For the First Time, Asia Has a Coaching Conference of Its Own

Curious how the world of coaching may change in just a few years’ time?

Many coaches are convinced whatever it looks like, its epicenter will almost certainly be in Asia—so they’ve gathered there for a first-of-its-kind event, the three day Asia Pacific Coaching Conference (APCC), which starts today.

“As somebody once said to me, ‘If you want styling in an automobile, you go to Italy. If you want engineering, you go to Germany. If you want marketing, you go to Japan.’ In coaching, there are these major differences, which then cause us to look at approaches to coaching differently,” said the conference’s founder, Foo See Luan, an executive coach based in Singapore.

Coaches from a dozen nations have gathered Singapore’s Furama Hotel. They’re there to take up topics rarely addressed in coaching conferences in other parts of the world, like “the Art, Science and Practice of Coaching in China,” and “Executive Coaching in Asian Cultures.”

An official event of the Asia Pacific Alliance of Coaches and the ICF’s Singapore Chapter, the APCC marks a major milestone for the region, where coaching is booming and coaches are hungry for exposure to the latest science and speakers.

“If coaching is to meet the needs of senior leaders, leaders in the business community, leaders in the government community—NGOs—we must keep an eye on what’s developing, and what’s of interest to them,” said Foo.

But beyond tracks devoted to technique and personal development, APAC describes the conference as a “unique opportunity” for its member coaches, not just to learn, but to network “and (build) a community of coaches in Asia.”

The conference kicks off with a status report billed as “the big picture—coaching in Asia and worldwide,” featuring research by Frank Bresser, who will present the results of his consulting group’s global coaching survey, which analyzed 162 countries and determined the state of coaching by nation, region and continent.

Bresser’s study found Southeastern Asia to be one of the world’s largest and “most dynamic” coaching regions, with coaching in many ways in its early stages, but growing fast. “Coaching is clearly on the rise and in the process of becoming more mature,” read the Bresser report.

Bresser also noted that there is no Asia-specific “approach” to coaching.

As Foo See Luan says, coaching in Singapore’s still only ten years old, and Foo—founder of IFC’s chapter in Singapore and of the APAC–he was there at the beginning. “I was one of the 18 or so people (in the first class) in 2000,” learning from an American instructor based on American coaching materials.

Today, while still a new and evolving field in Asia, coaches in the region are anxious to bring their own wealth of experience to the profession. “Originally we learned from the West,” said Foo. “But over a period of time—espeically the Asians—we are very conscious of our rich culture (and) long history.”

“We have often asked ourselves as coaches, what works in Asia? What do clients in Asia want?” And those are questions coaches outside the region are asking as well.

As coaching grows in countries like Japan and, increasingly, China—fueled by the rapid expansion of multinational corporations in the region—coaches and coaching businesses have moved to serve an ever-larger appetite for coaching.

“Once they make up their minds to work (in a market like) Shanghai,” says Foo, coaches who may have concerns about their ignorance of Asian customs and culture can focus their efforts toward many of the same companies they may be working with back at home. “Is it Apple? Is it Johnson & Johnson? Is it Merck? Is it Pfizer? Is it Bank of America? They will target those companies first because the Chinese managers working for those companies will be quite fluent in English. So they can start coaching at that level.”

That trend is visible in the registrations for the Singapore conference—most from Asia, including nearly half from Singapore itself, but a surprising number from outside the region entirely.

“Our target was 250 delegates,” said Foo. Registrations passed the target and hit 256 by the end of last week.

Those delegates, Foo said, come from far and wide. “Almost 20 percent came from China, and that came as a huge and pleasant surprise for me. We have people from USA, Brazil, France, Germany, Great Britain, Netherlands, Norway, and all over Asia Pacific.”

“We are very happy because at one time we said we would break even at 150. We know elsewhere people have lost money when they attempted to do a conference for the first time,” said Foo.

“We are very grateful for this crowd.”

Are you in Singapore for the APCC?  We’d love to hear from you.