Friday, August 16, 2013

Team Building Event @ Sentosa

On 18th August, EMRS team 3 conducted a team bonding event at Sentosa from 1030am to 530pm. Activities include mini amazing race and beach volleyball games. The purpose of this event is to allow EMRS team 2 and 3 students to enjoy and bond together.

The overall ICs for this event were Jason and Royston. With the assistance of Kang Li, Joanne and Valerie as the the pit stop in-charge for the mini amazing race, the teams were able to complete the race. 3 weeks before the event, the ICs did a site inspection at Sentosa to determine the suitable locations for the various pit stops. After much consideration, the mini amazing race was carried out at around Palawan Beach, Siloso Beach and Merlion Tower.


On the actual day of the event, the students gathered at Vivo City punctually before walking into Sentosa. They were split into 3 teams with 6-7 members in each team. The team leaders were Nevin, Jing Yang and Zhen Khang respectively.



Starting Point: Water Ping Pong @ Palawan Beach


Pit Stop 1: Drop the egg challenge @ Palawan Beach Tower



Pit Stop 2: Interaction & Team Skipping @ Emerald Pavilion


Pit Stop 3: The shoe challenge and Charades @ Merlion Tower

Charades!


Pit Stop 4: Human Carrier @ Siloso Beach

Determined to win!

After tabulating the points, Team 1 won the amazing race! It ended around 330pm and the supervisors decided to dismiss the group. However, those who wish to stay back to play beach volleyball were allowed to do so. 


In conclusion, the event was a success. The students were quite participative and they got to know one another better through those activities! (:



Thursday, August 15, 2013

Entrepreneurship Week 2013

Do you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur?
Many of us possess many qualities essential for being an entrepreneur but lack the courage and confidence to do so.  Keep your dreams alive and believe in yourself!

What are you waiting for? Step up and join us as we take you through our Entrepreneur journey in EMRS!

Pre-event
Week 1:
Reporting early at the EMRS project room on the 24th June, we were briefed about the rules and regulations, and assigned to an event that would be managed entirely by our team. How cool is that?

What was our event? The NYP Entrepreneurship Week 2013 that would be held at the Atrium on 30th July to 1st August.

Now, hold your horses, we would first need to establish our ICs for the event. As the overall IC, Nevin would lead the team in the planning and executing stages of the event. Technology savvy Kaiser would take care of the logistics. Gladys tapped on her creativity handling the A&P and Claire handled the finance matters of the event.

Our team set out to identify the tasks to be completed and put a deadline to them.  Highlighting the important milestones and dates in a timeline, we paced ourselves and managed our time well.


It was our honor to be invited to the trunk show presentation by the Retail Studies students. Nevin, Kaiser, Gladys and Jia Hui represented EMRS Team 2 in the trunk show presentation. Having seen innovative presentations, we saw potential in the students being entrepreneurs. We asked for their interest in taking part in our Entrepreneurship event as vendors and to our surprise, many of the students wanted to participate as student vendors.

However as we could only accommodate a limited number of vendors, we had to screen the applicants and shortlist them. After confirming the vendors, we contacted and arranged for a meeting with the vendors.

Week 2:
Besides sourcing for vendors at the trunk show presentation, we also collaborated with Entrepreneurship Development Club (EDC) to increase product variety. On our first meeting with EDC, we defined the roles and settled administrative matters.

Week 3:


Meeting the Retail Studies students allowed us to gain a better understanding of the products they intended to sell at the entrepreneur event.


To add to the variety of products available at our event, we explored the option of bringing in food vendors. What type of pre-packed food is popular among NYP students and staff alike? Coolgurt and Lao Ban of course!


We also sent invitations to performers such as the Dance Company, Soundcard and Chris from These Brittle Bones.

And now, to wait for their favorable reply…

Week 4:
We were glad to have companies willing to distribute samples at our event.  The companies are none other than The Body Shop and Berocca!


And now, how could our event do without ex-NYP students sharing their successful entrepreneurial stories? To complement the entrepreneur booths in the atrium, we decided to have an entrepreneurship seminar at B203. Founder, Event Director and Magician of JNR ENTERTAINMENT, Mr Robin Goh selflessly agreed to share entrepreneur tips with aspiring entrepreneurs. Not forgetting Mr Howie Chang, Director, Product Management at RedMart and CoFounder at Stylelogue, who also took time off to share his experiences in being an entrepreneur.

Week 5:

Introducing EMRS Team 2’s teaser… ticket stubs!

To create awareness of the Entrepreneurship Week event, we decided to create a teaser that will captivate students so that they would visit our Facebook page.  What better way to do so than to create ticket stubs bearing the details of the event and a QR code that links to the Facebook page? We distributed the ticket stubs all over NYP and received numerous likes and shares on Facebook thereafter.

Our posters featuring the budding entrepreneurs!

Week 6:

Our final publicity poster!

After much effort, our final poster is ready to be displayed around NYP campus!
Our posters also gained recognition from the Nanyang Polytechnic Facebook page and was seen by many NYP students.


All smiles as we work and play!

Finally, we are left with the decorations for the event.  In line with our theme Dreams Alive, our team decided that a hot air balloon as the backdrop of our photo booth would fit in just fine. To add an element of fun to the photo booth, we made props like moustaches, bow ties, hats and spectacles and Polaroid frames.


We also made direction signs with entrepreneur qualities on them.

30th July
The day has finally arrived!

Prepared and ready for our Entrepreneurship Week event, we started the day by preparing the atrium according to the floor plan.

 Our event in full swing!

Our vendors and their booth displays…

The retail vendors then started setting up their booths and displaying their products.

Ready for our first day performance?

Taking time out of their busy schedules, Alistair and Karen from Soundcard came down to the atrium for a lunchtime performance.

Gracing us with their presence, The Body Shop! 

The Body Shop gave out 200 of their lovely tree tea oil samples every hour. On top of that, the tea tree mascot and three lovely ladies went around taking photos with students.


Livening the event with her cheerful voice, Henrietta, the emcee introduced the event and warmly welcomed passers-by to visit our entrepreneur booths.

Our much anticipated food vendors :)

Who is able to resist a cold dessert on such a hot day? Be it Coolgurt or Lao Ban Beancurd, you’ll sure to be satisfied after having your fill.

31st July

The atrium on the second day of Entrepreneurship Week.


It is our honor to welcome back entrepreneurs that were ex-NYP students. Having gained experience and knowledge from starting their businesses, Mr. Robin Goh and Mr. Howie Chang have altruistically shared their insights and stories with the participants of the seminar. The response for the seminar was good and the seats were filed up quickly.

A token of appreciation for our speakers, Mr. Robin Goh and Mr. Howie Chang.


Having the soundcard, Louise Ann and dance company among the list of performers during the lunch break, we were thoroughly entertained as they put up a great performance.


To our surprise, NYP TV turned up at the Entrepreneurship Week event and interviewed Nevin and Gladys.

1st August

Be energized with Berocca!

A Berocca vending machine was stationed at the atrium and Berocca energy drinks were given out.


The moment we have been waiting for, Chris from These Brittle Bones! Only 14 years old, Chris has performed globally and he is here on NYP campus. Performing a total of 6 pieces, Chris attracted crowds, with students stopping in their tracks and watching from the sky bridge.

Last but not least, performances from Soundcard, it was our pleasure having Bryan and Wan Xin from Soundcard with us at the atrium at 1pm.

Students having fun at our photo booth!

Filled with fun, laughter and joy, who could resist not taking a couple of photos at our photo booth? Grab a prop and smile at the camera :)

Time for set down and wrap up our event.

Fret not, many hands makes work light. With the combined effort of EMRS Teams 2 and 3, we went full speed ahead in clearing the atrium. In no time, the atrium was spick-and-span, restored to its original splendor.



A job well done to EMRS Team 2 and 3! Time to huddle together and take a group photo!

Camaraderie between members of EMRS Team 2 and 3 would never be forgotten; we will definitely take these wonderful memories with us even after our stopover at EMRS.

Our team’s opinions:
Nevin:
As the Overall IC, my biggest challenge was firstly to ensure that all areas of the event were well coordinated and executed to succession. I’ve learnt plenty from working with different vendors, such as students from the Retail Studies section, from the SBM Entrepreneurship Development Club and sourcing for external food vendors, performers and seminar speakers for our event.   

Gladys:
Being the Retail student vendors IC was definitely a tedious job as coordinating them was difficult since all of them had different schedules. Nonetheless, it has improved my patience and communication skills. Additionally, I was the Advertising & Publicity In Charge as well. I have learnt quite a bit about the wonders of Photoshop as well as PowerPoint with the help of my teammates.

Claire:
As the Finance IC, I have learnt to be more flexible and receptive to exploring unconventional methods to achieve our goals. Working with the various vendor groups has been an enriching experience as I picked up communication skills, business process skills and entrepreneurial skills etc. from corresponding with them.


Kaiser: As the Logistics IC, I was given the opportunity to handle tasks that were beyond the four walls of the classroom. This provided me a hands on experience on how logistics works and how stressful it could be. I would like to thank EMRS Team 3 for helping out to make this event a success. Overall, it was a wonderful experience.

Monday, August 5, 2013

Retail Job Fair 2013

On 17th July 2013, EMRS team 3 executed a retail job fair that took place at the atrium from 11 am to 4.30 pm.

The theme for the Job fair was "A Peek into the Real World". 
The logo above shows a pair of eyes peeking through a hole to depict someone peeking through the hole into the real retail world. 

Preparations


Below are the posters that the A&P ICs came out with after going through many round of changes.

                                            Teaser poster                            Actual poster

After the completion and the approval from the supervisors, we placed the posters at different locations.

However, we did some onsite observations and we realized that only 1 out of 5 students actually noticed our posters but they would just walked past it. 

Thus, we decided to add something to our posters so as to attract students' attention. We had a lot of ideas to create something that can catch attention right away. After discussion, we decided to use Superman.

Why we use superman?
Superman is a hero well-known to everyone. Clark kent is a ordinary salary man before he tear open his shirt and turn into the superman who save the world.
This just goes to show that even superhero like superman have to work before he fly off to save the world.
So we used the picture whereby Superman open his shirt but instead of showing his costume, we replace it with our poster.


TADA! Our Superman! 
After a week of hard work, we managed to complete all our supermen! 

Clap clap clap! 


After completion of the superman, we replace the posters with the superman posters at the same locations. We did on-site observation again and we realised that this time, more students look at our posters and some even stopped to read the content.
The idea of using the Supermen to catch students' attention was a success!


Other than these supermen, our A&P created a directional signage that we placed at the entrance of the school, before the escalator leading into the atrium. It helped to broadcast the event more to the students as they will see the sign the moment they enter the school.


During the process of doing the superman and directional sign, our A&P started on the banner and flyers too.
The banner was a harder job as it was too big and this results in poor resolution pictures when we enlarge it so we had to ask for help from Ms Choo.
But it was completed in time and it was sent for printing...


However, when the banner was delivered to us...we had a problem...
We took the wrong measurement of the spider backdrop and we ended up sending a bigger size to the printing company. But what's done cannot be undo, we can only think of another solution.


Fortunately, the second level bridge way does not have any banner hanging there during that period.
Thus, we hang the banner on the second floor.
The wrong measurement was actually a blessing in disguise as the effect of the banner hanging from the second floor was really good.


Flyers were also created to be distributed to students.
                                                 (Front)                                           (Back)
And here is the Final flyer that was given out before and during the event.
We split into groups of 2 and went around the whole school to give out the flyers. We also distributed to MSC studio to help us give out the flyers to their customers.


WDA has also requested to have our students complete a feedback form at our event. Hence, we decided to combine the feedback form with our lucky draw slip. After printing up to a 1000 feedback forms, we had to stamp the NYP school stamp on the Lucky Draw slip that is attached at the bottom of the feedback form to prevent students from photo copying the slip.

                 


Actual Day of Retail Job Fair  


It's finally the day of the Job Fair.
We had a total of 14 booths including Singapore Institute of Retail Studies (SIRS)

A big thank you to all the companies which came to join us for the event.

To attract more students to the atrium, we had a popcorn and candy floss booth giving out free popcorns and candy floss to the students.
           

The crowd during the event was really good. Response from students was better than expected too as we managed to collect more feedback forms than we originally estimated.

During registration, we had to ask for the admission card or NRIC card from students who wanted to participate in the lucky draw. This is because only students with admission card or NRIC card can participate in the lucky draw and winners have to present one of these during prize redemption.

We had our team members moving around the atrium during the event, getting students to complete the feedback forms for us and another group going around the school giving out flyers to broadcast about our event.

Our emcee for the event! It was a job well done by Nevin from team 2.

We had the help and support of team 2, without them we would not be able to successfully carry out the event as there will be a lack of manpower. Thank you Team 2!

It was a busy busy and busy day for the Lucky Draw registration booth especially at the peak period.
But we were happy to see that our event received overwhelm of response.

For the Lucky Draw, we were very honoured to have Ms Esther Ho, Manager of School of Business Management, Retail Studies and MSC operations as the prize presenter. A lot of students stayed for the Lucky Draw which took place at 4 pm.

Congratulations to both winners! They each won a IPad Mini (16GB)!

Of course not forgetting a group photo with our big banner.


Last but not least, we would like to thank the supporting partners, Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) and Singapore Institute of Retail Studies (SIRS) who sponsored the event.


In addition, thank you to all below companies who participated in the job fair.

This event was brought to you by:

Our team members have something to say:

Mei Fung: As the Over-all IC for this event, I was responsible in making sure that the event was executed successfully. From organizing this event, it opened my eyes to how working with external vendors is like and how unpredictable external vendors can be which actually taught us to be always ready to any changes. I realized that team work is really an important factor for an event, with team work everything can be done faster and better.

Audrey: As a Logistics IC, I learnt to be flexible and be ready to make frequent changes to my floor plan accordingly as needed. While drawing up the floor plans, my skills in the usage of the Paint software also improved. My planning skills improved too as I needed to consider the appropriate placement at the atrium. After the event was successfully completed,  I felt a sense of accomplishment. 

Daniel: As the Logistics IC for this event, I was able to experience planning an event from scratch which included taking measurements of the event venue to planning the booth sizing for the vendors. on the event day itself, I took charge of the whole set up for the event, make sure everything was moved out from the fixtures room and in working condition. At the end of the whole event, I had to make sure everything was kept back into the fixtures room. This event gave me the opportunity to experience the whole process of planning, conceptualising and executing an event.

Shi Hao: As a A&P IC, I learnt to give free rein to one's imagination to create a poster. My Adobe Photoshop skills have also been enhanced through this event as I had to make use of it to create a banner for this event. I felt very happy and satisfied at the moment upon seeing the outcome of my efforts.

Kang Li: Through this event, as a A&P IC, I became more familiar with the usage of Powerpoint. I also learnt to accept rejections by the supervisors. I felt upset less often. When the going gets tough, the tough gets going. It gave me a sense of achievement after the poster was approved by the supervisors.