...my days as a YP advisor...

last week was a week of the exciting IPTC - International Petroleum Technical Conference 2008 held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KL ConveC) from 3rd until 5th December 2008...what's in there for me?!!!ahh well, since i'm late at securing my place to become one of the limited delegates representatives for my department (you know, the HR people always left you out in terms of budgeting when you're off for quite sometimes - in my case, MSc studies laa), i purposefully volunteered myself to join in the committee of Education Week programme and become one of the YP advisor...

i was given a tag pass which denotes me as the Education Week Coordinator...yeay...with that, i got the opportunity to sneak into the panel session and access to some of the general talks and discussions as well as to visit the exhibition halls....on the day of the conference opening, i also got a chance to be in the Plenary Hall for the keynote session...yeay...

what i actually volunteered for?basically, YP stands for Young Professional...YP advisors are the volunteers coming from Education Week sponsored companies - PETRONAS, ExxonMobil, Shell, Talisman, Murphy Oil and Petrofac...as for the Education Week programme, it was an initiative by the SPE/IPTC group which selects 100 top students coming from 28 countries to gather and work on a project-based activities...overall, there were 10 projects with 10 members per group basis...

i was to accompany Group 5 and our project was titled - Large Offshore Gas with High CO2 Content Development...i was not expected to provide the solutions for the project...my role was more on to guide the students on teamwork and time management...most of the time, i felt like i was Carolyn in 'The Apprentice' - become the eyes and the ears of the team...

on Monday, i went to the welcoming dinner where the committee introduced the YP advisors to the group of students...we had the stall-setting style buffet dinner at Restoran Seri Melayu, Jalan Conlay...it was my first time being there...i had a great time and enjoy the food especially the Assam Laksa and Satay...

my job begins on Tuesday where we had our ice-breaking session...my group was led by an Italian student...and most of the YP advisors thought that he's the most handsome student this time around...hahaha...his name was Michel and i just found out that he actually got 3 nationalities - italy,spain & venezuela...cool,huh?!!

the students in my group are very bright and they were fully prepared beforehand....since they were students, i discovered that they were so detail-oriented...and it was amusing to see different kinds of characters working together...i noticed that 3 of them were very active in discussions - a bubbly Australian chic, a cute American guy and a chubby Indonesian guy...there was this arrogant Turkey girl (she's very beautiful,though) and 2 decent Chinese girls (1 Malaysian and another one is from the Mainland China)...there were also 2 quiet,observant guys from Oman and Poland...and lastly, there's one passenger in the team - an African guy...

on the 3rd day (wednesday), it was the day of the conference opening...after the keynote session, we were to bring the students to listen to several technical presentations and later work on their projects until the late evening...my group decided to gather information by visiting the booths at the exhibition halls...

thursday was the day of field trips whereby the students were divided into 3 big groups to visit 3 different places - the Schlumberger's Lab at Rohas Perkasa, the PETROSAINS Discovery Centre at Level 4 KLCC and the PETRONAS Visualisation Centre (PViC) at Tower 2 KLCC...as expected,i was assigned to led the students to PViC (i'm a dedicated PMU staff)...apart from the visit to PViC, we also brought the students to have a quick tour at the Skybridge at Level 42...they were very delighted indeed...

the group presentations were held yesterday morning at Room 403/404, KL ConveC...each group was given 10 minutes presentation time with 5 minutes of Q & A session at the end...the panel judges includes Dr Keith Boyle (IPTC representative) and managers from sponsored companies...

i thought that my group did a great job...the bubbly Australian and the cute American were the presenters...surprisingly, the passenger in my group - the African guy stood up for the Q & A session...maybe he sensed that this is the time for him to contribute...i'm very proud of my group...and guess what, our group was the Best Group...yeay...the students received a pewter plague engraved with their name on it, a souvenir token and a certificate of participation...

we had a group photo session at Level 3 social area...will post the picture later once i receive the softcopy...in a nutshell, i've gained a memorable experience...it was really nice getting to know the students with various backgrounds...i've also network with the other YP advisors...nice!

in the end, i got a nice Murphy Oil backpack accompanied with a Talisman laser pointer/LED/UV light, a Chevron desk calendar, a Saudi Aramco - Pierre Cardin's laptop sleeve and a Schlumberger's 2GB USB Flash Drive Business Card size...yeay...happy happy...