Business

Today was the day of the first workshops between the mentors and mentees. Arthur and I were unable to watch the workshops as we had other SEALNet business to attend to but it apparently went very well.

The Cambodia Japan Cultural Center is giving us our performance space for 2 nights for the performance and 3 days for rehearsals which usually costs $500/ day at a greatly reduced cost, $300 total in exchange for 2 seminars presented by Arthur and myself. Arthur and I will discuss Marketing for the Small and Medium Enterprise, something we know little about yet, but will pull on whatever resources we can to get enough material to make a kick ass presentation. They expect anywhere from 100-400 people per seminar with advertisements in the local English language newspapers. The CJCC is a governmental organization affiliated with the Royal University of Phnom Penh and funded by an NGO based out of Japan, JICA, that has development programs throughout the developing world.

While I met with CJCC, Arthur went out and got a cell phone for $18, it comes in very handy to have a Khmer speaker talk to your driver to explain and address. There's a strange business model here. Every shop on a block will sell the same thing. There must have been 20 shops in a row selling cell phones, after 20 shops selling flowers, across the street from 20 shops selling stuffed animals near 20 pharmacies. I just don't get how you can make money selling the exact same thing as your neighbor.
That night was our first debrief of the events of the day. We discussed pluses, the things that went well, and deltas, things that we can improve the next time. There was some obvious tension in the group. It was a rough start as very capable people have very strong opinions. We had a second debrief after dinner in which the leaders laid out safe space ground rules. The second discussion was much more productive.