Life of a Sales Executive: VIP and Convention

The first VIP I received in Shangri-la Hotel was the Prime Minister of Janan at that time: Tomiichi Murayama.

It was like a big project. It was mainly led by my Malay colleague Fadzlon, but I spent all my time preparing and receiving the Prime Minister.

The security was very tight. Both the secret service from Japan and Malaysia were there to make sure of Mr Murayama spent the safe visit.

After the Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister of Japan also came and stayed in Shangri-la a few month later, but it was not that serious.

One of the member of the House of Representatives wanted to have a dinner with young Japanese people working in Kuala Lumpur. As I had a few friends in the Embassy of Japan, I was invited to the dinner with a few more Japanese ladies from other hotels.

He was young and friendly. He asked how it was to be working in Kuala Lumpur, and he offered Japanese sake to us during the dinner (he was a good and heavy drinker). And suddenly, he announced that he wanted to play golf the next day. As the dinner was held on Friday night, we were asked if we could play golf with him.

At that time, I only played golf once in the golf course. I told him I'm too lousy to play with him.

But he said that was just for fun and it doesn't matter if I was good or lousy. He hadn't played golf for more than 10 years so he would prefer to play with non-serious players.

That unexpected request from the member of Diet made the Embassy officer jump, but the golf next day was arranged last minute and I played golf with him.

He said the last time he played golf, he was working in a bank in Japan, and he was doing so very well until the emergency phone call stopped him in the 9th hole.

The emergency call told him that his father committed suicide and asked him to rush to the hospital.

Ever since, he said, he did not want to play golf and has not played.

His name is Shoichi Nakagawa, who became the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries under the Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, and now he holds one of the main position in the LDP.

Besides working for VIPs, I was assigned to look after one big project in 2005: Mitsubishi Motors Dealers' Convention. The group of 800 dealers who had a outstanding performance the year before was invited to the trip to Kuala Lumpur. It was one of the largest corporate groups with many banquets.

The group was split to two, 400 each with 200 rooms, and they checked in and out on different dates. In the middle, the main dinner was held for all to participate. They had handsome budget, so everything had to be perfectly planned to impress the guests.

Logistics of the luggage for 800 guests had to be planned, the rooming list has to be arranged wisely, and the entertainment for the main dinner had to be first class.

I contacted the Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board and sought assistance. As the guests were all Japanese and did not speak much English, the entertainment had to be good without using the language.

MTPB promised to back me up and arranged the best dance group and the military band for the event.

Each banquet room was decorated with different theme: One became a jungle, other became a beach...the entire function space was turned into a theme park just for one evening.

During the convention group's stay, I also stayed in the hotel and worked with a minimum sleep. I think I only slept less than 12 hours in total for 4 days.

For the night of the main dinner, 800 guests were in the main banquet room. They were happy with the traditional dance and military band.

When the military band played "Koujo no Tsuki", the large applause erupted from the audience. They were middle to elderly Japanese couple, and they were touched by the traditional Japanese tune played by Malaysian military band since some were old enough to know what happened during the WW2.

I was exhausted but proud of the successful convention. The project produced high occupancy rate and large banquet revenue to the hotel, and left wonderful memory to the dealers and me, personally.

I still remember a big smile on my boss, Yawata-san, after the last bus departed the hotel after the convention. Even though it was such an important and large group for the hotel, he completely let me handle the project alone. It became a great experience and gave me a confidence that I can handle something meaningful to the business.