A Forum to Remember...

Last week I was in Sofitel Resort in JB attending the division technical forum from 14-15 August 2007. I was also one of the organising committee members for this forum and my main responsibility was to call for paper writers as well as to help the committee chairman in ensuring the forum will run smoothly. Luckily the chairman himelf is a very committed man and he basically drove and motivated everybody to ensure the event will be a success. With fully committed committee members, alhamdullilah, we managed the event very well and we were also able to get 23 technical papers to be presented in the forum. The level of commitment showed by the committee members was really outstanding. We were willing to stayed late and sometimes until 10PM at night at the office just to ensure every minute detail on the preparation has been covered. Nonetheless, our hard work was basically paid off by the similar commitment shown by the VP of the division who was present through out the whole forum. I also think that he took the opportunity to learn more about the division and also related technical issues that may be new to him. Our SGM was also there and I could tell that she was very happy with the forum judging from her smile and beaming face at the end of the event.



I did not present any paper in this forum. However, I let two of my subordinates to present the papers so that they can learn how to speak in front of the public audience and also to learn the skill in answering questions diplomatically. To me this type of event is very good to publicise oneself and also to find opportunities to network with other paper presenters and participants.



As for me, I have written more than 20 papers since I started working with the company. While I was completing my PhD, I wrote at least 5 technical papers and presented them at many conferences from Paris, Chicago, Bangkok, and also locally. My supervisor really made me work for my PhD but only now that I realise that my journey towards completing the study was worth every mile.



Although in general the forum was a success, I regretted the fact that we have nine missing participants. For whatever the reason, the least they could do was to inform the organiser and we could replace them with others. So much said. This is still the dominant culture of Malaysia. I guess we just have to bear with it for time to come...