WomenInBusiness 2008 rrrrrrrrrrrocks!

Rant: Crrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaa.....p! I left my adapter in my room and now I'm having free wireless at Ye's shop with a satisfying speed that I miss so much! And now... I only have like an hour before lappie die on me.

.........................................................................................................................................................................

WomenInBusiness Rocks!

Because I got to meet a lot of really beeeeeeeeeutiful, cool, funny yet very successful women talking just 4m away from me.

Because I got to make new friends and bumped into some old friends too.

Because the door gift (which I previously called it the "Goodies Bag" and got corrected by Hadi that it's "Door Gift") is like the BESTEST, ever!




So I arrived pretty early because I was told to do so and saw a lot of cool women in their black business suits. Sigh..... I wish I can wear like them lah. My daily working/ studying attire is none other than baju kurung, with ugly floral prints most of the times.

Had a cup of tea and took a bite at the pink-marshmellow like cute dessert, and yuck! That cute looking tiny cup of unknown dessert was so freaking sweet that I think just one piece of it is enough to feed one kampong, I mean tribe in Africa.

And I couldn't stop myself from telling strangers who were looking at the pink egg white thingie, "Don't eat that! It's very very sweet and you're not going to like it I tell you".

My name tag

Allow me to say something really bimbotic here.

I regretted wearing the name tag because now I had 2 tiny ugly holes on my dress. Not very noticeable but still... I will be seeing it whenever I wear it. I complained that to Hadi and he said that it was supposed to be given together with a lanyard so we could wear it around our necks but they couldn't get it on time...

o_O!

Inside the ballroom

Welcoming Remarks by
YM Pengiran Hajah Mariana PDNLDR Pengiran Haji Abdul Momin

Session 1:
Women in Charge: Breaking the Glass Ceiling

Panelists:
	• Mdm Haslina Taib, CEO, BAG Networks Sdn Bhd • Dyg Hjh Fa’aizah bte POKSMDSP Hj Abidin, Managing Director, Brunei Investment & Commercial Bank • Dyg Hjh Rosmawatty bte Hj Abd Mumin, Asset Director, Brunei Shell Petroleum • Ms Paula Malai Ali, TV anchor, ESPN
	Moderator: Mr Allen Lai, CEO, Asia Inc Forum

Quite a number of participants actively voiced out their thoughts or asked questions to the panelists and it was actually pretty enjoyable. Just that it went overboard and took a much longer time and resulted in the delay for the schedule rest of the day.

(Yes, I do have something to comment but wait lah.. I will do it at the end of this post)

Ms Michelle Dula Asence,
one of Philippines’ leading women entrepreneurs and Founder of Zen Zest Lifestyle Products

She was really funny. She shared with us that she hates food (I think I need to friend more people who dislikes food in order to lose weight) and admitted that she was vain and wanted to be beautiful all the time. Hence starting her business of body care and fragrance and exaggerated a little regarding her heart break to the media and got attention. I thought she was pretty smart!

Panelists:
	• Ms Gwendolyn Lee, CEO, Rico Agencies • Norhayati Abu Bakar, Proprietor, DDL Tours Operators Sdn Bhd
	Moderator: Ms Fauziah DSP Hj Talib, Managing Partner, IQ-Quest Company

I was starving during session 2 and all I could do was popping Mentos into my mouth nonstop in order to get me going before lunch. During the short networking break after session 1, I rushed to the washroom and the queue was really long and when I got out of it, all the food was gone.

Lunch mates

Setting of our table

It was disastrous to get to our seat because there's insufficient space for us to get in. The chairs were huge and the table was wide. I thought I looked really clumsy trying to crawl in and nearly tripped once!

Prawn Tandoori
with Mint Yoghurt Dressing

which was cold and not tasty

Oven Baked Norwegian Salmon
with stuffed potatoes, Aubergine Roulade and Saffron Veloute

Chocolate Mousse Tart
Caramelized Bananas, Banana Parfait

Yang Teramat Mulia Paduka Seri Pengiran Anak Puteri Hajah Masna binti Al-Marhum Sultan Haji Omar ‘Ali Saifuddien Sa’adul Khairi Waddien,
D.K.M.B, D.K., P.H.B.S. presenting award

HRH's baju kurung was soooooooo pretty and I thought she looks really sweet and nice.

Group photo of the awardees and Mr Allen Lai with HRH

I'm sorry that most of my photos turned out blurry and not up to standard by certain people but this is already the best I can do with my soon-to-die-but-still-hanging-there camera.

Dato' Dr Jannie Tay

who gave us an inspirational presentation


The Empire Theatre

The weather was quite good (as in shady and windy, when SPF15 is enough to do the trick) so most of us walked back to the Indera Kayangan Ballroom.

Mr. Ranz at work

Finally I got to talk to Rano after the luncheon and before session started, just to find out his current daily hits (which is like.....20x more than my teeny-weeny blog) and the reason why he still hasn't remove his tagboard!

Me: So, what do you think about this forum?
Him: Very cool and interesting! I think.... we should have one for men too! And there will only be 4 females participating. Hahahahaha.

*cough*1st and 2nd runner up for Blog of The Year *cough*

See! Even Rano has bigger eyes and smaller face!
Sigh.....

Dr Dianne Tsen,
Personal Branding Consultang

I'm sorry to say but.. I so disagree with the points she made yesterday. Van and I just thought that it was plan shallow and she even said that our friends, families, spouses and so on reflects what kind of person we are and brand us, thus we got to choose our husbands wisely.

Like hello?

Of course we have to choose our husbands wisely but not based on how he looks okay...

Vanessa (a really really cool girl whom I met yesterday and sat next to me) thought that session 4: THE TOTAL WOMAN - Looking Fabulous Inside and Out will be focus more on the way women should walk, stand, sit, talk and so on to feel really confident of ourselves and not just about "Dress up if you want others to respect you".....

She asked "Am I making any sense to you?" , "Do you get me?" and "Do I still have enough time? Two minutes? How long?" at the end of her sentences and waited for us to say yes.... all.the.time!

And each time she asked that, I felt like shouting at her, "Just continue women! Stop wasting time and carry on will you!". And why is she asking for confirmations from us when she was the speaker? Shouldn't she be confident with what she just said? (Refering to the part she asked if she's making any sense)

Panelists:
	• Ms Lili Yong, Proprietor, Lilli Lingerie • Ms Yvonne Kuan Han, General Manager, Cedar Management Services • Ms Anyati Abdullah Orcullo, Proprietor, Anyati’s
	Moderator: Ms Jenny Malai Ali, Executive Officer, Sales and Marketing and Programs, Kristal FM

But the panelling session was really fun! A guy was asking how he could dress up to impress her female boss and it cracked all of us up.

Lili was funny and Yvonne looked absolutely stunning and she said that there's not a day in her life that she will walk out her house if she felt not happy/ satisfied with her look. I wish I could put as much effort in making myself look good... or at least my hair behaving well is already enough to make me feel good through out the day.

Ms Anyati's design on working attire for government offices

, which I thought looks more like baju raya because it's so flashy! I'm not saying that they're ugly.. but don't you think its a little inappropriate to wear to work?

BAGians with their CEO Haslina Taib and Mr Allen Lai

That's the only photo I took after the forum ended.

I still feels a bit shy when Intan told me that some of her colleagues read my blog and introduced me to them (Hi! Nice meeting and talking to you guys! Hope we'll meet again) lah. Other than that, I bumped into Hani and had a good rant with her regarding my current situation. Saw Tina but was too shy to go up to her and said, "Hi! I read your blog. How's little John-John?".


Know what. I think my biggest reward from attending this forum is getting to know Vanessa, whom sat beside me (all credits to you Hadi) through out the whole day and we talked so much!

Van and I

Dato Dr Jannie was saying that men are all shy whereas women can easily start a conversation with any stranger beside her and tell the person whatsoever thing! When we heard Dato Dr Jannie said that, we paused, looked at each other and laughed! How true!

Van truly inspired me and I really admired her for the risk she had taken, the life that she lived for the past few years and nothing can stop her from doing things she wanted to do!

This petite women travelled alone to Cambodia and gosh! That's like my ultimate dream! You know, whenever I told my friends that I felt like going to Cambodia, they all looked at me as if something's wrong with me and proceeded with questions like, "Harrrrrrrrr..... What so nice about Cambodia?", "Eeeeeee.... Got things to see meh?" in a very disapproving tone (which annoyed the poo-poo out of me sometimes).

I had always dream of travelling alone but there's just so many things stopping me to do so. Van looked at me and said, "Excuses. Why should other people tell you what to do when its your life!".

She told me that she thought women are so demanding and bitter. LOL!
Women always demand for equity in both genders yet requested to have positive discrimination.
Okay, not going in to details because I'm pretty sure its going to be pretty controversial and some people will feel offended.

This whole gender issue will never ceased don't you think?

My door gifts

which will make you shout!

Told you its the bestest door gifts ever!

Fragrance from Zen Zest
Membership card, facial mask, cleanser, lotion and toner from The Face Shop
$5 cash voucher from Essentials
Electric Balm and pads from Gwen's company I assume - correct me if I'm wrong.

They're all so useful and way more interesting than the usual keychains, paper fan with ugly logos and some useless leaflets.

To the girls out there who participated in the forum, we all owe Nanette a big thank you for finding all this great sponsors!



Perhaps I'll just blog about the thoughts I had after this event to share with you all when I have the time later on...... provided I'm not being caught up with my assignments and presentations.