I'm still here - YiZhan

520 - Always with you, my little star of Earendil

"Hi Ma, how have you been?"
"Zhan Zhan Ma miss you a lot, how are you?"
"Okay...I'm going to be working on a few things first so won't be back this weekend yet as planned"
"How's my little cat? I miss my cat..how's Pa?
"Your cat misses you, come back soon. Your Pa is okay we are looking forward to see you"
"Zhan....Ma loves you okay so don't be too sad over things, you have a home to come back to always.."
"Okay Ma I love you"

Xiao Zhan pressed in his tears towards the end of the conversation, his parents must be so worried about him he thought. He he feels bad for making them go through all the difficulties and putting up with what he had to go through. He is ever so grateful that his parents are always supportive of him
and that silently they pray that he will always be strong and upright like how they have brought him up - live right and bright.

"I...I am okay Ma, I know thank you for being there always, I love you and Pa a lot, and my cat hehe"

His constant contact with his parents and checking in on them gave him the support he needed from time to time.

Xiao Zhan misses home every now and then. But he has also been bogged down with his schedule as things starts to pick up but he will always call back home if he can't go back for a visit at a reasonable time.

That afternoon he had a conference to attend to discussing on the future of entertainment industry given the new ways of how digitisation and technology advancement that has an impact almost all industry revolutionising as a result of consumer behaviour changes. The entertainment industry has not been spared as well. The access to space and time of consumer at real time speed is key for businesses these included entertainment industry. The use of AI and 5G technology has also change the show business and this is prevalent in several Asiapac countries currently and devices accessing music and shows are getting more complicated as margins and revenue generation requires alternative streams to be explored. There has been exploration where actors / actresses no longer need to be onsite for filming and technology can recreate and simulate voices and images of even legendary individuals that has passed away to bring a filming session to live, what more with gamification and e-games into movies. The threats of predominantly surrounding the livelihood of the way how industries must adapt to the new norm more so after this pandemic that has hit the world globally. Livelihood and way of living would be different where more online consumption is prevalent. Events and concerts would be on live streams and that had proven a better cost model for surviving companies. And talks on recovery of certain markets be it U shape, V shape or L shape has been a popular debate and it impacts how each industry within the respective nation would pick up. Having that perspective is key for individuals and businesses to be aware how their plans and goals should be recalibrated or pivoted towards what make sense be it student, working adult or business owners and corporations. That was a key take away for Zhan apart from providing his point of view on certain things.

Technology won't be able to replace values, emotions, heritage that are passed down - somethings are still best taught and pass down through traditions and nomenclature like how martial arts masters goes through iterations and years of cultivation, although technology can accelerate certain things, something's things are best left sacred and not exposed to technological advancement though some may argue innovation is what most companies look for these days. Nevertheless the afternoon left him with many learnings and different point of views to ponder upon and to be equipped with on the new norms.

As it was a closed door event for select attendees to gather and contribute their input into formulation of plans for entertainment industry to better compete in future, Xiao Zhan was excited to be able to work through some of these plans together.

Once the plenary session ended they were facilitated into a dialogue session on creating performing arts mentoring programmes for future talent. The earlier group disperses leaving just a handful of people behind selected for this session. The session ended later, it took about an hour for the facilitator to share some upcoming talent mentoring plans they had.