By Michael Darch
Losing baggage is one thing, losing half your delegation is another. And so starts our Clean Energy Mission to China.
After months of planning and recruiting, we are on the verge of Ottawa’s Clean Energy Cluster’s debut on the world stage. Supported by Canada’s Community Investment Support Program considerable research has been done to profile one of North America’s highest concentrations of clean energy firms, research and infrastructure. Supported by Canada’s Going Global Program a four city China tour (Shenzhen, Chongqing, Beijing and Hong Kong) has been developed to showcase Canada’s commercial and innovation strength in clean energy.
The mission has been organized by the Global Marketing division of OCRI, the economic development organization for Canada’s Innovation Capital, Ottawa. We have brought together Ottawa’s two universities, the University of Ottawa and Carleton University. Joining us are four companies, Thermal Energy International, Quadra Solar Corporation, Canadian Windfield, Solar and Renewable Energy Corp and CRTek. Rounding out the team is a venture capital company, Venture Coaches. Joining us for most of the trip will be Kevin Fitzgibbons and Majid Dellah from Canada’s Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Science, Technology and Innovation Division.
Our partners in Shenzhen are the Shenzhen Science and Technology and Information Bureau. They have done a great job of the logistics with a solid program and a good group of companies and universities to attend the seminar on Monday. They have even provided transportation from the ferry port to our hotel. The trouble is that half our delegates are not there!
The easiest way to get to Shenzhen from Canada is to fly into the Hong Kong airport and then take the ferry from the airport across the Bay to Shenzhen. Simple in theory, but the problem is, to avoid going through Hong Kong Customs and Immigration, you actually go to the ferry desk prior to Immigration. We had warned our delegates about this, but what North American entering China for the first time is going to follow the queue for China WITHOUT their bags. Yes, you have to trust the airport and ferry system, give them your name and your bags will follow!
If you continue and go through and get your bags, you have entered Hong Kong and cannot go back to get the ferry. So went five members of our team. Meanwhile, Sophie Chen, OCRI’s China Project Manager, is anxiously waiting at the ferry port with the bus. Two ferries later and with only two of seven passengers, she has to get back to the hotel to help with room setup. She immediately contacts her boss, me, to say the good news is that all the delegates were on the Toronto-Hong Kong flight, the bad news is that only two actually are in Shenzhen. She is confident that they will arrive, but we will have to delay the team briefing.
Sure enough, by 7 p.m. all are accounted for, and Sophie is breathing a little easier. First challenge overcome.
But not for long. The S&T Bureau has designed a tight schedule with only one speaker from each organization and the speaking time has to include translation. Deftly, Sophie gets each of the universities to merge the speaking notes of each of their speakers. Several of our speakers are Chinese, so they will deliver in Chinese with the English PowerPoint up to avoid translating for our delegation. For the 20th time she looks at me and reminds me that I have twenty minutes. I keep wondering why, I am always on time and adhere to my time limits religiously. Is that what you call an urban myth!
Looks like everything is set for tomorrow. Canadian clean energy rocks!
Mike Darch, Executive Director, OCRI Global Marketing
From Shenzhen, China
“This post was also published on 82000reasons.com“
