Video-conferencing

On arriving in Beijing, I had the misfortune to learn that our second-most senior arts colleague, based in Hong Kong, and whom I've known for years, was leaving. Sheer coincidence I hasten to add. So today was interview day. Five candidates: four from Hong Kong and one from Manchester of all places. And it wasn't Ian Brown. We did it by video-conference with the applicant and a colleague in Hong Kong, another colleague in Shanghai and me in Beijing. The final interview added Manchester into the equation. Quite draining but I think we've got someone good. I know it's nothing new: I teleconference all the time, I skype, I occasionally 'chat'... but I'm of an age where it still amazes me that you can communicate with several people in different parts of the world at the same time on what is little more than a television set.