2017-02-22 Waking up the dead (Pyongtaek conference)

 

I was delighted to be one of the speakers at a conference hosted by the Pyungtaek Social Welfare Foundation.

The theme: "Multiculture and Global Social Welfare Forum."

The reality: Can you endure? 

I asked one of the attendees what was memorable about the conference. Without hesitating, he responded: "You woke up the room. Before you spoke, people were chit-chatting, not paying paying attention. You commanded everyone to listen."

Well, I was in and out of the room networking, chatting, taking photos, so I don't know what the other speakers were saying.

I may not be the greatest speaker in the world, but I almost always accept invitations to speak at academic conferences in South Korea. I often feel like I have been invited to play basketball in a league with no one over 5 feet tall or over the age of 8.

I remember the first time I spoke at an academic conference in South Korea, hosted by a German foundation. The audience was so quiet as the other speakers droned on that I was wondering if some of the attendees had passed away as they listened. Really, no one was moving. I jazzed up my PPT, I informed the host that I was going to introduce myself, so I needed an extra five minutes. I woke up the entire room. A year later, some of the attendees at that German foundation's conference told me that my presentation had woken up the room, that I should become a speech coach for speakers at academic conferences in Korea.

Thanks to Brian Qu for the photos.

One of the conference organizers told me, "Talk about your need for funding. I read about TNKR, you and Eunkoo are heroes."

With the president of Pyeongtaek University.

Thanks to Karin Hanna for the graphics.

Thanks to Sodam Jeong for the gift that I can never forget. Yes, I included that in my PPT.

He works in CSR, he said he would visit TNKR soon to find out if we qualified for financial support.

I'm usually the star at events, but Eunkoo had some fans asking her to take photos with them.

It is so nice to take a group photo without people grumbling about having to be in it. Again, I am the only one NOT doing the fist shake at the camera.

Thanks for the nice tea set. It is always nice receiving gifts or money after giving a speech.

I think this was the entire delegation visiting from Mongolia. Based on their responses and kind words, I should move there. 

The moderator had a great sense of humor, so we woke up the audience together.

The four main speakers,

Ladies from Mongolia wanted a photo with me. How could I say no?

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2021 update: 

The best outcome is that a South Korean lady later followed up. She was praising me so much that day, and she apparently meant it! Four years later, Inae is still with us as a monthly donor and cheerleader. She didn't introduce herself that day, but thankfully she did follow up later.

The worst outcome from the conference was a Korean-American man who followed up later, tried to get involved with us, but I am sure that he concluded that I am the worst possible leader of an organization. Well, I can't prove that, but I guess in most cases when I conclude that someone else is useless that the person has also concluded bad things about me! That's because when he stopped showing up, I had already concluded he was the worst possible fit for our organization. He didn't like anything about our approach, wanted to tell me how I should be doing things differently, insisted that we were taking the wrong approach about everything.

Another bad but good outcome: A member of the Samsung CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) team introduced himself to me later. He praised us for our work, then asked about our organization status. I explained, then Eunkoo translated to make sure he understood. When he heard that we weren't at the top level status, he politely walked off. He knew he would be wasting his time, Samsung and other large companies don't bother with donating to organizations that aren't at the highest-level. I'm not blaming them, the mafia deals with the mafia, the rich deal with the rich, the educated deal with the educated, etc., and big companies in Korea give to established organizations that have jumped through all of the government's hoops. At that point, we had become an official organization recognized by the Seoul City government, rising above the association and group levels. But at that point, donors couldn't receive tax-deductible donations when giving to us (that changed at the end of 2017 or 2018), but we still haven't reached the promised land of corporations being able to receive tax-deductible donations in Korea. (I say that at risk of knowing that some people run 100 mph without clearly understanding the distinctions.) 

Individuals can make tax-deductible donations in the USA and South Korea here via our various donation options: www.lovetnkr.org/donate