Following are websites you can bookmark to make planning meetings and conventions in the Asia-Pacific region easier:
- Currency conversion made easy:
The Oanda site has a number of useful currency conversion tools, but the Cheat Sheet is by far the best. Just enter your home country’s currency, the country you’re going to, and how you’ll be converting currency (taking it out through an ATM, taking cash to a bank, etc.) and the Cheat Sheet will generate a pocket-sized table meant to be printed. At a glance, planners—or their attendees who’ve received the cheat sheet in welcome kits—will know how much they’re paying in their home currency.
- Translation tool:
This site pays homage to the “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” series where a little yellow fish can translate any language into any other language. One can type a phrase in English and have it translated into Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and most of the European languages. The translations might be a little rough, but it works the other way, too; a planner can copy and paste some text from a hotel website or contract and get an idea of what’s going on without having to employ a translator. One of the neatest features of this site is the ability to put in a Web address of a website in a non-English language and see a version of the site in English.
- Convert square meters to square feet:
Even though the layout is basic and the converter a little touchy (don’t use commas or decimal points), this is a great tool that makes it easy for North American planners to get an idea of meeting space layout in countries that use the decimal system.
- Find a good time to talk across time zones:
Not only does this site tell you the current time anywhere in the world, there are also handy tools for people who do business across time zones. There is a customizable world clock that lets planners pick 25 cities they do business in to see at a glance the differing times and dates, and a meeting scheduler to help find one convenient time for a phone or video conference for people around the world.
- Get free online maps and country information:
Though not exactly a page-turner, the CIA World Factbook offers a rundown on the politics, economy and history of every nation in the world. There are also simple country and region maps available for download. Everything on this site (except the seal of the CIA, which cannot be reproduced or reused for any reason) is public domain. For free maps and country information—including images of the flags of the world—this is the place to go.
