bank – Phillip Holt's World

Unlike many parts of the World, the UK (United Kingdom explained) does not have a public holiday on 1st May. We have the first Monday in May as a Bank Holiday.

A Bank Holiday in the UK comes from a time when banks were shut and thus no trading could take place, and today we have eight such days although Northern Ireland has ten. Most notable dates of Bank Holidays are, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Years Day and Good Friday.

So today is May Day, and in my home town, The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, we have Merry May Day celebrations, with the town full of singing, dancing, food stalls and people.

The town is alive with families having a nice warm summery day out.

*Merry May Day Families in Kingston town*

Not only are there human families enjoying the glorious weather.

Bank Holidays have become family days, where people get together, but not for me, I have work to do, because some who know me say that every day is a Bank Holiday for me.

A large number of staff from the Turkish Bank, DenizBank, (deniz meaning sea in English), attended one of three, three hour presentation I gave at their wonderful academy facilities in Şişli a district in Istanbul. My presentation was part of a larger course they were attending.

I had worked with a number of DenizBank staff before, when they attended a course called “Learn English with NLP“, given by a previous company I worked with (see Category Archives headed English Courses in the left hand column). I provided the NLP portion of the training. The course to learn English lasted nine days, from 9am until 9pm. I had three sessions with the attendees, in the morning 9am till 9:45am, at lunch time from 1:30pm until 2pm, and then in the evening from 6pm until 6:45pm.

Each of the three presentations given in DenizBank’s Şişli academy had nearly three hundred attendees, and I covered three aspects of NLP for them to understand and learn from. What are the anchors they are giving to fellow staff members and to customers, what impressions are they leaving people? What feedback do they give others? How to stay strong with Mustapha, Antonio or Fred.

Under the spot lights on the stage it was hot, and time just slipped by so quickly, but my timing was spot on. I had been given exact times to start and finish, as the attendees had other presentations to catch.

Phillip Holt with translator Arzu at DenizBank seminar

Phillip Holt works with attendees at DenizBank seminar