It’s over two years now since setting up a residence and an office of our event management agency in this amazing city. Shanghai is truly experiencing a renaissance of its former days of glory and is now one of the world’s fastest paced, progressive and international cities. It’s a hot bed of countries and multi-national companies from every corner of the earth jostling, manoeuvring and positioning to best leverage off the phenomenal, progressive economic evolution that is taking place in this country. Chinese and foreign MNC’s are moving their APAC and national headquarters here, and for many reasons some are even relocating their global HQ’s. Setting up an operation to produce corporate, association and incentive events here has its fair share of challenges. Coming from the relatively mature services sector of Sydney, Australia our event management offering was very much tailored to such a niche market, where specialisations concentrated on resourceful strategic and creative development through to very high-end execution in production and stage management.
Making the assumption that the China market demands and values such niche providers was our first mistake, and we quickly discovered here that many locally-based procurement officers, marketing and HR directors are still struggling to define the difference between PR management and event management, let alone coming to terms with IPR, design and agency fees. This forced us quickly to broaden the offering, from a niche services provider to a complete turnkey solution with involvement every step of the way ensuring continuity of service and messaging throughout the process. Many inbound clients come to Shanghai wanting to give their delegates a very “traditional Chinese-y” experience outside of the relatively generic confines of the designated meeting venue. On arrival to survey the destination they are often amazed to find Shanghai far more, offering exquisite heritage deco environments from the former French Concession reverberating still from the roaring twenties and thirties, or ultra-modern architectural landmarks reflecting the creative energy and momentum from the city’s current incarnation. Still within such an urban environment it’s easy to fuse in the traditional elements through food and beverage design, entertainment and theming. Beijing with her grace and poise is such a contrast.
The city is full of off-site venues that truly reflect the majesty of the city and the country as a whole. From a dinner for 10 filling the small hall of a 500-year-old Taoist monastery lost in a winding Beijing Hutong to dinner for 200 people on the Great Wall just over an hour’s drive from town, the range is spectacular. Guanxi is an important term and practice that I have had to learn until I discovered that it was something I knew and practised all along. Literally it means “relationship”, but more so “strength of relationship and mutual obligation”. Such a term and practice is often misunderstood as something a little “dodgy” but from my experience it does not compromise professionalism at all. Cultivating good “guanxi” with your vendors means you don’t negotiate them down to the last cent when it’s unnecessary. Good “guanxi” with your clients is that you do “win/ win” business, and there the sense of “mutual obligation”, or “good will” is cultivated. I think some Australians would call that “mateship”. See, we’re not that different after all.
Peter Pecotic, Turning Point Solutions
email: peter@turningpointsolutions.com.au
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