Christine : Los Angeles

Christine Lu is a self professed geek girl, sinophile and foodie who grew up in Southern California.

Christine lived and worked in China for a number of years as Marketing Director for Home Shopping Shanghai Limited, a joint-venture of HSN International’s TV shopping business.

Upon moving back to the US, she launched a podcast show in 2007 for Entrepreneur Magazine called The China Business Show which led to the founding of The China Business Network. Christine devotes much of her time and projects on the bridge between East and West. She is founder of Cilantro Media, a boutique firm focused on slightly disruptive business models and ideas that bring about effective change.

Christine has been involved in the social media strategy for Hawaii Tourism Authority, Fatburger, pur~lisse skincare, M1NT Shanghai, Cause Media Group and The China Business Network.

Based on her belief that knowledge should be shared in an open free thinking environment that allows new ideas to thrive, Christine is involved in several cross border initiatives including co-founding [RE]Think, curator of TEDxShanghai, Geeks On A Plane, China 2.0 Tour and The China Business Show.

Christine is also an active TED member. She curated the first TEDxShanghai event in June 2009 and is on the organizing team for TEDxHonolulu. Following this year’s TEDGlobal, she is now in the midst of organizing a TEDx group from China to TEDActive / TED2010.

Christine is currently involved in several social good projects for Cause Media Group, Project Rebirth and Go Green Initiative. She is the editor-in-chief of WhatGives?! a new platform focused on sharing stories and updates on social good and non-profits. She is also partnering with photographer Kris Krug on a Creative Commons licensed book about Shanghai launching next year during the World Expo.

Follow Christine on Twitter: @christinelu

Why [Re]Think : Hawaii?

I spent an amazing 10 days in Hawaii back in June that gave me a chance to go beyond the beautiful brochure version of the islands and see it from a perspective that only those who live there could share.

I flew back to LA and was still in love with Hawaii 3 days later when I set off on a whirlwind 10 day sleep deprived Geeks On A Plane tour of Tokyo, Beijing and Shanghai with a group of amazing tech investors and entrepreneurs that Dave McClure had invited. By the time we got to our last city, Shanghai, we all were friends thanks to conversations in a Tokyo subway, on buses stuck in Beijing traffic to and from Startonomics Beijing, in an afterparty following Startup2Startup and a geek trek to the Great Wall of China, Barcamp Shanghai, TEDxShanghai and a lot of shared meals, conferences and meetups in between.

A month later, I attended my first TED conference and they’re not kidding when they say it’s a life changing event.  TED takes that a step further by bringing together people from different countries, sectors and areas of expertise …the conversations and connections I made during those 4 days in Oxford were amazing. So much so, I spent 10 hours on a flight back to Los Angeles …rethinking everything.

I don’t think experiences like this should be reserved for chance conversations in the hallway of conferences already scheduled. Nor do I think we can sustain our need for sharing stories and a connection with other via tweets or comments in a blog post.

As we go into the final stretch of 2009 with 2010 around the corner, a group of good people are inviting their friends to take themselves out of their day to day and connect in Hawaii.  The investors, entrepreneurs and companies who are invited will be sharing ideas that intersect technology, sustainability and entrepreneurship. Conversations will be sparked. Partnerships will form. Projects will develop.

When good people get together, great things happen.

Reader's Comments

1. 

   HI Christine
   Sounds very cool. Great idea. Excellent location. Have a blast.
   Joel
2. Joel on 02 Sep 2009 11:56 am