Just as satellite navigation devices are said to rob people of the skill of map reading, so, over the years, the ubiquitous PC, a glut of laptops and the proliferation of electronic personal organisers have removed the need for people to use their memories to the extent that they did in the past…
As a result, throughout the world, much of a whole generation has grown up without the basic skill of knowing how to memorise even basic information – like a shopping list.
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No wonder we think of memory these days in terms of gigabytes rather than as an individual skill that can be learned. According to the founder of the annual World Memory Championship - Tony Buzan, inventor of Mind Maps®, leading international business consultant and a previous editor of the international journal of high IQ society MENSA - the brain is like a muscle: “Unless you exercise it regularly, you should not expect it to operate at anything like its full potential."
“In the past, Homer’s poem, The Iliad, was passed from generation to generation, from memory” explains Tony. “That’s a feat that would test even today’s top memorisers. Before history was written, it relied on an oral tradition to pass information from one generation to the next. Whilst we undoubtedly still have the capacity to memorise such vast amounts of information, we lack the techniques - and technology is now removing the motivation.”
Competitors at this year’s World Memory Finals, which take place in the Kingdom of Bahrain from 31st August to 2nd of September, are proof that you don’t need to be born with a good memory to be able to compete. Nor is age a factor - competitors range from school age to third age. |
“At the 2006 World Memory Championship held in the United Kingdom, we saw six new World Records established” continues Tony. “We expect an even more competitive level of performance at the 2007 event. I founded the Championships in 1991 to promote memory as a ‘Mind Sport’, and created a set of ten Memory Disciplines which are now accepted as the worldwide standard for international competition.”
These disciplines are designed to measure pure memory skill, rather than any one individual’s knowledge on a particular subject. They are also not culturally or language specific, to ensure a level playing field for international competition. Subjects include spoken numbers, playing cards, dates, abstract images, binary digits, random words and names and faces.
Over the sixteen years of the competition, the mind-blowing achievements of the competitors have outstripped expectations year after year (see panel on next page for a selection of current World Records). The very first winner was Englishman Dominic O’Brien who went on to become eight times World Champion. In recent years, as the Mind Sport of Memory was adopted by more and more countries, competition became ever more intense. In Bahrain, representatives of some sixteen nations will be battling it out for the title of World Memory Champion 2007.
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Golden boy Clemens Meyer (left), a twenty year old law student clinched the title for the second year running at last year’s World Memory Championship, with the Silver medal awarded his tutor and mentor, Dr Gunther Karsten (both from Germany). In third place was Joachim Thaler (right) from Austria.
The Mind Sport of Memory is administered by the World Memory Sports Council, which stages the World Memory Championships every year. The 2007 event in Bahrain is sponsored and organised by INTELNACOM. “We approached Mr. Tony Buzan and asked him to hold this Championship’s International Finals in Bahrain,” explains Professor Dr Bernd J. Hoefer, CEO of INTELNACOM. |
“As a new high tech venture capital company established in the Kingdom of Bahrain we were excited about the opportunity of hosting the event in the Middle East for the first time” he says. “This is a significant international competition, bringing together some of the greatest intellects from around the world. We are delighted that Mr. Buzan agreed to have the event here this year. It is a real tribute to his confidence in Bahrain and in INTELNACOM’s ability to host such a significant noteworthy international Championship.”
Visit www.worldmemorychampionships.com WMC101/2007
For more information on the event or the 2007 competitors, call Chris Day, General Secretary on +44 (0)208 688 2598 - or email: secretary@worldmemorychampionships.com
To interview Tony Buzan or any of the competitors, call Ms Ray Hodges on
+44 (0)1628 894793 or email: r.hodges@hpsgroup.co.uk |
