The Opening Ceremony of 14th ABC Asia-Pacific Conference

On November 27th 2015, the Opening Ceremony of the 14th ABC Asia-Pacific Conference was held in Waterside Hall at Building Seven, north campus of GDUFS. The theme of this year’s conference is “Business Communication in the Global Century”. The hall was packed, with a full house concentrating on the Opening Ceremony and Keynote Speech chaired by Prof. GUO Guihang (GDUFS).

Welcome Speech by Vice-President of GDUFS, Prof. LIU Jianda

At the beginning, Vice-President of GDUFS, Prof. LIU Jianda presented a welcome speech. In his speech, he provided a general introduction to Guangdong University of Foreign Studies and an introduction to the School of English for International Business. He indicated that, with the celebration of its 50th anniversary in November, the university will continue to pursue the internationalization of its faculties, students, academic research and become a high-tier internationalized university of excellence.

Opening Speech by Prof. Bertha Du-Babcock

After LIU’s speech, Dr. Bertha Du-Babcock, President of the ABC sent her witty greetings separately in native Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese and English, which brought laughter to the audience. Then she provided an overview of the association: The Association for Business Communication is a well-established, international and interdisciplinary organization, which celebrated its 80th anniversary last month in Seattle. She also pointed out that the conference aimed to provide a platform for discussions and debates among academics and professional practitioners, which has attracted business and management communication scholars and professionals from all over the world. At last, she warmly thanked Guangdong University of Foreign Studies for sponsoring the conference, and thanked the organizing committee members for their untiring endeavors in making this conference possible.

Keynote Speech by Prof. ZHU Yunxia

In the next part of the conference, ZHU Yunxia (University of Queensland), the Vice President of Asia and the Pacific Region of ABC presented an exciting speech with the theme “Using a Situated Cultural Learning Approach to Develop Intercultural Competence in International Business Communication Learning and Education”. According to ZHU, situated cultural learning views learning as an enculturation process in a particular social group or community through conducting authentic activities and daily routines such as in business communication contexts, which relies on the application of a ‘situated curriculum’ that stresses learning through engagement and co-participation in activities with other members of the community. This is especially relevant to the internationalized classroom, where diverse cultural backgrounds serve as sources of learning of intercultural competence from each other in the classroom.

Group Photo & Tea Break at the Entrance of No.7 Building

At about 11 a.m., the opening ceremony came to an end. All of the attendees took a group photo and had a tea break at the entrance of Building Seven to better prepare for the next conferences.