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May 17, 2004
Research Parks and Custom Tailors
On May 14 we had the opportunity to go on a site visit to Hong Kong Science and Technology Park, Hong Kong's premiere high-tech business incubator. The campus of the park was located in Sha Tin in the New Territories, not far from the Monastery of 10,000 Buddhas that I'd visited earlier in the week. All the overseas delegates at the conference were shuttled in a large bus, giving us a chance to drive through Hong Kong's Causeway Bay before taking the underwater tunnel into Kowloon. Elizabeth Quat, the conference organizer and our host, played tour guide for us, standing up at the front of the bus with a microphone, while I helped along pulling interesting trivia from my Lonely Planet Hong Kong guidebook.
We arrived in Sha Tin an hour after we left the hotel, getting dropped off at the center of the new high-tech campus. We were a little embarrassed to discover that a group of Finnish biotech executives were waiting for us in the main conference room; apparently the tour we'd get at the facility would also be with them, and they had to wait for us while we ran about 45 minutes late. The CEO of the science park gave us an entertaining, interesting overview of the facility before turning us over to a group of businessman whose companies had been incubated there. We were then taken on a tour of some of the technology labs, including a clean room (which we could view through panes of glass) to a mobile phone lab that was completely shielded from outside radio signals.
Around noon we returned to the main building on campus and had a buffet lunch with some of the executives we'd met during our tour. The group was then going to return to Cyberport for a brief break before continuing with a press conference and a private-sector discussion of Hong Kong's ICT industry, but I had other plans. Earlier in the week I'd ordered a suit from Stitch-Up Tailors in Kowloon, and I needed to return to try on my suit one last time just to make sure it fit properly. This would be the last chance I'd get to run over to Kowloon, since the conference would begin in earnest the following day. Elizabeth had said I could split from the group after lunch and catch a shuttle bus to the Sha Tin commuter rail stations, where I could make my way south to Kowloon before returning to Cyberport for the next session. Suzanne Stein asked if she could come along --she was curious about getting some shirts made -- so the two of us departed immediately after lunch.
We rode the shuttle to Sha Tin station, where we paused briefly so I could point out the 10,000 Buddhas monastery high above the hillside. If we didn't have such a tight schedule I would have suggested we'd visit it, but we had to make it to Kowloon as soon as possible. The commuter rail connected us to the subway in Kowloon Tong, where we continued south until reaching the Tsim Sha Tsui station. From there we walked in the directions of the Star Ferry, briefly pausing to get a look at the interior of the Peninsula hotel, where people were enjoying the start of afternoon high tea. Reaching the store a few minutes later, Andy the tailor brought out my suit and had me try it on -- it looked really good. Suddenly I became overwhelmed with a feeling of dread, a feeling that I wouldn't be able to leave the tailor without ordering another suit. I resisted for a few minutes, but the pressure soon hit Suzanne as well, who found herself ordering a couple of pinstripe suits for herself. I couldn't take it anymore: the pinstripe fabric was so inviting, calling out to me. With a snap of Andy's fingers, a huge bolt of pinstripe fabric came off the shelf and was set aside along with the two bolts Suzanne had selected. I ordered another suit and managed to get a great discount, because it was my second order and I'd brought along a friend. Custom-made tailoring was a nefarious plague spread by beautiful textiles that succumb the unsuspecting shopper. I could only imagine how many other colleagues would end up buying clothes before departing from Hong Kong.
With my suit, six shirts and a tie in hand, we high-tailed it back to Cyberport. We ended up running a little later than expected, as our taxi driver struggled to figure out exactly where this new-fangled Cyberport thing was located. By the time we got back, the press conference was well under way; fortunately, though, neither of us had a major role to play in it except to stand up and wave to the cameras, which we soon did upon our arrival.
Later that afternoon I managed to take a brief break in the hotel while the board of the World Summit Awards had their meeting over in the conference center. We soon found out, though, that the advisory board of the Global Alliance would have yet another meeting at 9pm that night in the lobby of the hotel. Suzanne and I grabbed some sushi and soup in the hotel sushi bar before rendezvousing with the rest of the group. Over additional platters of sushi, the group met until just after midnight. It was exhausting, frustrating work, but we managed to accomplish a lot more than we had in our previous meeting. We left the meeting feeling pretty good, though thoroughly unable to continue socializing. I went back upstairs and tried to go to sleep, but working so late had left me pretty wired. I spent about an hour playing with my digital camera trying to get long-exposure night photos of the view outside my window. By 2am I was finally ready to crash and managed to get to sleep.
Posted by acarvin at May 17, 2004 5:55 PM
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