I am back from Hong Kong, where I took part in InnoXcell’s Asia eDiscovery Exchange and spent three days listening as much as talking, with the aim of finding out as much as possible about eDiscovery in the region. It seems an odd way to put it perhaps – as I write this, a few days later, I am en route to the north-east, one of Britain’s far-flung regions. Would I talk in that context of “finding out as much as possible about eDiscovery in the region”? Probably not, although competition between the countries of the AsiaPac region reflects a now-dead (apparently) competition which used to exist between the commercial centres of Britain. Do you remember when Leeds, Birmingham and Bristol all vied to be the place where London-trained lawyers wanted to work, competing on cost, talent and quality to attract London work? The talent is still there, but the inter-regional competitive zeal seems to have gone. It ain’t like that in AsiaPac.

You have to be damned careful about sweeping generalisations based on regional differences, of course.  There is infinite scope for being misunderstood in this sensitive age if, in trying to reduce one’s conclusions to the smallest space, one appears to be comparing cultural norms to the apparent detriment of one of them. I will do it anyway, and say that my few days in Hong Kong showed better than anything that the US is on its own in eDiscovery terms. The rest of us play by different rules, both literally and metaphorically, and we are at last beginning to see a falling off in the US missionary zeal which was evident when I first went East. Instead of trying to impose the word of FRCP on an unwilling audience at the point of a sword labelled “sanctions”, US speakers are beginning to recognise that some compromise is needed and that the cultural norms of other races and regions require a different approach.

The most evident shift appears from a focus on benefits rather than threats. Perhaps being in a city which is patently foreign forces a re-evaluation of the vocabulary. There may be the dawning of an acceptance that the US may actually have something to learn from other jurisdictions, but even if that degree of self-awareness is missing, it has become clear that marketing of the (generally excellent) software and services requires more than just hurling US concepts at an audience which does not accept their premises. This should prompt a re-evaluation of the marketing language, which is no bad thing anyway. Sod the functions – what are the benefits? OK, I hear you (up to here) on risks, but have you got something positive which I can add to my budget case?

I guess the West Was Won from fear of Native Americans and wolves, not the hope of Chevrolets and iPads. It somehow infects the cultural message.

I am going to spread my notes from Hong Kong across multiple posts, partly because no-one reads very long articles, partly to avoid the backlog of other things which will build up if I do it all in one go, and partly because they involve discrete subjects, even if there some consistent themes running through them.

My photograph shows InnoXcell’s Jeffrey Teh opening the show. I have spoken at every one of Jeffrey’s conferences since InnoXcell began, and they get better every time.

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