Brains coming to M’sia for Mensa meet

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NEW KID ON THE BLOCK: Sanai Vaie posing with the organising committee members of the festival.

 

KUCHING: Members of the international high-IQ society, Mensa, will be gathering in Kuala Lumpur from Sept 23 to 25 in the first ever Asian Mensa Gathering, an event supported and collaborated by Mensa organisations from Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Singapore, Pakistan and Malaysia.

With support from its Asian counterparts, Malaysia’s Mensa is taking the lead in bringing Mensa members from all over the world to a single location in Asia – Kuala Lumpur. Inspired by the US Mensa Annual Gathering and the European Mensa Annual Gathering, the Asian Mensa organisations felt that it was the right time to set a similar benchmark.

“The Asian Mensa Gathering offers the international flavour of Mensa to members in Asia, particularly Malaysia. Since we have taken the lead on this, we will be hosting it in Malaysia. It also gives us the opportunity to showcase Kuala Lumpur and Malaysia as a whole,” said Azrai Skymmer, chairman of Malaysian Mensa, in a press statement yesterday.

Mensa was first established in 1946 in England. The intent of its founding members, which remains the current objective of Mensa, is to bring intelligent minds together to find ways to benefit humanity besides providing a platform for similar minds to meet.

The Malaysian Mensa began as an entity in 1984 with the effort of the first chairman, Tan Sri Datuk Yong Poh Kon.  Today there are 110,000 members worldwide in over 60 countries. Famous Mensans include Geena Davis, Sir Clive Sinclair, Buckminster Fuller, Isaac Asimov, Tony Buzan and Jodie Foster.

“We want to also discuss ways to make Mensa more relevant and useful to the public and society”, said Azrai.

He added: “Although Mensa as an organisation does not hold any opinion nor affiliate itself to any ideology, members do and Mensa can be an incubator of ideas and solutions for society at large. Most Mensans love to solve problems and offer ideas”.

The Asian Mensa Gathering is also bringing in speakers like Roshan Thiran of Leaderonomics, Jason Lo of TuneTalk, Milan Doshi a financial consultant, Dr Goh Chee Leong a renowned psychologist and Anant Kasibhatla the Indian National memory record holder.

For further information visit amg.Mensa.my. Non-members may also attend as guest of a Mensa member.