NYEF!

National Youth Environment Forum:
10may’08 >> beyond awareness

The NYEF was a great learning experience for me, and really gave me new insights into the organization and running of semi-major conferences as well as current environmental issues.

Helping out in the preparation of the NYEF gave me first-hand and realistic experience with regards to the various program and logistical tasks involved in the running of such events. Even before the dry run of the event, effort was required to gather volunteers, helpers and staff together for discussions and meetings way ahead of the actual things itself. This showed me the need to plan, prepare and coordinate everybody well ahead of the event, and we will definitely try to do the same in the organizing of our very own forum.

On the day before the actual NYEF, Swee Kiat, Dah Wei and I went down to the Riverwalk opposite Central @ Clarke Quay after school to help out in some final preparations for the event; we helped shift furniture, were briefed on the running of the forum, our roles, had a few dry runs for the GoH’s arrival, and various other tasks. Despite these being seemingly simple tasks, I realized that they were actually significant and necessary, and every detail no matter how small had to be taken care of in order to ensure quality and success. Even though the event was quite large scale, I realized that the volunteers and people at ECO were not as “serious” and formal as I expected them to be during the preparation, they would always find time for laughter, informal talk and just casual mixing around. This again taught me that there is really no need to stress yourself out all the way before an event, and it is important for the organizing team to simply relax and enjoy doing what they do in order to make it successful; although, of course, we cannot compromise getting work done in the end.

The day of the National Youth Environment Forum was to be a memorable, exciting and very enriching experience for me. We all got up early and went down to help in last minute preparations such as getting fresh flowers for the GoH, batteries and the registration booth. Despite having many dry runs and preparing a lot for the forum the previous day, there were inevitably some areas that were overlooked, and one of the most crucial was the registration; there was supposed to be 1 hour allocated to the preparation of the registration booth which included what turned out to be the head-ache causing task of sorting out and placing nametags into lanyards. As there were 4 different topics for discussion that people could opt to attend, we had to paste stickers on each nametag individually to colour-code it, this proved to be time-consuming and prone to errors. In addition, the time allocated was actually cut short due to participants turning up earlier than expected, forming a small crowd outside the area waiting for the nametags to be ready; in the end, one thing led to another, and registration became a slow and tedious process as crowds kept coming. This serves as an important lesson for us and we should not repeat the same mistake of doing the registration last minute.

I personally was dispatched as an usher, and for the first few times I approached people, I realized I gave them unclear instructions that led them to the wrong venue due to the layout of the area being rather confusing; after that, I became more precise and included hand gestures to make sure they knew where the opening address venue was.

Another important learning point was that during the actual forum itself, the GoH arrived early, while one of the guest speakers came late, and there were some other hiccups in the timing; this caused some confusion and brought forward the programme, making all of us panic initially. However, the accommodation of the other speakers as well as having a longer tea break allowed the program to flow smoothly in the end despite the original timeslots allocated not being followed closely. This highlights the importance of adaptability and flexibility in planning, as it is inevitable that timing is not kept closely; also, we should not over-plan down to each minute, but sometimes just go with the flow and let the event run smoothly by itself, making decisions on the go.

Aside from the running of the event, I also learnt more about the environment and what various groups are doing to promote its conservation. In the discussion groups we participated in, we got to meet several environment enthusiasts who spoke passionately and realistically about what they do and the current situation in Singapore. Problems highlighted include urban development of primary forests, illegal fishing, usage of harmful devices such as driftnets that kill wildlife indiscriminately, over-consumption of meat leading to large carbon footprint etc. These were all highly relevant and down-to-earth problems in my opinion, and definitely broadened my perspective and perception of environmental problems. It was not all just hypothetical visualizations on the problems faced by the environment, but in line with the theme of the forum “beyond awareness”, participants discussed what small contributions they could make, what they could do for the environment, and what needs to be done now.

On the whole I felt that the NYEF was a large success owed mainly to the experienced organizing team from ECO Singapore, captivating guest speakers, enthusiastic participants, good food, and the brilliant micromanagement and deployment of people. There were many learning points from it, and I hope these can be rubbed-off onto our very own conference, so that it will be equally if not more successful relatively.

Now that Green is IN and everyone is aware of the greatest crisis humanity is facing, it really is time to take awareness to the next level and transform it into action. No contribution is too small, no step is too short in covering this thousand mile journey, all we need to do is: start. Now.