It’s not every day you see a Chinese gentleman posing with a picture frame around his head – in Emirati national dress.
But it is, perhaps, inevitable when more than 6,000 mostly-Chinese delegates come to Dubai, as they have this week for the International Dragon Award (IDA) 2015 – an unexpectedly heartwarming conference for insurance and finance executives in South-East Asia.
Delegates arrive at the Dubai World Trade Centre en masse; many wearing matching tops. Before the lectures, pairs of men and women enthusiastically chant in unison, each clutching one side of a company polo shirt.
A large billboard lists key delegates and speakers, complete with names and photographs. The event has a tagline – Your Vision. Your World – and a pair of costumed representatives.
Dressed as Emiratis, the man sports a kandura, spectacles and a beard, while his better half is in an abaya. The pair go down a storm with the visitors who, not content with just taking selfies with passing Emiratis, queue to be photographed with the two figures as Weibo, China’s answer to Facebook and Twitter, prepares itself for a barrage of cultural curiosities.
Amid the excitement, a kandura-clad Chinese man takes centre stage, posing for the crowd. He gives a thumbs up, then pumps his fists, eventually finding an empty picture frame that he holds to his head.
Although about 90 per cent of the visitors do not speak English, DWTC has made things easy, posting signs across the conference centre in Chinese characters.
Zaabeel Halls 2 and 3 have been converted into an enormous food court, advertised on a massive digital screen.
Ahmed Al Khaja, senior vice president of venues at DWTC, says representatives began preparing a year ago, researching food, beverages and expectations at last year’s IDA in China.
After this, IDA representatives were invited to Dubai for a detailed brief of the event’s requirements, from hospitality to security, and even touching on technical production and cultural awareness.
“Our hospitality team conducted a food tasting, ensuring our menu was designed to match their explicit brief and requirements,” says Mr Al Khaja.
Hospitality, he says, is extremely important in Chinese culture. “To go the extra mile, and to avoid any language issues, we appointed a team of Mandarin speakers to act as our client’s liaison throughout the planning and operation of the event.”
Team members also underwent training in Chinese hospitality and were equipped with cards listing basic Mandarin words and phrases.
“DWTC chef Guanghao Wei, originally from Liaoning province, alongside a Chinese representative from DWTC visited various Chinese markets in Dubai to source the most popular products available and, in some cases, items were sourced directly from China to ensure authenticity in the taste,” says Mr Al Khaja.
One of the day’s lectures has finished and visitors are beginning to regroup. Up-and-coming life insurance broker, Isaac Mung, waits outside the lecture hall with two colleagues, all in red polo shirts. He has travelled from Singapore, encouraged by his company Great Eastern.
“It’s quite good international exposure, of course. You get to meet new people – people who have excelled or are more mature in this business,” says Mr Mung.
He has been at the company three months, having completed national service, although he is still studying engineering with a minor in business.
“It’s kind of hard,” he concedes, “but I’m adjusting to it.” The plus side is he gets to travel more than a student ordinarily would. This is his third trip.
Meanwhile, Harold Ng, a director at the company, says even though he travels around the world several times a year, it is his first time in Dubai.
“It’s very advanced. I’m impressed,” says Mr Ng.
“Last night I was at the Burj Khalifa. It’s an amazing feat of engineering.”
Although time is short, he has booked a desert safari and hopes to visit Atlantis, The Palm and the Burj Al Arab.
“We just came back from San Francisco in June.”
The agency, which has 3,000 employees, took about 700 delegates to the United States. Great Eastern has brought 400 fewer people to Dubai but it is a strong contingent, Mr Ng says.
“We have part-timers all the way to full-timers, from agents all the way to directors.”
Most staff are staying at the Millennium Plaza hotel, just down Sheikh Zayed Road, which was arranged through a travel agency, but it was up to staff to arrange their own plane tickets.
Lunch beckons, and in the middle of the main foyer, every seat and surface has been overrun. Stands usually used to advertise free zones are now crowded with people making small talk over noodles.
In the centre, a water feature is guarded by a small wall, which has been converted to a long bench, without a seat to spare.
Resting here is Sun Bing, marketing manager at China Life, the largest commercial insurance group in China, with assets of more than Dh570 billion.
Through a part-time DWTC employee acting as translator, he says it is his first trip to Dubai. He is accompanied by 50 fellow Beijing office staff, and the company has brought 100 in total.
Outside, Kurt Chan, a senior manager at AIA, endures the early afternoon heat, having just collected a bronze award.
AIA is a huge company, but Mr Chan came with just 30 fellow employees from Macau.
“It’s quite a long trip for us. We travelled over eight hours and we’re staying here for around eight or nine days, so we would have had to slow down our business in Macau.”
Mr Chan is thrilled about winning the award, which is based on salary reports.
“It’s about the commission,” he explains. “Every country or area has their own targets. For China, it’s a certain amount, for Macau it’s a certain amount.
“Everything is nice and modern in Dubai – the service, the people, the hotel accommodation and all the services. Everything besides the weather.”
Although it is unusual, Mr Chan says some delegates appear to have brought their families.
“In our industry we have to have good health, and we have to take care of our family and our lifestyles.”
This attitude may help to explain a unique phenomenon that occurs the next day, when, at the closing ceremony, the room erupts into tears.
“I cried as well,” smiles Kai Tu, IDA deputy chairman. Even his chairman Richard Wu cried.
“Our delegates cry because they sense that somebody is willing to help them. We are together.
“I still have tears in my eyes right now,” he says, his eyes clearly glistening.
“We have an award we call a Lifetime Member award, for which you have to qualify to our standards for 12 years continually.
“A lot of people go on stage and say, ‘12 years ago I was an agent. My job was just selling. And after I attended this conference, I met a lot of good people, I saw a lot of successful people, and I learnt there is more than just selling, commission and annual targets.Something really inspired me so I made a commitment to continue working hard for 12 years and then, right now, I’m standing here’.”
The IDA is just one part of IMM International, a company set up in 1983 to improve the professionalism of insurance agents and the industry’s image.
The company also provides education, publishes the leading Chinese insurance magazine – with a circulation of 200,000 – and has sold more than 30 million books.
Although IMM International gave Dubai’s Chinese travel company Hunter International Tourism the job of making accommodations arrangements, this year’s IDA has taken three years to organise, with chairman Mr Wu visiting six times since Dubai Tourism made its pitch in 2012.
It is the first time the event has been held so far away from Asia. Last year’s was held in China and next year it will be in Macau, with the tagline “Embrace the Changing”.
The Dubai IDA was postponed for two weeks because of the heat but the delegates spent most of their time indoors anyway.
“To host a 6,000-person congress is not easy,” says Mr Kai.
“The city of Dubai is so amazing. It really fits our theme of 2015 because it came from a very small place and became an international city.
“When people come here they can sense the change, the challenge. You can dream big.”
Choosing more than 100 guest speakers and lecturers requires great caution, he says.
“Every year you need to have a different programme to attract people to come back.
“People come a long way and they pay a lot of money, they devote their time and energy, so they’re very picky.
“If you have a wrong speaker, or if you have an unqualified speaker,” he pauses, then erupts into laughter.
“I will say it this way: Chinese people can be very impolite. They will stand up and walk out, or even complain to the speaker and come to the coordinator and say ‘I want my money back’.”
halbustani@thenational.ae
