simply fall by the wayside.  There’s a trend in aggregating other graphical tools into these products, making them turnkey for process, system and project management.

These products have evolved into what I term Visual mapping (multiple formats).  This includes but is not limited to Mind/concept/flow/argument mapping.  There are many more formats covered under the visual mapping umbrella, such as project management formats. It’s not just about Mind maps as some would have us believe; surely we’ve moved way beyond the constraints of a single format?

Effective Information management is the unique attribute associated with the successful creation, management and exchange of data. Information is summative data which has to be contextualised to be relevant and useful for further processing into an intelligent knowledge data base.

Information has become a monetized commodity that is realized within organizations when they use the tools, techniques and mindset of visual mapping. Of course one size doesn’t fit all; but the point is to realise the potential for being unique in your use of these tools.

For the most part Mind mapping has not offered a solutions approach to information management, and this in one of the reasons why it has struggled to burst into the mainstream.  There are indeed new solution focused products available that are challenging, changing and improving our current information management practices. Of all the information portals I am aware of; Roy Grubb writes with the most intelligent and informative view of this field found at http://bit.ly/fxQHH

The specific techniques of Visual-knowledge mapping  used within your environment will (no doubt), over time, become standardised within your arena of use.  The mindset of Visual mapping is associated with the application of whole brained thinking.  Integrating linear/nonlinear management of data, information and knowledge data bases is in the application of the mindset.

What unique techniques do you employ that have made significant impacts upon your information management arena?  IMO; Integrating linear/nonlinear is now expected, even demanded by the users of Mind-Visual-Knowledge mapping products.  These users have evolved way past mere Mind mapping.  We can now utilize software products that offer flexible frameworks with multiple formats that supercharge our information management skills.

Wallace Tait: Visualmapper

The ugly truth about visual mapping and list-making

Power Markers for MindManager solves the incompatibility between maps and lists

In recent years “Mind Mapping” software has expanded rapidly into productivity management and information management, with most products offering some form of graphical labelling and task management capabilities ranging from simple icons through to fully featured Gantt charts. But the tree-shaped diagrams created by mind mapping software are poorly adapted to handling these extra layers of information hung on the topics. How does this problem arise, and how can we solve it?

Let’s go right back to basics.

The parent topic sets the context for subtopics

A topic in a map has a number of “properties” that combine together to represent something meaningful. Its primary “property” is the parent topic to which it belongs. This sets the context, which delivers the majority of the meaning in a map. It is the visualisation and manipulation of context that sets visual mapping apart from most other ways of conveying information, and adds substantial value.

The second most important property is the topic text itself. When combined with the context of its parent, the topic becomes something meaningful that can be understood, explored, expanded upon or examined as part of a pattern. (I’m not going to debate the “one word” rule for mind maps here.)

So far, so good – this is standard mind map visualisation. But with the advent of mind mapping software, we can also hang lots of other information (or properties) to our humble topic, for example

• converting it into a full-specified task, with a percent complete value, a priority, a duration, a start date and a due date,
• adding extra tagging information such as keywords or task resources,
• adding extra text (Topic Notes),
• adding named visual markers (icons),
• adding images,
• adding text or fill colours, boundaries or shapes, or
• adding a hyperlink or an attached document.

A topic with too much information assigned to it

These properties enrich the topic and tell us more about it. Further, using the same marker on several topics creates a grouping across the map, so that the presence of a marker tells us that the topic also belongs to other groups, e.g. “Priority 1 items” or “Finance Department items”. The advantage of these properties is that you can apply several of them to the same topic; a topic can belong to multiple groups at the same time. Compare this to the primary property of context (the parent topic); a topic can have one and only one parent, unless it is the central topic, which does not have a parent. Topics cannot have multiple parents – after all, this is what makes a tree a tree. So it is very handy to have so many ways for a topic to be a member of other cross-tree groupings as well.

This is where mind mapping software starts to cough and splutter. The primary property, context, is very well supported. We can surf around maps, drill down into trees, expand or collapse detail as we wish, visualise patterns, summarise things and literally change the meaning of a map simply by moving topics around. We can visually “understand” the relationships in a map through the lines that connect topics together. We can play around with contexts, reinforce our knowledge and create new insights. Mind mapping software offers a rich and rewarding set of controls for working with the context property. But the picture is very different when it comes to understanding our map in terms of its other properties, indicated by icons or other markers. Typically, there are only a couple of options:

• We can look at the map and visually recognise markers, with reference to a legend to explain them if necessary (and if available).
• The software can help us to look in a more focused way by filtering out the parts of the map that don’t carry the markers we are interested in (unless they are in the path to the central topic). This removes the context surrounding the topics of interest, making them easier to spot.

In both cases, we need to change our mindset to stop looking at the map as a whole, and try to see it as a list – but the list only exists in our minds. Whichever way you slice it and dice it, the information in our map is still a tree, dominated by the context property. It relies on our concentration and visual diligence to ensure that we don’t overlook something important. But take care – there are many ways that a topic can be out of view; it might be outside the visible area, or filtered out, or folded up in a collapsed tree. There is no safety net.

That’s easily solved, I hear you say. All you need to do is make lists in your map – a section for things to do today, a section for critical information, a section for open questions and so on. This works perfectly if you can devise a way to organise your stuff so that each item clearly belongs in only one place. Remember that a topic can have one and only one parent. This is fine for natural hierarchies, such as a breakdown of countries, counties, towns and districts. But the majority of the real world is not as nicely organised as this. Most of the things we deal with belong on more than one list at the same time. If I have promised to finish a report for my boss by next Friday, which list does it go on? The list of actions? The list of commitments to other people? The list of things to do by next Friday? The list of things connected with my boss? The list of reports to write? How about all of the above? If you are constructing lists within a map, this last option is not a practical one unless you are patient enough to create the same topic in five different places – and the novelty of doing that will vanish the first time you get it wrong.

The conclusion is that visual maps are perfect for the big picture, and for making sense of information by organising it, summarising it, surfing it and manipulating it. But visual maps become much less ergonomic if you want to keep track of the detailed properties of topics. Lists are far better for taking action and quickly assessing what needs to be done. So how do we get reliable lists out of our maps, without compromising the structure of the map itself?

If you haven’t already guessed, this is what Power Markers for MindManager does. Power Markers is an extension for MindManager for Windows that adds a “Hot Lists” task pane, and automatically extracts lists from your maps. So you get not one but two views of the information in your map; the visual map for the big picture and navigation by context, and the cross-tree groupings that exist within your map, based on the map markers that you have used. These lists group and sort topics by every property except context – colour, task status, icons and so on. Because this is a set of lists, rather than a tree of topics, it is normal for the same topic to appear on more than one list at the same time – so your “Write report” item is simultaneously shown on five lists, and you can find it by reviewing any one of them. When it is completed and checked off, it disappears off all five lists again.

A dashboard map with dynamic status indication

Hot Lists of topics, generated by Power Markers

Power Markers can do a lot else besides. It can “roll up” important information to the centre of your map, greatly reducing the risk that you might overlook something vital. You can also design your map marker groups in the map itself, and make their definitions a richer part of your map. Power Markers Standard Edition will create up to 15 lists per map, and does not require a license key.

If you use MindManager to organise information or keep track of activities, Power Markers will help you to get a lot more value out of your maps by being able to see them from two perspectives at the same time.

Resources

Power Markers demonstration map on BiggerPlate: www.biggerplate.com/viewmap.asp?id=904

Download Power Markers for MindManager 7 or 8 for Windows:  http://www.olympic-limited.co.uk/mindmanager-add-ins/power-markers/

Free white paper on designing Dashboard maps with MindManager: http://tinyurl.com/34mlzos

The Beyond Mind Mapping blog: www.beyond-mind-mapping.com

Copyright © Harport Consulting 2010. All Rights Reserved.

Dan Prager CEO at Austhink jumped at the chance to present a good case for the use of bCisive.

Dan does software strategy, agile team leadership, design, architecture, and programming. Past experience includes research and development, commercial consulting on optimization and simulation, and teaching. Dan holds a PhD in mathematics, and practices and teaches martial arts. He also blogs, and his favorite t-shirt reads “No-one cares about your blog”.

bCisive Online is a web-based visual mapping tool from Austhink Software, aimed primarily at complex decision-making, individual and team problem-solving, presentation and facilitation.

If you are a mind-mapping afficionado, but have had trouble getting the rest of your team to work with mind-maps, bCisive Online offers an alternative path to visual thinking.  Our users have found that facilitating a meeting or problem-solving session is a great way to get buy-in from the group.

The modes of visual thinking supported in bCisive Online overlap with mind-mapping, but the visual and manipulatory conventions are a bit different. Here’s a short video illustrating the basic mechanics of map-building and editing.

Notably, bCisive Online allows multiple maps on a workspace, and makes playing with ideas in a bottom-up or top-down fashion (or any combination thereof) both practical and enjouyable.

For the more experienced user, advanced features include:

• Real-time collaboration over the internet, including one-click integrated Skype, remote virtual laser pointers for all participants, and disciplined passing around of “control” (the power to edit)
• A private portal for your team or organization: E.g. http://myorganization.bcisiveonline.com
• Easy export to PowerPoint

Best viewed in full screen, try zooming in and out, and hiding and showing branches and sub-branches.  Clicking on a non-map area of the workspace to pan around at high zoom levels.

bCisive Online is free to try, and available at reasonable rates on a subscription basis.

I’ve been developing, writing about and generally evangelizing about Crystal Mapping for a few years now. I’ve focused mainly on how it can be used in business to communicate organizational level vision and team objectives and how it can be used in education to help revision and learning. But one thing that consistently comes up in conversation, and one I’ve had in depth with Wallace Tait at visualmapper.org, is that people see crystal maps as a natural way of setting personal goals and creating their own life maps. With this in mind here’s my take on ‘life maps’ and ’self development maps’ using crystal mapping.

Below is an example of a Personal Dashboard created in crystal mapping

WANT TO VIEW AN INTERACTIVE EXAMPLE? CLICK HERE
Keep your eye on the left hand pane of the interactive map; this is where you’re offered a linear list of the contents of the interactive map!!!!

Among the many theories, teachings and techniques in the area of personal development there are two features which are common to all and critical to success:
• You have to know where you are going
• You have to know how you’re going to get there

The first point is pretty much a given in that it is vital that you know what you’re trying to achieve and where you want to get to. Otherwise how would you know if / when you’d arrived?

The second is a bit less clear cut because there are usually a number of ways you could get to the same point. However, the fact that you need a plan or a route to follow is not in doubt. All journeys need to be planned.

Just as you wouldn’t set out to climb Everest without knowing which route you were going to take, you wouldn’t (or shouldn’t at least) set out to achieve your life or career goals without a map.

Crystal Mapping helps you map your goals so you can see where you are going and how you’re going to get there.

We work on a simple process: Think it, Map it, See it, Do it

For most of us life is busy. We live at speed, grabbing coffee on the go, having a sandwich at our desk, making calls as we drive (hand’s free obviously). When we have ideas for things we’d like to do or changes we’d like to make we don’t write them down so we forget about them – sometimes for good. It’s important to think about what you want. So, go on think about it!

One of the problems people often find with all the different methods and techniques of self improvement and the vast library of literature that exists is how to remember the stuff which is relevant and how to bring it all together in a way that is personal to you. Well – the best way is to map it – so it’s crystal clear what you are trying to achieve!

Visualization is the key to success for most successful people and it takes place on two levels. On one level it is important to visualize our goals in our minds and to start to allow our subconscious mind to go to work on finding strategies to achieve them. Secondly you need see how you’re progressing. Your own crystal map personal dashboard lets you see it ; how you’re performing in achieving your life goals!

When you took a few moments to think about your goals you were doing nothing new. You probably didn’t need to think that hard before a few ideas at least popped into your head. That’s because these dreams have rattled around between your ears for quite a while. But now is the time to do something different. Just do it!

PRESS RELEASE

CS Odessa Announces Update to ConceptDraw MindWave, a No-Cost Mind Mapping Gadget for Google Wave

San Jose, California, June 2, 2010 – CS Odessa has released an updated version of its popular mind mapping tool, ConceptDraw MindWave for Google Wave. This is a no charge Google Wave add-in, which enables users to rapidly collaborate with any amount of people, from 2 to 2000.

ConceptDraw MindWave provides teams the opportunity to interactively collaborate on a mind map while building a map structure that represents the focus of collaboration. The mind map can then take full advantage of Google Wave playback, or be downloaded to one’s desktop for further development using ConceptDraw MINDMAP.

Improved Functionality of ConceptDraw MindWave2:

• Getting Started mind map on first launch to introduce new users to functionality.
• Horizontal scroll bar for more versatile navigation.
• Automatic hyper linking of URL topic text.
• Added help and privacy resources to gadget
• New shortcuts and many usability improvements

Olin Reams, General Manager for the Americas at CS Odessa, observes, “We demonstrated ConceptDraw MindWave, at the recent Google I/O Developers Conference. ConceptDraw MindWave was presented in the Sandbox and was a huge success.”

“Many of the developers and spectators in attendance were able to immediately see the great potential in being able to build and store a mind map whose access can be embedded anywhere HTML appropriate, such as a web page or enterprise portal. Participants are then free to discover and interact with the wave mind map, join the conversation, and add or edit information. The end result is a great collaborative productivity tool.”

ConceptDraw MindWave is a no cost gadget for Google Wave. To install ConceptDraw MindWave, please visit: http://www.conceptdraw.com/mindwave

ABOUT CS ODESSA

Founded in 1993, Computer Systems Odessa supplies cross-platform productivity tools and graphics technologies to professional and corporate users around the world. With headquarters in Odessa, Ukraine and an office in California, CS Odessa sells products internationally through resellers in over 25 countries. The ConceptDraw Productivity Line of products has won numerous awards and is used by hundreds of thousands of people all over the world.

www.conceptdraw.com

I  looked at Open source and free offerings recently pondering these two models. Many questions such as; Are they sustainable, are these models really free in the long run and; can I actually use Open source and free software as the backbone of my information management processes that support my business operations?

IS IT DOABLE?

OK, so if I use Open office, Xmind, Nitro pdf reader and/or integrate my work with Google mail and docs; hmm, this really got me thinking; will this really work for me?

Well here the thing; it might work, and this really kills me to say this. I actually used Open source and free software for one week during March 2010. And as much as I now need therapy because of my willful experiment, I have come to realize it might actually be doable at a stretch.

Now if you’re one of my consultant/facilitator colleagues and/or commercial software developer friends; forgive me?

I now use Google mail and IMO the more professionally polished GMX mail as my primary mail clients; MS Outlook has IMO become rather obsolete to my needs.

As a professional Visual mapper during the experiment, I used Xmind to challenge my perceived negative view of open source and free. Admittedly it worked for me only to a point; there’s some functions that power Visual mappers just don’t have available in the open source and free models, so this is the downfall.

As an interesting addition; I also used The Gimp as my open source alternative to my regular use of Photoshop (yes I am a PS addict), and this worked really well too.

As much as this has been my personal experiment; I am now back to being my regular reliant self on the commercial models; “I am a realist after all”. This certainly has changed me though, and I am now more aware of the open source and free alternatives.

This was a very interesting personal experiment. The CAVEAT of my experience to date; if you choose to conduct the same experiment, be aware of many pitfalls and the surprising epiphanies also.

As a close colleague recently pointed out to me; there’s a notable difference between the Open Source and Free models. The question remains though; will these models remain Open Source and Free in the long term?

Have you tried this experiment also? What did you experience and what are your conclusions?

Wallace Tait: Visualmapper

Wow, yes WOW: After viewing some of the training videos and release media regarding NovaMind 5, and I have to say it again WOW.  And yes I use NovaMind 5 too.

Gideon King, the creator of NovaMind delivers an awesome and totally new framework for version 5. It delivers numerous new tools, methods and expands upon the mindset associated with NovaMind.

The information manager of this century now has a Mind mapping product in NovaMind 5 that is graphically sophisticated, extremely professional and effective to the nth degree.

I really do believe NovaMind 5 raises the bar for professional Mind mapping, and the many competing benchmarks in this arena are being eclipsed by this latest release.

NovaMind 5 covers personal productivity, academic enhancement and business uses at all levels of service, manufacturing and corporate.

If at all you’ve been a past user of NovaMind, you’ll notice a whole new UI, functions and capability for both platforms. The new and enhanced functions are numerous and this blog just won’t contain them all; so here’s a few of them from the Express, Pro and Platinum versions.

NovaMind Express Features:

Map Elements:

Create your mind map using a range of different shaped topics such as lines, rectangles and ovals. Use callouts to add extra information. Highlight and visually group topics using boundaries. Use floating topics to create separate mini mind maps. Attach free floating shapes, images and text

Media Library:

Make your mind maps look great by selecting from over 3000 high quality adornments and images right within NovaMind. The images are tagged with a large number of keywords making it easy to find what you are looking for. Take the media library with you and use it offline.

Advanced Layout Engine:

Focus on your ideas while NovaMind’s unique layout engine keeps your mind map compact and tidy. Fine tune the look of your mind map by using flexible topic orientation and advanced spacing options. You can also move any topic to exactly where you want it.

Intuitive & Easy to Use:

Forget distracting popup dialogs. With NovaMind you can use a familiar MS Office-like user interface to edit your mind map and see changes live. Keeps the flow of your ideas going while NovaMind takes care of the layout! Other applications add features upon features just to add another bullet point on their sales pages. We carefully design new features to provide a consistent look and feel.

Imports & Exports:

Conveniently import mind maps created in XMind and FreeMind. Import and export OPML and text files. More imports & exports are available in NovaMind Pro.

Hyperlinks:

Add multiple hyperlinks to your topics. Link to websites, files and folders.
NovaMind Pro & Platinum allow you to attach (embed) files.

Themes & Styles:

Create beautiful mind maps with ease. Experiment with different themes and try various color and font combinations.

Outline View:

Work with the Outline view and the Mind Map at the same time. Immediately see changes in both the outline view your Mind Map. Drag & drop topics within the outline view or even between the outline view and your Mind Map.

NovaMind Pro Features:

Multiple Mind Maps in a Document:

Create multiple mind maps in a single document to keep them conveniently together. Add, remove and reorder mind maps. Copy & paste mind maps between documents.

Advanced Imports & Exports:

Create your documents and presentations using NovaMind. Export to Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint. Import and export MindManager 7/8 mind maps.

Attachments:

Use NovaMind as your information hub. Attach as many files as you like to any topic. Attachments are automatically stored within the NovaMind file and can be opened from within NovaMind or extracted to become separate files.

Checkboxes:

Use NovaMind for your to do list. Add checkboxes to your topics. Automatically rollup checkbox states from sub-topics or use manual checkboxes. Get a full set of Project Management tools with NovaMind Platinum.

Plugins:

Extend the capability of NovaMind 5 by using Plugins. With NovaMind 5 we are introducing a new plugin system which allows developers to create new features and integrate their own products with NovaMind. We are already working with a number of partners on exciting Plugins.

NovaMind Platinum Features:

Project Management:

Manage your projects using NovaMind. Visualize (and print) task information such as priority, percentage complete, duration and start and end dates. Setup resources and assign them to tasks. Presenting and discussing your project using NovaMind will make it easy to understand at a glance. Access project reports and export the data to Excel. Import and Export Microsoft projects.

Presenter:

Get your message across clearly and concisely using the NovaMind Presenter. You will be able to glide over your Mind Maps and zoom into topics. Your audience will be able to easily understand the context and meaning of your presentation.
The NovaMind Presenter is currently in development. When you purchase your NovaMind Platinum license key, you will be eligible to receive the NovaMind Presenter as a free update when it is ready. As pioneers of presentation tools for Mind Mapping, we are completely redeveloping the NovaMind Presenter for NovaMind 5.

So there you have it, just a little taste of what you get with NovaMind 5. You’ve just got to grab a copy RIGHT NOW!!

Wallace Tait: Visualmapper

I just spoke with Kathleen Church the  Media Relations Liaison for Think Buzan. She informed me that Tony Buzan, the inventor of Mind Mapping is coming to America. Kathleen is a professional Mind mapper and facilitator with a bent towards Academic use of the tools, methods and Mindset of traditional Buzan Mind mapping.  I was enthused by her passion for Mind mapping, and the fact that she convinced me to post this article about Tony Buzan coming to America for three distinct appearances at Minneapolis, San Francisco and New York respectively.

Please read the following Press Release and pass on to your friends, colleagues and associates.  This may indeed be a once in a lifetime opportunity for many of us to be in the presence and learn from the master and originator of Mind mapping.

PRESS RELEASE

Tony Buzan brings his mind mapping technique for improving decision making, creativity, and communications skills to America.

Bestselling author, lecturer, consultant to tour us cities

In a career that has spanned decades, Tony Buzan has helped millions around the world to improve their professional and personal lives by improving decision making, unlocking their creativity and enhancing their memory skills with Mind Mapping techniques.

Now Tony is bringing his program to the United States.

A best selling author and consultant to major international corporations, Tony will host workshops and seminars in New York, Minneapolis and San Francisco May 3 to 18, where he will describe The ThinkBuzan System.

Course attendees will learn how to work creatively, generate innovative new ideas, deliver dynamic and engaging presentations, improve their organization and planning skills, and enhance their training repertoires with a system that has been developed over 40 years of experience.

Mind Maps, which Tony invented in the 1970s, are now used by over 250 million people worldwide.  He is a consultant for businesses and government organizations all over the world, including IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Walt Disney, Boeing, BP, HSBC, and the BBC.

The royal families of Bahrain and Liechtenstein and global media personalities and prominent world figures have benefited from using his techniques.

After a presentation by Tony at HSBC’s headquarters, Anne Ewing, the bank’s Head of Learning & Development, said that “he held the audience spellbound as he challenged, confronted and tested our collective assumptions about how adults learn.  His complete mastery of his subject shone through… He is an extraordinary teacher and communicator”.

Leon Sadler, vice president for professional services at FICO, described the true power of Tony’s process: “I’ve relied on Mind Maps in my work with the world’s premier technical knowledge-based organizations, including Accenture, IBM and now FICO, a leader in analytics and decision management. I have passed on my enthusiasm to my co-workers and kids, and enjoy watching a new generation of Mind Mappers develop.”

In 2008 Tony received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Creativity Association (ACA).  Forbes Magazine has named Tony one of five top international speakers, along with Mikhail Gorbachev, Henry Kissinger and Margaret Thatcher, and reported that “Buzan shows corporate executives how to hot wire their creative energies.”

He has authored or co-authored over 100 books on the brain, which have been translated into 33 languages and published in over 150 countries.  During the US tours, his workshops and seminars will be co-hosted by Chris Griffiths, ThinkBuzan’s CEO and author of ‘Mind Maps for Business’.

The ThinkBuzan System is built around a number of cutting edge techniques that address key areas such as; working creatively to generate new ideas and innovative solutions, combating information overload, dealing easily with an overwhelming workload, making correct decisions quickly, and thinking strategically and setting goals to boost personal and business development.

Tony’s US Tour events are an ideal opportunity for all executives, consultants, trainers and managers, anyone working within education, marketing and PR, or human resources and development to sharpen their professional skills.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT:

• Tony Buzan: http://www.thinkbuzan.com/uk/company/about/tony-buzan
• ThinkBuzan Ltd: http://www.thinkbuzan.com/uk/company/about
• The ThinkBuzan System & The US Tour: http://www.thinkbuzan.com/uk/services/training/usa2010
• Kathleen Church Media Relations Liaison kchurch@thinkbuzan.com 1-800-961-4582

Wallace Tait: Visualmapper
www.visualmapper.org