echo By: Chloe
The International Conference For Young Leaders event (ICYL for short) was an event held at the Putra World Trade Centre, Kuala Lumpur. This conference carried the theme Changing Communities Through Social Entrepreneurship. It opened opportunities and space to enhance the involvement of Malaysian youth in social entrepreneurship that could help to spearhead the Malaysian economy towards sustainability as well as local and regional networking. Even while having to wake up early in the morning and to travel to such a far place, the three participants from Sunway University had a good time there. Out of the three of them, ECHO had the opportunity to hear from two of them.
Question 1: What do you think about entrepreneurship?
Chloe Tee (C.T) : I have worked in that field before without knowing anything about social enterprising (Doing good and getting profits at the same time). It is like combining two different worlds, like a paradigm shift. This event has given us a deeper insight about the topic.
Cheng Yee (C.Y) : It has nothing to do with the course as it is more about business. I did some research about entrepreneurship but I could not get the meaning. After listening to the speakers, I understand it better and I have learned more outside of the classroom.
Question 2: Without really knowing about entrepreneurship, what interest you to join this event?
C.T: I have been interested in as I have always wanted to start something by myself so I thought just go for it despite the unknown.
C.Y: I do not have a clear goal or image prior to the event. Enterprising has always been my interest. I wanted to do more besides earning money as I want to leave an impact in the future.
Question 3: What have you gained from the talk?
C.T: Firstly, we have gotten a lot of insights about social enterprising. It was a networking session so we were exposed to various kinds of businesses. In my opinion, businessmen are too cunning so we cannot trust them fully. Hence, we must learn to analyze and that is one of the things we have learned there. Other than that, we also manage to listen to real life stories from other people who attended the event. Those stories were really inspiring.
C.Y: As a person who has the interest for it, I now have a clearer picture about social enterprising and how to proceed from there. This event has also allowed me to not just to get to know more about it but to also learn from the speakers as well as to obtain a clearer picture of what social enterprising does. Oh and we got to know many others who share the same interest.The speakers there have also exposed us to many topics regarding world issues that we did not know of due to our comfort zones, helping us to be aware of global issues and such.
- About the event (Part 2)
C.T: The food was nice. There were food catered for vegetarians and non-vegetarians. It as if we were there to eat (laughs)
C.Y: Throughout the conference, the participants were well taken care of. Transportations were a problem for us though.
Question 4: Lastly, what message would you like to give our readers?
Students are encouraged to participate and invest time wisely as it is the golden time for people to learn. There may not be any more opportunities like this in the future so do not wait. Find your interest and do something more valuable.
P.S from Chloe Tee and Cheng Yee: A big thank you to Ms.Evelyn for the guidance and follow up. It was her who posted the events and she was really nice.
