Monday, November 26, 2007
Thank You all for the sweet birthday wishes
Thank You all for the sweet phone calls
Thank You all for the sweet surprises
Thank You all for the sweet birthday songs
Thank You all for the sweet presents
Lunch treat at Fish n Co' yesterday
Catching a movie was an impromtu decision
"Enchanted"
A super duper sweet sweet show with sweet sweet happily ever after-s and, sweet sweet forever and ever-s
After that of walking around talking craps and reminiscing about our secondary school days
I'm going for a getaway after SIP and it is in the process of planning!
Yippeee!
I'm sooooo looking forward to it lah!
3rd e-Journal!
24th ASEAN Senior Transport Officials Meeting and 13th ASEAN Transport Ministers Meeting was held on 29 November to 2 November at Raffles City Convention Centre. I was given the role of the Secretariat. Being the first time onsite, I was very excited and nervous at the same time. To be able to go onsite was what I had always been looking forward for since MP accepted me as intern. However, being the representative of MP and also being the only intern that was involved in this project, I was under a lot of pressure.
I had to take care of the Liaison Officers and make sure that everything in the Secretariat Room is neat and tidy. It ended up that everyone were coming to look for me for welcome packages for their delegations, for printing of placards for their delegations, for booking of meeting rooms, for issuing of walkie-talkies, for assistance in the photocopy machine, for answering the fax machine when it was a fax machine, for answering questions like, “why is this printer working so slow?”…etc… I was also the “Chief Usher”, as Angeline had put it. Thus, I got to be very familiar with the programme and be on standby to direct the delegations whenever they are moving from venue to venue. The bad thing was that I had to run around the Secretariat Room, LOs Rest Room, Delegates Internet Access Room and the different parts of RCCC. I was running around so much that the policemen at the checkpoints closed one eye and allowed me to run through the metal detectors and scanners. On the other hand, the good thing was that I got to know and meet a lot of people and soon, everyone knows me and I know everyone. I got to talk with different people from different backgrounds and organizations too.
From this on-site operation, I realized that even when there were proper planning with briefing, run down schedule, and administrative programmes, there will bound to be last minute changes during on-site. So, a lot of times we had to be very responsive to different situations that cropped up. That was when I learnt that in whatever situations that we faced, we as the event manager should be the last to get panic.
I had learnt that teamwork played an important role. Angeline being out of the box and Connie being in the box, Max (part-timer) and I were the only ones on par level and can only count on each other when something cropped up. There was this instant when Max had to take care of the reception, I came out to help look after the meeting rooms, and there was a situation over at the Registration Desk I could only count on him to cover for me while I run over to attend to the problem at the Registration Desk.
I also learnt that communication was especially important because we cannot conclude things based on our own assumptions. It’s only through communication then people can connect, and when people connect, ideas will flow, and when ideas flow, we are able to get things right and going and not dwelling at the problem.
After this long and tiring 5-day event, I was being put into another project, 2007 ASEAN Business and Investment Summit, held on 16 November to 18 November at Suntec SIngapore, which I was also involved in during the first three weeks until I was too heavily involved in STOM. I played a smaller role this time round. During the one week of preparation for the ASEAN-BIS, I was helping out with RSVP and the consolidation of security badges that will be sent for printing.
With the little experience I gained in STOM, I had a clearer picture of what to expect and what is expected from me. Of course, I was well prepared to be running around again. One consoling thing was that we get to stay in Marina Mandarin, which was just a few minutes walk to Suntec. Thus this meant that I need not wake up at 4am from home like what I did during the on-site for STOM. With Thida as my room-mate and the two of us as the only interns involved in ASEAN-BIS, we kept a look out for each other.
On Day 2, Connie had a personal emergency and had to rush off immediately. All of a sudden, I was left to handle a lot of issues by myself. Once again, putting on the “Event Manager” Badge, I will be representing MP and I had to be extremely careful when dealing with any sticky situations, which put me under pressure again. A lot of people were directed to me as I was the only one around the Organizer’s Office. People will come to tell me that the background was too loud, the lan connection was not working, they want to use the storeroom at the registration outside the hall etc…and my handphone number was always given to people and I will always receive phone calls for collection of orders from suppliers such as gifts, laptops, state rostrum…etc…By the end of Day 2, I was so physically drained already.
During ASEAN-BIS, I also had the opportunities to talk to a lot of people. It was nice sharing about what each other were doing and a little of each other’s background. I was given a lot of name cards during these two events and these contacts had increased my network of people around me and I am sure that these would help me a lot in future.
I had worked with different colleagues in the office and had a better idea of how they work and behave. I had also learnt how to manage situations where by I was sandwiched between two of my supervisors, which happened quite very often. It wasn’t easy but I learnt to be immune to the being-scolded-for-no-reason.
Through this internship, I realized that I am a person who likes a lot of interaction between people and value the bonds between people. When I first started in MP, everyone seemed to be only looking into their computer screens the whole day. I could not get used to sitting in front of the computer for 9 hours without talking to people. As days goes by, when I got closer to my working colleagues, I found out that there is “life” in the office. Through the two projects I was involved in, we went through a lot of late nights and hard work together, and bonds between us got closer. Now, we always go out for lunch and dinner as a group and there are more topics that we can talk about with one another. I also got closer with my own schoolmates, supporting one another when we are down mentally or physically or both, especially Thida, whom I seldom talk with back in school then, who sat beside me in the office and was also my room-mate during ASEAN-BIS.
I achieved my mid-term goals of meeting adults in real working situations and gaining experience in coping with the demands of work. I had also met my long term goals of developing good working relationships with my colleagues and understand my own needs in my workplace.
♥
11:55 PM
