Okay, this will be a really short update, I hope. I talk more in my blog than I actually do when in person, so yea.. maybe it will be a rather medium post after all.
Anyway, I skipped the whole morning session because I had to work, and I had to attend a meeting. The meeting lasted till 430pm, and I rushed to pick up my white shirt from my parents house in 9th Mile.
Rushed back, to get dress, and was told by Norman that there is a problem =( Bummer. There’s a mix-up, and we might not get into the state banquet dinner because of this mix-up. Arrgghh… kind of dissapointed, considering that I’ve actually made an effort to get dressed up, and drove about half an hour to my parents place to get my white shirt.
Errr…. no time to continue what happened.. but will update soon. Stay tuned =) but I have to say, David, Anne, Rita, Nordin and Diong.. THANK YOU!!
[Updated :11pm, 11.11.2009]
Back to what happened during the state banquet. After we knew about the news, we had to wait. A few text message went to all parties, asking about the situation and trying to squeeze more details on our position. Finally, Norman called, informing that Anne would like to meet us at the steps of the DUN. Still unsure about everything, and feeling like we wouldn’t get in after all, we decided to group up at the Kuching Golf Club. After all, this is the state banquet we were talking about, and we all know it isn’t easy to get in.
To cut a long story short, another text message from Anne convinced us that we should be at the DUN and it was a huge delight of ours, knowing that Anne took the trouble to actually wait for us, together with Rita and David. We felt like VIPs!!
Well, with seats limited and the early mix-up I mentioned above, we finally didn’t get to seat at the State Banquet Hall, but Anne and Rita treated us with a fantastic dinner in DUN itself. So, I can actually say that we technically joined the State Banquet, just in another room. =) I think, we were even better off than the VVIPs inside the Banquet Hall because we dined with the organizers, at the same table. This wouldn’t happen if we were inside the Banquet Hall because we would be sitting down with some minister, while the organizers were at the VVIP table where the Bosnian President was.
Even better, Lilyana and Jane, whom are both inside the hall, came out to our Banquet Dinner and had a bite themselves =) I guess, it does help to know that our food wasn’t crap, and was actually very delightful and nice, made up of numerous traditional Malay delicacies like Ayam Masak Merah and Rendang.
If that wasn’t enough, Anne and Rita invited us to join them in their suites for supper. In return, we offered them a ride back to their hotel to cut their traveling time. We also had the privilege to have our very own ‘closed door’ session in Anne’s suite while eating on food and beverages ordered via room service. The so called ‘close door session’ continued until midnight which saw David coming into the room from the State Banquet dinner, and that’s when we got to know more about how witty and hilarious David and Anne can be when together.
Overall, the experience of being treated in such manner by the core organizers (Glenreagh Sdn Bhd) of the Global Malaysian Business Forum is hugely unexpected. We came as ordinary bloggers, expecting nothing but access to the event, and the privilege to cover the event for our blogs, but we got much more than that and I couldn’t be more thankful to the Glenreagh team.
Erm, maybe you are wondering why I didn’t mention anything about the forum itself in this post. Well, it’s because I couldn’t make it to the sessions organized because I had to work in the morning, and I had a meeting to attend to in the afternoon. But anyway, regardless of what happened in those sessions, I am very sure that the discussions were fruitful, and and both the Bosnian and Malaysian delegates to the forum were happy with the outcome. Oppss.. I just realized that I repeated this statement. My bad =P