The conference began in earnest at 8:45 AM the morning after we arrived at midnight. There was a short opening ceremony with the top leadership of the Nippon Foundation which sponsored the overall event, and then the academic presentations began.
| On the first day of the conference, a Welcome Dinner was held at one of the dining rooms on the CUHK campus. It was an informal, low-key opportunity for the participants from different organizations and different countries to start getting to know each other. | |
| After the Welcome Dinner, all the participants sponsored by the Pre-College Education Network (P-CEN) had a meeting with Tommie Sarchet who explained the program for the conference and what P-CEN needed from the sponsored people at the conference. |  |
| The DDP and Krousar Thmey staff members who came to Hong Kong from Phnom Penh were intrigued by the skyline in Shatin, a new city built in the New Territories of Hong Kong in the last twenty-five years. They couldn't get over how all the people live in high-rise estates and not in single-family dwellings as in Cambodia. |  |
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An important part of each day was the tea breaks provided in the morning and afternoon. People were able to take a break from the concentration on successive technical topics and at the same time to meet and interact with other sign language professionals. |
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Ten or twelve presentations were made each day in the lecture hall but there were also poster presentations set up in the lobby area. Here one researcher explains his research that is summarized on the poster behind him. |
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Another important aspect of any professional gathering is the opportunity to ask questions of the presenters, to clarify different points or to ask about the methodology or unexplained findings. All the presentations and questions were in sign language and were a real challenge for the most highly qualified interpreters brought in for the conference because of the technical nature of the topics. |