Two weeks in Iran

I have spent the past 12 days in the wonderful country of Iran. I have travelled around to a number of different cities, as part of a conference series. I’ll reflect on the trip and the conditions in Iran in a separate post on our blog. But here, I just wanted to record the trip, and post a few pictures for those who might be interested.

My itinerary was:

• 24, Yazd
  
  
• 25, Isfahan
  
  
• 29 & 30, Negotiations Forum 2010, Tehran – see front page of event brochure
  
  
• 1 & 2 July, Negotiations Forum 2010 (repeat), Tehran – sign up for the event here
  
  
• 5 & 6, Karaj city (I will be speaking twice on 5 July only): Sales and Marketing forum.

Events in three other cities were unfortunately cancelled. Kish Island was cancelled due to excessive heat (it topped 50 degrees C and they felt we shouldn’t visit in that heat). Mashad was cancelled because the conference organiser couldn’t get us plane tickets to fly there (it’s a holy city with lots of pilgrims, and they left it too late to book the flights). And the Shiraz city council did not give the conference organisers a license to run the event (apparently due to security fears – hey, who am I to argue!).

So, this was quite a trip! It’s the longest I’ve been away from home in one stretch for two years, and the longest I’ll be away from my family this whole year.

Here are some photos:

The Hamayesh Faradan conference organising team:

Simon Hazeldine, myself and our bodyguard:

Presenting on stage in Karaj City:

Posing with our poster at the main venue in Tehran – Left to right = Myself, Allan Pease, Sepehr Tarverdian, Fergus McLelland and Simon Hazeldine:

Myself and Allan Pease – author of 17 books, selling over 11 million copies on body language, men and women and more:

The hand painted picture of me – presented as a gift in Karaj. It’s lifesize – how am I going to get it home?:

Simon Hazeldine and myself posing in front of our poster in Isfahan:

Presenting in Tehran:

A nice view of the conference hall: