LIMA2013 | the six tasks

20.03.13

     It was half-past three in the afternoon and we finally got to the Mahsuri International Exhibition Centre (MIEC) which was our workplace for the next week or so. I think we spent most of our time in Langkawi, walking around in different walk patterns in between the three halls in this particular venue. If I were to line out the routes I took around the exhibition hall per day, it would probably come out as a 'scribbly' mess. Nevertheless, that was Home 2.1, maybe? 

      All looked too familiar as we stepped foot into MIEC for the first time this LIMA. Half-way done booths, wooden frameworks, messy cables linked everywhere, familiar looking stools at the lounge area, all in the company of construction noise and a certain smell of shredded wood, lingering in the atmosphere. But one thing was for sure, our main-office-cum-hangout-area also known as the Organiser's Office (OO) was still situated at the same right end corner of the hall. Yes, still with it's flimsy, squeaky door. The layout of the OO was very different though, in a good and more convenient way. There was a bigger store room that has all the supplies we needed and that's also where you can get all the freebies, a bigger working area with more working networked computers, and the new addition to the new layout was the Volunteers' Room, equipped with enough tables and chairs, shelves and lockers! All in which you'll get a glimpse of the whole area through pictures in this LIMA blog series of mine :)

      Anyways, once we settled down in the Volunteers' Room, the Managing Director a.k.a Ray a.k.a. Mr. MD and our boss, Ms Azlin, in their infamous casual attire (remember the jogging attire last LIMA?) welcomed us on board this week-long mad train ride and then, we went straight down to business. The Operations guys, Haqim and Amirul ran along with their boss, Ms Liza whereas Ms Azlin gave the rest of us, whose jobscope ranged from Liaison Officers to Info Counters to OOs, our six big tasks to be done as soon as possible, for the whole duration of our early prep. Four out of the six tasks were mainly in preparation for the delegation's Welcome Pack - exhibition programme which was customized for every delegate/VIP, delegate's badges/passes and invitation cards to special events (which was done).

in the notebook // the six tasks

.      We realised that tasks 1, 2 and 3 had to be completed in order to strike off the next three out. So, since Vern was most familiar with the programmes and what was needed to be done with them, he led Gup and Nay in standardizing and making the necessary ever-changing tweaks to the programmes. Amir covered Task 2 which was to check the programmes according to the finalized delegation list (which was never finalized) and I was in-charge of Task 3, the delegate's badges.

      So, my job was to basically, check the designations, departments, and the names of the delegate on his/her badge, according to the latest delegation list. And by latest, yes, the list changed every now and then which meant more rechecking everything and printing out the additional badges. I was mainly based in the registration hall and working under Mr. Suren for most of the first two days (and nights) of work. Mind you, the air-conditioning for the registration hall was not centralized with the MIEC, so it was on 24/7 in full blast. So, I was lucky to be freezing while I work as compared to my peeps who were perspiring like pigs at the OO.  

some exhibitors getting their passes

     Worked alongside a few new volunteers who has been doing registration stuff since the 10th and I find them a bunch of pretty interesting people. Kak Faiz and Kak Atiqah were always together, like cheese and crackers, at the first counter and we clicked almost instantly. They were really nice, fun-looking people! Mr Suren's, well, just being busy, potty-mouth Mr. Suren haha And there was this peculiar-looking guy, sporting a short do with a ponytail who looked like he was 16 or something, named Yew. I think he may be a shy person, that's why I think it took some time for him to warm up, before teasing me a bit towards the end of LIMA. We never talked much during the LIMA period, just work stuff. But he was nice enough to teach me the ropes of registering a delegate/trade visitor into the system. So, I'm grateful. haha

      Come 7.00pm, Mr. Fairul came through the doors and brought us all, the early birds back to our motels to freshen up and then, to dinner, before heading back to MIEC for more work, work, work. We met up with the Mr Haswan, Mr Fairul and the rest for dinner at this Malay restaurant at Pantai Cenang and since we didn't feel like eating mixed rice which was self-service, we ordered from its menu. Little did we know  that there was loads of people waiting for their food and so not only did the food came super late, the order when they served our food was mixed up which got us eating each other's food. Worse part of dinner wasn't that the food was bad, but a cat's tail 'groped' my leg and I literally jumped out of my seat. Smooth, Char, just smooth. Okay, I shall not let the cat get more attention than it deserves on here, the funny thing about dinner was we forgotten to pay for our food! 

      Since our food came rather late and we were slowly munching away, Mr Haswan and the gang decided to leave us and go for a stroll along Cenang Street. After we finished eating, we just dubiously assumed our food was already paid for 'cause Mr Haswan previously said dinner that night was on the company 'cause we had to work overtime. So, we left the restaurant and made our way happily roaming the street until Mr Haswan called Vern and asked us why weren't we at the restaurant. The first thing he said right after we got into the van, was who paid for the food? We went silent for a milli-second and were like, "You did...." His face didn't seem like he was joking around when he said he did not. Everyone was in disbelief, at that point till it was kind of laughable. hahaha Our conscience took over and we drove back to the restaurant to pay up and what was more laughable was that the owner didn't even realise that we have not paid and didn't have a clue what our orders were anymore. That made my night.

     Was back at the registration hall at around 10pm or so. A shorts-and-slipper-clad Amir came to help me out since he was done with his task and by the end of the night, we were practically shivering in the hall like little puppy dogs in winter as we work. In my opinion, working late was actually pretty fun. Everyone's tired and in a sleepy-drunk kind of mood that we practically laughed at everything and anything. And since we were working on delegates' badges, we laughed at almost every name we checked. I won't pin-point any names here or else I'd be in huge military trouble ;) 

      We got back to Sandy Beach at 1am+ that night and went straight to bed after showering. That was how tired we got.

21.03.13

       I was glad that we didn't need to wake up by 6am to catch the 6.30am bus to MIEC like we did last LIMA as first-time volunteers. Working hours were from 9am+- to around 7pm+- and then, overtime hours were normally at 9.30pm+- to 12am+-. Mr Fairul came to pick us up at about 9 in the morning and by night, we got the van to ourselves where Vern/Amir played chauffeur. Got to the office and resumed what we left off the previous night. By afternoon, Gup and Nay were done with their part and left Vern to buzz around finishing his job while they came over to the registration igloo to help be done with the badges. It wasn't long till they found themselves giggling at delegates' unique names and at the same time, freezing up! 

      Thankfully, by around 5pm or so, we were done with the first three tasks. By that time, my hands were pretty much frozen and bruised with cuts from the fresh plastic nametag pouches for the badges but I was   happy that I got my task done, all sorted out according to country and designations. My little secret to staying awake and not getting bored? Infuse some colour in your life! By using coloured post-its to differentiate countries, I got to add some exuberance into my job ;) Though we were self-satisfied that we've checked out half of our task list, knowing LIMA and its all-too-familiar last-minute tasks, we knew more work was waiting for us for the next few days. I think we just wanted to complete all the tasks before the new volunteers come in which was on the 22nd. Now looking back, we were working like workaholics! haha

      We called it a day at around 7pm, which was earlier than usual. We weren't needed to come back as the network was down and something went wrong with the connection. Thus, we couldn't start on task 4 was printing the booklets. And so, we were in a logical way, happy to be off work early! Just when we were about to skip to the van and embark on our journey back, our glee was short-lived. The van was no where to be seen. It seemed like somebody from MINDEF (Ministry of Defence) borrowed it and didn't park it back at the original lot. We went on a frustrated wild goose hunt. 

      You know how they always say find the light in times of darkness, or something along the lines? Well, I guess we were in luck 'cause there was a candle which presented itself to us. hahaha We were beginning to feel super frustrated 'cause none of our bosses picked up our call, topped up with our jaded and lackadaisical bodies. I swear I was almost beginning to curse that MINDEF dude. But, as we searched towards the other side of the building, I was spell-bounded by the amazing sunset behind the Langkawi hills and I couldn't help but just whip out my camera and snap away. Lastly, we found the van at the back of the building beside the surau and that lifted our moods even more!

     
      Everyone was in a gleeful mode on the way home until we found out that fuel was running out. I think we were only left with one bar of fuel left! Thanks MINDEF dude, thanks a lot. If it weren't for Amir, who knew where we could find a petrol station, we would have been pretty much helpless and hopeless lost sheep in the wild. Once we go to the station, one more problem arose. No one knew how to open the fuel cover and what fuel was to use to fill up the tank. The boys did another wild goose hunt for the lever and if I'm not mistaken, Vern went to ask the counter people. hahaha Gosh, it was a laughable yet not-so-laughable (?) matter, indeed! I still don't know how they figured it out, but they lastly did! So, Hallelujah! hahaha maybe it's just a guy thing.lol 

      We made it back home early that night and so, after a quick dinner (which i don't remember where), we all headed to bed earlier than usual, to catch up on some precious sleep which I'm grateful we had 'cause we didn't get that much after that.

this epic moment calls for a photo! :)

      

22.03.13

     Printing booklets have never been so easy and organised! We finally started printing them delegate's booklets (task four) and we figured out a system where Gup and Vern would be in charge of adjusting the margins and pressing the 'Print' button on the computers whilst Amir, Nay and I were at the printers, sorting them out into 4 sets of each and stapling them together with the cover. I felt like we worked really well together, way more organised than last LIMA. Perhaps, 'cause this time, we were doing everything and not just for our own delegates. haha In no time, we were done with booklet printing, despite some complications regarding the printing of the booklets for the Chiefs of Airforce and Chiefs of Navy which MINDEF promised to print.Other than that, it was smooth-sailing, most of the time. Truthfully, we actually was planning to leave some for the new volunteers to complete, but lastly we completed it anyway. Gila-kuasa

     Task Five was cancelled out and so, we were left with Task Six, which we began almost immediately after finishing 'programme publications'. Task Six was mainly to list out chronologically the delegates' booth visits for exhibitors, so that the exhibitors know who to expect at what time and which day. We had to refer to two different lists; a general programme list and a delegations list. It was a lot of referring  copy-and-pasting and averting-of-the-eyes but the process was more enjoyable after I started highlighting the companies with pretty pastel colours! (someone said to me, 'gosh, you are such a girl!' well guess what? I AM! hahaha) We only had to do the exhibitor's list for about 11 big companies and pavilions but as the days go by, we had to prepare it for more of them, at the last minute. 

      And so, there you have it, the six tasks in a whole load of words. Gosh, if you're still reading this, thank you and I hope you're still awake! hahaha Anyway, the new volunteers came at night and I have more juicy stories waiting to be written here! So, get a cuppa coffee and look out for my next post!

You know you want to read the next one, LIMA'13 peeps! ;)