I was happy that I am able to be part of history, by participating in the Southern Ridges Canopy Walk 2009, on the 11th July, starting from Mount Faber Park to Hort Park, a short leisure community walk in the morning organised by Australian Alumni Singapore, coming forward to plan this event and uniting different alumni together, walking, interacting and networking together. For a photojournalistic perspective of the walk, do drop by my photo blog and for photos of the event itself, drop by my Flickr !
This event was a major event that was completed within 2 months, I had the opportunity to step forward to help and volunteer my time and services, representing UQAAS, the University of Queensland Alumni Association Singapore. This 2 months of meetings and planning was a great learning experience for me, by interacting with different people of different backgrounds, ages, experiences, coming together for a common purpose – To create history, unite the various universities alumni from Australia for a walk at the Southern Ridges.
In these 2 months, I learned many things, invaluable experiences, new friendships, new networks and relationships. Some of the macro experiences were :
– Organising event on the community level, what are the constraints, events and legal requirements for running public events
– How to work with total strangers on the first meeting to become good friends at the end of everything
– Tapping on different people experiences and networks
– How to raise sponsorship for community events
– Planning and execution
– Leadership and Decision-Making
– Managing expectations and differences in opinions
– Being Focus
That was ONE key lesson that I would bring back – How to believe in yourself and everybody and the objectives that were being planned in the midst of others believing that you will fail. Not giving up, continuing and working smart and hard, ultimately enjoying the fruits of our labour and event success.
These learning experiences were so priceless, not something that working in the corporate environment might or would give to you, it’s something that is invaluable to learning entrepreneurship and mentoring.