The most exhilarating moment for me at the onset of presidency is frankly the culmination of the SEASC & ISC 2011, that was held on 22-24 June 2011. It was by far, the most successful event that I’d ever been involved in organizing. It was also the biggest challenge that I’d taken up so far, considering the size of the undertaking, the crucial need to avoid losses to ISM, and at the same time meeting the personal target of achieving the maximum profit, which is intended to help fund ISM activities in the coming 2011/2012 session – this being the main motivation.
Amongst others, one of the set aims is to raise the International Surveyors Congress, which is an annual event of ISM, to the next higher level and really “internationalize” the event. I had made early preparations, even before being appointed as the Deputy President and Organising Chair, i.e. in April 2010 with the setting up of a Pro-tem committee, in preparation for the task.
The preparations and time spent on this endeavour is indeed considerable, apart from the challenges encountered. There were many disturbed moments arising from the worries of whether we could make it, in particular the uncertainty of whether we could avoid losses, as support was slow in coming. Personal communications had to be made for this purpose and the vital task in particular is to convince the sponsors and exhibitors to participate, apart from obtaining the speakers and participants. Ups and downs aside, it was eventually a momentous success judging from the numerous positive feedbacks received, especially from the foreign dignitaries. More so, as it breaks all targets set, predominantly the financial goal! Alhamdulillah, my prayers and the prayers of colleagues and all concerned were answered.
Evidently, the success would not have been able to be achieved without the excellent work and support of all involved, be they in the Main Organising Committee or those in the Sub-Committees, the President and Councillors and certainly the Joint ISM-JUPEM Secretariat members who had worked tirelessly to make the event a successful one. Also, the notable assistances provided by Sr Teo Chee Hai and Sr Tuan Syed Mohamad Nasir Syed Tahir as well as Datin Sr Faridah Mohammed, who are all most motivating and inspiring; not disregarding the sponsors, exhibitors and participants themselves, I would like to thank all from the bottom of my heart.
A summary of the outcome of the event would be evident from my handing over speech, provided below:
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Assalamualaikum and good afternoon.
I believe most of us here are aware that it has been a tradition for the International Surveyors Congress to end without a closing session. And this tradition is continued this time, although it has been combined with the SEA Survey Congress; as we will still be having presentations in the afternoon. Nonetheless, it is also a tradition of the SEA Congress that a handing over be made to the next host country of this event, i.e. the Philippines. And for that purpose, as Organising Chair of these combined congresses, I would like to give a short reflection of this unique joint effort.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Generally, the Congress was a great success as it breaks all targets set! We had over 20 invited speakers who are experts in surveying, who had come to share their knowledge, experience and expertise. And that includes 5 Presidents and President-elect of world survey related organisations, i.e. the FIG, RICS, ICA, GSDI and IAG, who had given talks in both the plenary and the parallel sessions.
All in all, there were 138 offered papers in the technical sessions, workshops, open forum and technology updates with 17 presented in the plenary, and the rest in the other sessions. The total number of participants exceeded expectations; there were 859 registered participants as at the end of yesterday; and if we were to include the exhibitors – the figure exceeds 1000. The exhibitions itself involved 38 exhibitors who had taken up more than 70 booths altogether.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The highlight of this event certainly include the Congress opening, where we had the Minister of Natural Resource and Environment, Dato Seri Douglas Uggah Embas perform the honour. In addressing us, he emphasised the need for us all to leverage on innovation to nurture sustainable construction. He also urged us, surveyors, to be well prepared to take on new challenges - to venture into new areas of discovery and development, through shared knowledge and through findings of creative innovations.
There were then the plenary sessions. And altogether there were five, with the first session focused on the theme of sustainability in land development. We have through this plenary session, been able to listen to talks about the World Bank support for sustainable land reform, about the Australian experience to improve land information management, and then the emphasis on the need to use GIS to help people understand complex problem and make better decisions.
We also had the opportunity to understand the various challenges, and issues associated in re-engineering SDI design - to support the new vision on spatially enabled government and society. We had been able to learn about the characteristics of modern geodesy, and how it was helpful to look at its applications and technologies, as belonging to the broad field of earth observation science.
Additionally, we learn that we could use social software on everyday consumer electronic devices, to provide products that might be otherwise impossible to deliver, due to economic and logistical reasons.
Land Surveying and geomatic are not the only areas covered by the speakers. There were presentations made relating to construction, quantity surveying, valuation, building surveying and management as well. Although we desire to have a good spread of papers and presentations coming from the other disciplines within our surveying fraternity, we unfortunately found them to be not forthcoming.
Nevertheless, in the presentations that were made, we were informed of the need to encourage green behaviour, and that it’s important for the occupier of a building, to behave in a sustainable way within a sustainable building. We learned that the need for robust valuations run deep and wide in the financial system and that these valuations not only support banking systems, but also support good corporate governance, and is key to the efficient functioning of real estate markets. And in this context, continuously updated standards and best practice guidelines are important.
We were additionally advised to study how the built-environment in general and the real estate industry in particular, should adopt new ways of thinking and doing things more strategically and more creatively, in order to remain relevant and ensure a sustainable future. We heard about the potential role of the Building Surveyor, from the perspective of adding value to client organisations, by the adoption of sustainable practice as well as about the efficient management and administration of defined spaces, including in coastal and marine spaces.
Obviously, the other highlight of this event is the parallel session. All in all, there were 28 parallel sessions altogether. Because of the large number of papers, some were presented in new flash session series that worked quite well and had also good attendance - in a number of sessions there were only standing places! And the biggest problem, I understand from the feedback received, was in selecting which session to follow.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Collaborative work had also been carried out in conjunction with this joint congress. Although the signing of Memorandum of Cooperation between the RICS and the Board of Quantity Surveyors Malaysia didn’t take place, due to unforeseen circumstances, however the inking of MOC between the ISM and Ikatan Quantity Surveyor Indonesia (IQS) was accomplished, and this should facilitate more collaboration in between the two professional bodies. Apart from that we have the AFLAG Workshop on Liberalisation and Framework for Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRAs), which was held on 21st June (2011), followed by its 42nd Council Meeting. And in addition, the 9th Tripartite Meeting of the ACLSS, SAJUTA and PEJUTA also took place on the same day.
Finally, I hope we had also been fruitful, in creating the right environment for networking, where friendships could be renewed, and new relationships could be forged. Amongst others, we’ve had the PEJUTA Welcome Dinner, the Congress Dinner and the China Forum Reception for that purpose.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
As I wouldn’t have any other opportunity after this, so I would like to take this chance to thank each and every one of you here, for coming to this event and for making it a success. In particular, I would like to thank all the speakers, support organisations, our strategic and media partners, and certainly our sponsors and exhibitors. Again, as I’d mentioned earlier, this is not the Congress closing address, and as such do stay on and continue your conferencing, until the end of the day.
Thank you.
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