I'm very lucky. Since my years in the United States, I've have had so many chances to visit different places, talked with a lot of people and understood different characteristics of different cities. Although I write and shoot for the company's blog and magazine, I often wonder if there are other ways I can share with more people what I've seen and heard. But I didn't really push that thought until I met Iris and Mu-ming.
Two days before an important event, I received a self-introducing email offering their video documentary capabilities. I was going to put off the reply until after the event, but then I thought, why not let them help me with the event? We've never had an event video recorded.
And that was our first cooperation. This decision gave the event participants a heart touching video and eyes brimming with tears at the end of the event.
Iris and Mu-ming are quite into design and during our review meeting, they shared their interest in design thinking and said, how about shooting a short film about it? Mu-ming asked me to find two people for him and he'll make a 5 minute film.
I thought, "Are you kidding me?" He added, "For free!" And so we began on our second cooperation. His proposal was so heart stirring, and when I said let's make it 50 minutes instead of 5, now they were the ones who were shocked.
Now, only three weeks until the annual ICFF show in New York which I'd be attending. Am I really going to start shooting in this trip? I have travel budget, but what about Iris and Mu-ming? Could I really convince anyone to accept my interview? Am I really good enough to start making a movie?
I flipped open "Change by Design", a sentence popped out: "Design Thinking is thinking by doing." Alright! I sat down with my best partner Melissa, produced a proposal, and start shooting emails right away. Fortunately, 7 out of 8 accepted my interview request! Thinking by Doing -- that's the spirit!
The NY trip was a tough one. Business traveling with two more people was quite different. When I reported my 9-day itinerary to my company, my boss gave me a call. Why are you in New York for 9 days when the conference is only 4 days? There was no way I could convinced him but I've already booked plane tickets. Well, let's do it anyways.
