Name : Hor Sze Lim
Matric : MC061034
Origin : Selangor – Malaysia
This was the first time for me to be involved in conducting a seminar. Before this, I only had experience in attending seminars held by other people. This was really a great experience for me. My objective in this seminar was to learn how to collaborate with different people and to work more confidently and professionally.
Because of some constraints, my other course mates and I only managed to begin the preparation for the seminar one week before the date for the seminar. Everything seemed like a rush. Nevertheless, it was a chance for us to learn how to do things in a short time with good performance.
Very soon after we contacted each other, all of us had the first meeting. I was touched and felt grateful because most of the members attended the meeting and all of us tried our best to contribute ideas in organizing the seminar. That was the first big motivation for me to try hard to make this seminar a success. This was because I knew that the other members had the same direction as me: they also want to make the seminar a success. That was an important peer support.
In this seminar, there were two members and I who were responsible for arranging food, drinks and gifts. Because of some misunderstanding; I had to look for the boss of the cafeteria, after the officer, Kak Sidah, ordered the food from them. However, it was a good experience for me. When I met with Mak Jah, the boss of the cafeteria, she firmly shook my hand. She guided me to a seat before we started to discuss. During that process, I learned that acting professionally and politely is very important in dealing with people. Good attitude will impress people a lot.
After the food and drinks were settled, it was time for me to buy the gifts for the speakers and our subject supervisor. In choosing the gifts, it was a headache for me due to the budget problem. I bought the gifts from the UTM souvenir shop.
Regarding the location for having the meals on the day of the seminar, there were some arguments. Some of us agreed to let all the seminar participants and the VIPs to have their meals together while others had other views. As our supervisor had said, we have to consider both the good points and bad points of making a decision. After having advice from Kak Sidah, we came out with the best solution which was to have the participants and the VIPs take their meals at separate locations. We came up with this decision after we considered the number of people and the limited space we had in the main hall.
Communication between members is very important to avoid misunderstanding. Providing good explanation can make people feel more comfortable in following instructions. Ordering people to follow certain instructions without giving good reason or clarification will make people feel irritated and angry.
In this seminar, I volunteered to be the treasurer. Throughout the whole process, I kept trying to tell members to use the money wisely. With limited amount of fund, it was really hard for us to apportion the fund. Lesson learned: we must divide the fund based on the importance of the area. Recommendation: we need to begin with a formally agreed budget. In this seminar, we spent a lot of money on food and the banner.
On the seminar day, I was one of the members responsible for managing the registration of the participants. All the stationery like pens and pencils have to be organized in place to make sure all the participants did not need to wait a long time to sign their name. To make things go smoothly, it was better to have more than one attendance sheet for the participants to sign their name.
In my opinion, since we were conducting the seminar for academic purpose, the scale of the seminar can be targeted at a moderate level. The seminar did not need to be grand as long as we can achieve our objectives. Besides that, there will always be people with different points of view from ours. It was a time for us to learn tolerance and flexibility. In conclusion, it was a beneficial experience for me.
Lastly, I wish to express my sincere appreciation to my subject supervisor, P.M. Wardah for her precious guidance, encouragement, advice, knowledge and motivation. My sincere appreciation also extends to all my course-mates, and others who have provided assistance at various occasions.
