Ripples personal sharing - @ Style...

Ripples Conference in Hong Kong! My long awaited first overseas conference, the planning for attending this conference had began during the last exam session where I drafted my application in a rash to submit while still studying. Then after, during the NLDS, my expectation had heighten, seeing so many delegates experienced the impact of wonderfully planned. The fun factor raised when I mentioned that that I was going for this conference and further 9 delegates were pulled in, through indirect influence.

Around another 2 weeks of planning resulted from this since there were now 10 delegates in total. Booking of air flights and accomodation happened over the Christmas season. Everything ended by then on 21th Jan, the delegates of 10 are on their way abroad for their first overseas conference.

Arriving in HKU, my first enpowering session was on the Culture of Execellence by Nadya. Nadya talked about the story behind CoE, what the Culture of Excellence is all about - which happens not to be the Culture of snobs or culture of perfection. It's about creating the culture that values the striving for excellence - and I think that rocks.

Later in evening, we had barbarque, Hong Kong style; simple saying, it's just BBQing in the cool weather of 14 - 20 degrees, which really made BBQ less of a hassle since you don't have to sweat and sweat like in Singapore's weather - rather it's the opposite since you are trying to get some warmth from the pit.

On the 2nd day, the topic is on Corporate and Social Responsibility. We had some sharing from @ers of the different regions - Hong Kong, China and Taiwan talking about the CSR from different points of views. External speakers such as the Dr Yeung, CEO of Glorious Sun Group and Mr Bernard Chan, member of legislative council - my thoughts then : "Man, how do they get such prominent figures in Hong Kong to sponser and to come and give a talk." - came to share what CSR is to them and what they are doing to encourage CSR.

In the evening, we are divided up into 3 groups to explore the beauty in the different areas in Hong Kong. I went to Mong Kok where we get to see up close what really defines Hong Kong - the mini buses, the night market and the food. Food stalls by the side are serving all sorts of food from smelly tofu, fishballs which are different from the kind in Singapore, fried pig instestinals, etc. The variety is really amazing. My group got to dine in one of the local food stall where we are endulge in more food culture exchange.

On the 3rd day was mainly about entrepreneuship. we got to hear from some great speakers as well as engaging with entrepreneurs who came to share with us their experience. It was one of the highlight of the Conference, since the speakers are really infectious with their passion. I get to hear from Ms Belle, founder of BeansBox - a website design company. Belle shared her journey with us, telling us why she had started off to get into this line despite being trained as a lawyer. As well as the difficulties that she faced from family and friends during the start. She ended off her passionate talk by advicing us to find our dream and follow it.

In the evening, we explored into the politics of the Greater China Region where we talked about corruption. Not what I expected though, I would expect something more provocative such as unification of China, still I had better understanding about the corruption scene in the region.

The highlight of the evening is the @red party, all of us are dressed in red. We had the usual sculling games and as well as an "interesting" fashion show by all the participants and followed by lots of @ dancing - there's this great dance by Taiwan Delegates with the song "Huo Yuan Jia" which I didn't managed to tape down - still looking for it though.

The last day which we had simulation of what we had learned in the last 3days and the closing plenary for the conference.

What I can conclude from my learning experience is - "A short 8 days yet a huge impact" All sort of new experience came in during this conference - pre-conference organising, talking in Cantonese wherever I go, the different lifestyle, different culture, different thoughts, new network of friends, etc.

Two question that I should pose to all before I end : If you haven't been to an international conference, what's stopping you to know more about AIESEC, stopping you to learn more about the different cultures, stopping you to make new overseas friends. If there ain't, what are you waiting for?