Singapore is hosting the first Singapore International Photo Festival (SIPF), which might be of interest to you, especially for those of you who have intense interest in photography. It will subsequently be held once every two years.

The official website is as follows:

 Singapore International Photo Festival

Some details of the event that you might like to know:

• The event is from 8th October 2008 to 31st October 2008.
• The event is first of its kind in Southeast Asia.
• Its objective is to showcase the works of Southeast Asian artists alongside those of international artists at various venues in Singapore.
• The 3 main festival components are the official exhibitions, workshops and a 2-day portfolio preview session for 50 selected Southeast Asian photographers. This will be followed by a series of workshops facilitated by curators and senior photographers for 40 participants.
• You can get a copy of the festival guide by clicking here.

The same can be said of magazines, many of which have both a print and online edition. Just think of Newsweek and Time magazine. For some magazines, readers are also encouraged to visit the magazine’s official website via a specific web address (URL) to check out on updated online content. This is one of the strongest indicator that print is no longer able to keep up with the internet when it comes to information updates.  Another example will be the announcement of Oscar winners online. While the radio used to be a good medium for the announcement of the results, people are now going online to check the outcome. And this is very convenient for online users who have internet access.

With this media convergence, consider the following:

• What does this media convergence means to you, both as a media consumer and a media professional?
• What insights can you draw from this recent media development?
• What are the implications of this media convergence?

Mediacorp has decided to go beyond print when it comes to its magazines with both web-based and television initiatives. You can read about it here. At the same time, four titles will cease publication, namely Lime, Vanilla, Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) and Kids Company (although some of the titles may come back as online editions). With the media moving magazine titles online, it will be good at this point in time to ponder about the following questions:

• Will the internet be the primary platform for the media in the years to come? If so, in what ways are you able to contribute to this growing sector?
• What are the differences between print media and online media?
• What can you foresee about the face of the media in 10-15 years’ time?
• Will the provision of bloggers’ information be able to compare with those provided by the media in the near future (where currently, some bloggers’ credibility is still questioned)?
• In recent years, the media seems to be shifting its business from print to online (with some titles on both platforms). What are the advantages and disadvantages in this?
• In the abovementioned article, it’s mentioned that Mediacorp has came up with a software EasyReader which synchronises and downloads content from any internet connection. It is believed to be the first in Asia. How do you think that this software will change the ways that people make use of the media?

The media is evolving and it will be useful if you continue to keep a tab on its development, considering that all of you are media students.

In the meantime, have an enjoyable learning experience in school.

I believe that there are two causes of groupthink, one of which is due to the personality of specific individuals who take on leadership positions and control the direction that the team is heading. For such instances, it is difficult for any one of us to change the personality of someone. What we can do is advise these individuals on the situation and explain to them the benefits of teamwork (such as the benefits of having more interesting ideas from every teammate). If the issue persists, do inform your facilitator.

The other cause of groupthink is due to the fact that there is no member within the team that is assertive enough to find a direction. Hence, the team moves in a direction upon the first suggestion put forward by one of its members. Such cases are rare but it does happen.  When groupthink surfaces in such situations, team members can encourage each other to discuss further before deciding.

Regardless of the situation, we should avoid groupthink whenever possible.

According to psychologist Howard Gardner, there are not one but several intelligences in life. What is being assessed throughout your academic life is primarily inclined towards logical-mathematical and linguistic intelligences, which is merely two out of several intelligences. For more information, you can key in “Howard Gardner” and/or “Theory of Multiple Intelligences” into any search engines for more details.

I will like you to know that you are smarter than you think. And if you put in effort in achieving your life goals, I believe that all of you will do very well in life.

Personally, I feel that living lives with good values is important not only for leaders but every one of us. However, what are these values? I feel that they are as follows:

• Respect: I figure that I won’t have to elaborate much on this point since all of you have learnt this in your cross cultural communications for two semesters. We have discussed how important respect is when it comes to establishing rapport with others but it’s also important to note the consequences in the absence of it.  Therefore, we should make every effort to respect others as unique individuals with their own strengths and talents.
• Thriftiness: This is a value that is rapidly eroding in today’s society. This is especially so in this day and age where consumerism is becoming more prevalent. In Barry Schwartz’s book “The Paradox of Choice“, the author mentioned that we become less happy when the variety of our choices increases immensely. Therefore, it’s best we think twice about walking into a retail outlet the next time we are in a shopping complex. We should draw a distinct line between what items are “necessities” and what are “luxuries”. This is even more important in recently years where media advertising has somewhat blurred the lines between the two terms.
• Reciprocity: The tendency to reciprocate is losing its impact on society in recent years.  While we used to send season’s greeting cards to friends and anticipating a letter from our pen pal in the past, we are seeing an increased signs of societal isolation in urban society, where urbanites are inclined to listen to a music player than making an effort to talk to their friends. This observation has been given a name by psychologist Daniel Goleman in his book “Social intelligence“, which is “urban trance”. Most urbanites are almost trapped mentally in their own world, and much might be attributed to their bid to avoid the bombardment by media advertising and all the distractions around them. I feel that it’s time that we go back to basics by engaging others in more face-to-face communications.
• Integrity: The value of integrity is also decreasing in value in recent years. You read about it in the papers (cases of embezzlement and frauds), you will observe it in the workplace and you see it in the streets. Personally, I consider integrity as one of the personal values that should be upheld by us because should the value of integrity depreciates drastically, the very social fabric of society will be destroyed, and this will eventually plunge society into a state of decadence.

Personally, I feel that the abovementioned values are good values to hold on to. I hope that you feel the same way too.       

I have noticed that there is a tendency among some of you to stop midway in your speech when you are presenting your points in class. Below are a few observations that I have made when you are unsure of your points:

• Give up trying to find a way to complete your sentence
• Informing your audience that you are unsure of how to continue
• Abruptly end your sentence with words that you find appropriate with no further elaboration
• Seek assistance from your team mates
• Stay silent and wait for your team mates to take the initiative to either help you or present their points

While I understand that all of us do encounter challenges while presenting, I will advise you not to give up too easily on the elaboration of your points. Being a presenter who can speak well is a skill that can only be improved through practice over time. The five approaches that are mentioned will not help you to improve in this aspect. One of the things that you can do is to be more confident of what you are presenting, which can be achieved through good preparation before your presentation. Try to familiarise yourself with what you are presenting. Then, rehearse your speech several times before your team presentation. During your rehearsal, do say out what you are going to present in your own words. You might like to seek feedback from your good friends as well with regard to your presentation. This will give you more familiarity with the presenting materials and improves the fluency of your presentation. 

However, this is not enough. The most important factor is still missing: confidence.

You must have confidence in yourself that you will do well. Having the thought that you can be a good presenter is not enough. You must take steps and make the effort to achieve what you want to achieve.  For a start, always make the effort to finish all the sentences that you are presenting.

Remember, confidence is important in all aspects of our endeavours in life. If others are not there to give us confidence, we need to instil confidence in ourselves.

The day when we are truly confident is the day when we will excel.

With the easy accessibility of the internet in campus, it’s not surprising to see many of you using internet as the primary source for research and learning. After all, one just needs to key in a search term in any search engine of one’s preference and the information will be found. While online research looks useful, there is one pitfall that most of us are unaware of, which is the lack of structure in our learning.

Let’s consider an example. When we want to learn more about communication skills, it’s easy for us to type in “Communication skills” as the search terms in a search engine, and we get the information that we want. However, the information that the search engine pulls out for us comes from all types of sources. Lack of credibility aside, we also face the issue of having to define what it is that we really want to know about communication skills. And without a structure for learning, it is easy for us to get lost in the tons of information and data that is prevalent in the internet. This is the reason why textbooks still exist in the face of the internet, for they provide the structure that is so crucial to our learning.

Textbook acts as a precursor to our learning, providing the basic structures that guide our learning. Of course, one textbook is insufficient to cover a subject matter that we wish to learn. So, we should source for several textbooks. By providing a structure for learning, textbooks adds depth to learners’ learning. This means that books often enable learners to learn more about a particular subject matter than any online articles can hope to achieve. However, online information adds breadth to learners’ learning, in the sense that online information often provides more perspective on a particular subject matter than any single textbook can hope to accomplish (after all, it is impossible for the author(s) of a textbook to cover the entire scope of a subject matter as compared to countless information sources on the internet, no matter how wide-ranging their knowledge is).

So, how do we combine the use of textbooks and the internet for learning?

I propose that we start with a few textbooks and based on the topics of interests in these texts, we can proceed to source for information on the internet. In this way, we are learning through a properly defined structure (with depth) while enhancing our understanding with information on the internet (thus increasing the breadth of our study).

All of you are fortunate to have a library and internet access in campus, so the abovementioned approach is one approach that you might like to consider when it comes to enhancing your learning experience.

What is mentioned above is obvious. However, what is not so obvious is the fact that we can and should brand ourselves to potential employers. I call it “personal branding”. When it comes to personal branding, we do not promote a specific lifestyle. We promote our abilities and talents.

So, how do we do that?

We should start with the basics, which is identifying and acknowledging our talents and abilities. All of us are unique and we possess specific skills that others do not.  These skills and abilities are what differentiate us from other job candidates when we look for jobs. Most job candidates apply for jobs with a cover letter and resume. But the details on these documents are merely skimming the surface when it comes to promoting our talents most of the time. I will recommend an additional 1-page document which provides a detailed summary of your achievements and abilities alongside your cover letter and resume when you apply for job in the near future.

Below are some questions to help you with this 1-page document:

• Do you have any interests or hobbies that you do not mind engaging in, even if it cost you time and effort? List them down. Identify the skills that are required for these activities.
• Do you have friends who commended you on specific achievements? List them down.  Identify the skills that are required for these activities.
• Have you joined any activities in school before?  What skills have you learnt from these activities? List them down.
• Have you attended any courses before? List them down.
• What is your goal in life? Is there anything that you wish to achieve in your life? Write them down.
• Look through your school testimonials. Look at the comments by your teachers and identify any skills that have been highlighted. Write them down.
• What profession(s) are you interested in? Write it down.
• In your life, which areas do you tend to excel and have interest in? Write them down.

After you have done the above, try to identify common areas and summarise your abilities and talents.

Now, do your interests and talents align with your preferred professions/career? If they do, it’s good. If not, you might like to explore other career options, since working in a profession of your preference which requires expertise that you do not excel in is not a good option. It’s best if you are able to join a profession where you have both the interest and the abilities. While we may switch career more than once in current times, it’s still advisable to get the right job for our first job. This is because our first job usually provides the foundation for our subsequent jobs.

Now, arrange your abilities and talents on a piece of paper. Writing in paragraphs or in point forms are both all right. Personally, I will encourage you to write in paragraphs as it looks more detailed and structured. Organise your writing such that your readers will be able to get an overview of your achievements, abilities and talents easily. Be as detailed as possible.

It will be good to start working on personal branding now while you are still in school.

Brand yourself, and shine.

I have noticed that some of you are holding back during the course of the lesson when questions are posed by the educators. This is especially so when it comes to the “Q & A” session at the end of each team’s presentation, where some of you have also hesitated to question the presenting teams. 

There are several benefits to asking and answering questions, as follows:

• Improves analytical skills: When you ask a question in class, you are actually clarifying some facts on behalf of your classmates as well. This benefits the class on the whole. The same can be said when you pose a question to the presenting teams. When you attempt to answer a question posed to you by one of your friends, you have to think things through before answering. This improves your analytical skills, a set of skills that is drastically different from your presentation skills.  While your presentation skills involves getting your message accurately across to your target audience, analytical skills involves exploring issues from various perspectives (some of which you have not even thought of previously) and putting forward your stand persuasively and convincingly.  A good presenter needs both analytical and presentation skills since both are vital ingredients for an interesting and credible presentation.
• Gaining confidence and learning humility: When you start to ask questions consistently, you began to develop a skill to explore issues from various perspectives, which is good. And if you were to answer your friend’s or your educator’s question correctly, it builds your confidence over time. And confidence is an important ingredient to being successful in life. And if you were to answer a question incorrectly, you learn humility from the experience, which is also good.  This is because it is always good to remind ourselves that all of us make mistakes and we do not know everything. When we are able to accept ourselves, others will be more accepting of us.
• Failures are the stepping stones to success: Following from the last point above, we should have an awareness that failures are the stepping stones to success. Many successful individuals fail many times in their lifetimes. Therefore, avoiding failures will also hinder you from being successful. Instead, go ahead and put in your best effort in everything you do (which includes asking and answering questions in class). If you fail, learn from your mistakes and try again. It’s merely a matter of time before you succeed. But remember, we must all learn from our mistakes and failures.

So, I hope that all of you are able to put in more effort in class by asking and answering questions during the course of the lessons, which includes the “Q & A” sessions at the end of the presenting sessions.

Keep up the enthusiasm!