From Beijing, an unfiltered view on business and economy.
Today in my office, I went through a two hours interview with China Daily. Pictured are (Ms) Xu Lin (reporter) and Kuang Linhua (Photo editor).
On 28 March one more book talk, this time for AmCham (American Chamber of Commerce in China). I was pretty nervous about that talk, found some new tips on how to improve a public talk using a PPT and as a result locked myself up and changed very much my original presentation.
See the invitation: 130328 Toxic Capitalism
I was the also battling a bug in Microsoft Office for MAC 2011: the slideshow in PowerPoint does not work since recent updates (14.3.2 is the latest): in the middle of the presentation the keyboard freezes, not exactly pleasant when your audience looks at you hitting all keys in desperation and nothing happens. Fortunately I had figured out the track pad still works, but not handy… Found out everybody has the same problem and there is no real solution except to wait that MS comes up with a new update. Problem was solved by buying Keynote… Just around 20 USD to get rid of the pesky PPT stuff. Works great and allows smooth import and export of PPT.
Finally it went all well it seems at AmCham. See the pics, courtesy of AmCham.
Gilbert has been reconfirmed as vice chairman of the China International Chongyang Festival Organizing Committee, see: http://www.caidf.org.cn/show.aspx?id=259&cid=33
The China International Chongyang Festival is organized by the China Ageing Development Foundation (CAIDF), under the leadership of China National Committee on Ageing. It is approved by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China. The celebration is supported by the China National Committee for the Wellbeing of the Youth, the Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs, all relevant international organizations and more than 100 embassies and dozens of domestic and foreign media. The first four successful celebrations of the China Chongyang Festival have won widespread praise among international communities and enhanced international cooperation and exchanges.
In 1989, China designated the “Ninth day of the Ninth month of the Lunar Calendar” to be the Festival Day for the Elderly. This day, also known as the Chongyang Festival, promotes respect, love and assistance towards the elderly. With the strong support of the Chinese government, the Committee hosted the “First China International Chongyang Festival” on 26 October 2009.
Gilbert has been part of the yearly event, also giving a speech (in English and Chinese…). It always takes place in the Great Hall of The People. Seniors give some really impressive performances.
See here some pictures from the last event on 27 October 2012.
On 5 April I was once more on a panel organized by BIMBA (Beijing International MBA at Peking University).
The theme was again “All the Questions You Have About China But Were Afraid to Ask”.
The panel was hosted by Bruce Stening (Professor of management, Vlerick International Dean to BIMBA). Panelists: Tony Liu, Ph.D. Associate Professor – (Director International Programs of BIMBA – National School of Development – Peking University) and myself.
This time it was a group of nearly 40 EMBA students. Turned out to be one of the most lively and interesting Q&A sessions I ever had with BIMBA. Some pretty sharp and challenging questions and lots of active debating.
Location: Leo KoGuan, which is also the School of Political Affairs, next to Beida.
The students were of the hard working – hard partying type and they surprised me by knowing more about my street (Gongti Xi Lu, aka the Gongti Strip). Interesting feedback on the brand new “True Colors” night spot.
After my tip they decided to go native Belgian for dinner and we were nearly twenty to have a lively dinner at Morel’s Restaurant with lots of food, Belgian beer and Filliers Jenever (thanks Renaat!). They asked me to join and it was a great evening.
Looking forward to see more of Vlerick EMBA!
The Rotary Club of Beijing, being the only one in the region, receives a lot of visitors. We normally do not have the time to play tourist guide as we are all so busy but sometimes we do make exceptions. Our Rotarian Geoffrey Bernard William Little from Australia is one. We really had fun together during his stay, he attended our Rotaract meeting on 4 March (Brussels Restaurant) then the Rotary lunch on 5 March (Kempinski Hotel). And we went for dinner and lunch in a couple of restaurants like Nearby The Tree, Din Tai Fung, The Great Wall Restaurant, The Den and maybe more that I forgot with all the beer we had.
