Before the Event: Behind the Gears of SIMC2.0
by Teung Geng Heng Ryan
When reading through all the articles on SIMC2.0, one thing is certain: this is a massive event. Participants will no doubt see the large amount of Students Programme Liaisons (SPLs), Student Volunteers, Media and Publications members ensuring that the activity runs as smoothly as possible. Yet, do you wonder how this journey started and who is behind it?
Introducing the Core Team of SIMC2.0!
Before everything starts, planning is a must. Numerous proposals are submitted for the Icebreakers, School Tours, Cultural Learning Journey (look forward to that!) and all the other events that occur over these five days. Planning out routes that maximise the enjoyment and exposure of overseas participants to our local culture, organising fun, energising icebreakers and determining locations for the “Free and Easy” segment on Day 5 (look forward to that too!) also falls under our purview.
Not only that, the deployment of student volunteers and SPLs, logistics and budget of the entire event must also be managed, including the designs of lanyards, placards, meals and much more. Working closely with the teachers in charge, everything is scrutinised for the highest quality.
As the proposals are finally set in stone, SPLs get selected and dry runs are conducted for our icebreakers and Day 4’s Cultural Learning Journey (CLJ). After testing the icebreakers, we toured around parts of Singapore for the CLJ. While familiarising ourselves with the location, we tried the delicacies in the area too!
The final leg of Core Team’s duties involves the picking-up of all the overseas teams! Core Team members “rotated” shifts, taking turns to invite the various international schools flying in. You may have read the Airport Arrivals article on Day 1, but you may not have realised that the first few schools flew in between 5 to 8 a.m.. This resulted in some Core Team members travelling to Changi Airport by public transport in the wee hours (as early as 12 a.m.!) to welcome them at Arrival!
When I joined Core Team 5 months ago, I did not expect this journey to be as fun and fulfilling as it has been. Walking around seeing the participants, a sense of satisfaction rushes over me, letting me know that all the time spent was truly worth it.
I truly hope that all of you will enjoy SIMC2.0 and come out with it having explored not only the Mathematical and Computational areas, but also Singapore!