Hi Guys,
I’m Alex, one of the organisers of this event. I’m very proud to be given the chance to organise interesTHINK with Kelvin and gang.
I’m really sorry I cannot attend the event! By the time you are reading this, I might be in the last few stages of the Business Case Competition. You can be sure that I’ll am very disappointed that I cannot be there to hear the wonderful speakers and enjoy the networking sessions.
InteresTHINK is just like a brain massage. Knowledge has been increasing exponentially. It is our pleasure to always bring in the best speakers from every arena for you. By now, you are part of InteresTHINK, so lets keep our minds open as we enjoy the 6 very prestigious speakers.
I would like to thank NLB and Blog2U, all our speakers, helpers (Kelvin, you might wanna name them), the interesTHINK team and the wonderful diversified audience.
Do look out for our next event =) cheers
Dear all,
You will be receiving news on pre conference interaction activities soon. The organisers are getting nervous as the date nears. It will be a major milestone for the interesTHINK team.
A huge thank you to Blog2U and National Library Board for their kind support.
We visited the Pod just a few days ago and we are extremely excited about planning the operations.
Alex Lew
Team InteresTHINK
Last evening, Rouhui and I met up with Mr Leong Sze Hian. We had a interesThink conversation about everything from CPF to LKY.
But, truly, it is not just about the controversy that Sze Hian stirs that lies in the essence of the conversation. Rather, it is his nature that makes the conversation meaningful.
Sze Hian is really truly grassroot - And with a heart. Unlike the usual middle-aged and successful man, Sze Hian takes up controversial issues and battles them. A heart, sometimes, is the one important thing that Singaporeans find missing in the faceless, efficient bureaucracy that is serving them.
Your focus might be on the controversies that Sze Hian champions. Yet, are those issues really controversial? No. Sze Hian is merely being responsible. Being a responsible citizen does not end with merely casting your vote. Your responsibility has only just begun - You have to monitor and observe if your votes have truly delivered.
I would say that the role Sze Hian plays is of a monitoring role. He studies the parliament debates. He highlights the stories of Singaporean in financial difficulties. He observes what our policies has delivered and, more important, not delivered.
Mr Leong Sze Hain is a responsible Singaporean.
Come hear Sze Hian on this 23 February 2008. Meanwhile, you can find out more about him at his homepage or at The Online Citizen.
Kelvin Quee
A short update from me.
We’ve just sent out our first batch of invites to our past participants of VillageTalk (InteresThink is the bigger and better reincarnate of VillageTalk so VillageTalk is now known as InteresThink 1) and almost instantaneously (within 10minutes), we’ve had 4 sign ups. Either our friends are 24/7 wired people or that says quite abit for how much they enjoyed IT1.
We will be posting up some audience profiles, with their permissions, closer to the event. So, do keep an eye out for that.
Regards,
Min
If you would like to attend the event, do email me at min@interesthink.com
Alex and I had a very meaningful discussion with Prof Ho last Wednesday ( 23 Jan 08), and I’d like to share with you some of the keys points we discussed. We raised the concern that Interesthink’s discussion may turn too political and we might get into some troubles with the government. He thinks that we are responding to the call of PM Lee to become active citizens, and this event is an excellent platform to exchange our unique perspectives, to promote interest in the nation’s matters. However, we all agreed that we need a well-learnt and experienced chairperson for effective exchange of ideas during the panel discussion. Hence, he recommended Dr Tan Tarn How, who a senior research fellow from Institute of Policy Studies, and had experience as a script writer and journalist. We are currently trying to contact Dr Tan.
We also talked about he possibility of setting up a public policy society in NTU, and how it can benefit InteresThink. For instance, we will be able to make use of the school network to gain access to outstanding students and academies who may join us in the future, which will be a great networking opportunity for us. Furthermore, we can have collaborations with other NTU societies in our events.
Finally, Prof Ho agreed to give Interesthink’s opening address, and will be happy to be our mentor should the public policy society in NTU be set up.
Yunyou
I’m mighty glad that we are 80% done for this coming event. For those of you who indicated interest through our site www.interesthink.com, our audience manager, Xin Min will be contacting you soon. And yes, she will be blogging too!
The speakers manager has just been appointed by the committee. Her name is Rou Hui. She’s a sweet lady.
Now, introducing the current committee members, we have;
Kelvin Quee, the leader of the committee. Lets expect to hear from him very soon!
Jia Yi, Yun You and myself (Alex Lew).
It has been a sensational experience to work on this project so far. Honestly.
Good day!
Just a few months ago, I had the privilege of discussing with Kelvin about organizing a conference where people could come and take away something invaluable. What is this thing? Information? Knowledge? Quite the opposite! While the world is screaming for meaningful breakthroughs in creativity and ideas, the society has been preoccupied with instructing (note that I didn’t use the word teaching) and imparting head knowledge. This thing that we are determined to give, is a spirit of sharing. And specifically the sharing of ideas, dreams and the unseen.
The faculty of marketing teaches us to identify markets and develop the right mix for the purposes of satisfying the emotional and physical demands of consumers. What they have failed to do, is to provide soul nutrition for our dimming ideas and courage. I’m not a fervent advocate for the government, but I support “teach less, learn more” (The new MOE objective). There is no better mentor than TED.com where ideas converge; where the notion of “nothing comes free” pales.
Let us bear the courage to reverse the learnt concept of scarcity. On the 23 February, let us learn together, the values of our ideas and the act of sharing them among our friends.
Alex Lew
Organiser
For Interesthink