Singapore branch
The Singapore branch holds several events throughout the year, including lectures each quarter and social gatherings for Fellows and members.
Local contact: Pete Read, alternatively please email the RGS-IBG Events Office or telephone them on +44 (0)20 7591 3100.
Past events
On 15 February 2013 Khoo Swee Chiow, a hugely inspiring and engaging adventurer, spoke to our Singapore branch about his first love - mountains. Khoo Swee Chiow has climbed the highest peak on each of the seven continents (including Everest three times), and has also been to both poles, swum the Malacca Straits, and cycled, roller-bladed and kayaked his way around Asia, setting several records.
Drawing from his experience of over 40 expeditions Swee Chiow spoke of how and why he does it, what he has learnt along the way and what he has planned for his next mind-bogglingly ambitious adventure.
Singapore region Christmas drinks and talk – Ascending Everest by the North Ridge
On 11 December 2012 RGS-IBG members and their guests were invited to take a glimpse into the realities of scaling Everest, and to meet and network with other members, while drinking to the festive season and enjoying the splendour of Eden Hall.
No celebrities, no big budgets, no excuses. Axe Rawlinson brought the gritty and painful reality of tackling Everest's North Face in Tibet to life, the same route that claimed the lives of George Mallory and Andrew Irvine in 1924, and continues to take lives every climbing season.
"Climb if you will, but remember that courage and strength are naught without prudence" - Edward Whymper, first person to climb the Matterhorn, in 1865.
Tigers in the Park – The Fall of Singapore in Black and White
Battlefield archaeologist Jon Cooper gave an audience of 150 RGS-IBG members and guests a fascinating insight into the last few days of the Japanese invasion of Singapore, in his talk to our Singapore branch on 12 October 2012. Jon explained how artifacts such as boots, bullets and cap badges can be used to piece together the story of the the events of 1942, when the British Cambridgeshire Regiment fought an epic battle against Japanese invaders at Adam Park and Allied POWs spent nine months in captivity there.
Safe Return Doubtful
Tim Jarvis AM, the renowned polar explorer and environmental scientist, gave a riveting talk entitled Safe Return Doubtful to our Singapore branch on 1st June 2012, holding a full house audience of
170 adults and children spellbound with an account of his polar expeditions, how the lessons learned from these experiences can be applied to everyday life, and his work as an environmental scientist.
Safe Return Doubtful is a reference to the words of Shackleton as he set off on an 800 mile rescue mission in a small boat from Elephant Island to South Georgia in 1916, a voyage which Tim plans to re-enact in 2013.
A Fact-Based World View
Dr Hans Rosling, the acclaimed health economist, delivered a well-attended talk on A Fact-Based World View at our Singapore branch on 16 March 2012, in which he explained how and why the world's population will stabilise at nine to 10 million, and why the concept of the developed and undeveloped world is no longer relevant. |