theguangzhouinternational$lighting$exhibition...
TRANSCRIPT
The Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition Ed Does China Arriving after an exhausting 15hour flight, your humble editor was met by Thomas Wang at the Hong Kong airport. Thomas had been a customer in China, and like many, was starting his own lighting company and wanted advice as to how to break into North America. He hired a car to take us across the border to Shenzhen where I would spend one night before departing to Guangzhou to attend the world’s largest lighting show.
Unbeknownst to me, Thomas had made dinner reservations with his non-‐English speaking partners and a few of their non-‐English speaking friends. Great!
Upon arriving at the restaurant, after a long flight, I needed a little time in the restroom. Later I learned that the restaurant did have a western-‐style restroom, but I ended up in the Chinese restroom, which was basically a hole in the floor. Because I bike, and I jog and I am a real man, I have the muscles to squat. This is good as there was no other choice. However my manhood did nothing for me when it came time for toilet paper—which was supposed to be acquired before entering the stall.
I joined my party of nine in a private dining room. Nothing quenches my thirst more after a long flight than a warm beer. I was really not hungry and hoped for a quick bite, then bed. With great sport, Thomas read parts of the menu to me, then again in Mandrian so his guests could enjoy my reaction. “Goose intestine with bean sauce, Bone with glutinous Chaozhou Style, Poached pork stomach, The list went on. I am a humble man and would just have chicken.
Before bringing the food, we were given warm wash cloths to clean our hands. After the experience in the restroom, I asked for two. Everything starts with the guest of honor, me. The waitress brought a nice large napkin, which I thought she would place in my lap. Instead she placed it on the table in front of me and stacked plates on top of the napkin. Mental note to self: eat carefully as the napkin has made other plans. The room was hot. I was hotter. The beer was a Carlsberg, but the local brand was called Chill. Imagine the fun those marketing people at Carlsberg had knowing the name for their China beer would tease thirsty Americans.
The food came one platter at a time. The first dish was something brown that Thomas called beef and noodles. Because I eat sushi, I know how to use chop sticks. Proudly I pick up my large piece of beef with my chopsticks and after the first bite, realize it is a combination of beef and gristle and fat. It gagged me. Napkin was occupied. Fortunately, I still retained possession of one of my hand washing towels and quickly discard the food. As I watch my host and new fiends eat, they were animals. Slurping noodles, talking with their mouth full, burping with their mouth full, while talking—now that takes talent. But it’s gross. Quickly the little appetite I had, faded. Dr. ian Lewin is probably the most polished, well mannered person I have ever dined with. I kept picture Ian sitting at this table with me. He would have been mortified.
Next was diced pork and I am not a fan of any diced meat. It had lines on it kind of like a McRib—not that I have ever eaten a Mcrib, but I have seen one on TV. It was 100% gristle and fat. No meat. None what-‐so-‐ever. They cook figured out how to counterfeit pork.
Next was chicken along with two heads and four feet. Great! Thomas playfully puts one of the feet on my plate and I quickly place it back on the platter to much laughter. I grab a piece of what I thought was breast. Beer continued flowing and everyone got drunk except me. As I examined the chicken it was slightly too large to eat in one bite, but I did not know how to cut it in half with chopsticks. Everyone was drunk, I’ll just do it in one bite. Crunch! There was chicken, gristle and fat but there was a new surprise:
BONES! The Chinese have perfected the art of butchering chicken to ensure there is a bone with every bite.
I am finished eating.
As Thomas got drunker, he forgot to interpret. Occasionally, I leaned over and asked him what was said. Thomas would mumble something and I would catch only a few words.
I was bored. Chicken heads looked at me. The shrimp stared from across the table. The one-‐eyed fish looked at me as if to say what are you going to do? I can’t eat and I can’t talk so there is only one thing left to do. I got drunk, too!
Bring it on. And because I could not even have one bite of food between drinks, or one minute of conversation between sips, I got drunk very fast. Someone told a joke and I could tell that it was a joke because everyone got quiet for about 20 seconds and listened intently, then a smile from the person talking, and everyone just died laughing. The laughter was contagious so I laughed too. Now they laughed because I laughed. I talked to the guy next to me and he talked to me and neither of us understood the other, but we are enjoyed the talk immensely. It reminded me of that YouTube video of those twin babies talking and laughing a few months ago. I said to him, “ You make Ipads and I phones, yet you shxx in a hole—with no toilet paper. What the hell is wrong with you!” I laugh, he laughed, the table laughed. Next, I ask, “Why your LED’s so damn blue?” Laughter from all around. “Why your Compact Fluorescent take so long to warm up”? Pure hysteria.
Dinner lasted about 3 hours and I was beyond tired. I wanted sleep but the group wanted Karaoke. I gently remind them that I was their guest of honor and have given them much free advice about entering the US market (don’t!) and I needed my sleep.
As I laid in bed thinking of thinking about the evening for the ten seconds before falling asleep, it dawned on me that laughter really is a universal language and in spite of their table manners, these were very good people.
Notes from the show.
While walking the kilometer from the taxi stand to the entrance of the show, I was approached many times by people on the street trying to sell me what I suspected was a counterfeit exhibit badge, even though I was already wearing an exhibitor badge. It reminded me of walking the strip in Las Vegas, with my wife, only to be handed cards for strip clubs. It made no sense. There is something terribly ironic about a counterfeit badge to enter a lighting show in China.
If Jim Brodrick was in his height of glory at LIGHTFAIR in Philadelphia discussing the L prize, I can’t imagine his euphoria if he were in Guangzhou. Five times the exhibitors of LIGHTFAIR, means five times the LEDs.
The show was miserably hot. Outside temperatures were in the high 90’s and there was no air conditioning between halls. No air conditioning in the rooms which have holes in the floor which the Chinese call restrooms, either.
My booth was in hall 2.1 which turned out to be THE hall. Philips Lumileds, Cree, Osram, and GE were the big boys in the hall. The Philips Lumileds booth wrapped around to the left directly into the Future Solutions booth. It was hard to tell where one booth ended and the other began. But this makes perfect sense because Future Solutions is the exclusive distributor for Lumileds. However, the Lumileds booth also wrapped the other way into the Cree booth. They
were uncomfortably close.
GE closed their booth for three hours on the first day for a media event and for Avatars. I thought Lady Gaga had entered the building the way everyone departed the booths and rushed to GE. I presented my press credentials to the lady at the GE booth, (an I phone with a camera) and was granted access to the booth. The avatars did not sing or dance, they just posed, but the crowd went absolutely nuts.
Each of these big name booths had maybe one or two Americans and they were swamped.
Other companies were at the show. QSSI had a very larger presence—much larger than LIGHTFAIR. Although I did not get to talk to Bill Brown, I did see him trying to converse with a young Chinese person. Bill is a large man, and this Chinese person was quite small. Of course Bill doesn’t speak Chinese and the potential customer did not speak English, so Bill would just repeat himself except louder as if the volume would help with interpretation. It was a site.
We saw the usual technologies that we see at LIGHTFIAR: LED/OLED/LEP. It was striking how many high CCT LEDs were displayed. Nancy Clanton would not be happy.
While I spent much time drinking with the Fulham team at LIGHTFAIR, I never saw their products until Guangzhou. One very interesting product was the Firehorse Hotspot, a LED emergency light that fits on the trim of a downlight. Fulham won an innovation award at LIGHTFAIR and justly so.
Also, I visited Sun Sun. They ran a press release immediately before LIGHTFAIR stating that they were one of a few LED companies that VC’s had invested in. They claim to have a driver that is 10% to 20% more efficient than other drivers on the market. In addition they state they are in negotiations with a few of the big players. We’ll see.
I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to China. Who am I to question their eating habits or their toilets? Spending a week with them in their country helped me realize that our two countries can compliment each other. Whether we like it or not, China is a HUGE presence in our industry. Those that doubt this will be left behind.