Launch of *SCAPE Underground 2012 & MOU Signing Ceremony

*SCAPE Underground is a Youth Entrepreneurship Hub which encourages youths to develop drive, risk–taking and entrepreneurial mindsets with views to setting up their own businesses. NYP EMRS Team 3 helped to organise the official launch of this external event on the 20^th October 2012.

Pre-Event Preparation

Team 3 started planning this event since the start of September. We were tasked to brainstorm on innovative ideas for the launch mechanism to inaugurate the opening of *SCAPE Underground. Also, we had to invite our own CCA groups to showcase their performances on the event day. For maximum efficiency, we split into smaller groups and from there we worked on our assigned tasks.

On the 10^th of September, Team 3 went for our first meeting with the people-in-charge of the *SCAPE event. We were there to present our ideas of the launch mechanism and to propose the various NYP CCA groups performers as well as to recce *SCAPE so to better understand how the event would unfold on the 20^th October.

Our team presenting the 5 launch mechanism ideas

Nabilah and Zhi Wei presenting the performances

Mr. Teo Siang Loong bringing us around *SCAPE

Team 3 posing outside *SCAPE after our meeting J

One of the main challenges whilst planning this event was that *SCAPE took a long time to revert to us on the launch mechanisms, performances and other programme details. So with a lot of time on our hands, we got started on *SCAPE posters to create awareness to NYP students about this event.

Some of Team 3’s creative posters!

In the meantime, an emcee audition was held on Thursday, 27^th September. 10 students partook in the audition that Ms. Siow, Ms. Quek and Mr. Sudesh judged. All our participants did well and our judges had a rather difficult time choosing. In the end, the judges felt that Lennard from Team 2 and Alyssa were best fit for the roles while Andrew and Vivian were our reserves.

Our esteemed panel of judges

Our enthusiastic participants

The winners – Alyssa and Lennard!

The reserves – Vivian and Andrew

After a couple more meetings with *SCAPE, we had more details finalised. Team 2, Team 3, emcees, Percussionist Ensemble and NYP TV were all involved in the event. EMRS roles included assisting in the MOU signing and ushering guests. As the event day was dawning upon us, a rehearsal date was set to be on 18^th October.

Reporting time for rehearsal was 9.15am. The rehearsal went well and by lunchtime we were done. After the rehearsal, everyone was clearer of their roles and where they should be positioned. 

Our emcees rehearsing their lines

Andrew’s and Vivian’s turns! 

Ushers having fun roleplaying during the rehearsal

The percussionists displaying an energetic performance!

Hilmi, Jonathan and Ms Quek by the wall where the launching would take place

Abigail, Zhi Wei and Sharine standing at the position where they should be releasing the confetti after the opening

When the *SCAPE poster was finalized and approved, we got it placed around campus.

Our beautiful poster

One of our posters which were strategically placed at 3 different points of NYP

Event Day

20^th October 2012, the D day! Team 2 and 3 gathered at *SCAPE at 11am. All of us were excited and nervous. This is our first external event and we have been planning for this day since our first day in EMRS. After everyone have reached, we went up to the Sapphire room to arrange the chairs, have a final dry run and briefing.

After the dry run, we went for lunch and stand by at our respective positions at 1.45pm. Students in charge of the registration counter were getting ready for the arrival and registration of guests. 

Getting ready for registration

Our ushers on stand by

Soon, guests started streaming in. They were being ushered to the registration table to register for the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signing ceremony.

 Guest registering for the MOU signing ceremony

The guests were being held at the registration area as the *SCAPE in charge was doing a final sound check. The guests were also being served light refreshments while waiting for the arrival of the Guest of Honour, Mr S. Iswaran, Minister, Prime Minister’s Office & 2^nd Minister for Home Affairs & Trade & Industry.

Soon, Minister arrived and the guests clapped to welcome him. The Chairman of *SCAPE, Mr Lee and Minister gave an opening speech followed by the MOU Signing. Minister was guided to witness the signing. After the signing, the four VIPs involved in the *SCAPE Underground took a photo with the GOH. The other VIPs returned to their seat while Mr Lee and Minister remained on stage for a cheque presentation from DBS to *SCAPE as well as giving out the tokens of appreciation to the schools involved in this event and the Minister.

Presentation of cheque from DBS

Presentation of token of appreciation

After the formalities, Minister and the rest of the VIPs toured around at level 4 bazaar before making their way down to level 1 for the launch.

NYP percussionist waiting for the arrival of the Minister at *SCAPE Underground

Our EMRS students on standby to release the confetti 

Launch of *SCAPE Underground

Team 2 and 3 students releasing confetti for the launch of *SCAPE Underground

Minister entering *SCAPE Underground

After the end of the event, EMRS Team 2 and 3 took group photos.

Formal Shot

                                                 

Fun Shot

The event ended well and all of us had a lot of fun! Our hard work for one and a half months ended off on a good note.

NYP Retail Entrepreneurs @ *SCAPE

Summer Love

Korean and Japanese fashion retailer Summer Love was founded in May 2012 by Takeshi Lim and Eunice Foo, as a response to an offer by *SCAPE and Nanyang Polytechnic. Summer is the hottest and the sunniest season of the year (i.e. May to August), and also the period of finest development and perfection. Summer is also the often the season when teens fall in love. And so, the name Summer Love was created by the young entrepreneurs. 

Being young entrepreneurs is never easy. Fortunately, their strengths complemented well – Takeshi Lim held a diploma in business management (Retail Specialization) . Having been exposed to many training opportunities in school and during his attachment at Charles and Keith, he was very much in love with the retail industry. Eunice Foong was a Diploma in Business Management (Supply Chain Management) student and was exposed to how the supply chain system worked in a company, and very much into logistics for this fast paced environment.

Even then, they faced many problems during the establishment of the company, and had to work with limited capital. There were also many changes during the planning stage of *SCAPE. However, the entrepreneurs did not let this dampen their spirits. Instead, it motivated them to strive on and make sure that things went on smoothly, and with proper planning and budgeting, they succeeded.

Summer Love carries a wide and extensive range of female fashion apparel and accessories, updated at least twice a month to keep up with the ever changing fashion runways. Summer Love aims to be the one-stop portal targeted at females aged 16 to 35 looking for affordable Korean & Japanese apparel and accessories

Summer Love also has an online store, where customers can shop for a larger range of products unavailable at the retail outlet. Purchases are shipped directly to customers at their convenience.

Bags from Summer Love

More bags from Summer Love on display

Counter of Summer Love

90s Candy Studio

Inspired by their birth years as tribute to all the fun times and ‘sweet’ memorise of the past, the 90s Candy Studio was set up by four young entrepreneurs – Robin Goh, Nissa Suhaimi, Li Jun Lim and Sherrie Guo, taking up an opportunity presented by Nanayang Polytechnic.

At the same time, they wanted to create hope for the less fortunate. They achieved this by patronising the company “爱,” pronounced ‘ai.’ Meaning ‘love’ in Chinese, the company engages the deaf and hearing impaired to repack the candies that are supplied to the 90s Candy Studio. In addition, 90s Candy Studio even hires the hearing impaired to serve customers.

The soft launch of their first shop was on Bugis Street on 10th August 2012, and was officially opened on 23rd September 2012. On 20th October 2012, 90s Candy Studio will launch their second shop in *SCAPE, with the aim of reaching out to the mass as well as creating hope for the less fortunate by giving them more job opportunities.

From the Left:
Sherrie, Nissa, Robin, LiJun, Ms Lee(Lecturer) 

Helpers at Official Opening

Display from Bugis Shop

Candies available for sales

About the Entrepreneur: Robin Goh – JNR Entertainment

Robin Goh came to Nanyang Polytechnic after graduating from Bowen Secondary School with an O-level of 16 points. Insipred by having many wealthy friends, he started working at 13. His first job was as a door to door ice cream promoter, where he developed his communication and interactive skills with strangers. He knew that this job would need a lot of hard work. Several months later, he convinced his father to set up a similar company with him as a distributor for door to door ice cream. This was his first stepping stone to success.

In his leisure time, he loved to play online computer games with friends. He believed that gaming among youngsters was on the rise, and was opportunity for income. He thus created an online private game, a feat as he had no programming and coding background. He then managed to gather hundreds gamers around the world to play the game, earning himself a small pot of gold at the age of 16. 

However, it became a passive source of income for him – he still worked part time with a few companies to gain experience and exposure. While he worked as a promoter, he found it difficult to attract people but noticed balloon sculptures that were given away attracted crowds. Soon, he became a freelance balloon artist for parties. One day, an event company contacted him, introducing several parties a month and business began to pick up. He realised that the event company earned much through him.

Thus, he decided to set up an event company, regardless of the strong competition, and founded JNR Entertainment. Starting with balloon sculpting, JNR Entertainment soon provided additional services. First to private birthday parties, it gradually moved to serving Community Club and Resident Club, then to corporate events. In addition, he ventured into rental of carnival equipment – bouncy castles, popcorn & candy floss machines and even carnival games – at affordable rates, and also started selling complement items for parties, such as licensed foil balloons.

In mid-2012, he was offered a chance to work with a new business partner, Nissa Yi Jun, and launched a new store, 90s Pte Ltd, in Bugis Street #03-121 in early August. The idea of setting up 90s was a social enterprise help the less fortunate, such as engaging the deaf by creating more job opportunity and awareness for them, contributing to society. Currently, he is in charge of business development.

The opening of Scape Underground offered a location with more exposure in the prime area in Singapore. Seizing this opportunity, 90s and is opening its next store in Scape at the end of September. In addition, JNR Entertainment will be opening a party & balloon store in Scape as well.

Robin as clown

Balloon Castle (available for rental)

Balloon Slide

Candy Floss Machine

Popcorn machine

CSP - 9th Oct 2012

On 9^th October 2012, EMRS Team 3 led its fellow team-mates to execute the Customised Study Path (CSP) exercise.

The Customised Study Path exercise is for students who are not auto-registered for modules, because they could have failed previous modules, got debarred or were differed from exams. As such, their timetables were not auto-generated resulting in them having to plan it themselves, with the help of their course administrators.

Planning the CSP exercise was quite challenging as we had to solve a variety of problems, such as planning the queue system, the room layouts, the signage and the manpower required.  Everyone in Team 3 came brainstormed on how the registration system should be carried out. In the end,we decided to have the CSP students fill up their details on a form instead of sticking to the queue number system used by the previous round of EMRS students

We also faced the situation whereby the information which was provided to us kept changing. One example is when we realised that there were actually more CSP students than originally planned for, resulting in us having to revise our room layouts. Fortunately, we had a vacant room, which we could use as a waiting room to handle the overflow. Thus, change is not bad – it simply creates new challenges and new possibilities!

PREPARATION!

On the morning of the event, the whole of Team 3 was activated to assist in the set up. As there were four rooms that needed to be arranged, Team 3 was divided into four groups and each group arranged one room.

 We then proceeded to set up the standees at level 1, 2, 3 and 5. However, we realized that the A4 posters for the standees were too small to be seen by the CSP students. Therefore, we decided to re-print the posters in A3 size. Due to the change in the size of the posters, we had to redo the cardboard backing as well.  However, the team worked together and we were able complete everything by 12pm.

The counselling room! Just missing the counsellor…

 

 

Entrance to the counselling room

THE EVENT!

All the EMRS students were issued lanyards so that the CSP students could identify them. Khatau conducted a final briefing to all before dismissing them to their respective stations to prepare for the commencement of the event.

Usher QQ, on standby by to direct the students.

 

Usher Hilmi, who directed students and went the extra mile to open the door for them.

 

“Instructions to students.”

The CSP exercise commenced at 2pm sharp. When the CSP students went into their respective counselling room, their details were taken down by our registration helpers. The registration helpers would call out the students to enter the counselling room on a first-come-first-serve basis. However reacted according to situations, and everything worked out well.

The HTM room.

Helpers Joey and Abigail had to track who came first, for each year, on a single sheet of paper.

Next, they proceeded to B.505 or B.512 to plan and print their timetable. There were 6 lab assistants from EMRS to help the CSP students to register their timetables.

Lab B.512, manned by Sean, Shi Min and Xiaolan.

Lab B.505, manned by Farah, Samantha and Nabilah.

Samantha assisting a student.

After the students had printed their timetables, they returned to their respective counselling room and got their timetables approved.

At the end of the exercise, the registration helpers arranged the room furniture back to their original position before they returned to EMRS project room.  The OICs then made their rounds to ensure the counselling rooms were tidy and locked.

Overall, we felt that the event went smoothly and was a success. Although there were many oversight and last minute changes leading up to, and during the event, we managed to solve them quickly. WE even received a compliment from Mr. Puar on our outstanding performance.  

The OICs, Zhi Wei (left) and Khatau (right) with Sharine (centre)

 

EMRS 1213 S2R1