10.5.2025 Saturday - good summing up

 Sometimes things turns out well quite by accident. 

About a month ago, we received news that one of our speakers could not take part in our design forum. This was further complicated by the change of timing for the launching by the Dep. Premier of Sarawak.

SO we had to change the 2-day programme - the local speaker always presents first so Nick remained where he was. We decided to move all the speakers from large companies (and also coincidentally not selected by me) to the first day - Ryan and MaYue were from the same company but were given extra time to present, stretching the morning sessions till lunch time. David anchored the afternoon session until the Dep. Premier arrived. We also decided on the day to move the Q&A to Day 2 so that we had all 8 speakers on stage. 

Day 2 speakers were from smaller firms, and the audience is more able to relate to their projects, I recall deliberately putting Yu Chih as the last speaker because I felt that his projects have a feel-good vibe about it and is a good way to end the forum. Kok Ming must have felt that as well, as he gave Yu-Chih the chance to give the final word - to give advise to the small and up coming firms in the audience. 

In summary, he tells his student to have the courage to do what is needed, and if  their proposal is not accepted, it might not be a mistake, it is simply not right for this moment. He tells his students to go out and find their clients, there is a project out there. Similarly MaYue advises the long view, that things do not succeed overnight, and have to be constantly reviewed for improvement. 

a conversation with Si Yong two weeks before the forum

 

closing minutes of the forum - Narein (speaking) David Chen, Ryan Brooker (hidden from view), Yu-Chih, Kok Ming, Willis, Chih Wen, Nick Ling, Ma Yue.

30th June 2023 Friday a very productive lunch

Si Yong and I decided to have lunch to discuss the way forward with PDF2023, our little design festival in November. We had many of the loose ends stitched up; speakers and moderators getting signed up, venue confirmed, sponsors lined up, format and time table decided. What we need to do next was to identify the people to manage the components of the festival, SY and I will manage the overall structure and pace of the festival, individual events will be managed by team leaders; the Urban Installation by Tay's team, the Forum by my team, sponsors by SY and so forth. 

We waited for Pik Shia to order her meal before launching the question/ request - can you manage the trade expo? Aiya, cannot la, I'm very busy, what's involved? when is the event again? Over the span of one sentence, she declined, resisted, explained, queried and seemed to agree. By the time her meal arrived, she was making plans about who to involve and how to plan and delegate.

We then talked about the education aspect of the festival. We have had student exhibitions, and workshops before, and were looking for a new team to plan and manage this. I thought of a young couple I met during a university crit, I rang them, they offered to drop by at our lunch. After understanding the format, they agreed to head this section of the festival. 

I thought that this was a very productive lunch, and mentioned this to SY. People are naturally attracted to successful teams but what's more attractive is the freedom to express themselves, implement their own ideas and be acknowledged for their work.