Follow the Money

A little over a month after coming back from Tokyo, I was back in Singapore for work again. This time around, my publication’s parent company was holding an industry conference, and I was asked to help moderate a few panels/fireside chats throughout the day-long event. When I was first asked if I wanted to participate a few months prior, however, two things immediately crossed my mind: 1) this was a great opportunity for me to build my brand as a journalist covering this very specific industry and gain some valuable professional experience, and 2) I hate public speaking and I don’t want anything to do with this. The part of my brain that recognised these opportunities should be embraced, particularly so if the animal part of my brain is fighting it tooth and nail, eventually won out, and so I found myself on plane flying down to the Lion City yet again.

My week-long trip in Singapore was a microcosm of the much broader and more turbulent flow of people, capital, and commerce that has been rushing into the city-state for the last several years, especially from Hong Kong. What started as a trickle during the months of unrest that roiled Hong Kong in 2019 turned into a torrent early last year when Singapore made the prescient decision to open their borders and start living with Covid. This includes finance executives tired of dealing with the myriad travel and quarantine requirements in Hong Kong, sales and client-facing teams shifting to Singapore so they could finally start doing business travel again, wealthy families and individuals seeing the city-state as a safe haven from the geopolitical tensions elsewhere in the region setting up family offices by the hundreds, and global firms rushing in to take advantage of the opportunities arising from the influx of new wealth.

With the flow of capital also came the proliferation of high profile events and forums to provide a space for the movers and shakers of industry to network and share information with the prized newcomers, my parent company included. Singapore had already established a reputation as a key node in the regional and global events calendar eve prior to the pandemic, but the machinery kicked into overdrive last year. It seemed like every other week there was a marquee conference headlined by global CEOs, heads of governments, media titans, and Hollywood royalty. On my previous trip to Singapore last November, I swung by a conference I knew I probably wouldn’t get much out of just to see American financier and notorious White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci in person.

In contrast, Hong Kong has struggled to rebuild the pull it once had in this space, with a number of major conferences formerly held in the special administrative region relocating either temporarily or permanently to Singapore due to the pandemic. The city’s government has tried to bring back some of that buzz with a few high profile events since Hong Kong reopened late last year, but it remains to be seen if it can steal back any of the thunder that its rival to the south stole during those critical months last year when Singapore flung its gates wide open and Hong Kong stubbornly stuck to its zero-Covid policies.

The conference went well, in the end, despite my nervousness and unfounded fears. I filled the rest of the week with source meetings during the day and dinners/catch-ups with friends at night – always a highlight of my trips to Singapore. In between, I put my step counter to good use walking around Tiong Bahru, the CBD area, Chinatown, the Marina Barrage, and Gardens by the Bay. I also ate often, and in great quantities. The Tiong Bahru Market in particular was a gem – Loo’s Hainanese Curry Rice was a revelation, I cannot recommend this food stall enough.