National Youth Day 2011 - Was it good, was it bad?

About a week ago, there was so much news splashed all over the media regarding the National Youth Day that was going to have an expected number of 1 million youths. The National Youth event was suppose to consist of all kinds of events dedicated for youths to partake in, learn about and basically enjoy, and it lasted for 3 whole days(10am to 10pm)!


To be frank, I was pondering how it would be like as there was so much hype about it and how big must a place be to fit 1 million people????????? Well...... life has a strange way of answering questions, I was not only hired to emcee one event but two events at the National Youth Day itself... My perspective on how it went is based on three whole days emceeing two events there...ZOMG!


The GREAT things that Happened


1. The Ministry started recognizing and acknowledging important youth activities such as cheerleading!! It took quite awhile but now cheerleading has become a recognized sport in Malaysia, and they even held a National Youth Day cheerleading Championships 2011 at the middle of the whole street!!! We've come a long way since my time as a Dynamitez!

The cheerleaders getting prepared

Scouters sneaking a peek, many scouts around to assist pedestrians

Playing cheerleading games with the crowd in between performances... emceeing at youth events ALWAYS perks me up! So much energy!

Cheerleaders in one of their routines

With the captain and one of the members of Calyx(1st runner up)

Thank you Cheerleaders for participating in all the games while waiting for results to be tabulated!!! BIG HUG!

With the vice president of CHARM! My beautiful friend Yee Ming, who now also owns a cheerleading company which coaches high school teams for competition!

CHARM in their pyramid formation...if you did not know...CHARM is an ALL STAR team in Malaysia (used to be on the team!!hehehe)

The minister of Youth and Sports, Koh Tsu Koon presenting medals to the winners!

If I am not mistaken, the 1st would be Stompers, 1st runner up would be Calyx and 2nd runner up would be the Rayvens! Good job girls!!!!!! You all did very well!

2. The other thing I was impressed with is the fact that many booths of different businesses, be it, cars, water filters,etc were there to partake in the whole event! And each booth had their respective activies, especially those with bigger budgets...

All the booths

As I was emceeing at Proton, I will be highlighting the activities that were held in the Proton booth itself...never a dull day....3 exciting filled days working there:)

The Lotus Renault car on display

What I liked and wished I could win was the mysterious celebrity twitter challenge...INGENIOUS! The proton IT team designed a game in which a mystery celebrity was hidden, and people were encourgaed to tweet on who it was... the winner will be selected at random after four hours and the winner gets to win an IPAD 2! Two ipads were given out each day..... so easy to win!!!!!

THe Proton booth also had zegways! Awesome!! Always wanted to try one of these and it was extremely fun.... if only we could use this everywhere we went....we would undoubtly be fatter...but life will be much easier huh?

The highlight for many would be the fact that Datuk Lee Chong Wei(World No.1 badminton player) came in and sign autographs.....

3. I also liked the fact that small businesses were given a chance to highlight their products here



The three of us drank fizzy juices... I guess I really wanted to give the guy some business:p

4. Many interesting and exciting activities were set up to entertained attendees at the National Youth Day such as paragliding, paintball, concert by Super Junior AND the one that I found different and intriguing was the...

Sasuke Challenge where people had to go through obstacle courses to win the grand prize of going to Japan to compete! A guy from McDonald's won it... a friend of mine said he climbed up two planks and jumped to catch a rope in mere seconds!!!! All the best dude in Japan(samurai skills may come in handy)!

The downside of the event

1. Improvement of the bare neccessities such as toilets and transportation! If you were expecting 1 million people, that should have been thought of...

The building that the Proton booth was in front had all four main toilets on the ground floor broken....These poor ladies did not know that it can't be used and were waiting for a long time to get in.... 

Not only that, most buildings close at 8pm, so people who want to use the toilet after have to hold it in???? A friend of mine held in his pee from 3pm to 10pm! OMG! 

The other only toilet available upstairs had clogged sinks... You wouldn't want to look at the toilet bowl, made One Utama toilets look like royalty...

The other main neccessity lagging was transportation. As they blocked all main roads into the event, you had to take the shuttle in and out from the main area(where I was), the shuttle bus driver DID NOT know where I wanted to go and kept pointing me in the wrong direction...worse still...he didn't let me on the bus! I was stuck in the event for a whole hour before some kind ladies who parked inside drove me out:(

2. The event was too spread out!

 

Look at how it was layed out...imagine walking under the scorching sun for hours if you do decide to walk the whole event area.... I believe that they should have one huge main stage where everything went on and the booths surrounding it....

This is my take on the whole event itself. I would definitely say "kudos" to the ministry for coming up with an event that is targeted at youths and having brilliant ideas....Next year they expect 2 million youths...all I can say is, I hope they are better prepared in terms of the bare neccessities(toilets especially!!). Plus, I feel that it should be in a more central location...many people complained that it was too far and some even said.."out of reach" especially for teenagers... Other than that, keep it up!!!! Was great for a first National Youth Day event except for the hiccups here and there!!!!!

xoxo
Meiz