The One with the end of the Excel Fest

Bitching time... be forewarned

Yes it is finally over and let me catch my breath momentarily. Piles of work awaiting me to mark and a huge school event,"racial harmony Day" and my NE committee awaiting me to give a go-ahead with the preparation. Sigh! talk about Responsibilities. in fact I was so tired that I had again failed to watch the 3am 3rd/4th placing game in the world Cup. Infact I am disappointed to say that I have only watch like 5 matches throughout the whole world cup in enitirety and like mayeb another 5 which I never lasted to watch the ending, only waking up to turn the TV off after catching it "sneering" at my laborious attempt to keep awake.

Anyway back to the Excel Fest, after weeks of intense preparations, It finally came to fruition on Friday. With so much aplomb and anticipation leading up to THE event, it was supposed to be a GREAT Event. However I looked back with more disappointments. There were plenty of learning points, plenty of good stuff but somehow the negative things since to outweigh the pros.
First and foremost it was a great learning experiences with showcases of great ideas and plenty of interaction ( good and bad) between the various participating schools. The experiences had been exhilrating. But there were a couple of points which I really have to get it out of my system.

1) Bad Idea of Decentalisation

This year the organising big-wigs had decided that they are going to have a decentralised system of having 4 -5 anchor schools in each zones so as to facilitate more outflow of innovative ideas and better interaction between the schools of the various zones, however the idea backfired bigtime. A lot of people were in fact put off by the fact that they have to travel ala amazing race to move from one holding school to another so as to view the other exhibits. On top of that the schools are do not have the logistics to cope with a huge turnout (if there were any). Carpark lots lacking, food for the visitors were also lacking in variety. Maybe it was just a case of over ambitious.

2) Bad Turnout

If I have not remember wrongly, they expected about 600 people a day to visit the I & E exhibition and the Classroom experience per day, but sad to say it is the teachers and students presentes who were sweating in the hot and stuffy halls who are making up the numbers in the school where I was having our exhibition booth. My school entourage included a total of 4 teachers, 3 technical support ( one for each shift), 1 D & T support, 6 student presenters and 12 NCC boys as mobile exhibits. I guess we were one of the , if not, the largest group in the whole exhibition. However other than a coupl of disinterested teachers who were idling their time before they rushed for the classroom experience in about say 10 minutes, my student presenters only managed to introduce our creative ideas to just a handful of them on the first day. In fact the primary school kids were in awe when our NCC boys were performaing their rifles displays in their camouflage kit. We came back feeling than it was amore of a marketing stunt rather than a showcase of our ideas. In fact kudos to our hosting primary school, for ingeniously putting plenty of fringe events such as story telling session, dances to entice the audience. However it doesnt really seem very I & E but more like a school's attempt at attracting students in view of the Primary one registration. I guess that is the "Excel" part in the "Excel Fest"

2) Bad Venue

Many teachers I spoke to, agree that to have such a place for an exhibition is quite a turn off. The hall was stuffy ebven for the 100 odd presenters and students in the hall and I can't imagine if there were indeed 600 people in the hall at one time viewing the exhibtion. It woudl have been a burning furnace in there. Although the coolers did help a little, but I believe many would love to showcase our innovative ideas with a smile, and not grouchy looks, with beads os perspirations streaming down our cheeks, ruining makeup and stuff. One of my NCC boys was perspiring so badly that his whole uniform is drenched and his camouflage makeup was dripping and he look like a cross between the grinch and paris hilton in the "House of Wax" It was so extremely uncomfortable there and one of my colleagues had a little argument when he place a chair in front of the cooler. he was told to move the chair away as it would obstruct traffic. But the point is ( see point 1) where was the traffic.

3）No Publicity

i guess the exhibitors were disappointed with the relative poor turnout of the public. In fact some question why the MOE did not make any effort to advertise the events since it is like the whole singapore school and the entire teaching population was involved. Many of my friends, even in the journalism and media did not even know about the event. And all of us know, without any publicity there will be no crowd. Many teacher presenters who were there commented that if this is going to be the case, then they would put in lesser effort next year. I totally emphatise with them. My team had put in alot of effort but there were others who put in much more than ours. It was such a pity and a waste ofresources showing it to maybe less than 100 people. I seriously think that it would be difficult to get the trust of the pariticpating schools again if we did our part but yet there was no publicity to tell the whole of singapore about this.

To entertain ourselves to kill boredom, my school student presenters and NCC boys started playing with the primary school children. The teachers were also bored. Some went for extended tea, other took time to chit chat and for the us, we were so bored that the four of us pulled out a table and 4 chairs and started playing....... scrabble. In fact we managed to attract quite a crowd there. Enough said...

Conclusion
A couple of teachers commented that we should have this event in Suntec City, where it was last year. firstly it has the "glam" factor and of course much conducive environment which will invite publicity. Second, it will attract crowds especially the public over the weekend who are in town. It can also be a whole family outing affair. As for building out bonds and interaction between the different zones, separate exhibition halls can be arranged at Suntec City ( they do have different halls not just one) for each zone. Anyway it is just 2 cents worth and let see if the bigwigs would learn from this.

Sigh back to the drawing board...