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By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Honolulu businesswoman and publisher Janis Koh found
that a brief encounter in Kona led to a new career as a consultant
to the Korean government on disaster management technology.

Timing was right for
disaster planning

---

By Suzanne Tswei
Star-Bulletin

The Koreans have a saying for what happened to Janis Koh: "Guienul manada," which means meeting the perfect person.

Three years ago, Koh met Dr. Byung-soo Kim, president of Yonsei University, an institution known for producing Korea's leaders in medicine and engineering.

The meeting was brief. The two shook hands, and exchanged polite greetings and business cards after Koh delivered a welcome address on behalf of the state to a gathering of Yonsei alumni in Kona.

"I took his business card and put it away without thinking much about it. It was just one of those things: You meet somebody and take their business card and never think anything is going to come of it," Koh said.

That short meeting has given the Honolulu businesswoman and publisher of a Korean-language tourist magazine a new career -- as a consultant to the Korean government on disaster management technology. In turn, her good fortune recently led to Korea choosing Hawaii as the site of annual conferences and training on disaster management.

"I guess you can say meeting the right person -- or in this case, the perfect person -- really made a difference," Koh said.

Flood devastation

Koh was positive Kim would remember her as she was preparing to go to Korea in 1998 to help market Hawaii's health care services and expertise. But she wasn't sure he'd have time to see the Hawaii delegation.

"As it turned out, the timing was right," said Bernice Bowers, who headed the Hawaii delegation. "The day before we arrived, there was a big flood -- when it rains in China, it floods in Korea. A lot of people were dead. It was a big disaster."

Rains sweeping in from China caused flooding that killed more than 200 people. The disaster focused national attention on the chronic natural disasters plaguing Korea.

Koh called Kim after she arrived at her hotel, and to her happy surprise, Kim agreed to see the Hawaii delegation the next day.

"When Janis told me she had a contact in Korea, I was really happy. When she said he's the head of a prestigious university, I was even happier. But I never thought we could get a meeting that fast," Bowers said.

And it only got better. After listening to Bower's presentation on Hawaii's capabilities in dealing with emergencies, Kim arranged an immediate meeting for them with Korea's newly appointed coordinator for disaster response and flood management, Dr. Woncheol Cho.

Cho, a Yonsei University alumnus, sent his personal car for the two women, and about 20 minutes later they were in his office telling him what Hawaii had to offer.

Seized an opportunity

The meeting went well. Cho clearly was interested in civil defense matters, such as inter-agency coordination, weather prediction and telecommunication infrastructure, Bowers said.

Then it got even better. Because of Korea's economic problems, many companies hoping to sell health and emergency care products pulled out of a trade show at the last minute.

"So the next day, at the show, the American pavilion became the Hawaii pavilion," Bowers said. "We kind of just spread out and took over. It became our show, and as a result we had a lot of visitors."

A competitor came to visit the Hawaii display and ended up giving them pointers about whom to see and how to market Hawaii's services. The women learned that many countries and companies have been trying to sell sophisticated equipment to Korea, but no one pitched an integrated system to provide emergency health care, weather prediction, flood-plain mapping and other methods of managing disasters.

"After we returned to Hawaii, we worked on getting information to them," Bowers said. "Our role was not to sell a particular product, or push a particular company. Our role was to conduct research for the Korean government to help them come up with a better, long-range system for disaster relief."

Their position as independent consultants has helped them gain the trust of Korean officials, both women said. (Bowers is an executive at the Pacific Basin Economic Council but works on the Korea project on her own time.)

"I think being independent is important in this case," said Koh, a Korean native who has lived in America for 23 years and is a naturalized citizen. "We always put their interest first. We want them to succeed. I think they know they can trust what we tell them."