EYLN Conference in Malaysia

May 4, 2007. It’s not just a day when most of the NTU students had their last exam, but also a meaningful moment for 9 members of AIESEC NTU as they were on their way to attend one of the COOLest entrepreneurship conferences held in LC UKM, Malaysia on May 5-7, 2007.

Known as Entrepreneurship and Youth – A Learning Network (EYLN), this conference was one of the events under LC UKM’s Entrepreneurship PBOX in collaboration with General Electrics (GE). This PBOX also consisted of several other events, like road shows, exhibition and business plan competition, which were carried out prior to the conference.

There were 7 interns and more than 120 local & international delegates at this conference. We had loads of great time interacting with these cool people and the OC. Most importantly, the conference was held immediately after the OC’s final exam, which means they had to juggle between their studies and OC work during the exam season. Yet all the logistics and sessions were efficiently executed throughout the conference. Something for us to learn!

Our first delegate mailing

The AIESEC NTU Delegation!!!!!

On our way to another session

Dinner time with other delegates

Presentation by Mr Moon, owner of MFX (a renowned animation company),

Winner of the "New York Festival 2005" &

"Ernst and Young’s Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year 2005”

Presentation by the Secretary-general of the Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia (ACCCIM)

Presentation by GE Regional HR Director, Roshan Thiran

Let's hear what some of our NTU delegates have to say about this conference (based on alphabetical order)

1. From Grace

I learnt a lot about the Malaysian education system and the Malaysian way of life. Esp the GOOD FOOD! I've made a lot of wonderful friends who share different views but yet are open minded enough to accept others! =)

2. From Linsien

Six Lessons I Have Learned from EYLN 2007

Well, in my opinion, it really was a well-organized event by the @ers at UKM, despite the fact that the toilets are amazingly terrible (got no choice but to use it anyway, and we survived girls, two thumbs up for us...=P, remember our conversations? It's always about the toilet...).

Here are the summary of our activities in this four-day trip to Malaysia (4-7 May 2007):

Day 0 (Friday)

We spent the nights at YMCA in KL and it was a nice place with clean toilet (wish we could bring it over to UKM, rite girls?). It was a very tiring day after a long bus ride from Johor. The KTM ride (like MRT in Singapore, but it's slower) was fun too, took so many pictures and we played a "keypoh" *asking personal stuff and always want to know about what others are doing* game, the spotlight game took a long time, and we only managed to finish it on the last day ("thanks" to our dearest LCP for bringing out this game=P, now we know more about everyone's love life, hahaha, why does this always become the HOT topic?).

Day 1 (Saturday)

We began the day with a very nice breakfast @YMCA. I had half-boiled eggs with toast and tea. It was delicious and wonderful *yummy*. So we started to expect more from the upcoming conference, hoping that the toilet and breakfast will be as good as the one in YMCA and blablabla...lotsa expectations were there. Then, we continue on with another KTM ride to UKM. We registered and checked into the hostel upon arrival and I don't think you would wanna know the condition over there, definitely not like what we've imagined. However, we needed to adapt fast or we couldn't enjoy and gain as much lessons as we can out of the conference. So I thought keeping a positive and open-minded attitude were very important during the conference. That's my 1st lesson. I wouldn't want to spend my three days complaining about the things that I can't control. That's what I thought. It has given me the strength to survive and maintain the positive attitude. I guess all the hardships have been paid off, I definitely met a lot of SPECIAL people, who were very enthusiastic, and I learned a lot from them. It was very enriching indeed. The conference began with lectures on leadership skills and personality analysis. I've learned that to be a great leader is not about using your power and authority to control people, but it's about influencing people to do their jobs and contribute to the well-being of the organization/company/project (my 2nd lesson). The speaker was a great leader himself and his presentation was very interesting. Then, continue on with the personality analysis presentation. The presenter used MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator) to analyze people's personality. This is important to gain more insights on a person's tendencies and their ability to work in a group. My 3rd lesson: Since I'm an ISTJ type (Introverted Sensing Thinking and Judging), my tendency is to work individually rather than in a group, and I am more detail-oriented (but somehow I think I'm going towards a big-picture person now, just have to find the balance here...). So, I think I really should work on improving my ability to work in a team, trust my teammates, and really work together hand-in-hand with them. Perhaps either by joining a group/committee and make contribution to the team based on my skills. I'll figure it out. Any tips on how to do it? There were a lot more lectures on finance and business model in day 1, but those two things I've mentioned above are the two things that have given me worth-learning lessons. You go EYLN!!^_^

Day 2 (Sunday)

More case studies and group works in day 2. It was a chance to know more about my group members. We have to overcome the personality differences and work together to analyze business cases and eventually present our business model and analysis (feasibility, strategies, etc) in front of the panel of judges. My 4th lesson: there can only be ONE LEADER in a team, we must appoint one and then contribute actively to the team. Because it's impossible to have two or three leaders in a group, the team work won't work. Every person has different type of leadership style. Moreover, it's important to get everybody to speak up on what they think, share their opinions; no matter how impossible or stupid it may sound. It's the contribution that counts. One more thing that caught my attention during the day was the presentation skill session. The speaker was simply cool and energetic. She was definitely the right person to deliver on the topic of "what it takes to be a good presenter and how to do the right presentation". I think her session was the most appealing to the participants. My 5th lesson: when doing a presentation: body language, tone of voice and contents are the three important elements of presentation. We'll need to catch everyone's attention and use appropriate body language as well as the right tone of voice when we want to emphasize on certain things. Our presentation must be believable, look at the audiences in the eyes (but avoid staring and wandering around too much). I think that a lot of practice on public speaking, for example: during election speech, presentation assignment at school, or even when telling stories to your friends; can help us in improving our presentation skill. Or you might want to join a toastmaster club where you can have training on your logical thinking and debate on certain topics. The last lesson (my 6th lesson) that I've obtained from this conference is how to NETWORK with people. I think first we have to show our genuine interest on people, on how they do things, on their daily activities and others. I think I haven't mastered the art of networking people with ppl, 'coz I found it difficult to show your genuine interest with the people you first met, I will sometimes lost my words or become the passive party (where I answer more on their questions rather than asking them questions, seems like the people were showing more of their genuine interest on me, rather than vice versa). That's why sometimes I become more of the passive side, more passive than I should have been. It's true that I have my introverted trait that has caused the passiveness in me. However, during these past few years (after entering NTU), I've seen myself as becoming more and more extroverted. That's why I think I can eventually learn the art of networking with people which is usually "a piece of cake" for the extroverted type who loves to meet new ppl.

Day 3 (Monday)

Alrite, this is the last day of the conference, we've adapted very well with the toilets=P and have stopped complaining and comparing the situations in Malaysia and Singapore, haha...It was the last day where we have more mass dances (typical AIESEC culture) and listen to representatives from the sponsors. They're looking for graduates in the universities that are willing to join their programs. There were lots of promotions going on in the last day. And of course we took lots of pictures during the conference. I can't wait to see them all. We checked out at around 5 pm in the afternoon and headed on to KL Sentral and then took cab to find a good MAKAN place. I will always remember the last dinner we had. It was so wonderful that we can finally eat good food with a very cheap price (food and drink for only 15 RMB = 6 SGD). It was a big portion, I had a watermelon drink and nasi goreng with a very large chicken and lotsa fries *i forgot what it is called*. It was delicious. I thought my belly was about to explode real soon. I was so full that I can hardly walk=P. Yet, we still have time to have the last desert before going to the train station. I love to EAT...hahaha.

The train back to SG was very slow; it took almost 9 hours to reach Johor Bahru and another 1 hour to get through the immigration. So I reached my room at around 11 pm (the next day, Tuesday) after having breakfast in Causeway Point (Woodlands).

It was indeed a very WONDERFUL experience we had in Malaysia. Cheers, Linsien


2. Li Jun

The 3-day conference in Malaysia was a very nice and tough experience. I really have fun with all participants and learned lots of things though the accommodation condition is really bad. This is my first international event that I have participated since I joined AIESEC, and this is also my first formal networking session and I successfully gave out a lot of name cards which has never be touched before.

The first thing I learned is about leadership. Mr. Roshan really gave a wonderful speech on leadership. And I think every participant will remember one thing he said---A real leader uses influence rather than authority.

The second thing I learned is about positive attitude. I learned this from our nice LCP Alvin. Alvin was my roommate during the conference. When we got back to the room after a tired day, I sat on the bed and kept complaining about the terrible accommodation condition just like our girls complaining about the toilet. Alvin sat down quietly and turned on his laptop, and then started working on some AIESEC stuff, even there are hundreds of mosquitoes attacking us. His action made me shut up and I felt shameful about myself. Thanks! Alvin, you give me a valuable lesson.

The third thing I learned is about AIESEC. I was talking with a Malay girl who looked shy and spoke lousy English as I do, and suddenly she told that I was her first foreign friend and I can saw her exciting through her eyes. Suddenly I realized that it was AIESEC that made this happen. We always say that AIESEC makes people different, but this was the first time I really understood it. AIESEC makes us active and extroverted. I am a cool man in most my life, I will never talk and make friends with strangers if I didn’t join AIESEC. Beside the things I learned, we also have fun together. Through the game we played on the train, we truly know each other better especially everyone’s relationship experience. We also found out a lot about our names like “myass”, “I shit a” and “Gross”. The dinner was extremely nice at the last night, and the dessert, wow, I have to keep swallowing saliva now. I can not wait to see all the photos. Aku cinta kamu and terima kasih!!!

From Li Jun