I decide not to talk to her at first.  Partly because she is sporting a full-length, fully-done-up raincoat, in hearing-aid beige.  Partly, if I’m honest, because it’s the start of a thirteen hour long-haul flight to Johannesburg.  And being frightfully British, there’s always the outside chance that she may just be returning from the World Talking Championships.  The final reason for not saying hello, is that she’s asleep.  Well if a pre-take-off snooze is good enough for a gold medallist in a mac, then it’s good enough for me. So I slip into what I hope will be a quiet slumber.

I awake to find her reading my book.  Not browsing the outside cover, but reading the thing.  She has even picked up at chapter sixteen, exactly where I had put it down. The cheek!  The very cheek!  What to do?  What to say?  Should I summon the cabin crew with a poke of the bell button (overeacting to the felony surely?), or should I swipe my credit card phone, calling the police? Instead, I rather nonchalantly lean forward to the seat pocket in front of me, to pick out another choice of reading.  And that’s when I find my book.  My actual book, as opposed to the one which I have recently accused the fine woman of pilfering.  Two people, sat next to each other, long haul, reading the same chapter of the same book, bought in different locations (it transpires).

“What are the chances of that?”

I ask, with all of the warmth and forgiveness I can muster.  And so begins an entirely charming conversation. Which lasts for twelve and three quarter hours.  Not really, but it was enjoyable none the less.

Seriously though, what are the chances? On the one hand, it’s remarkable.  On the other, it isn’t.  Because how many books, good books, actually go on sale, in English, in these airports far from home?  How many are by internationally renowned authors?  I reckon it boils down to a couple of hundred.  Or five if you’re shopping in Santiago. 

This has been the most incredible week.  In the last three cities on the Whistlestop Tour, I have been hosted by three of the most fantastic people I have met in years.  Matt Jones in Sydney, Dash (just Dash) in Kuala Lumpur, and Houghton Wan in Hong Kong.  From the minute we met, we got on.  They picked me up at the airport, hosted me for meals, and gave me a terrific insight into their country and entrepreneurial culture.  All of them are working to make Global Entrepreneurship Week a success, and involving hundreds of other organisations in the process.

What are the chances of travelling to the other side of the world and yet meeting an individual with whom you could certainly become firm friends with at home?  On the one hand it’s remarkable.  On the other, it isn’t.  There’s something about The Week (connecting people across seventy five countries, to have ideas and make them happen), which attracts a cetain kind of person.  It’s easy not to engage.  Everyone’s busy.  But when you do, it’s amazing the kind of kindred spirits you meet.  If you haven’t got on board already, there’s still time – Global Entrepreneurship Week is almost ready for take off! 

 

Global Entrepreneurship Week has some fantastic sponsors, including Ernst and Young, IBM and NYSE Euronext.

In addition (and just as a bit of fun!), I’d like to nominate eleven strictly ‘unofficial’ and personal sponsors for my Whistlestop Tour for Speednetwork the Globe;

1.       Berocca (the fizzy orange vitamin supplement):  Packing 793% of my recommended daily dose of Vitamin C can’t be bad. 

2.       Blackberry (the mobile phone):  From keeping up to date with emails, to surfing Wikipedia on the move

3.       Facebook (the online social network)   One status update can bring a suggestion of a meet-up abroad.  Amazing!

4.       First Defence (the nasal spray) Three sprays up the nose at the beginning of a flight (hopefully) keep colds at bay!

5.       Flip (the video recorder);  A gadget sensation, I challenge you to find a simpler way to get video onto YouTube

6.       Melatonin One of these natural tablets before bed helps combat jet-lag (not available in the UK)

7.       Moo (the pleasure card company)  Mini-card heaven

8.       Skype (the internet telephony aka VOIP service) Video and voice calls back home plus Skype-out calls around the world, saving hundreds of pounds!

9.       TEN UK The greatest concierge service on the planet, 24 hours a day, for all kinds of requests from last minute hotels in Mexico City to a computer cable in Singapore.

10.   Timbuk2;  Make the most incredible laptop bags which slide over the handle of your wheel-on suitcase.  Airports go from nightmare to pleasure.

11.   Twitter; Surprisingly comforting in the back of a cab in a distant city, catching up on the latest from a very connected crowd and an incredible way to crowd-source swift help and advice.

Have you got any unofficial sponsors for when you travel?  Please share them by making a comment here!

 

Wow!  Hong Kong sets the new record for the speed at which you can move from the plane to the hotel room.  It only seems like a couple of minutes ago that I was putting my shoes back on, and now I’m sitting here writing this!  Amazing!

One of the first sites I head to when logging on is Addictomatic – if you don’t use it already, check it out, it’s the business for searching the web!  On one page you have the very latest on a person or phrase (Speednetworking for example) from the blogosphere, Twitter, news stories and more.  It saves a huge amount of time and the Twitter updates, for example, can be just a few minutes old – great for the very latest information.

One such Twitter update led me back to Malaysia’s amazing host, Dash, who has written this fantastic piece following yesterday’s event.  I would love to have stayed longer in Kuala Lumpur – one night just wasn’t enough!  Never mind – Hong Kong awaits, and so, from six thousand miles away from home in London, it’s goodbye for now!

I’ve just been told to fasten my seatbelt and to ensure that any baggage is stowed under the seat in front of me.  My tray table is in the upright position and one of the cabin crew has already been around with bottles of water before we set off.  I’m gazing down at the tarmac outside the window.  But I know that the road outside will continue for another five hours.  This isn’t a flight you see; it’s a ‘lookshury liner’ coach trip.  And there’s five hours between me, in Kuala Lumpur, and supper, in Singapore.

Speednetworking Malaysia finished just a couple of hours ago and was a barnstorming success.  This was in no small part, thanks to the fantastic host, Warisan Global’s Dash.  What particularly struck me about the event (apart from the fact that over sixty people had turned out on a public holiday) was the great range of people attending, from students in their teens and twenties, to professionals in their fifties and sixties. 

I managed to record a quick video, during which I interview Dash himself;

Local organisations should fasten their seatbelt, because from what I’ve seen today, Global Entrepreneurship Week Malaysia is set to be a huge success!