life - How to deal with China, part 275

I just returned from the ongoing China Sourcing Fair and seminars in Duesseldorf, organized by Reed expo, where I delivered a keynote speech. A trip that triggered off mixed feelings. Nice hotel, but again no internet connection so blogging has been light.
While Reed Expo is one of bigger players worldwide in setting up exhibitions, they are only starting in China. That, and possibly a wrong Chinese partner, explains why the fair was actually pretty small, even for a new event. Smaller private enterprises from the southern parts of China dominated. I tried to find out if the company responsible for the coffee maker (8 euro at Carrefour!) was there, since it collapsed after a week, but they were not.
Best were still the banquet, again pretty small, and despite the German funeral music at least at my table a great success. A nice combination of mainly Germans and Chinese, who all were able to appreciate the great food and even better wine. Later a social meeting with some of the senior managers of Reeds Expo, who seemed very eager to learn. The Germans and Swiss knew my book, and that helped. I might have to go to their UK headquarters to summerize my key findings in English.

Update: over 1,000 RSS-feeds. Perhaps I should do something about that.