Sat - Sun: Treasure hunt KL-Lumut organised by my tempat mencari rezeki.
You didn't seriously think I would just write those two lines did you? ;)
So un-me not to blab... hehe.
Anyway, here goes...
Like any event... mana ada semuanya smooth sailing. Pagi2 Rabu, after a late night of getting the place ready etc, first crisis occured. We mistakenly letak bendera Thailand kat nama delegate from Vietnam in the programme book. ALAMAK!!! And this is after going through the draft several rounds... of all the things, I forgot to check the bendera. And it had to be that the delegates from those two countries yang highlighted to us. Dah lah the day before when the Vietnamese delegate nak check-in, the hotel lost their reservations and they had to wait for a good 20 minutes. And the hotel demanded for a room deposit to the tune of USD1200 pulak coz the Vietnamese didn't have a credit card. Mak aii... if it was me, I would be very p**ssed. Alerted boss and told him of the debacle... needed his intervention to *redakan* the Vietnamese delegates. Meanwhile, got the relevant people to check the booklet. Sekali tengok2 ada pulak lain info yang salah, despite my reminder to cross check those particulars late last week. Takkanlah everything pun I have to do it on my own... at times like this, kesabaran dicabar. But as the leader, kena lah take full responsibility and focus on remedying the situation. Got the printers to standby to redo the whole thing and print a new batch. If those who worked at the printers were cursing at us... I doa je lah supaya dilindungi.
By petang, we still couldn't distribute the folders because one paper that was prepared by the lead organisation belum siap (actually, Jumaat pagi baru we got it, hmph!). So instead of distributing masa they check in, we had to organise dengan the liaison officers to deliver the folders to their respective rooms. Kena pulak, not all were staying at the same hotel... so kena coordinate sikit. That night slept late again to make sure the meeting rooms were ok etc. That petang jugak, ada lah pulak missing microphone, LCD... walaupun awal2 lagi dah being planned. Apa nak kata... miscommunication. Nasib baik lah ada a team of technicians dari my organisation and organisation kat sebelah in PJ yang very resourceful and quick to act. So, no major delays... Malam tu dah phobia, all of us checked and re-checked each bendera carefully...
The next morning, meeting proper started. But not before the opening ceremony. Masa tengah prepare... boss came to me and said, guest of honour ada accident and will be late. That's not so bad... later a bombshell pulak that we don't have an MC for the opening dinner. Talked to EnR yang bermisai ala Tom Selleck... and he assured that there will be someone tonight. I trust him... he's a pro and very reliable. But before that, sempat lagi dia kata "why not you je jadi MC?" I just smiled at him... and he got the point. Opening went well... no glitches, although I rasa it was very the boring. The speech (which my team wrote) was a tad too long berdasarkan input drp ARG, ND, RHI, BI. I took consolation from the many requests from the delegates to get a copy of the speech... which can mean either 1) they find it insightful or 2) it was so long that they slept half-way and needed to read what was said, haha. I hope it's the former ;)
Lepas the opening ceremony I was supposed to join the meeting... tapinya kena buat changes untuk speech opening dinner pulak. Deputy Big Boss #2 had specific instructions. We didn't clear it with him earlier because he was away from office. So spent the whole morning re-writing 1/3 of the speech only to later be told that he won't be reading any speeches... wanting to make the dinner more *relaxed*. Aargh!! Why can't you just tell me that in the morning? Wasted...
Petang I could join the continuation of the meeting. Untuk sebab2 kerahsiaan I can't tell what transpired but ada lah situasi di mana delegate satu negara kurang berpuas hati dengan wakil satu organisasi. Suffice to say... ada *perang dingin*. Wakil organisasi tu ranted as soon as she stepped out of the door... I was sitting sebelah pintu, that's how I know. Her staff had to calm her down. Knowing what had happened, we as organiser, kena lah buat apa yang patut untuk mengurangkan potensi meletusnya *perang*.
So masa arrange seating for the dinner, we deliberately put them far apart. Tapi kita hanya merancang... tuhan yang menentukan. After all the careful planning, come night, one delegate bawa his wife pula for the dinner and as they were entering the ballroom, our corporate people quickly reshuffled the seats. And they had to change such that the two parties at war duduk bersebelahan pulak. Oh dear!! When I saw them taking their seats... I couldn't believe my eyes. But what to do... nasi sudah menjadi bubur. Nasib baik lah there wasn't any food throwing or whatsoever. Other than that, the night went well. We got the best and most experienced MC to step in at the last minute (thanks TM! although I know that you won't be reading this, hehe) and the show was more or less entertaining. The best part was when Deputy Big Boss #3 berjoget... TWICE!! Cool lah my DBB#3 ni... he's the best :) Mula2 dia join the Thai delegates ber-rapong (is that right?) and lepas tu he made special request utk joget lambak. Mau tak mau my boss pun kena lah joget sekali dgn another M'sian delegate at their table. Boleh tahan jugak my boss... I know now that he doesn't have two left feet ;)
Friday was the day yang sangat ditunggu because all of us were already exhausted... late nights, running around, frantic calls... we could all do without. As if fate, due to last minute changes in seating arrangements, the two parties *at war* sat opposite each other masa plenery session. I had to slap my head for that. Masa start session dah bermasalah... mic tak hidup walaupun sudah di test berkali2 sebelum tu. Ini lah yang dikatakan dugaan. Again our technicians yg sangat resourceful came to the rescue. Turned out that the thing didn't function sebab one delegate sat on the wire, hence cutting the electricity flow. Apa nak buat...
Lepas meeting, NDH came to me and said that another problem had occured. Apa lah lagi... I was telling myself. The transportation that's supposed to ferry the Thai delegates to KLIA yang sepatutnya bertolak dari hotel pukul 11am tak sampai and bila di-contact the driver kata the instructions given to them was for 12.30pm. We quickly contacted our transport people and they managed to get our own coach to be deployed. But not before a 45 minutes delay. MIB and KH had to manage the situation at the hotel untuk mententeramkan our foreign guests. Bila nak ambik group photo lepas tu, we were missing the head Vietnamese delegate pulak... so the rest had to wait for a good 10 minutes dalam panas before we could take the shot.
There were many more *incidences* tapi those were the ones that stood out lah. Yang lain2 were all internal issues which didn't have visible, reputational impact. During the period I have to admit that I had terkasar bahasa with one person in particular. Memang rasa tak puas hati with dia punya performance. Tapi Tuhan tu adil and wanted to highlight the good side of the person as well... because the whole afternoon I heard nothing but praises about dia from other people who were also involved in the event. Which is good... because it puts things in perspective... to look at the thing in totality instead of focussing on 3 or 4 black dots. I've always hated it when Mgmt do that... I'm glad that I was *alerted* with the necessary evidence to prevent me from behaving in the same manner. Nonetheless, feedback masih perlu diberi... mengikut BEI method ie Behaviour-Event-Impact... which will focus on the action and not the person.
Malam was our closing dinner... boss called late in the afternoon to say that our host decided that he won't be coming. Oh well... after all the calamity of the preceeding days, that was nothing. For once, there were no glitches... or rather, none that came to my attention. Everything went on smoothly and I could finally relax. Tapi tak relax mana pun because I had to rush balik and prepare for the trip the next day.
bersambung di entry yang seterusnya...
p/s: I sempat snap some pix while staying at Prince...
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