Its easy to jump to conclusions, to have pre-conceived ideas about the world, and the people within it. My trip to Asia made me revisit some of my views, and opened a door to a wonderful colorful new world that I never dreamed existed.
My story really starts last year. I wanted to take my eldest son to Machu Picchu as he likes hiking, and well that seemed a good place to hike. But 2017 was a tough year for me and it never happened. I entered 2018 with the chapter turned and a determination to visit my friend in Laos. It wasn’t Machu Picchu, that will come later as we had visas to sort this year which scuppered us. But Laos, my friend Matt has lived in Asia 18 years, it was high time I visited him, and I didn’t want 2018 to go by without me hitting this target.
Then work and life gets you. The year was slipping by. Dates weren’t matching, and really it was hard to justify a trip to Meet Magento Singapore. I told Quentin we should stay in Austin, work to be done. Then one day I was in my car and I just kept having this thought I should go to Singapore, just do it. I nearly rang Quentin but I knew the trip wasn’t practical, we were busy, we had lots of meetings and travel later on. That early evening I was talking to the guys at Red Box Digital and the Meet Magento Dubai came up. It was just a week later. The stars had aligned, we were going to be gold sponsors of Dubai, meet some prospective clients, go to Meet Magento Singapore, AND get to Laos.
Meet Magento Singapore
We managed to persuade Genevieve from our Perth office to come over. As a result Sunday was a marathon session of dev work, we are rarely in the same room and we had a lot to do, it was not fun, but at the end our results were high. Wait til Barcelona, you will see what we and the rest of the team have been doing.
So onto the event, it was held in the Marina Bay Sands conference center. For those of you that don’t know this hotel is one of the most famous in the world, a truly spectacular hotel with a swimming pool on the top that stretches across the 2 towers. Towards the end of the day we snuck up to the rooftop and I’d say its one of the best views in the world, truly spectacular.
What struck me at Meet Magento Singapore was firstly the people. They exuded warmth, we could not have been made to feel more welcome, and it was great to meet people we only saw on twitter. In conversation it was clear many had not been to Imagine or were likely to, and I think it was great for them to have a dose of the ‘magento’ magic come to their part of the world. Community is the only word to describe it, these are people we have never met before, but its a family.
The other thing that struck me was the way people viewed and used Magento. It was very different to what we see elsewhere. Magento is seen as being a cheap option, because it is free, and its heavily customisable so they don’t feel constrained. A SAAS solution like Shopify would struggle here, and its viewed as costly. This is very different to what we see in the UK/US where Magento IMO is seen as a more expensive offering nowadays. It speaks to the heart of what Magento was back in 2009/2010, and I thought to myself its a shame thats been lost elsewhere. Maybe it hasn’t maybe its just my view of the world.
Developers and Agencies came from all over Asia, and it was clear they were serious about their work. There was a tendency to build not buy, but they were interested in the offerings such as ShipperHQ and I got the sense that they were ready for the next stage of better integrations and solutions. There was much talk of work in Indonesia and India, these weren’t people that were developing on freelancer.com, they were developing for their own markets, and proud of it too.
In the evening there was a party overlooking the city, it was a beautiful venue, with beautiful people. What I got from the people there was a real sense of peace, these were people that understood in many cases unrest and they relished the joy of peace, of laughing, of embracing life. All across Asia I saw this same story, and it had a big impact on me. It’s easy to get wrapped up on the hustle and bustle of life, to stress about work, to want to sprint rather than walk. But I was reminded to stop, to take a snapshot in my mind of this moment in time.
A huge thanks goes to Ranosys for their organisation of the event.
Travelling
After Singapore the 3 of us jumped a plane to Siem Reap in Cambodia. Our goal was to see Angkor Wat, and it didn’t disappoint. I wont say much apart from the work we did in between the walking was some of the most stressful work I’ve done ever, it was hard to balance work and travel, the photos don’t tell the real story. It finished at the airport where we said goodbye to Gen, we were working so hard she nearly missed her plane. That’s commitment for you. Thanks Gen.
Laos arrived, a beautiful little town, like a cross between a Swiss village and people with the warmth of those in Fiji. It was nice to be in a place where people were living their lives, I felt in Siem Reap it was hard to distinguish between real and tourism. Luang Prabang was smaller, and at times I got impression locals just wanted us to go away, and probably right so, it’s a gorgeous part of the world.
My friend Matt is the CEO of Free the Bears, we spent Friday with him, it was extremely interesting to go around. I’ve had friends in the conservation business for many years, tbh I’m very ignorant of the whole thing for various reasons, so it was good and eye opening to hear the story of what they are doing in Laos. It made what I do at ShipperHQ frankly look pathetic. Matt just won an award at San Diego zoo for his conservation work, and I could see why. Not only was he rescuing animals that really had nowhere else to go, but he was revitalizing communities, refreshing the ecology of the area, it was astonishing, and humbling.
We left Saturday, and after a brief stopover in Bangkok where we ate like Kings then went onto Dubai.
Meet Magento Dubai
A much bigger event to Singapore (I’m sure due in part to the free ticket policy), there were over 500 people in attendance. This was more formal aswell, lots of suits, and lots of men. The content of the event was truly fantastic, some of the speakers from Meet Magento Singapore were present, but it was mostly new talks. A lot of focus on business, Gary Spector excelled as always, and the talk by Tom at Vue Storefront was a real eye-opener for all in the room.
Dubai was very different in tone to Singapore, and an expensive place to be. Dubai isn’t the place to be dancing on tables :)
For me, I saw a lot of respect, I had people walking up to me from all parts of the middle east and Africa, and they wanted to genuinely talk to me, and I hope vice versa. I never personally saw any prejudice because I was female, I think it helped that people in general knew of WebShopApps/ShipperHQ and I got impression people like Jonty from Red Box Digital were directing people my way so thank you for that. The people of the Middle East were extremely courteous, I had some fun conversations about stuff I never thought would be discussed, talking about how you ship perfume to the UK/Australia, or Ship from Store, or even one discussion I had about robotics in fulfillment warehouses (I was quick to inform him I didn’t do that type of shipping!).
My Learnings
As I said at the start its easy to jump to conclusions. People do this with me often, you read stuff and don’t get the context or only get one half of the story. Coming to Asia opened my eyes to the possibilities here in commerce, in shipping, and to the different people of this great place. I left with a desire to return soon, to visit India, to experience more of their food, their culture and their warmth. This is an economy that is moving fast, a mobile first society with a large pool of talent that wants to be free of the politics and just do business. A place where women are getting a say, a place where women far more resilient and stronger than me are standing up and being counted daily. I celebrate that, and all that is good in Asia. Thanks for having me as your guest.
