Week 1 - Aug 24 - 28 -- Interviews, Interviews, Interviews

Here's Layne, Rajani, Frank (NGO) and I outside the offices of the Investment Development Association, enroute to yet another interview.

In Toronto, I sit at a home office for 10 hours a day - not here! Its hustle, and bustle --shuffling from one interview to the next around the city. On average we do 2 interviews a day -- Foreign Affairs Office, French Consulate, British Consulate, Chambers of Commerce, Private Corporations (eg real estate companies), Tourism Boards, local English Guide (The Chengdoo), IBM Executives, High Tech Zone and on, and on. The goal is to collect as much data as we can to support a report that provides recommendations for how to Internationalize the city of Chengdu.

You've probably guessed it -- none of us are experts in this field but that's what this assignment is all about - stretching ourselves, leveraging one another, being resourceful to get the job done. I'll let you know how it all turned out in week 4 when we deliver the final report to the Foreign Affairs office. Frank (our NGO) is with us much of the time, supporting us with translation, leveraging his relationships (key to success in China) to open doors & get access to individuals whom we'd probably otherwise not be able to interface with.