WINTER WORKSHOP FAMOUS FIVE
Thursday, July 12, 2012 
Heather Morkel, School Of Management Excellence Students
with Professors Guthrie, Meier, Schulman, Binedell and Kantor (inset)
(Photo : Leigh Willson)
“WINTER WORKSHOP 2012”
| Professor Brian Kantor (Chief economist, Investec) |
| Professor Alan Guthrie (Equine Research Centre) |
| Professor Hanspeter Meier (Genetics, Switzerland) |
| Professor Martin Schulman (Equine Reproduction, Onderstepoort) |
| Professor Nick Binedell (Dean Gordon Institute of Business Science, University of Pretoria) |
Last evening, the curtain closed on the Winter Workshop at the Al Maktoum School of Excellence. It’s arguable South Africa has not seen the likes of it before, and here we speak of the lectures, the facilty, Hartford House’s cuisine, the whole package, as well as the inspiration we all walked away with. At the end of the day, while it makes riveting listening for those of us who’ve been around a while, it was something else for our nine young students, who had obviously never seen or heard anything of this calibre before.
By the time Professor Martin Schulman delivered his final lecture, they’d heard the wisdom of five professors, each one the leader in his field in this country, perhaps even in the world, they’d heard the stories of the “A” team, Mary Slack, Mike de Kock and Jehan Malherbe, they’d looked through Graeme Hawkins’ binoculars, they’d reminisced with Ronnie Napier on horses and people he’d known round the world, and Aiden Lithgow had shared a glimpse of what we could expect when he releases “LEGENDS OF THE TURF”, Alec Hogg led us on leadership, Dr. Johnny Cave’s “Breakthrough Technology” was breaking news, Alan Miller and Steve Karlin revealed why the USA’s Team Valor, among our most successful owners of all time, considered South Africa the undiscovered thoroughbred jewel of the world. These and several other “professors” of their trades gave us a week to remember, and then to cap it all, there was Professor Nick Binedell who when introduced to a packed tent of 21 nations from around the world at Sunday’s Investec Stallion Day, was billed the best speaker on any subject anywhere. He did not let the billing down. This was Nick Binedell at his vintage best, and if we have hazy memories in the next few decades of exactly what we learnt this week, we will never forget his inspiration.
Heather Morkel +27 (0) 33 263 1081
or email heather@summerhill.co.za
www.summerhill.co.za
Reader Comments (1)
Huge thanks for the most phenomenal Investec Stallion Day. It truly was the most incredible experience- world class Stallions, incredible food, and fantastic company! The School of Excellence lectures on Monday were fascinating.
I look forward to writing your story for Horse Quarterly Magazine- its going to be the challenge of a lifetime to do Summerhill full justice!
Leigh Lippert