PSFK

PSFK.

Hm, third draft. To be perfectly honest i'm having a hard time to begin typing this document. It's not that there isn't anything to say about PSFK, to the contrary(!!) It was a truly amazing experience in many ways...
But it felt slightly unnatural to write, as this was initially more of an assignment than a creative and natural process.
So i will write in this informal, natural style, and hopefully the right words will come to mind at the time that they're supposed to, just as they always do.
I apologize for the unexpected format of this post in advance.


Ok, so where to start?
First of all, i'd like to give a tip of my hat (well, if i had one) to: (alphabetical order, no discrimination here either)

-Benita Lim, for an excellent job of coordinating us volunteers as well as other duties. (http://www.bulletproof.com.sg ,more shameless promotion)

-Jeff Squires, PSFK employee and event organiser

-Piers Fawkes, PSFK co-founder and Asia conference moderator,


The Asia Conference 2008 (hereby referred to as PSFK for simplicity and subliminal messaging purposes) was beneficial in many ways, not the least of which were material:
I arrived with nothing, and left with:
1- A PSFK t-shirt.
(in the order of being found in my with no discrimination meant)
2- A business card from the (Singapore branch) Lucasfilm animation's Director of Training.
3- A business card from Achara "Ju" Masoodi, Mindshare Asia pacific division. Job title? The Scout.
4- A business card from Panasonic Avionics' Chief Representative and Executive Director of China.
5- A business card from the Senior Art Director of Imaginary friends studios (Godlike skilled digital designers. Check out their website: http://www.imaginaryfs.com)
6- A business card from the director (and contact with the managing director) of Singapore based next-media firm Elasticity (soon to be renamed as Rune Entertainment Asia)
7- A wonderful meal and snacks provided by Yahoo's SEA division
8- 2 bags containing further information on participating sponsors and agencies, including an "awesome" (name of org) cd.
9- 4 Apple martinis, and a glass of white wine on the "super famous (name of bar - more shameless promotion) house.

Material benefit is good of course, but hardly essential, and hardly able to qualify the conference as a success.
The more important, more intangible side of all this were of course the social and educational benefits.

I've learned some trend based theories such as the tipping point (Malcolm Gladwell - excellent author), but am overall generally new in the field of trend research and understanding. As such, i would have loved to attend most of the conference... but was too busy running around backstage assisting in various duties ^^; However, from those few presentations and panels that i did get to attend, i managed to gather a clear and yet in depth understanding of some issues at stake.
Obviously, they don't teach you this in Uni.
Looking forward to the video being uploaded... i'll be able to catch the other presentations and review what i've already seen.

The social aspect was, in my mind, the most spectacular of the conference.
This is where being a student gives me a different point of view. When i discovered that the tickets to the conference were S$1000, i was shocked and pleased. Shocked, cause hey, for a student, that's a price out of my range. Pleased, because i would be able to mingle with the elite.
I've always been a fairly social person, and the opportunity to mingle with people of this caliber was not something i would let slip by quietly.
These are the nationally and internationally based representatives or directors of institutions and organisations worldwide: these are those for whom you wish to work one day, or strive to become.
And after all, you can learn more about a person by talking to them than by listening to a presentation.
The conversations opened up doors for me. But more than "simply" career opportunities, i learned to have more confidence in myself and my professional image. I was taught by one to "dare", to take a gamble on my abilities and put yourself in a path of life where i would _need_ to succeed to survive. I re-opened my interest in Japan as a workplace, and heard stories of how this was feasible - as well as being equipped by the conference on how to do it well.

I'm young, educated, but still quite ignorant of working life's non-theoretical ways.
I stand on my world of education, but PSFK acted as window through which i peered into the creative professional galaxy.
I'm tempted to reach in.

Ah well. Relationships first. Studies second.
The professional world will wait, and i'll be ready for it when i come back to this door.