“Our flats are too small.”

“Our kids are too noisy.”

“It’d feel strange to have strangers in your homes.”

“Would the speakers want to do it? They might feel strange.”

I know kids do it all the time. Sleep on other people’s couches for free. Models like Airbnb and now Asia’s own Travelmob allow you to stay in other people’s homes while other people are there

– some abuse the privilege though like the recent case when an owner returned to find their apartment had been used as a brothel.

It’s not everybody’s cup of tea – not brothel, just staying at someone else’s place, I mean. Certainly not mine.

Once in New Zealand, I was feeling fairly adventurous and thought I’d try staying in a homestay/eco-lodge. It had very good reviews and, in concept, appealed to my inner yearning to be at one with nature and the copy on the website made it sound real good – patio, back garden, swing. I think it was the swing that got me. I grew up in a house with a swing.

In reality, it didn’t work out too well. First the room I was given was tiny, it was in the attic and it was up a narrow flight of steps that creaked. All the facilities – toilet, kitchen, garden, swing – were downstairs. So during my stay, those stairs creaked a lot. I live in a fl

at, I am not used to going up and down for stuff I leave everywhere.

I shared the kitchen with the family. The fridge was stocked, but there were some items that were out of bounds. I had my own bathroom but it was next to the family’s living area – so you always felt awkward using it, especially late at night. I am Malaysian. I take late night showers. I am a traveller. I keep weird hours.

I had booked two days but moved out after one day. It was just too stressful living with strangers, as nice and hospitable as they were.

So back to the point of this article – putting local hosts together with our speakers. We’ve decided to introduce a WIThost scheme with a little twist. We will host the speakers in hotels and put them up for “bidding” by hosts. The idea is to enable locals or delegates to spend time with their chosen speaker and to be their “buddy” during their stay in Singapore.

So the only currency of exchange here is time and knowledge. Imagine you have all that time to pick their brains and, of course, also show them a good time while they are in Singapore. (Anyone can apply, but it will be up to the speaker to decide who they want their buddy to be.)

Anyway, after we came up with the idea of this programme, I read this post about a start-up which allows entrepreneurs around the world to host each other.

Nice idea, I reckon, and could work even better in a vertical where you have like-minded entrepreneurs wanting to learn from one another, and even better at a conference where local entrepreneurs would want to network and spend more time with expert speakers. And the idea of a local host showing you around their city is a powerful one in travel.

It’d be interesting to see how this start-up does and how it cuts across boundaries, industry, cultural, gender and age.

I just know that in cities in Asia where we tend to live in small spaces and with families – most single people still live with their parents in Singapore – it might be hard to find hosts.

But then again, there’s a huge “global nomad” population that’s probably willing to give it a go.

So do you want to give it a go and be a buddy to a WIT speaker such as Rod Cuthbert, interim chairman of Rome2Rio (pictured above)? Applyhere.

Sign up for the WIT Conference here.