May 2006 Coffee Bean Meeting

Twinsen, Maria Trombly, Hussene Keshavjee and Filiz Han

More than 20 people attended the May 31 montly Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf gathering on Fuzhou Lu. The Group met new president Maria Trombly, and volunteer administrator Dani Cao. We celebrated the three year anniversary of the group with founder Paul Qu. Johnnie distributed survey forms to club members.

Several new people came to the event, including textile exporter Hussene Keshavjee of Kescoor and textile designer Filiz Han, software engineer Jamie Zong, clothing designer Janet Su, freelance writer Bill Marcus, and Felix Lai of GoldSAC, who helps foreign companies set up business operations in China.

Jamie Zong and Eric Meade

Issues discussed included the Shanghai property market, capital fundraising, and staff recruitment and retention strategies. People started arriving at 7 p.m., it took about half an hour to get organized, and then we went around, person by person, and did "elevator introductions" followed by short question and answer periods. The business part of the meeting concluded shortly after 9 p.m., but many people stayed later to follow up on issues raised during the meeting.

Maria Trombly asked help finding freelance and staff writers to report about manufacturing and technology. The only requirements is a strong interest to pursue a career in business journalism -- perfect English writing skills are not necessary.

Michal Butler asked for help finding venture capital to back his company, which sells English-language training programs targeted at elementary-school students.

Eric Meade, general manager of Meade Asia, suggested that the question and answer periods be kept shorter at the next meeting, since the number of attendees continues to grow. Interesting discussions can be continued later, after everyone has had a chance to introduce themselves. The suggestion received broad support. Janet Su took photos.