• Discuss on submission of proposal

Items discussed/done:

• Blog for logging to be set up
• Decided to link the blogs together with a common layout
• Follow-up work to be done by Sherwin to have updates from the delegates and centre in Cambodia

Personal Reflection:

Finally things have come to an end. I do miss what we have done and the times spent there but now its just down to logging. I actually don't like the process of this online logging thingy. Rather troublesome. Have to re-type what we have written while we were in Cambodia.

Troublesome..

• Confirming the collaterals, as well as site-recee, together with guest list

Items discussed/done:

• Collaterals are printed, both brochures as well as inviation cards, guest list is confirmed

Personal Reflection:

As much as they were receptive to our ideas, it was till tiring and frankly, i was not really interested to explain must. But i just pushed and went forth with a very plastic front. I broke down while i was alone in the shed planning how i wanted things to be done while Jasmine and Ash were in town running to source for a printer.

We also had to settle for limitations like quality of postcards, and also the size of the posters required for presentations. I was so so happy Ash and Jasmine managed to find a shop that prints A3 papers because initiatlly we wanted A1, but there was not shop that prints such posters, and later, they only found shops that print A4 papers.. I feel bad but am thankful for their effort. I owe them my thanks.

We're been so dampened by the results and well finally things are showing some progress and looks rather positive. We pushed to get as many attendees tonight and well.. I sincerely hope that nothing will back fire else i'll collapse..

With all the planning we have gone through, the event has to still be on.

• Discuss and tidy up invitation cards as well as team logs

Item discussed/done:

• Invitation cards and discuss tasks to be done the following day/when we wake up

Time: 1120hrs - 1800hrs

Attendance: All

Venue: Guesthouse

Objectives:

• Plan and design industry event brochure

Items discussed/done:

• collaterals and event logistics
• brochures, posters as well as invitation cards
• venue has now been confirmed back to PKTC
• Refining program line-ups followed by the logistics and manpower allocation.

Attendance: All

Time: 2330hrs - 0130hrs

Date: 20 Aug 2008

Venue: Guesthouse

Who we met: Haris and Carol

Objectives:

• discussed on what needs to be done and any queries that we have for the operation manager that we need to clarify the following day.

Items discussed/done:

• Collaterals are printed, both brochures as well as invitation cards, guest list is confirmed

Personal Reflection:

Finally we are down to the very very VERY last straw and i so can't wait for the entire thing to come to an end.. The last few days was indeed an emotional roller coaster and very very torturous. I woke up feeling very bitter and angry and wanted to push for the event without the centre's support but that was kinda harsh a decision.

• Refine invitations and tidying up logistics required
• Plan contingency plans (2 plans; 1 - Venue changed to Angkor Night Market, 2 - Venue changed to Guesthouse)
• Refine KPI's
• Lowered KPIs from 30 to 15 attendees
• Due to circumstances where centre doesn't support due to tight schedule and negative past experiences with RP
• Leveraged on contacts ground handler has with tour operators

Items discussed/done:

• Logistics: Chairs, tables, AV Equipment etc

• Find out process and take photos for video logs (information gathering for event)

Items discussed/done:

• Limitations of the centre (space of location)
• Dressing down by Yuko-san, operations manager of Pottery

Personal Reflection:

I was rather shocked and scared after the dressing down. We went there for information gathering and with only a couple of days to our event, things are still moving and we are just getting anxious. Perhaps in Cambodia it takes days to approve an event however in Singapore, we are too used to the fast paced life.

Truely i appreciated the lessons learnt not in books but i shall felt very backstabbed. No names to mention and no one in particular just the feeling of being backstabbed. We were blamed and accused of things we didn't know/do and we had to absorb all the anger that Yuko-san had to rant out.

We went back with very little that we have. And felt very tired and jaded.

Personally, its time to pull our our drawer plans..

• tidy up itinerary of event, do up logistics required

Item discussed/done:

• design of invitation cards
• Identification and refining of target audience

Personal Reflections:

Everything is done and proposal is ready to be submitted for approvals. I believe the group, like me in confident that we will be able to pull it off well.

Hopefully things will happen like clock work as expected..

• Gather information on the tourist expectations and demand on the traditional Cambodian arts

Items discussed/done:

• Onsite surveys on the tourists
• gather and evaluate results
• brief the other teams on findings

• Communicate event and discuss restrictions
• Objectives of PKTC

Item discussed:

• souvenir/special rates (for sales of krama)
• Quantity issues of souvenirs if they have
• Image and branding of PKTC
• Main objective that PKTC would want to portray through Open House and Roadshow

Personal Reflection:

Frankly, i was terrified and worried because i bad at memorizing stuff especially stuff of such magnitude. SCARY~~~~

It was quite an eye opener.. Sharon who is the owner of PKTC with the aid of her husband who is a Cambodian along with 2 japanese ladies, 1 who does or learned pottery and another who learned weaving from a master weaver in Japan who has passed on.

She shed some light on the objectives of PKTC which was "Revive the dying tradition of traditional weaving and pottery in Cambodia" it was also to "Empowering women with lifeskills" this way, the ladies won't turn to the sex trade for a source of income.

Another reason to why it was an eye opener was due to the fact they PKTC is a place that speaks of quality and thus they don't result to giving freebies and having sales of items at special rates. She also let us in on the Unique Selling Point of PKTC. The cotton used to weave the kramas are all from trees grown around the vacinity of the centre and the colours are also from these trees. Hence upon arrival, we saw people spinning this threads on different wheels. They only import threads from china if its absolutely necessary when certain designed are to be done.

They clay are also from the mountain areas of Cambodia and requires some fermenting period or breathing period. I never though that clay needed to left to "breath" or "fermented".. Its like marinating meat.. hehe.

This makes it even better than Artisan D' Angkor because, unlike them, PKTC is more authentic in Cambodian art. PKTC's kramas can be machine washed and its made that strong to countless numbers of wash. Mind you, Tomoko San who is incharge of Weaving does her Quality checks. As compared to Artisan's krama's where u have to hand wash else, all the threads will be ruined at the first wash..

• Settle all timeline and logistic items

Item discussed:

• structure of timeline of event
• duration (of event)
• refine target audience
• working with other teams regarding logistics and marketing issues (online team with regards to collateral's and with Roadshow team if we want to make it similar or share information with each other)
• restrictions and questions to be asked during the meeting with PKTC's owner/founders
• Questions for survey at Pub Street at 2100hrs while team representatives went for dinner meeting.

• To experience how similar enterprise evolve into a private corporation

Item discussed:

• How can we turn Prolung Khmer into something similar
• What are the areas that we can learn from Artisan D' Angkor
• What is the unique selling point of Artisan D' Angkor and discover our own Unique selling point.

Personal Reflection:

I somehow realised that it is very commercialised and as we actually went on a tour, i saw how they used a method on the sandstones called "Polychrome" where these sandstones, after going through "Polychrome" will along with its carvings, looks similar to the murals which we can see in Angkor Wat. This claim was also made by the tour guide.

It is interesting however, similarly different to what i have seen in Prolung Khmer Training Centre (PKTC). PKTC based on my observation seems more original in terms of the fabric and weaving. While in Artisan D' Angkor, we didnt really see the weaving process rather the paintings and so on and it seems far more commercialised and not as authentic. In terms of origin of its fabrics. They also replicate murals.

They focus more on Cambodian culture but i believe its fairly different from the focus of PKTC.. Question is.. How different? And What ex PKTC's unique selling point??

• Site Recee and understanding of Prolung Khmer Centre in detail (Process, causes)

Agenda:

• Logistics
• Location for various events (registration etc)
• Detailed pictures of products (processes)

Personal Reflection:

It was a long VERY LONG morning.. Was at the airport abt 3 plus in the morning and flight was quite alright just very tired. When i was at the airport, i was crying in my heart "Give me an emtpy row of seats on the plane for me to slp". When the sun shone into the cabin of the plane, it was beautiful and it was a bit shocking to see lots of slumps from the plane when it was rotating in preparation for landing.

"Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen. Welcome to Siem Reap Cambodia..." was my waking up alarm. I was still feeling very tired but the atmosphere there just woke me up. It was a pleasant feeling. For some weird reason, i just felt a little at home.

Arriving to Siem Reap kinda assured me that i had lots of work to do. This included things like approval of our team's proposal and well sourcing for materials etc was going to be a bit of a problem but we always seem to make do with what we have so i am confident that we will pull it off.

During breakfast, Diyanah (my other Cambodia Calling Director) and i met up with Musa, our ground handler to discuss our trip. This included things like meals, items we need, transportation. I was actually quite touched that they really tried their best to pull their resources to make it possible for us. It was also quite easy for us to get around because though we do not know Khmer, we just needed to speak malay to them.

After getting our sim cards (a long and tiring process) we headed to Prolung Khmer training centre. It was quite empty. We only saw the workers working but not the 2 japanese ladies whom we heard of. While we were there, we took lots of pictures of how kramas are made from scratch and also how they clay for the pots are made. I heard it was a long process thus these pictures could help us for our preparation of our event.

We also looked around to see where we can hold our event. There was visually no space aside from a shed which was used to store clay. These clay were put there to "ferment" or something like that. It was also a space that was cooling and since there was no fan, the open space would be alittle cooling rather than being in the shed where the weaving and pottery is taking place.

Most of our information search has to be done on the spot because i do not know when we will be back again. Perhaps the next would be on our event day itself thus though we are tired and sleepy just rough it out for a bit. :)

• Come out with a possible timeline of event

Agenda:

• What are the various types of fringe events that can be done in corporate open house
• Components to a corporate open house (logistics: Goodie bags, operations, manpower)
• Possible timeline

Personal Reflections:

We seem to be going steady and amidst all this planning that we have, i'm glad we too have a few drawer plans. However all this (drawer plans) will be confirmed once we have seen the location and the environment.

Having heard about Cambodia from friends, i am quite scaptical about our plans especially when it comes to resources. We might need to tap on our own resources and we might need to really depend on ourselves. I am a little scared but confident that we are able to sail through this because this team i have with me, i am happy to have them with me.

Indeed a blessing in disguise.

From the looks of it, it looks like Cambodia is "Confirmed" thus we are calling it "Cambodia's Calling". I am extremely excited especially with all this preparations and this mad rush that we are expecting. Though the rest of the teams are all slacking through but well lets just get this over and done and then we can relax.

Frankly i find this online blogging thingy extremely crappy.. Internet connection in Cambodia, though widely available but not stable at all. So difficult to have a stable connection especially if you have a group of 22 students including 2 faci's. Its better to just jot it down on our note books because we can just jot it dwn as we are doing out meeting. better than way.

• Setting up goals and key performance indicators (KPIs)

Agenda:

• What are various methods to measure success rate of event?
• What are the various components that constitutes to the success of the event?

• Introduce the project and gain understanding on what is an industry event

Item discussed were:

• Various roles and responsibilities of each team member
• What is an industry event
• reseach to be done to find out more industry events in terms of open house concept.