End of The Road

Hi!

It has been arguably the busiest week of my internship. Two big events, a host of things to prepare and follow up from the event, and a tired, but satisfied me.

Week began frantically on Monday as i was assisting my colleague in preparing for the association's Annual General Meeting on Tuesday. From "chasing" and reminding participants to attend the meeting, to obtain the necessary documents and paperwork for the event, to liaising with the various departments such as Corporate Communications, Management and other departments and staff who will be involved in the event, it was one of those period where you really wished you had more than 24 hrs in a day. Somehow though, we managed to rush everything in time (RSVP, confirmation notes, follow-up calls, briefing, co-ordination, etc etc.

Our 25th Annual General Meeting went by smoothly and without much of a hitch (much to our pleasure, and relief). Mr Chan from Goodrich Global was confirmed as the new president of the association out of the AGM and the new executive council was introduced to the attending members present.

But before we could get any rest bite, a quick check at the schedule reminded us that just 2 days after the AGM, there was a charity movie event organised by my department coming up soon. So shortly after clearing the AGM, it was straight back to work for us in repeating almost the same routine (RSVP, confirmation notes, follow-up calls, etc.) Only difference this time was that since the event was to be held outside, a lot of effort and co-ordination was required by my colleague in preparing the logistics for the event.

Before i rant on and on about the dry details of preparing for the event, the event is actually held together with the Singapore Children's Society to raise funds for the society and needy children. Theme of the event was firstly, an art exhibition at the LUXE art museum followed by a movie screening "Margin Call" at the Cathay cinema next door.

Event day arrived and I was tasked with registration along with my colleague. Registration might seem like a simple task but believe me when it gets crowded with people filling up at the registration booth, chances are you would tend to get nervous (especially when there are VIPs or well-known people in the queue). I've learnt that keeping things simple and remaining calm while being polite would help greatly in handling such situations.

On a lighter note, here's a pic of my colleague from Corporate Communications Department, Kumudha. We often work closely with Corporate Communications for a variety of tasks by the way.



(Note how well her outfit blends with the art piece in the background. We jokingly referred her as the theme on which the art piece was drawn for.)

The event then went out without much hiccups (thank goodness) with speeches from Mr Chan and the Singapore Children Society as attendees also proceeded to mingle and network with one another while waiting for the movie screening. When the time arrived, we ushered the attendees and guided them to the respective cinemas for the movie screening. (Movie shown for that night was "Margin Call", a Wall Street Financial Thriller).

And before i knew it, my internship period was almost over. Time goes by in an blink of an eye! Its been a month since I've started on my internship and before i know it, we've reached the end of my internship period. Perhaps one reason why time flew by so quickly was due to the fact that my weeks were mainly packed with activities during this period. It's been hectic at times, but certainly an enjoyable journey. My journey with ASME doesn't end here though, for I shall be continuing with the association as a full time staff. I am certainly confident that my time as an intern here will prove to be useful for me in my full time role moving forward.

Signing off,
Nick Chia

Gala, Gala Night!

Hi All!

Been about 2 weeks since i last posted updates and what an eventful 2 weeks it has been. Those who have been following my posts would know how i sort of lamented about the mundane tasks I've been assigned to do in the past, not for this past two weeks.

To start off, I've been busy helping my colleague with an important upcoming event which is our 25th Annual General Meeting. For reasons of non-disclosure, I would not be able to disclose too much about the event itself, but as I've discussed in my previous post, getting involved in the preparations of an event, especially a large-scale or important one definitely requires much more effort than simply turning up and being involved in the event on the day itself as a staff. Almost every detail of the event itself falls under the team's responsibility. RSVPs, Co-ordination with the other departments, assigning of roles to other staff, etc etc. Being involved in the preparation work for such events has certainly allowed me to appreciate the efforts and difficulties of event professionals and staff.

Despite the work and effort required, the end result(s) of a successful event (particularly a large-scale one) is immensely rewarding as highlighted by the recently concluded Singapore Prestige Brand Award (SPBA), which was co-organised by ASME and Lianhe Zaobao, almost the entire ASME staff were involved on the gala dinner night itself and since this was the 10th edition of the awards, it was naturally more grand than usual and involved more work as compared with previous editions (so I was told).

Our day begin at 9am with the packaging of the goodie bags and this was the physically most exhausting and labourious phase of the day. I've never seen a goodie bag that is packed with this many items before in my life, I'll let the pictures do the explaining (there were 850 goodie bags packed by the way).

(Hard at Work: Packing the 850 goodie bags for the event and guests)

(There were 24 items in each goodie bag and while i didn't weigh the completed bag itself, it probably weighed at least 10kgs each, no exaggeration!)

After spending nearly 6-7 hours just to finish with the packing of the goodie bags, we were finally on stand by for the main event itself. My first exciting and perhaps surprising encounter at the event came while i was directing attendees for the dinner at the entrance. I saw a familiar looking face, it was Dr Tan Cheng Bock, presidential candidate in the recent presidential elections along with his wife attending the event on behalf of a company. This came as quite a surprise to me as his name wasn't on the VIP list and i wasn't expecting him to attend. I approached him and directed to the event and true to his image, he was humble and polite while thanking me for my help, seems like a real nice person, no airs about him whatsoever.

(The sign which greeted all the guest entering the ballroom)

The event and dinner then proceeded at around 7.30pm with guest of honour Mr Tharman, Deputy Prime Minister (as well as minister for finance and manpower) making his way in at around 7.45pm and the event lasted all the way till around 1030-1045pm. In the midst of all that I was doing a host of thing from registration to lining up prize winners to distributing trophy boxes. Tiring, but satisfying and well worth the effort. Besides, other than the experience in such an event, we were also given a half day off the next morning! Yeah!

(Taken at around 4pm, 3 hours before the event started proper, note the staff from the events company setting up various equipment and settings)

But that wasn't the end of the week though, as the next afternoon we were once again back at work busy preparing for not one but two big events coming up next week: our 25th Annual General Meeting and a Charity Movie Night event. Stay tuned as I'll blog about it next week after the events ^_^

Signing off,

Nick

"Calm Blue Ocean, Calm Blue Ocean"

Been a quiet week at work (last week). Been confined to my work station (desk, cell, jail? refer to previous post) mostly for the entire week bar lunch and the occasional toilet break or breaks for tea. And before you perceive this as easy, mundane tasks, I've not been doing nothing and rotting at work or taking naps while getting paid (which is something i am pretty sure we all would love to do), its just that most of my duties for the week has been desk and office bound.

Well to start the week, it was mostly slow given that i was mostly doing ad-hoc and administrative duties for my mentors to relieve them off their workload. I know some might view "ad-hoc" and "administrative" work as mostly mundane or nonsensical chores, but they are important. It must be done in a correct, professional and hopefully efficient manner. The phrase "learn to walk before you run" certainly applies here. Doing these seemingly mundane but mandatory tasks shapes one's discipline and basics in performing future roles. And thankfully i had this little fella to company me through these tough times..

(Painful sitting position in the 2nd picture, note the other little guy in the background, can't remember all the names of these cartoon or toy characters, don't think they are famous anyway)

My week got a little more interesting and spicy in the latter half when i started to dabble with Media Monitoring. Since I've never done this before in a work environment in my previous jobs, I was looking forward to this task with some enthusiasm and to try something different from the repetitive things that i was performing in the past few days. I cheerfully went to grab the newspapers from the corporate communications department and sort to split the workload with one of my senior. There was just one minor problem though after we had split the workload, I realised that she had quickly taken all the English newspapers while leaving me with the Chinese ones to do media monitoring (since both of us would rather read in english, smart move by her). And while not exactly ideal, I thus began my first ever media monitoring task with Chinese as the medium language.

(One of the newspaper which i was working with for Media Monitoring. For the curious Non-Chinese reading you, headline in red reads "Civil Servants to get a reduce year-end bonus compared to last year")

So i basically looked through the news for the past 3-4 days and scanned any relevant ones to the association. That task alone took me 3 hours or more, please do not ever believe anyone who says that Media Monitoring is a simple, mundane task that can be completed in a matter of minutes, whoever said that, is either really competent/experienced or an outright liar. Media Monitoring requires much more work and concentration then one initially expects. And oh, on a sidenote, while browsing through the Chinese Newspapers, i also noticed there's a lot on business news and news about the China economy. It seems that Chinese papers have a tendency to focus more on economic news and news on China, more so it seems than the local English papers which has a more diverse coverage including sports, social news, etc.

On a positive note, i ended the week with a briefing on an upcoming event in detail. Note from my first posting that i was INVOLVED in an event on the day itself, now i am being briefed on the PREPARATION works on an upcoming event. Please never mix up the two, it takes much much more work to PREPARE for an event then to merely show up on the day itself and be INVOLVED in it. Did learn quite a bit from the briefing though, senior was nice and patiently explained the various process and procedures that needs to be done for the event as well as what various liaising personnel that will need to be contacted to make things happen for the PREPARATION of the event. Patience is really needed in training a newbie like me for such tasks. I really appreciate and would like the thank my 3 seniors and supervisor for being so patient with me (something you might not get to experience in a realistic and sometimes cruel working environment these days)

Next week, I'll be dabbling with EDM blasts and other preparation works for other events as well. After a slow start to the week, it seems that the year-end peak period really is here and I can't wait to find out how the new working week would turn out to be as i foresee many opportunities to learn and experience new things. Stay tuned! (If you managed to stay awake after reading this wall of text)

Signing off,

Nick Chia

Curtin Singapore

Baptism of Fire?

Finally managed to obtain access to start blogging. Shall start with my activities last week to make up for loss time and the fact that this week isn't over of course.

Was actively searching for positions around, both through my peers, contacts as well as through online sites and portals when I was finally offered a position at ASME (Association of Small and Medium Enterprises) for an internship of a month.

I was warmly greeted by my colleagues to-be and assigned a mentor on my first day of work. Since they all seemed pretty busy (which job isn't these days?) and I was new to the job, I was basically assigned the task to read up on the organisation, its activities, council members, etc. and tasked to learn more about the organisation and what they offer and do. For the uninitiated, ASME is a not-for-profit organisation that caters to serve to the needs of small and medium enterprises (particularly local ones) and champions for a pro-enterprise environment in Singapore. Various activities that it conducts includes Business Networking events, Award Shows (Entrepreneur of the Year Award, Singapore Prestige Brand Award), Public-Private collaborations (dialogue sessions, talks with/by government agencies), etc. For more info, please visit http://www.asme.org.sg . I shall stop my advertisement of ASME here. I was also assigned to my desk where I shall work from for the foreseeable future.

(Cubicle? Work Station? Work Desk? Cell? Jail?)

Moving on, what seemed like an uneventful day suddenly changed 180 degrees as I learnt from my mentor that I shall be following the team on my 2nd day to an event! And instead of feeling upset (as a small minority would) or nervous (as a good majority would), I felt happy and excited that I would be exposed to such an event so early on in my internship (and an opportunity to get away from often dry administrative or office duties).

The event turns out to be a talk held at the old SPRING Singapore building (which happens to be near our office) involving SME business owners on the topic of "Workplace Health Promotion", Speakers focused on talking about government initiatives to help SME owners in improving health, fitness and work-life balance at their organisations with schemes and grants as well as talking about general statistics, facts and figures regarding the issue. We thought it would be a good idea to sit through the talk and find out more, but it turned out to be a mistake as other than the first speaker, the rest of the speaker were erm.. not quite inspiring to say the least.

But our job there wasn't just to listen to the speakers and the talk, our main goal there was to set camp and reach out to as many SME owners as possible attending the event to learn more about ASME and reach out to them. So just to prove that we weren't lazing around, here's "evidence" of us in action:

(Our booth at the event. Lady on the rightmost is my mentor, a (so-far) patient lady by the name of Eslyn)

Most of the business owners and attendees that we met there mostly gave us a positive response which is kinda surprising as one would reasonably expect cold responses from one being approached by a stranger trying to "push" or "sell" you things. Perhaps is due to the fact that we are ostensibly a non-for-profit organisation that is mainly there to help SME organisations rather than sell them products or services that they have little need for. I managed to speak to quite a few business owners, some of whom showed interest in joining us as members and participate in our community.

I wouldn't say that my first few days on the job has exactly been a dream job that most would die for, but at least it involved events and some other exciting learning activities or experience that one wouldn't get from a strictly office-based job. Might also get to dabble with more PR-related stuff such as media monitoring next week (as I saw my mentor doing it in the office). If that's the case, I look forward to the next working week with enthusiasm and looking to experience and learn more new things about the organisation, PR-related things and the industry as a whole.

Signing off,

Nick Chia

Curtin Singapore