BU’s Festival of Learning lands in Malaysia

Bournemouth University’s (BU) staff and students teamed up with Sunway University and Cyberjaya to take the Global Festival of Learning to Malaysia.

Student ambassadors and academic staff from BU and both partner organisations were on hand to facilitate activities, workshops and talks held at the two venues.

Sunway University hosted the first day of the Malaysia Festival of Learning at their Centre for Tourism, Hospitality and Culinary Management. The Malaysia leg of the festival was launched by BU’s Vice-Chancellor Professor John Vinney and Sunway University’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Graeme Wilkinson.

Expertise was shared in lectures, exhibitions and workshops including a cooking demonstration of Malaysian cuisine. Topics covered everything from social media in the hospitality industry to virtual tourism, allergens in food and dining etiquette in different cultures.

The key note speech was delivered by Ho Yoke Ping, General Manager of the Malaysia Convention & Exhibition Bureau and academics from both BU and Sunway University presented their research.

At Cyberjaya in Selangor the festival was opened by Dr Sonal Minocha, BU’s Pro Vice-Chancellor (Global Engagement) and Managing Director of Cyberview, Mr Faris Yahaya, followed by BU Vice-Chancellor Professor John Vinney.

Among the activities at Cyberjaya were key note speeches from education and industry. BU’s Peter Truckel spoke about his work on visual effects in films and the BFX festival and Research Assistant Katie Hill spoke about creating animated films for the Institute for Studies in Landscape and Human Evolution. Digital Entrepreneur and BU graduate Matt Desmier spoke about how digital innovation has changed perceptions of Bournemouth in the UK and further afield. Speakers and facilitators from Cyberjaya shared their industry expertise in games production, computer animation and the Malaysian creative industry landscape.

Interactive sessions included a creative writing workshop with BU’s Kay Stonham and a round table discussion on encouraging creative talent in the UK and Malaysia.

You can find out more about the UK Festival of Learning and the Festival of Learning in China on the website.