Tag Archives: china

Rummaging the Archives #2: Broadening the perspective on “Europe-Asia Connectivity”​ in the European Parliament (January 2019)

30 Saturday May 2020

Posted by in Belt and Road, Business Story, china

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OK, admitted: In the run-up to this special public speech, I was really nervous. Speaking on public stages in front of large audiences, keynoting, paneling, whatevering, is not new to me; in fact, I feel pretty comfortable doing the stage thing.

But then came this invitation …

The official title of the event alone made me shudder in awe: “INTA Public Hearing on ‘Europe-Asia Connectivity: what is the impact on trade?'” – INTA standing for “Committee on International Trade”, as I found out after some thorough research. The hearing was to be held in front of and physically IN the European Parliament in Brussels, so holy hallways from the finest.

The European Parliament from the inside. Photo: Tobias Dennehy

Plus: “Public Hearing” sounded very much like interrogation to me. But I went for it anyway, as it seemed like the only delinquency I was accused of was apparently being a corporate expert on Eurasian Connectivity in general, and the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative in particular. However the EP came to this perception…In any case yet again one of those moments in my career when I asked myself: “How the hell did I get here???”

Seven minutes was the guidance for my statement – and I almost made it in time. What I spoke about? Well, the usual messaging suspects when I talk about this topic: proactive co-creation and mindful collaboration; broadening the view on connectivity (from physical to digital), listening, and changing the perspective (from “us” as givers to “them” as receivers).

It was indeed a lot of fun and highly inspirational in many ways. Especially sharing the stage (which wasn’t really a stage, because we speakers we sitting in the middle of the audience with questions then coming from every direction, a little akward…) with illustre and true experts on the matter like Francois Godement (Advisor on China an Asia at the Institut Montaigne), Thomas Eder, (Research Associate at MERICS), Astrid Skala-Kuhmann (Senior Advisor at GIZ), Ville Varjola (Economic Advisor to the ASIAPAC and Managing Director at EEAS), Wei SHI, (Counsellor at the Political Section of the Chinese Mission to the EU), Maja Bakran Marcich (Deputy Director-General for Mobility and Transport at the EU Commission), Francesco Rossi (Founder of TechSilu), and Tim de Meyer (Senior Advisor at ILO).

Needless to say, with so many elaborate experts, that it was a looooong event, but hey, if you get the chance to be heard in front of the EU Parliament, you better have some chair glue. I only regret that my words seemed to have struck my left desk neighbour with sheer ennuie and fatigue, sorry about that! 😉   

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Rummaging the Archives #1: interviewer and interviewee at Asia Society’s “Belt and Road Long Conversation”​ in Zurich (April 2019)

20 Wednesday May 2020

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On April 2, 2019, I found myself on stage in Zurich following the invitation of Switzerland’s “Asia Society”*, co-creating a (at least to me) very new exchange format: The Long Conversation” (and as you can see from the video, it is indeed pretty long, but due its diverting character far less boring than many normal panel discussions…).

The idea: There are only two panelists on stage at a time. First, one of them interviews the other, afterwards the other the one. When these two interview sessions are over, the first interviewer leaves the stage, and the remaining panelist in return becomes the moderator, interviewing yet another expert entering the stage. And so on in goes until all panelists played their part, as interviewer and interviewee.

The result: An entertaining and indeed diverting exchange format fostering many different perspectives and insights for the audience. And for the panelists on stage it was a little more challenging than normal, as you didn’t only have to prepare answers for yourself about stuff you know pretty well anyway, but also needed to gain insights into the topics and expertise another panelist should and wanted to talk about – and thereby be able to ask him qualified questions. To me, this was a very exciting experience and highly insightful.

The topic: This special long conversation was about the pros and cons, backs and forths, Oohs and Aahs of China’s Belt and Road Initiative – at a moment in time when this initiative of the century was not only in full swing and also reaching out for seemingly small and far-away places such as Switzerland. And shortly before Swiss President Ueli Maurer signed a Memorandum of Understanding on BRI with China’s Xi Xinping. So a just-in-time discussion.

Watch my special conversation with Synolitic’s Markus Herrmann and Theresa Fallon from the Centre for Russia Europe Asia Studies (who was then followed by Bruno Maçães, former Portuguese foreign minister) right here:

*Asia Society is the leading global and pan-Asian organization working to strengthen relationships and promote understanding among the people, leaders, and institutions of the United States and Asia. We seek to increase knowledge and enhance dialogue, encourage creative expression, and generate new ideas across the fields of arts and culture, policy and business, and education. Founded in 1956, Asia Society is a nonpartisan, nonprofit educational institution with offices in Hong Kong, Houston, Los Angeles, Manila, Melbourne, Mumbai, New York, San Francisco, Seoul, Shanghai, and Washington, DC

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Stories worth watching … #1

02 Thursday Jan 2014

Posted by in Stories worth watching

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“Year after year, power cuts threatened the Yang’s orchid farm. Now is their last chance to save this fragile business. But it has been a long, cold winter in Guangdong…”

This is the brief, seducing intro to a very touching story about Mr. Yang and his family who are in the business of selling orchids in the Chinese province of Guangdong. The orchid selling season is running to its peak around Chinese Near year when the story begins. Normally, that’s a very exciting and promising time of the year. However, Mr. Yang is as nervous as never before, for him it’s an all-or-nothing year. In past seasons, his fragile flowers have suffered from frequent blackouts – and no power means no delicately heated greenhouses, means no flourishing orchids, and means no income for the Yang’s. This season is the very decisive one for the family and its business …

If you want to find out how the drama ends and what all of this has to do with a German engineering company, you should follow my recommendation and enjoy these six minutes of very emotional and intelligently story called “The Last Flower”, told by award-winning US documentary filmmaker Zac Murphy for the digital storytelling magazine “/answers”:

Some background on “/answers”: In 2010, while other B2B companies were still dreaming the twentieth-century broadcasting Muezzin’s dream, Siemens had the courage to experiment with the evil twin called “loss of control”. They asked renowned documentary filmmakers, journalists and authors from around the world to take their personal look at people who benefit from Siemens technology, mostly unknowingly. Every author is asked to find true heroes for a true, authentic, un-staged story, people who have or have had a major challenge in their lives which they manage(d) to overcome. The authors produce a piece of authentic story (not always necessarily film) in their own style and tone of voice, no branding, no company control of the creative process or outcome. I still think that’s pretty brave and remarkable.

/answers has been the experimental and at the same time very thought-through and dedicated top of my business story list for a very long period of time. The magazine was launched in 2011 at http://www.youtube.com/answers and http://www.facebook.com/answersmag and includes two new stories every month and lots of interesting background info and behind-the-scenes outtakes on the Facebook page. Worth watching and following!

BUT: Ever since, the business (2C or 2B, a very questionable differentiation anyway) communications market has moved deeper into the sea of stories and invested more time, effort and money into this social media currency – which is great and raises hope. Have a great example from Old Spice up my sleeve for the next post …

Stay posted, because: The story goes on … here … soon.