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Building Business Relationships on Common Ground (Or Ice)

March 11, 2011 By Rob Banks 3 Comments
Pond Hockey Team

It’s about relationships. We have an exciting growth company in a cool industry but at the end of the day what makes me happy is the relationships I get to make with co-workers, customers, stakeholders and suppliers. It is easy to get busy and stay stuck behind a desk, head down and working hard. But it is important to make the time to grow relationships when the opportunity arises. I feel it is one of the key measures of success in business. Well this blog post is about one of those … [Read more...]

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How to Travel to China and Stay on Your Game, Too

December 17, 2010 By Rob Banks Leave a Comment
Shenzhen China

If you follow my blog, you obviously know  I do a lot of travel to Asia. Living in Vancouver is a brilliant location to do business with Asia as we are the gateway to the Pacific Rim. The best airline in the world, in my opinion, is Cathay Pacific Airways , and they actually became a global player due in part to the success of the Hong Kong to Vancouver route. That has now extended to New York, Vancouver, Hong Kong.  So the flight is more popular than ever. To get to Hong Kong from … [Read more...]

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BuildDirect In Wuxi China, Part 2

July 6, 2010 By Rob Banks Leave a Comment
Buddhas birth

As I wrote in my last blog post, I was in Wuxi, China last year, a city a few hours drive outside of Shanghai and the attraction I went to see was the ‘the Big Buddha’. The Grand Buddha at Ling Shan is approx 300 ft tall (88m) and I believe is top 10 largest Buddha statues in the world. Take a look! The area around the Grand Buddha was massive and absolutely beautiful. It was kind of a Disneyland for promotion of the religion. The location in the mountains gave you … [Read more...]

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BuildDirect In Wuxi China, Part 1

June 29, 2010 By Rob Banks Leave a Comment
Lake Tai

Traveling is China for myself rarely means I get to experience tourist type attractions. But when I was in Wuxi China last year, one day a factory owner took me out to see some of the local tourist attractions. The video is the key attraction of this blog as the area is really a beautiful part of the world. I start the video over looking Lake Tai and then most of the video is the area surrounding the Grand Buddha. Wuxi is nicknamed ‘the Pearl of Lake Tai’ as it sits on … [Read more...]

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What You See In the Middle of Nowhere, Part 4: Beer!

June 15, 2010 By Rob Banks 2 Comments
Dinner Session Beers

I love this series as it really does reflect my life of element to when I travel, especially in China. I do not get to experience what a tourist would.  I rarely see beautiful things, museums, the Great Wall (I've been to China dozens of times, and I still haven’t seen it!).  But I do get to have experiences that are amazing and pretty unique. Now having been to China as many times as I have and reading about my experiences on this blog you might think…. “Wow, all Rob does in China … [Read more...]

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What you see in the middle of nowhere, Part 3

December 17, 2009 By Rob Banks 4 Comments
chinese-dish-1

Some of the best feedback I get on my Twitter account and blog posts are around my 'What you see in the middle of nowhere' topic.  I do a lot of traveling around the world and I honestly enjoy my travel in China.  The people are amazing and the experience with the culture and local customs is remarkable.  That said, I really don't enjoy some of the food.   I've described business trips in China like an episode of Fear Factor and a drinking game all wrapped into one. I keep expecting … [Read more...]

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BuildDirect Goes to ‘Noble House’

August 24, 2009 By Rob Banks Leave a Comment

Taipan of the Noble House; Ian Dunross Struans. If these names mean anything to you you'll probably enjoy this blog post. James Clavell (of Shogun fame) wrote a fabulous novel called Noble House. It was a sequel to the equally impressive novel, Taipan. These are my two favorite books.  I read them as a young adult and have re-read them several times. My wife thinks I'm crazy since I read them so often, but they are inspirational and entertaining for me. They definitely influenced my career path. … [Read more...]

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Business Travel Adventures in China: Airline Exercises

June 3, 2009 By Rob Banks 1 Comment
exercise on plane

One of the coolest things I get to experience in my role at BuildDirect is seeing things that many others wouldn’t see. This little video shows one of those moments. I was flying from Shenzhen airport in the south of China up north to Shenyang airport on a Chinese domestic airline call Shenzhen Airlines. Other than the obvious differences in the service, language, food and ‘movie’ selection (I’m a little concerned that the general population that fly domestic Chinese airlines may all end … [Read more...]

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BuildDirect Goes to The 2010 Olympic Oval

May 19, 2009 By Rob Banks 4 Comments

I had the chance to wander around the incredible Richmond Olympic Oval with my co-worker Rob Jones recently.  I have a membership to work out at the gym, so we were able to enter the facility when it was closed to the public, hence the footage with no one else present.  The building is amazing and absolutely huge inside. I highly recommend a visit if you are in the area. May 15, 2009 the Richmond News newspaper reported that the Oval has been recognized with a top national award for architecture. "The … [Read more...]

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Business Travel: What You See In the Middle of Nowhere, Part 2

March 6, 2009 By Rob Banks 3 Comments

Many of you have had fun and unique food experiences while traveling.  Here are a few of mine. After flying all night to Southern China (a 14 hour flight), driving 2 hours to a remote hotel for a breakfast meeting, I walked in and within 2 minutes I was served this: That's a turkey foot.  In gelatin. I was in the outskirts of Beijing in a Sichuan restaurant. Authentic Sichuan food is fire hot. I love spicy food, but I had no idea that food could be that hot. Some people must have an iron stomachs, … [Read more...]

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