Kevin Kwak's Blog

The online research still continues as I prepare for this year’s triathlon. My training schedule has not been finalized yet as I had other priority work that needed my time. I did though manage to find out the second triathlon I might register for depending on my physical condition by March. Why March? The registration for the Nautica Malibu Triathlon opens on March 2, 2009 online. And the race date is Sunday, September 20th, 2009. Funny thing is several years ago, I completed both my first and second marathon race in the very same year: 20th Los Angeles Marathon and 1st Las Vegas Marathon. I might as well complete my first and second triathlon this year too!

The Nautica Malibu Triathlon is sponsored by Toyota which is also one of the sponsors for the Los Angeles Triathlon. The triathlon is a half-mile ocean swim, an 18 mile out-and-back bike course, and a 4-mile run. The triathlon starts off at the beautiful Zuma beach, then you transition into biking where you get to ride on the pacific coast highway right next to the beautiful pacific ocean, and finally transition into the running course which is also on the pacific coast highway. How awesome is that! September will be nice and sunny.

The registration fee is $125 plus $10 for non-USAT (USA Triathlon) members. I was also looking into getting a full wetsuit for the triathlon races and the entry level wetsuit starts at around $150. So was a wetsuit really necessary and was wondering if I could also use it for surfing if I pick up in the future but unfortunately the material of triathlon wetsuit is too thin for surfing and diving as they can rupture or tear.

Can you believe how nice the weather is here in Southern California in this time of the year? I just love the sunny outdoors and can’t imagine living in the east coast because of the freezing weather. So I am staring outside at work and wishing how I could get in the car, go to the beach and ride a bike next to the pacific ocean.

I finally made the decision to physically train hard this year to participate in the 10th Anniversary Los Angeles Triathlon taking place in Venice Beach down to Los Angeles Downtown Nokia Theatre LA Live. I have high anticipation for this event as it is my first triathlon competition and the last time I participated in a high endurance sports was the 20th Los Angeles Marathon.

The Los Angeles Triathlon offers various categories (self-explanatory) for its competitions:

Individual-Olympic Distance
Individual-Sprint Distance
Relays (sprint and olympic)
Professional
Elite Amateur-Olympic Distance
Collegiate
High School Student
Bike Event Only

I am signing up for the Individual-Sprint Distance. The difference between Olympic and the Sprint Distance is the distances. Sprint triathlon consists of 0.47 mile swim, 12.4 miles bicycling, and 3.1 miles running. The Olympic is twice the distance of the Sprint triathlon (0.93 mile, 24.8 miles bicycling, 6.2 miles running).

Since this will be my first attempt to complete this high endurance physical sports, I been perusing the internet for every useful information: beginner’s training, nutrition, training schedule, and the right equipments. Speaking of equipments, this is not a cheap sports to partake as I will lay down the estimated costs to completing the Sprint triathlon.

Registration fee = $150
Wetsuit = $100-200
Bicycle = $300-500
Bicycle Helmet = $50
Running Shoes = $100
Sun Glasses/Cap = $100
GPS/Heart Monitor/Watch = $200
Training Book = $20
Food and Supplement Nutrients = N/A

I don’t know if I want to invest in all the above items because I may not continue this sports after 2009 but who knows, they say you get hooked on it after your first triathlon. This is a rough estimate and who knows how much the food alone would costs. Triathletes must have proper nutrition and we eat a lot throughout the training days. A wetsuit is optional but the majority do use one to trim down their time. The temperature in the month of October may be a bit too chilly though to swim shirtless so there is a slight chance that I need to pick one up and if I do, I can happily use it for surfing and other ocean activities in the future.

Being a neophyte, the swimming aspect is most frightening because I have not experienced ocean swimming for half a mile straight. Better start on those calf and hamstring stretches because I sure don’t want leg cramps in the middle of the ocean swimming.

My brother has been volunteering for the Kollaboration non-profit organization for many months and one of his responsibilities is to get the word out. The volunteers and staffs are preparing countless hours to bring this yet another soon to be SOLD-OUT event for the Los Angeles people.

Saturday, February 21, 2009 at the Shrine Auditorium
Singers, comedians, dancers, rappers, poets, musicians, videos, celebrity guests, celebrity judges, and much more. Our flagship show in Los Angeles this coming February will be an electrifying experience.
Tickets to our 2008 show at the Orpheum sold out weeks before the show.
www.kollaboration.org

Kollaboration have been very active in promoting the non-profit organizations through this exciting and memorable events in different parts of the United States. Kollaboration events are being held in major cities like Los Angeles (CA), Chicago (IL), New York (NY), Toronto (ON, Canada), Atlanta (GA), and Washington D.C.

Each and every year, Kollaboration tickets are sold out sooner than you think. The event is two months away from today so be sure to order and reserve your tickets soon as possible. The ticket price also includes a Kollaboration Acoustic CD!
http://www.kollaboration.org/Tickets/Los-Angeles/PK-Tickets.html. I have not gone to one of the past Kollaboration but I might have to look forward to this. See you at the Shrine Auditorium!

There is a fairly new grocery market near my neighborhood and I visited several times so far. I wasn’t aware of the market and according to wikipedia, Fresh & Easy Market “is a subsidiary of the UK-based retailer Tesco, the world’s fourth largest retailer, and is Tesco’s attempt to expand into the United States.”

I went to check out the market after receiving one of their flyers in the mail. The flyer contained a perforated coupon discounting five dollars if you spend more than $20. The building is a stand alone retail building with about 50 parking spaces or so. It is located on a high traffic street a block to another grocery market and few restaurants. The building is not adjacent to any other retail building. The one I went to was next to a Chevron gasoline station.

The first thing I notice upon entering the store is that all the checkout lanes were self service. Neat idea, saves the company money. I usually go in a market, grab only the things I need and head out but I did go through each lanes at Fresh and Easy. More than 50% of their product carry the Fresh and Easy label. The vegetables, fruits, dairies (milk, cheese, ice cream), microwaveable food, meat, condiments, etc. are Fresh and Easy labeled and are very fresh.

Fresh and Easy put great emphasis in freshness and green. Their labeled products prominently displays the expiration date and when the product is a day or two away from its expiration, a Fresh & Easy paste a 50% off sticker on its label. I picked up a few microwaveable food that evening.

An interesting marketing strategy that Fresh and Easy depends on is their $5 coupon. For the business to maintain its positive cashflow, it needs to bring in the new and repeat customers and the coupon would eventually convert these customers to become a loyal customer. But personally, I would not shop at Fresh & Easy unless I was near the market and am carrying in one of the coupon. I find their food a bit on the high price compared to the big guys but you can certainly find some items at a reasonable price. But I find myself heading there twice a month when I have those coupons with me, and the last visit there, one of the employee was passing out those coupons when customers were checking out their bags. I guess the business is a little slow especially in today’s economy.

I returned from the Overseas Korean Traders Association’s (OKTA) two-nights three-days trade workshop and the program was well planned and executed despite it being only in its fifth year. Former OKTAJR’s graduates, staffs, and the directors worked long hours six months ahead of the program for the trade shows’ preparation. The guest speakers, import/export trade workshops, business plan case studies, and activities were well incorporated into the program layout. I greatly appreciate the founders, directors, staffs, sponsors, and all the contributors that have made this program a success for the Korean-American entrepreneurs.

The trade workshop took place in the Wilshire Plaza Hotel (Koreatown’s central business district) as mentioned in the previous OKTASC entry. Each year, OKTAJR accepts a maximum of 50 participants to the program. OKTA could invite more participants but then there would be issues with overcrowding and lessening the effectiveness of networking and the workshops. Perhaps OKTA’s annual budget could not accommodate additional participants.

Speaking of budget, OKTA fortunately attracts successful businesses for the program’s sponsorship. Without their sponsorships and support, OKTA would face many challenges coming up with the funds necessary for the program’s expenses; hotel accommodations, meals, program materials, great speakers, field trips, and lot more. To show my appreciation for the numerous sponsors, here is the list of OKTAJR’s sponsors:

GOLD Sponsors
Royal Imex Inc., Everest (Bags), Wilshire State Bank, Dura Coat Products Inc., Group Win (Golf)

SILVER Sponsors
Center Bank, KNA Memorial Hall, ENS Tradings Inc., Hite Jinro, Wilshire Plaza Hotel Los Angeles, Lotte Hotel LA Office

BRONZE Sponsors
Hanmi Bank, Nara Bank, Flexfit LLC, Asiana Airline, KCC Transport Systems Inc., J 2 Group Inc., Commonwealth Bank, eWaste Center Inc., Sunrise Distribution USA Inc., Mantis Technologies, Contempo Inc., Ameriko Inc., Da Se In America Inc., UPS, Woo Ri Sool, Khan Soju, Boo Chang Do Tofu House, Best Western Palm Resort, DreamLife, SinJin America, Kyungmin Trading Corp., Damo Clothing Inc., DNH Management Co., Aries Trading, S&S Inc., Has Been Limited, Summit Wholesale, Leeway Global, WooJin Trading Inc., Elite Golf, Hannam Market, Nanowell, Uniti Bank, TaeYang Airline

OKTA 2007 Trade Workshop DVD Part 1/2

OKTA 2007 Trade Workshop DVD Part 2/2

Networking
OKTAJR emphasized heavily on networking, and after all this was a business workshop where communications between a buyer and a seller (importer/exporter, company/end-user, etc.) is the principle of trading. Since this was run by the Overseas Korean Traders Association of ‘Southern California’ (OKTASC), the majority of the participants worked and lived in the Los Angeles County and a very few were from a different county and state. Like all other networking events I attended, I was very impressed at the different backgrounds of the participants. Within my own team were outstanding people with interesting backgrounds from different walks of life. Through this trade workshop, I had the privilege to work with them for three days.

The age range was wider than I expected. The youngest member was 18 years old (sophomore in college) and the oldest member may have been in her/his late 30s. Overseas Korean Traders Association Junior (OKTAJR) of course do not discriminate against age; accepting applicants both young and mature, the age differences only encouraged a diverse networking opportunity combining fresh ideas from all participants.

The diversity was present not only in the age range but also in cultural views. The English language was not as prominent as I thought it would be. For instance, my group used Korean most of the times and though I am fluent in Korean conversations, my Korean vocabularies were limited compared to my team mates. One of the member lived and worked in South Korea most of his life but immigrated to the United States for his Masters of Business Administration studies at UCLA. He is in consulting and by listening in to his conversations, you knew he was an expert in his field. A young man learning about the Korean-American lifestyles and cultural point of views had many inputs and opinions on the cultural differences. I was fortunate enough to pick his brain and learn more about the Korean business culture. Did I mention that I really want to improve on my Korean?

Field Trips
Our class got a chance to see a full-scale apparel manufacturing company in Los Angeles (South Gate). Koos Manufacturing, Inc. is a successful jean manufacturer that employs around 700 employees as of year 2007. Koos not only manufactures high-end denim jeans, the company also has the entire business operation working under one roof: fashion designing, payroll, marketing and sales, and distributions. Excellent operation management if you ask me because not many apparel manufacturers have the entire operations working under one location. After the assembly line tour, we asked lot of questions on its success. For your information, competition is very fierce in Los Angeles and the profit margin is very thin in the textile industry but Koos Manufacturing, Inc. continues to thrive and do very well annually.

Koos Manufacturing, Inc.
2741 Seminole Ave.,South Gate, CA 90280
323-564-2100
www.koos.com

The next tour site was the Korean National Association Memorial Hall located near the University of Southern California (USC) campus. I encourage all Korean-Americans to visit the KNA Memorial Hall and spend a good hour or two reading the articles and exhibits beautifully displayed, and also check out their website to learn about the non-profit organization in details. Admission is free. Operating hours are Monday through Saturday 10AM to 4PM and Sunday is closed.

Korean National Association Memorial Hall
1368 W. Jefferson Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90007
323-733-7350
www.knahall.org

I highly recommend this trade workshop. Visit OKTAJr’s website for more information.