Delegation-ing

After many hours of planning and preparing, the Swiss economic delegation finally afternoon, and by now we are already halfway through the workshop. Yesterday evening, there was a briefing and reception for the Swiss representatives at the ambassador's residence, which is immediately behind the embassy itself. Besides one delegate who apparently got lost in a taxi, everyone arrived as planned and the planning seemed to work out. I also saw Urs Eller, whom my family knows well from Shanghai, and Mr. Guertler, another old Shanghai acquaintance, who was surprised to find out who my parents were! Mami und Papi- greetings from both of these old friends!

Today started by meeting the delegation at their hotel to walk them to the conference location. This is in a neighbouring hotel, and the two are connected through an underground shopping center. Besides a wide range of stores, there is even an ice rink within this underground complex! Once everyone was signed in and registered, the actual conference started, of course opened with speeches from the several delegation leaders. Since presentations are made in Chinese and English and not everyone understands both of these languages, there are three interpreters who take turns simultaneously translating everything that is said (which the participants can then listen to on little headsets). It really is quite impressive, since they have to listen and at the same time communicate everything in another language. I already experienced this translation at Friday's IPR conference, although the interpretation there didn't seem quite as smooth and occassionally there was just a complete silence for a few moments- probably an indication that some things were getting lost in the translation!

Tomorrow, the workshop will continue with some more presentations. The conference will conclude with a dinner, to which Switzerland has invited the Chinese delegation as well as the remaining Swiss representatives (the Chinese Vice-Minister hosted a dinner tonight, but to a more selective group of participants). The meal will be at a traditional restaurant for Beijing Duck, which is probably the most famous local specialty. After that, the main portion of the workshop will be over, and I'll return to the office on Wednesday and get back to writing the daily press reviews!