The Consultant - Q1 2009 - (Page 72) The 2009 Worldwide Conference The 2009 Worldwide Conference By Liz Campbell T At the opening ceremony, president Gerhard Kühnel symbolically dots the eyes of the lion in a traditional ceremony to bring its spirit down from heaven. he opening reception could not have had a more spectacular setting. An extraordinary achievement, the Great Wall meanders up one side of the hill and down again. Climbing up even two small sections of its 6,400- kilometer length, was exhausting. The steps are unevenly spaced – some as much as two feet high – and very steep. Most of the group joined the dozens ascending its steps despite a warning sign in Chinglish, “Heart cerebral disease sufferer, ascend the Great Wall to please watch for.” The view proved well worth the effort. And at the first watch tower, one can obtain a “hero” certificate for having got there. Hooray for us! The weather cooperated with a clear, warm day and cool evening. Against the backdrop of sunset over the turrets, we watched a noodle stretcher make long strands of linguine, spaghetti and fettucine faster than any pasta machine. We toasted the success of the coming days and dined on magnificent Chinese food. A remarkable number of members even proved to be proficient with chopsticks! The final blessing on the evening came with the rising of a full moon over the wall. Magnificent! At least 20 countries were represented, with many of the 175 attendees being first timers, as the conference sessions got underway the next morning. The first order of service was ceremonial as FCSI president, Gerhard Kühnel symbolically dotted the eyes of the lion. (Hoi Gong is a traditional ceremony to bring down the spirit of the lion from the heaven and give it life.) This was FCSI’s first carbon neutral event. Some 500 trees were planted in Inner Mongolia through the auspices of the Jane Goodall Foundation to offset the carbon generated by attendees traveling to the conference (it should also be noted that the conference was virtually paper free as well). In addition, we were introduced to Madame Jifang Yi, whose organization, NPO Green Life, has planted more than 200,000 trees in Inner Mongolia to stem the encroach- 72 theconsultant
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.