The day starts early, consisting of a giant tub of hot liquid coffee and many people queueing up for registration. The organising committee is hard at work preparing the stage and microphone with the backstage and sound crew, making sure that speakers would be on time and ready to present their talk when their time comes. Technology is slightly glitchy, but nothing is a large issue as long as the microphone works and everybody knows their cue in the event flow.
The event commences on 21 March with a gradual filling of the seats, and a full house eventually makes itself evident. After a fair amount of waiting, the emcees officially unstopped the flow, with an introduction and greetings to all. A speech from the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus's Provost Christine Ennew warms the crowd, and the Organising Chairman of the Aspiring Youth Leadership Conference 2015, Khoo Swee Kiem, makes himself known and invites everybody to learn and treasure the long day ahead of them. Inspire and aspire towards success as we learn from the successful themselves.
One by one, speakers from Malaysia and Singapore make their appearance onstage for talks: Dato' Vinod Sekhar, Ken Chee, Eric Feng, Mallory Loone and Michael Teoh to mention a few. There was also a panel session with Kenneth Yee, Johnson Khoo and Austin Wong, on The Harsh Truth Behind the Spotlight. Several promotions and special events happened between and during talks, such as social media competitions and potential partnerships between speakers in the future.
Each and every speaker was well-received, though we had the lack of fortune to not have one of our promised speakers present; Marina Mahathir had to attend to personal business outside of the country, and cancelled all prior engagements including her slot to speak during AYLC '15. We hope to have her present for next year's conference. The speaker line-up this year, however, was blessed with entertaining, knowledgeable, and undoubtedly energetic leaders and figures whose top priority during this event was to give the youth present the power to become successful individuals themselves.
By the end of the day, everybody was exhausted but enlightened, and came home having learned something from each and every speaker and panelist who presented themselves onstage. In these terms, the Aspiring Youth Leadership Conference of 2015, housed in the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus during its 15th anniversary, was highly successful in reaching out to the youths of today, into becoming the leaders of tomorrow.
Posted on 27th April 2015