Totally different world and life-style were revealed to me: a big, vibrant, hectic, sub-tropical city. A billboard "Welcome to JCI World Congress in Taipei" confirmed our expectations that it will be an inspiring and intriguing experience. A disciplined and quiet Taiwanese cab driver took me and my friend Gary to our hotel - a small, with a local flavor, place, our home in Taipei for 7 days.
7 am in Taipei. After more than 13 hour flight we are tired, hungry, want to take a shower; however, the check-in time is only at 2 pm. As with any new and exciting adventure, adrenalin in my blood doesn't let me feel sleepy. We are going for a almost 6 hour walk around the city - exploring not-touristic places and remote from the city-center streets.
Around 2 pm we are in our room: it is so small that we barely find space for two suitcases, two beds almost touching each other, a city-view - a concrete wall 3 feet away from a window. Warm refreshing shower, a glass of wine, and a short nap have changed the perception of the room - it became bigger and cozier, while the view has acquired positive qualities, such as a lower level of street noise.
After 3 hours of rest, we are getting ready for JCI opening ceremony at 6 pm. Taipei itself has a very developed subway-system, for just $35/week pass, it is relatively easy to transfer from almost any part of the city. We decided not to experiment for the first time and to take a taxi (it costs us $3) from our hotel to Taipei Arena, formerly known as the Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium, which is big enough to seat more than 4,500 JCI delegates from 120 countries.
My fist JCI World congress memory: the square in front of the Arena, hundreds of people under drizzling subtropical rain, and waving flags of almost all represented countries. Fairly big German delegation was attracting everyone's attention by their bright, grass-green t-shirts and active, full of excitement behaviour - they were promoting 2014 JCI World Congress in Leipzig, Germany.
The opening ceremony has started, and whole stadiums was welcoming presidents from 120 countries. "The president of JCI-Canada," - announced MC (the list was in alphabetical order), and Francois Begin, went on the stage, Canadian delegation stood up to applause him, big Canadian flag appeared on the screen - I would say that something magnetic and powerful was in this moment, I may assume that Olympic athletes experience something similar when they on the stage to accept a medal. At least that how I felt.
Around 11 pm. We are in our hotel room, reviewing tomorrow's schedule and discussing plans for the week in Taipei - it looked like the Congress will be full of the events: trainings, awards, forums, sessions, internationally themed parties, and simply fun networking with the same-minded individuals age 18 to 40 from all over the world.
And Monday has started with JCI Morning show at 9 am and has finished at 3 am with European night. I forgot to mention that during the whole week of the Congress - the background music was "Gangnam Style" by PSY, so keep it mind while reading it, personally me, I have heard this song there more than 100 times, and this internationally acclaimed hit song will be associated with 2012 JCI World Congress in Taipei forever.
Between various sessions and presentations, JCI-Calgary delegation could find some time for several excursions: to Taipei 101 Tower, the tallest (509 m/1669.9 ft.) building from year 2004 until 2010, it offers 101 floors, amazing view, and the world fastest (it takes 37 seconds to get on the top) elevator made by Toshiba. The ticket is only about $15 Canadian.Weather was nice and sunny, we have enjoyed Taipei view and even could have sent souvenir postcards to our families from the top of this building. Haven't heard from my sister yet, if she got Taipei 101 card or not.
Another tour was to Asus head office in Taipei, where we listened to a short presentation and could see and touch recently issued laptops, tablets, and other gadgets of this corporation.
On Wednesday, on the third day of a Congress, I had a chance to attend a presentation of Stan Shih (http://www.acga-asia.org/public/files/2009-07-CV-StanShih.pdf) the co-founder of Acer Group - charismatic, inspiring, and strong businessman and leader. The level of how he recognized and respected by Taiwanese (and most Asian) people would be easier to compare with Bill Gates in the States. During his presentation, Stan Shih compared Western and Eastern business approaches and gave a short overview of, developed by him, a management model, which he called "Wang Dao" - the Way of the King.
His presentation added another missing part into my "whole perception of Asia" puzzle - how diverse could be approaches in different parts of the world to life and business, for example, the sense of family and community, long-term vision (sometimes 10-20 years ahead), and respect to elder generation, small children, and various authorities. Having Asian blood in myself, but being westernized by American books, movies, media, I always had a constant desire to clarify an inner conflict of two totally opposite cultures inside of me.
This trip to Taiwan has helped me to view, in some aspects, quite opposite concepts more clearly, under different angles, where, with globalization of businesses and connections, we need to use as many tools, approaches, teachings, which are and were successful, to be able to "evolutionize" gradually and more efficiently for our future generations.
Talking further about international experience - Junior Chamber International has a tradition - every world congress there are themed parties; during this Congress I have experienced Korean/Asian, European (which I mentioned before), Japanese, and, "Global village" nights. During these events, each country presents something unique and distinctive about their culture, for example, Japanese night is usually a highlight of JCI World congress each year and the main reason is, in addition to uniqueness of "the land of the rising sun" itself, JCI Japan is one of the biggest and advanced JCI communities in the world.
Another event, which, I think, definitely worth mentioning is JCI TOYP (Ten outstanding young persons) award. TOYP is JCI World program which is "intended formally recognize young people who excel in their chosen fields and thus exemplify the best attributes of the world's young people" (quote from Wikipedia "JCI"). On Wednesday night, 10 awardees were invited on the stage of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall, a short video story was presented about each person. These stories were so diverse and heartening, and behind each award was a lot of dedication, commitment and passion for community projects.
Each of the TOYP laureates worth acknowledgment here in my blog; however, a speech of the young lady from Madagascar, Fela Mijoro Razafinjato, impressed me the most, and want to share it with you. After being diagnosed with poliomyelitis at the age of three, Fela Mijoro continued her life journey developing humanitarian, voluntary leadership skills and becoming a founder of the organization which provided assistance to more that 2 million disabled persons. The story sounds impressive, but her speech in front of more than 1000 JCI World congress delegates was even more fascinating. She spoke in French, and, unfortunately, I did not have an electronic translator with me, but her strong voice, articulation, energy, commitment to the project, and definitely passion were the best interpreters at that moment.
Forums, sessions, trainings, and the last, fifth, day of the Congress approached. The Gala night with traditional taiwanese dinner was an exclamation mark of the whole convention. Next day we had our flight to Calgary. I didn't feel sad on my way to Taipei international airport because I had strong believe and, now, desire to come back to Taiwan again, to absorb and learn as much as possible about culture and people of this exceptional country.
