The 'World Memory Championship' will be held for the second consecutive year in Bahrain from October 23 to 26 following the resounding success of last year’s event.

The Kingdom will also play host to 'Festival of the Mind 2008' ,  another set of edu-entertaining activity, which will run alongside the 'World Memory Championship' this year at the Gulf International Convention Centre, Gulf Hotel.

Intelnacom, a Manama-based innovation company which focuses on rewarding opportunities offered by emerging high-tech innovation, has appointed Mice Management,  to organise the 'Festival of the Mind 2008'. 

Last year’s event was hailed as one of the best events yet by the founders of the 'World Memory Championships,' said a company official.

Tony Buzan, founder of the World Memory Championship said “We are delighted to be holding the World Memory Championships in Bahrain once again, and look forward to being an integral part of Intelnacom’s ‘Festival of the Mind 2008’. We were thrilled with our participation last year and look forward, once again, to the meeting of minds in Bahrain.'

'This is indeed a great honour to be hosting the World Memory Championships once again in Bahrain.  Each year we aim to add even more interactive challenges to allow the public to participate and you can be assured that this year will be even more thrilling than last year.'

The ‘Festival of the Mind’ is an interesting concept we are developing to bring to Bahrain a set of edu-entertaining activities and this year will see some new ideas being introduced.

For instance there will be an inter-schools challenge in a number of mind games such as Sudoku, Dama, Chess, Scrabble and I.Q. testing. There will also be an inter-University challenge for the same disciplines and we are hoping that an Inter-Gulf challenge will bring competitors from all over the Gulf,” said Fuad Mubarak, Intelnacom's deputy chief executive officer and head of the organising committee.

Mubarak said that plans were afoot to host the first-ever 'Arab World Memory Championships,' for residents of all Arab countries, in Bahrain this August.

The 'World Memory Championships' were founded in London in 1991 by brain guru Tony Buzan and chess Grandmaster Ray Keene – to promote memory as a ‘Mind Sport’, creating a set of ten memory disciplines which are now accepted as the worldwide standard for international competition.

The disciplines are designed to measure pure memory skill, rather than any one individual’s knowledge on a particular subject. 

The disciplines undertaken during the World Memory Championships are 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.

Dr Gunther Karsten of Erfurt, Germany won the 16th World Memory Championship, last year in Bahrain, ousting his closest competitor and previous World Champion Ben Pridmore of England, in the speed memorisation of a single shuffled pack of cards to claim the World Championship prize amongst competitors from China, United Kingdom, Germany, Asia, the Americas and many other countries.

Overall, the annual World Memory Championship represents one of the toughest mental tests of all time with competitors being asked to memorize 4,000 digit numbers and recall with absolute accuracy at least ten packs of cards in one hour.

Intelnacom actively seeks to identify, develop, fund and bring-to-market concepts and ideas by combining an entrepreneurial outlook with a vision to create bankable solutions for mankind.-TradeArabia News Service