If you guys don’t already know (or follow my Twitter-feed), I spent Nov 16 & 17 at the Youth Engagement Summit 2009 all the way at PICC which is situated in a God forsaken place Putrajaya.

And let me tell you… it was an awesome event.

Actually, my involvement with YES2009 started out way before that. Not because I was part of the organizing team, nor was I a volunteer, nor am I a Youth Asia employee. In fact, it started out on Saturday night, November 14th (actually, it started out way before that. But it’s a story for another time .

I followed Khailee and Nguyen to PICC to meet up with Joel, Esther, Joanne, Audra and Lina… and spent the next few hours packing 500 goodie bags with the latter 4. Poor Esther’s hands were covered in paper cuts while I had an ache in my left butt cheek from weird sitting positions.

But I digress. Back to YES2009 — the actual one.

I was originally supposed to go as a youth delegate with the Youth Asia team but at 1.30AM on Sunday night, Khailee’s designated photographer bailed for a family emergency and I ended up being his sub-par, amateur replacement. So instead of sitting put from 8.00am-6.00pm each day listening to talks, I ended up shadowing Khailee for two entire days taking photos of him like his personal papparazzi -__-

I was rather reluctant but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I can never stay awake for talks no matter how much sleep I get or how interesting / funny the speaker is (all HELP Psychology students know that this includes lectures, and even some tutorials). So I was wondering how the hell will I be able to stay awake with only 2.5 hours sleep on Sunday night, and 3 on Monday night?

But thankfully, with the adrenaline rush and the running around, I pretty much was on my toes and heard (almost) everything I wanted to listen to. Plus, being Khailee’s shadow for the day I managed to slip myself into all the press conferences and eat at all the VIP areas

Day #1

String of opening speeches by Datuk Johan Jaafar (CEO of Media Prima), Haminder Singh (organizing chairman of YES2009) and Khailee.

I don’t know where the rest of the opening speeches are… but here’s Khailee’s, courtesy of Global Vision and Jia Ling (Khailee’s camerawoman of the day).

There was mayhem, chaos and mania right after the opening speeches. Khailee and Nando Parrado (the closing speaker for Day #2) were completely MOBBED by the SEA delegates. I got my toes stepped on, bag trodden upon and elbowed just to take these pictures.

One of the perks I got from shadowing Khailee — networking and speaking with people from various industries (and some top business leaders) in the VIP section, and scrumptious food.

Speaker #1: Biz Stone

“Happy mistakes are the best kind…”
~ Biz Stone

If you don’t know who Biz Stone is, shame on you. He’s the co-founder of the micro-blogging phenomenon, Twitter.

I took away one main thing from his talk — the true, real reason to why he created Twitter in the first place.

He mumbles. Big time. And he can be relatively incoherent. Yes, I understood what he said, but for most of his talk I had to strain my ears.

But he was surprisingly clearer and more coherent during the press conference? Perhaps he was more relaxed, he didn’t have to speak out of a microphone.. and there were far fewer people. Nonetheless, I’m an active twitterer and it was amazing meeting him in person, hearing him speak and actually asking him a question

Speaker #2: Dr. Mamphela Ramphela

“You are the leaders you have been waiting for.”
“Consciousness that transcends the NOW is SO important.”
~ Dr. Mamphela Ramphele at YES2009

I don’t blame you if you don’t know who she is. Yes, she looks like a Star Wars character from the planet of Naboo (credits to Adrian Lai for that . But this feisty and very, very wise old lady is actually the former director of the World Bank.

I didn’t stay for her full talk (I was at Biz Stone’s press conference) but from what I heard at her talk and press conference has definitely hit home, not just for me but for tons of young people there.

Speaker #3: Sir Bob Geldof

I have to admit. This dude has to be my favourite speaker of the lot. He said many things that rang true to everyone in the room and had such a commanding presence that you just wanted to follow his every word. For those of us who work actively with NGOs and have heavy interest in social activism, Bob Geldof’s words were very useful.

“We should demand leadership. If there is none, we should lead ourselves.”
“Young people should always question.”
“Everyone has the exact same potential if they were given the exact same opportunity.”
“To die of want in a world of surplus is an intellectual and moral disgrace”
“Cooperation, rather than competition, must be the paradigm of the 21st century.”
“If you’re not participating in the knowledge economy, you’re out of the loop.”
“Unless we cooperate as a species, there is no future.”
“You don’t want to be like us! In fact, you threw us out. WELL DONE.” — On South East Asian countries gaining independence from the West.
~ Sir Bob Geldof at YES2009

There were very many more. Unfortunately, I could not write quickly enough.

In summary
It was good. If not, great. Considering how I can barely keep awake during talks of any kind, the fact that I managed to keep awake, take notes, listen intently and learn from these great change icons must say something.

Following this, I attended the officiating dinner with a sprightly Audra and two zombies in the form of Khailee and Joel. The sleepless night before had taken its toll on them and they sat there expressionless for most of the 10 course dinner, only breaking out of their daze to rush at the food. Even having Asha Gill at our table could not rouse them from their daze.

The highlight of the night had to be us taking a photo (my only photo with any of the speakers) with Sir Bob Geldof right before he left the dinner. It made Audra and I so, so happy that it kept me awake until 3am (doing work) in spite of having only a measly 2.5 hours of sleep the night before.

More to follow with Day #2. Meanwhile, pictures!

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