Over 150 members and guests turned up at our TET party on Jan 25, 08.

Here are a few photos of the event ..

For more photos of the Tet party, please go go:

Taking time out from his busy schedule crisscrossing the US, Europe and Asia, Dr. Bui Van Dao, Senior Mentor of Science and Engineering family, stopped over in Singapore last weekend and spent an evening with us to conduct a workshop on “Entrepreneurship & Opportunities” . At 8:00 pm on Thursday, Jan 10, 08 we all gathered at anh Anh Tri’s house for the meeting.

Using his real-life project on generating “green” electricity from the vertical axis wind turbine technology as a case study, Dr Dao led us through all the necessary steps needed to prepare a business plan and make it a successful proposal for investors. Some of the key issues included the understanding of the product, market, technology, and more importantly, the cost and selling price of the energy market which determines the financial feasibility of the project.

Besides these “hard” factors, Dr Dao also emphasized on the “soft” side of entrepreneurship. He elaborated on the characteristics of an entrepreneur, and especially on how to handle the delicate work-family balance issues – which was indeed very important to many of us.

Our mentors were fully appreciative of Dr Dao’s advices, comments and insightful experiences, and they have raised many questions and suggestions. The discussion became more lively with the contributions of our S&E Senior Mentor Dr. Bui Dinh Thuan, who has also gone through the process of becoming an entrepreneur himself and is currently the CEO of a biotech company in Singapore.

The workshop ended quite late, however none of us seemed tired as we were so fascinated by Dr Dao’s discussion. We all went home feeling very happy having been able to meet and learn directly from a successful scientist-cum-entrepreneur. The new knowledge and perspective gathered from the workshop will certainly beneficial to us in our future professional career. Once again, many thanks to Dr Dao for having spared some valuable time from his schedule to be with us!

(Photos by LAM QUOC HUY)

Joining Vietnam2020, we all burn with our desire to do something for our country. However, despite how lofty our ideal and vision are, we must first roll up our sleeves and get to work to make things happen! After the Investment family was born, our first task was to get to know one another as members of a true family!

After some discussions, all mentors and mentees agreed with Anh Thu’s suggestion to hold our first gathering over lunch on a Saturday - instead of having a dinner on weekdays. Thanh Trung futher suggested that we should go to Thai Express because he can get a 10% discount and this was promptly accepted by everybody.

On that special date, Dec 8, 2007, almost all members of the Investment family came for our first gathering at Thai Express in City Hall. At first, we thought that some members couldn’t make it, but eventually they all showed up, claiming that they got lost finding their way – or was it because they were distracted by all the beautiful shops at Raffles ?

As we were about to start lunch at noon, chu Han & co Chau stopped by to say hello! We were all treated with a special gift, which is a copy of chu Han’s latest CD of Trinh Cong Son songs arranged for classical guitar – and with chu Han’s autograph too!

Many questions were raised by our Mentees during lunch. These were basically related to matters which the Mentors have experienced during their schooldays and our Mentors were quite thorough and generous with their answers. After lunch, we still stayed on for quite a long time sharing our school & work experience, talking about Vietnam2020 and our action plan for 2008 …

Our first gathering has given us a chance to meet, share experience, and form a stronger bonding with one another. It was indeed a memorable event for our Investment familly now and in the future. Someday when Vietnam2020 has widened its scope to be a big network with thousands of members, Investment family members will certainly look back at this historical lunch gathering with fond memories…

As the SCIENCE & ENGINEERING family was planning to organize its first ever gathering, we were informed that anh TRAN QUANG TUAN and chi THANH CHAU have kindly accepted bac Han’s invitation to be our “host family” and volunteered to host the event.

Thanks to anh Tuan & chi Thanh Chau, we really had an exciting and meaningful gathering with our new host family, senior mentor, mentors, mentees, and some guests.

On that unforgettable Saturday Dec 15, 07, we were quite worried that not many people would come to the function. The main reason was that it was raining heavily the whole day - the kind of weather which would normally keep people “stay home and sleep” especially on a Saturday afternoon, after a long and hard week. Secondly, the road leading to our host family’s residence is not easy to find and public transportation around the area is not available. However, to our surprise, more than 20 people have come, a few mentors in the organizing committee have arrived early to have a preliminary discussion about organizing the event and help preparing the food. We were warmly welcomed by anh Tuan and chi Thanh Chau. While some mentors were engaged excitedly in discussions with anh Tuan, the ladies were busy helping chi Thanh Chau with the food. The traditional Vietnamese home-cooked “banh canh cua”, “goi cuon”, and “che buoi” were all well prepared by chi Thanh Chau, Duong Chau, Thao (our guest) and Duc Vi the day before.

By 5 pm, there were still no sign of any more guests except for the first seven early mentors and everybody began to worry since the food was planned for some over 20 people! Chi Thanh Chau even thought of moving the party from the function room to the house to be more convenient and cosy. Well, soon afterwards, the mentors and mentees started to arrive! As expected, many had a hard time finding their way especially in the heavy rain. Some even drove their own motorbikes. Bao Khanh and Bao Linh, anh chi Tuan’s son and daughter, were also curious about the party and were encouraged by Duc Vi to join in with other Vietnamese friends ...

By 6:00 pm, the organizers breathed a sigh of relief when 20 people have shown up! While many of our students have gone back to Vietnam for their holiday right after their exams, the big turnout was indeed fantastic!

It was such a great opportunity for us to come together, to discuss, to learn and share with one other. The rain must have made us very hungry and as such, the first dish “goi cuon” was promptly consumed as soon as it was served!

The real discussion only began when the wonderful and delicious second dish, “banh canh cua” was served! After the introduction of the objective of the event by Duc Vi, many ideas for activities, schedules, and action plans for the family were suggested and eagerly discussed by all members. The Science & Engineering family structure was presented and members were grouped into separate Teams. Many other activities such as sport and music were also eagerly discussed and several mentors have volunteered to take the lead role. All the feedbacks were recorded by S&E new secretary Huong Duong. The atmosphere became more excited and the discussion getting hotter when Dr. Bui Dinh Thuan arrived! We were extremely happy to hear Dr. Thuan sharing with us his many practical career development experience and perspective when he was working in different cultural environments. Not surprisingly, all members unanimously requested Dr Thuan to be a Senior Mentor of the Science & Engineering family

These discussions have definitely given all members present lots of useful information and practical experience. The party ended quite late with a photo-taking session for the S&E family. The gathering was indeed a memorable event and we all left with happy feelings!

We hope that everyone enjoyed this exciting and meaningful event and look forward to the next gathering with more interesting activities for all of us.

For more pictures of the event, please click on the link below:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21788984@N05/sets/72157603467673738/

... and for a summary report of our gathering, including some actions we need to carry out from now on as true scientists & engineers…

http://vietnam-2020.com/documents/SE-Minutes-Dec15-07.pdf

On 12 December 2007, the Business Admin family of Vietnam 2020 made its first company visit to GE – VetcoGray HeadQuarter in Singapore.

A total of 18 mentors and mentees participated in this special tour. Eye-opening, fruitful, fantastic, beneficial, wow ... these are just some reactions from our participants about the experience.

We reached VetcoGray HQ in Tuas Industrial Park at around 11am and were welcomed by anh Thai Son and his friendly colleagues. The tour started with a briefing on GE-history and culture, Oil and Gas activities in GE and VetcoGray operations in Singapore given by Mr. How Meng Hock, Asia Leader for Manufacturing.

After getting our basic lesson on industrial safety from Mr. Joseph Ling, Safety Officer, we were all equipped with safety tools and took a walk inside the station.  Watching the pictures below to see how we look like in our safety gears, with suit + glass + cap.

Our tour guides were Mr. Richard Soon, Machine Shop Manager and anh Thai Son, who are experienced and patient with a group of new learners constantly asking questions on anything they place their eyes on. Besides having a chance to catch a look at what’s going on in an industrial facility we were given some basics on manufacturing eg. inventories should ideally be kept at less than 10% of total revenue, 20-million-worth machine should be kept running 24/7 to achieve optimum benefit, and so on.

While enjoying our pizza for lunch (courtesy of GE's General Manager), our students found it even more beneficial to have Mr. Brandon Lee, an NTU grad and Mr. Kyaw Za, an NUS grad sharing their experience at GE with us.  The two officers gave many valuable advises on what and how the students should focus on during school to prepare for their future career in engineering.

We also had a discussion on career opportunities with GE.  At the moment there are 10 vacancies available for Industrial Attachment candidates at GE Singapore. For more information on this, please log on Vietnam2020 forum or contact your school Career Office.

Last but not least, we would like to thank our members who have supported and come to the tour with us with open minds for new things and new opportunities. We are looking forward to see you soon in our next events.

Stay tuned! More events by BizAd and VN2020 to come…

To view more photos, please go to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/11533780@N02/sets/72157603443630372/