Seventy international real estate professionals—some from as far as China—had to reach into the back of their memory banks this afternoon for a tough trivia game hosted by Albest International CEO Catherine Lai, one of the presenters at BOMA's International Council Workshop. Do you have what it takes? Try these:
What is the tallest building in the world?
Which building has the fastest elevator in the world?
Where is the longest suspension bridge located?
Where is the longest street in the world?
In which city is the oldest university in North America located?
Which city has the world's most expensive property?
Done scratching your head? The answers, in order, are The Bhurj Khalifa (828 meters high); Shanghai Tower (18 meters/second); Kobe, Japan's Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge (3,911 meters long); Ontario, Canada's Yonge Street (2,000 kilometers long); The Royal & Pontifical University of Mexico (Mexico City, established 1551); and Monaco (where $1M buys you 15 square meters).
Her questions then got a bit tougher and more worldly. For instance, if you have invited guests from Australia, Spain, the United Kingdom and Japan for dinner at 7pm, what time would they arrive? In what language does arvo mean afternoon? In which country is it inappropriate to show the palm of your hand? And in which countries are babies considered one year old at birth?
Recent economic studies show that the greatest obstacles to global corporate success are misunderstandings due to culturally rooted issues, Catherine points out. That's why networking is so important and what BOMA can offer its international delegates.
So, as you shake hands with people around the conference, you just may learn the answers—which are that the Japanese arrive at 6pm, the Australians at 7pm, the British at 7:15pm and Spaniards after 9pm; Australian English; Greece; and Korea and China.
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