Speech at the Science and Technology Institute Conference

Hi,

I was honored today to present a speech at the Science and Technology Institute for the Nanshan District. My topic dealt with managing conflict in diverse work groups. There were about 200 participants from Hong Kong and parts of mainland China. The conference dealt with promoting ideas for the service sector (e.g., transportation, finance, telecommunication). I guess the speech went well. The chair of the conference thanked me for presenting ideas new to China that may help their businesses do better in the global market.

I was invited by one person twice to sit next to him at the dinner banquet table. Found out (after taking a proper amount of time to study his card) that he was a VP for Zteit, the second largest integrated telecom company in China. We spoke on a number of different topics, ranging from international trade to academics in China. I found him to be a most interesting individual. I was also invited by another participant to present a seminar later in the semester at the Harbin Institute of Technology on another communication topic.

This was one of the few times in my life that I needed a translator. Dr. Helena Pan from the College of Mass Communication was kind enough to be my translator. I usually like to go at full speed when I speak on a topic that I feel passionate about. I could not do that in this case. But after a few minutes of slowing the pace down for Helena to absorb what I was saying and then translating my message, I began to feel more comfortable. At the end of the meeting, I not only felt good about the presentation, but also felt that I met some truly interesting people and maybe even made a friend or two.

Dr. Haskins