IMR: Entries: 2001: August: 30 — Thursday, August 30, 2001

Workaday Today's full-day meeting was the reason I came out here in the first place. So suffice it to say, I was busy.   Rain continued to pour down today. I remained cooped up in meetings. Michael Eisner was the lunch speaker. Disney previews clips from an upcoming feature. "Treasure Planet," a sci-fi take on "Treasure Island." The film is chock full of the latest CGI technologies. The return of Disney's "flying" whales? Remarks on the planned Hong Kong Disneyland. The Landmark in Central Hong Kong. Dinner at Sichuan Garden Restaurant. I was up before 5 a.m., so my scheduled wake-up call merely surprised me. (Truth be told, I nearly had a heart attack.) I took a quick shower and settled down to check my e-mail, most of it confirmations of media interviews I'd scheduled yesterday. As I was just starting to get my notes for the day together, Steve called. After apologizing needlessly for waking me (I guess I still sounded groggy), he asked if I could please find this document he needed and have several copies for him in half an hour, before the boss headed off for his early meeting. "No problem," I said, somewhat confident. I dug the file out of my e-mail archives back at the office, saved it to a floppy, then raced down to the business center. Which opened at 8 a.m. Fortunately, I successfully convinced the concierge to open the door, and — when he was unable to start up one of the workstations — he sat me down at the staff desk and logged me in there. I formatted the document for their weird A4 paper size (actually, Americans are in the minority with their Letter format), and printed four copies. Slowly. It was 60 pages long. I borrowed some clips, left a nice note with my room number, then beat the room service guy to Steve's door to drop it off. The day's first task completed, I returned to my room to finish getting ready for the main event at 9 a.m. The meetings were in one of the executive conference rooms near the top floor of the HSBC building, and our guide to get there from the hotel was none other than the bank's chairman, David Eldon. He happily rambled on about what was called the most expensive building ever built. As it turns out, it looks like a grey-and-black Lego nightmare for a reason: Norman Foster designed it so that its 50-something floors could be taken apart, shipped, and rebuilt somewhere else. (It was prebuilt in the UK, in fact, and shipped in five huge pieces.) Over a million square feet, 35,000 tons of steel and aluminum, with an incredible amount of open space built in to cover decades of future expansion. For all its hugeness, though, we spent most of our time in a 30-by-100-foot space, with a view that would have been spectacular had it not been pouring outside. I sat in the corner and took meticulous notes as everyone in the room debated nearly every aspect of our international organization's unprecedented current state, and pivotal near future. We did break for lunch, though, and what a lunch it was. We slipped into the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce's sold-out 140th anniversary luncheon, featuring Disney CEO Michael Eisner. His appearance was especially big news because Disney was about to break ground on its next theme park: Hong Kong Disneyland. (It'll be built on Lantau Island, in fact, where Sharon lives.) He raved about Hong Kong, showed off clips from two upcoming features (Monsters, Inc., and next year's Treasure Planet), then took some questions from the audience. Most folks, it turns out, were interested in the ongoing disagreements with the Hong Kong government — which gave Disney a 100-year lease for what was supposed to be a majority stake in the project — and worried about stubborn rumors that Disney is also planning another park in Beijing. Eisner was unsurprisingly smooth in addressing the worries, sounding almost like Don Juan placating a jealous lover. At the end of it all, Mickey Mouse popped out for a cameo, his sleeves shooting sparks into the ballroom's low ceilings. Everyone clapped, and the show was over. So it was back to HSBC headquarters for more meetings. Things wrapped up somewhat neatly — apparently with fewer loose ends, at least, than the last meeting — and everyone headed back to the hotel for a small reception. I spent most of it outside with Sharon, gossiping. Finally, our former chairman Helmut Sohmen treated us to dinner at the Sichuan Garden restaurant in The Landmark building. What can I say? It was broke da mout' delicious. No fewer than twelve courses, ranging from dim sum to pig's knuckles to shark fin soup to "sea blubber" (I didn't know what it was, but it was yummy). The last dish was served at about 11 p.m., but the chatter lasted considerably longer. By the time I walked Sharon to the Star Ferry pier, it was technically Friday. A full day, and while it didn't seem likely I'd get much sleep before leaving town at 4 a.m., I decided to get what I could.

Comments E kala mai! Comments have been disabled due to overwhelming abuse by spammers. Please click through to any of the video hosting services linked above to leave a public response, or feel free to send an e-mail. Mahalo! < August 29 · August · August 31 > © 1997-2008 Ryan Kawailani Ozawa · E-Mail: imr@lightfantastic.org · Created: 13 November 1997 · Last Modified: 14 January 2008