This month marks ten years since the Buzan Centre: Australia/NZ ran our first Buzan Licensed Instructor(BLI) program, in which we licensed 21 Mind Mapping instructors.

Mindwerx started the Buzan Centre in 2001 after first meeting the Buzan Centres UK team in mid-2000.  Bill and Jennifer had gone to the UK as part of a lecture tour, and met up with Vanda North, then Director of the Buzan Centres, in Poole to discuss us attending the UK BLI program.

At that meeting we became great friends and during the conversation we suggested, that instead of us doing the program in the UK, that we bring Vanda to Australia to run one here and to support us starting the Buzan Centre in Australia.  Vanda asked for a plan, which we Mind Mapped on the plane back to Australia and within a week of meeting it was all arranged.

So in March 2001, Vanda came out and we accredited our first 21 instructors – and now we have had well over 150 involved.  Over the next couple of years we brought Vanda out several times, during which Jennifer was earning her Master Trainer Status.

Then in mid-2001 we met with Tony Buzan in the UK and again became great friends.  So we invited him out to Australia for the first time late that year, which he was delighted to do.  On that occasion he met with BLIs (Buzan instructors are always invited to meet with Tony, usually over dinner, when he’s in Australia), spoke to several organisations, ran the first Australian Memory Championship with Jennifer, and had more than 25 media engagements.

That of course was just the start.  Since then we have enjoyed having him here many times, and we’ve just helped set the dates for his next trip in November this year. In addition Jennifer has worked with him around the world, often as Senior Arbiter at the World Memory Championships, but also running BLI programs.

The Buzan Centres purpose is the support of Global Mental Literacy, and the use of advanced learning techniques. To learn more about us go to www.buzan.com.au and if you’d like to get involved we have our next Mind Mapping Instructor program in June see the website or email us at info@buzan.com.au.

So Happy Anniversary to us and all our BLIs, and thanks to everyone that has supported us all these years