Some student volunteers and I
I don't know if any of my colleagues feel the same way, but I miss the Congress (if you are reading this, A, you must be thinking 'you siao arh, you'). It's a little hard to believe that the big event we spent months and months planning for is finally over and done with. In fact, I feel a little lost during these post-Congress times. Allow me to recount how our most important event of the year went:
Our Congress is a 2 day event, attended by a thousand or so participants, both international and local. The media was there too. A BIG event as you can see.
Day 1 is the more nerve-racking of the 2. For my manager, it was ensuring that the inaugural HR Walk, arrival of the guest-of-honour (a Minister) and the signing of the MOUs went without a hitch. For me, it was speaker management. Come afternoon, it was my time to shine, because that's when the many concurrent sessions take place and I'm in charge of ensuring that they start smoothly.
To get an idea of what I had to do, I invite you to step into my shoes (high-heeled, black, bought from Bata). Then get running from room to room, poking your head in to check if all the equipment is working fine. While you're there, brief the student volunteers and staff members on what they should do. If you see a speaker, smile, introduce yourself as Speaker Liaison Officer, shake hands and enquire if there's anything they might need for their session. All the while your phone is ringing, with people trying to contact you about all sorts of things. "YY, XXX is here, please receive him". "YY! Come over, we need help" "YY, did you do this?" "YY, what do we do if XXX happens?"
I tell you, it's no easy task trying to manage 12 speakers, staff volunteers and student volunteers in an afternoon. Besides managing people, there are also screw-ups to manage. There was a rather bad one at about 3pm, the details of which I won't go into, except to say that it resulted in an ugly scene.
So that was Day 1 to you, crazy and super kan-cheong, for all of us especially me, A and F.
Day 2, thankfully, was much less stressful. It's true that what doesn't kill you can only make you stronger. Having survived the madness of Day 1, I was more confident and tougher when Day 2 came round. Also, there were no big screw-ups like yesterday, only minor hiccups that I was able to handle. The Day 2 sessions went rather smoothly and I was able to relax more. There were even some comic moments. Once, I was running while making my rounds when I spotted my manager and a speaker. Immediately, I stopped to greet them..... and the shoe I was wearing fell off! Right in front of the speaker, my manager and all the exhibitors in the vicinity! The three of us had a good laugh over my Cinderella moment and my manager was like, 'As you can see, she's VERY enthusiastic about her job'. LOL, I was always running around, even though I didn't really have to, simply because I felt rather enthusiastic that day. All that energy was channelled into running wherver I go. 'We should get her a pair of skates'. said our Executive Director. 'More like, a jet pack!' I quipped.
At the end of the Congress, we shook hands, thumped each other on our backs and congratulated each other on a job well done. J gave out cab vouchers to everyone in appreciation of our hard work. I felt sad the whole thing had come to an end. Yes, we had to deal with all sorts of crap, both before and during the Congress. Yes, we got ourselves worried, frustruated and stressed over the Congress. Yes, we stayed overtime and worked on Saturday and Good Friday because of the Congress. But I think it was all worth it in the end, given the generally positive feedback we received and for me, a speaker appreciated my work and told my manager, 'She writes very nice emails!' Most of all, I miss being Speaker Liaison Officer. It was a difficult task, all right, but this is also the biggest leadership role I've ever undertaken. I came to realize that what I like best about the job, is the fact that I feel important, valued and feel useful.
I don't know if any of my colleagues feel the same (and A, if you maanged to read this till near the end, you're going to shake your head in disbelief at this and go 'you're really siao') ...... but I don't mind doing it all over again.
