As the year drawing to a close, a thought just flashed by ... what's the most unique press event for 2013? There are several, I would choose the A.Lange & Söhne press trip in October.
It was a combined objectives trip, a retreat and a learning trip for some South East Asia press-members. A pilot programme designed by trainers from the Lange Akademie that covered a few horological topics through a series of talks, games and interactive sessions, sort of the 'accelerated learning' pedagogy.
The 3-day programme was at Club Med Bali from 2 October to 4 October, 2013 (a day before the APEC Summit 2013).
Let's 'walk through' together with some snapshots of the A.Lange & Söhne Press Retreat ...
2 October - Checking in early at Singapore Changi Airport before sun rise, to avoid morning traffic.
Flight duration is about 2 hours 40 minutes. The Singapore press arrived at about noon in Bali.
After clearing immigration, we were fetched to Club Med Bali.
While waiting for the rest of the press members from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, we had checked into our rooms and had our own time.
At 4:30pm, all the press members met at the conference room, and we were greeted by Franck Giacobini, Managing Director of A.Lange & Söhne, Asia Pacific
and ...
Joanna Lange, Trainer / Consultant of Lange Akademie.
Press members were divided into 2 groups. After which a brief introduction of ourselves ...
Co-trainer from the Akademie - Chris Leung.
Day 1 session began with a lecture about the history of A.Lange & Söhne ...
Lange was founded on 7 December 1845 Ferdinand Adolph Lange in Dresden. Started the company and he trained 15 watchmakers.
Another milestone in 1994, four protoype-watches ready (after registering the company in 1990). Launched together with Walter Lange and Gunter Blumlein
- Lange 1, Arkade, Saxonia and Tourbillon PLM.
After the short lecture, a test of our memory retention (or were we paying attention
) ... a game to match the milestones ...
This where synergy came in ...everyone chipped in, should be able to complete the challenge ...
Joanna going through the work ...
Work from another impressive team ...
Points were awarded based on the number of correct answers ... Amanda from Lange Singapore Team awarding the points ...
The fun session completed within 1.5 hours... before dinner ...it was 'free & easy' time ... Swim or ...
drinks
Mingling ...
Enjoy the wave and breeze ...
Dinner ...
After that ... free & easy time ...some continued with drinks .... some left to visit other parts of interesting Bali ...
3 October, after breakfast, the learning began at 10am ....
The topics for the morning session .... various complications by A.Lange & Söhne ...
The contents are well-structured for easy understanding ...
After that a short break ...
Well thought-out flow, short intensive lecture with frequent short breaks, fully taking into the consideration of concentration/focus level of every individuals.
Upon returning, a short game ... using knowledge from lecture ...
Not all the questions were close-ended, some were controversial ...
Group in discussion before presenting their answers ...
Some answers presented even the Trainers need time to discuss
After that another follow-up game ...
Matching the various A.Lange & Söhne watches to their respective movements, and indicate which year the models were issued .
Teams at work ...
Joanna going through the answers ...
Chris verifying the answers ...
'Answers' from one of the teams ...
Chris sharing some pointers on how to recognise the movements ..
After that, lunch break ...
About 2pm, it was Pictionary Time ... a charade with drawings to provide clues.
Various watch terms were given, it was a race against time to complete as many words as possible to win ...
Following was a lecture about 'Power' ...
Joanna explaining how the power affects the accuracy with a graph to illustrate.
Next she explained, what were the approaches use to manage the power to get better accuracy ...
A barrel with mainspring was passed around for press members to view the components ...
A short tea-break, to recharge and reflect ...
After caffeine fix, it was 'hands on' session
The task, to place mainspring into the barrel with the tool provided.
Each trainer look after each team. They demonstrated the steps to 'turn and place' the main-spring into the barrel.
Looked simple
Not many could place the mainspring into the barrel, note the facial expressions
The mainspring successfully loaded into the barrel with the tool ...
The next challenge was to remove all the screws on the balance wheel, and then placed them back ... another test on dexterity
After that Joanna showed some samples of the rejected dials, and asked us to find the reason/s for rejecting.
Even under a loupe, not that easy to detect the faults!
Some faults were so minor, many could not even identify them. Lange Quality Team is pretty stringent, which is good!
Second day programme ended, proceed for a photograph session....
The attendees from SE Asia ...
4 October, the final day, after breakfast, we checked out of our rooms and proceeded to the last session ....
This lecture was about the unique proposition (USP) of Lange ... a good recap before wrapping up !
The keypoints are tradition, innovation & craftsmanship, in-house movement and exclusivity.
Own hair-spring.
Next, the prize presentation and 'graduation ceremony' ...
Both teams were winners
Joanna giving out the prizes first ...
then the certificates ...
The Graduates ...
After that we proceed to the airport for our flights back.
This is a great programme, as I have picked up much pointers and information at a short time. The approach is fun and through games, retention of facts is longer too.
The structure of the programme is informative with illustrations and hands-on, suitable for various learning style. If this could be compiled to electronic form, it is extremely valuable and accessible to everyone around the world who is interested in A.Lange & Söhne.
Thank you A.Lange & Söhne for having me in this programme.
Kong
This message has been edited by Kong on 2013-12-31 00:53:11 
