As he writes on the eve of another WiT-Web In Travel event, the first fully physical version since the pandemic, Luke Clark reflects on what a difference a year can make, both for travel and the individuals behind it
The first thing that you noticed on arrival was the talking heads. Not the band. Not a strange decapitated presence. No, something far bigger. You just could not miss the huge head-and-shoulder figures that descended from the ceiling, care of automated panel screens, to complement the nearly 250 people at WIT 2021 in real life (IRL). These moving and talking panels would be one of many all-too-surreal touches involved in attending my first post-Covid conference.
I’m sure that I wasn’t the only one to note it, but while these screens were a major innovative feature of hybrid events like Web In Travel in 2021, in person it felt as if the virtual heads were upstaging the actual people on-stage. One of the on-stage participants even mentioned this. I’d have shaken his hand, but I wasn’t allowed to. More on that later.
Nate Blecharczyk, one of the “talking heads”, at WiT 2021
Yet what a class of talking heads they were. Due to the super-clear video feed, we were graced by some serious C-Suite names, each beaming their friendly faces directly to us in Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands from their spare rooms at home – often in the dead of night their time, although for Nate Blecharczyk co-founder of Airbnb, this cosy exchange of ‘domestic opposite worlds’ did seem to be perfectly on-brand.
The lack of beamed virtual heads will be one of many things that will be different at this year’s Web In Travel 2022. The other thing that I’m sure nobody will miss (probably including them) will the people that we came to call ‘the red shirts’.
Even in October 2022, it seems almost bizarre to think that despite having in-person ART testing to even enter a business event, we still lived through a time in Asia, where our conferences were being actively patrolled by enforcement personnel. Dressed in disturbingly red shirts, they were paid to stamp down on any illegal actions, such as hugs or hand-shakes. Rather fittingly, they didn’t smile very often.
In one year, we’ve already come a long way.
I look forward to exchanging a manly hug with Timothy O’Neil-Dunne when I see him again. In part, because I’ve known Tim for years through WiT – in fact, my wife and I went, together with Tim, Siew Hoon and a group of intrepid post-WIT attendees, to Angkor Wat in late-2007. For Naeema and I, it would be our last travel journey before becoming parents.
I’ll also seek Tim out because last year, thanks to the red shirts, I wasn’t able to greet him in person, to thank him for navigating the epic bureaucratic minefield that was travel from the US to Singapore – and for being one of four to voice the fightback during his session, ‘The WiT Challenge: How do we get outta here?’ I’m sure that our recent lack of quarantines (touch-wood), and subsequent opening of borders in most of Asia, owe a debt to those who braved the way first, and spoke up for a more open world.
Another reason I’ll make a point to greet Tim and other familiar faces more earnestly in 2022, is because some of our alumni won’t be with us. One of them is Corinne Wan. It will be strange not to greet Corinne – in passing, since both of us are rushing from story to story. And no doubt, equally strange for those on stage like Tim, not to have her interview them for one of her excellent stories. I’ll miss sharing a quick bowl of hor fun noodles, rightfully observing how they taste better (and are much cheaper) in her home town of Ipoh, Malaysia. As with all those who leave our travel tribe too soon, Corinne will be fondly missed.
So many things feel like they’ve changed in one year that it’s hard to believe it has only been 12 months. But my last observation on the changes that are most obvious in one calendar cycle, involve a circus afar – and the lack of a circus at home.
The performance by Phare, the Cambodia Circus – “unexpectedly moving”
One of the events that most moved me in 2021, actually took place in Cambodia. It was ‘A Circus of Virtuosity, and was raising funds for Phare Ponleu Selpak, the 30-year-old NGO behind the social enterprise, Phare, the Cambodia Circus. As part of a partnership with WIT, Phare’s artistes staged a wonderful performance, themed “Home”, which was live-beamed to all WIT’s participants, directly from Siem Reap.
I found the performance unexpectedly moving. There was something about dynamism of Phare’s performers that hit me – and something about the raw authenticity of the show that made me realise how much I missed other parts of Asia, once so easy to access on a whim (even when heavily-pregnant).
Having once lived in Bali, a place as dependent on travel as Siem Reap is, I also realised the pressures that would be mounting on these young performers, and on their family’s rice bowls, now that the planes had disappeared. Yet while distant, the show, and the charity effort, was also a refreshing reminder that whether it’s digitally or IRL, with a little effort and planning we are today, more inter-connected with each other than ever.
And so it was, with all these new things in my head, and a brand-new black and purple Covid mask on my face, I left WIT 2021. And as I headed to that familiar post-conference landmark, the taxi queue, I had another revelation, much closer to home. There was nobody waiting in the queue. Yet all the cabs sat expectantly, still waiting for us.
On Tuesday October 4, as I note my late car soon to be arriving via Grab, or observe the last remnants of the insanity that is Formula 1 race weekend in Singapore, I’ll try for once to take stock. Because if my app tells me that my predicted delay will be a whole 10 minutes (a seeming lifetime in convenience-obsessed Singapore), I’ll be reminded of one reassuring fact.
Delays will remind me that the airports are again in business. And the Lion City, like many hub cities around the world, are too. And yes, while it means a return to queues, and delays and real-life hustle and bustle, it also means that the rice bowls are being refilled. And that’s priceless. And so, as we all rush off to say ‘Hello, New World’ at WIT 2022, that’s surely one of the many things that we should never take for granted again.
