In the Hive.

I had never thought of going Jakarta until MMM was held there. MMM was a regional discussion on the destiny of a certain brand/category. The 4-day meeting began with us taking an hr or more to get through the custom. I can only say that the officers were really "detailed". It took us another hr or more to get to Kempinski Hotel, located in the central of Jakarta. The traffic was rather congested in the evening. The security at Kempinski was really tight. Bags must be checked at every entrance. Detectors were also there. Kempinski was built in the 60s and was recently renovated. The hotel was gorgeous for the price. Huge beds, nice bathtub (but also no chance to use), automated toilet, ipod dock (no need to bring charger) & so on. On the first night, we had a welcome dinner, hosted by Indonesia at Paulaner. As we all know, Paulaner equates to lots of meat and fresh beer. There were around 50 delegates mingling around. Most had been in the companies for decades and knew one another very well. A greenhorn like me had not many conversation topics except the performance of my previous company, hows the flight here, food & to certain people, the progress of my product development (which is very behind schedule), some cog issues or production issues.The night ended at 10ish with a pint of beer & live band. What a way to end a Monday night. The 2nd day, we woke up at 6am for breakfast and took a coach at 7am so as to reach the office at 8am. 1 hour journey. At the end of the day, we had trade visit in CF. Haha, everyone was excited to see the share of shelf, the packaging, the product claims, spotting new products etc. We had a sumptuous meal (hakka cuisine), hosted by LCJ. There were sea cucumber (the japanese called it namoko), scallops, lobsters, crabs etc. There were quite a number of hidden talents/singers in the group as well. Their voices were superb. 2nd night ended at 11pm. We were already too tired. The 3rd day started even earlier but it was more of light discussions and factory tour. 3rd night was f&e for dinner but it was so coincidental that 7 of the 9 countries went the same Indonesia restaurant despite the huge number of eating places.
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Overall, the meeting was insightful as each country exchanged their marketing ideas. The preparation of this meeting almost got me killed. Need to get started on the next steps ahead...