Hey guys! Hope you are all having a great day so far and are resting comfortably right now. This post is about a SERIES of great days that I have had in Taiwan, thanks to Microsoft for sponsoring the trip there. Let's start off.
Sri Lanka is an island country situated right below India. I myself, live in the largest city Colombo in the Western Province. Being born in the city and educated since an early age, I've become very accustomed to the environment over here. I have joined the Microsoft Student Partners last year and have been delivering a few sessions on various Cognitive Services to both my college and other university students till now.
It's pretty funny. I was connected to the Internet and interacted with it on a daily basis as if I were breathing in the bandwidth, but I still thought that I could not understand how other countries conducted their IT rituals neither their thought process. Despite all my analysis on foreign source codes, I was still missing that 1-on-1 interaction that I needed to even grasp how vast the world truly is, especially within the Microsoft Student Community. That was when Microsoft gave me an opportunity to find out, this year in Taiwan for a total period of 4 days.
Now you would have thought that I handled the situation quite coolly.... you couldn't be more wrong!
I was terrified and yet excited for the opportunity, just like a first timer on a roller coaster.
After taking 2 flights (a total of 6 hours) to Taipei, I began my journey through the wonders of Taipei's oriental atmostphere ... well first I had to get to the hostel. I shared a room with 5 other MSPs and almost everyone of them came from different countries ranging from Indonesia, Vietnam, Phillipines and Malaysia.
We spent the first 2 days on breaking the ice between more than a 100 MSPs at that 1 hostel. Pretty crazy right? The first day was more of a "Let's make Byung dance in front of everyone because why not!?", while as the second day was a little more serious with every region presenting their status as MSPs such as the sessions they delivered and what kind of experiences they went through while serving as an MSP. I myself, had to cover Asia Pacific which meant that, I had to hold 1-on-1 sessions with MSPs from over 7 countries to review their activities and compile it for the rest of the Summit to know.
Whew, there was a lot of running done during the Summit. We spent a large amount of our free time exploring the famous night markets for several hours! It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip.
There was so much of everything scattered everywhere in the places you would least expect them. Not to mention that exploring all of it left us drained at the end of that night. But some of us just wouldn't go down!
The boys and I went out for drinks every time we could. A lot of drinking, a lot of cheering and a lot of bonding.
It's pretty funny. I was connected to the Internet and interacted with it on a daily basis as if I were breathing in the bandwidth, but I still thought that I could not understand how other countries conducted their IT rituals neither their thought process. Despite all my analysis on foreign source codes, I was still missing that 1-on-1 interaction that I needed to even grasp how vast the world truly is, especially within the Microsoft Student Community. That was when Microsoft gave me an opportunity to find out, this year in Taiwan for a total period of 4 days.
Now you would have thought that I handled the situation quite coolly.... you couldn't be more wrong!
I was terrified and yet excited for the opportunity, just like a first timer on a roller coaster.
After taking 2 flights (a total of 6 hours) to Taipei, I began my journey through the wonders of Taipei's oriental atmostphere ... well first I had to get to the hostel. I shared a room with 5 other MSPs and almost everyone of them came from different countries ranging from Indonesia, Vietnam, Phillipines and Malaysia.
DAY 1 and DAY 2
We spent the first 2 days on breaking the ice between more than a 100 MSPs at that 1 hostel. Pretty crazy right? The first day was more of a "Let's make Byung dance in front of everyone because why not!?", while as the second day was a little more serious with every region presenting their status as MSPs such as the sessions they delivered and what kind of experiences they went through while serving as an MSP. I myself, had to cover Asia Pacific which meant that, I had to hold 1-on-1 sessions with MSPs from over 7 countries to review their activities and compile it for the rest of the Summit to know.
Whew, there was a lot of running done during the Summit. We spent a large amount of our free time exploring the famous night markets for several hours! It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip.
There was so much of everything scattered everywhere in the places you would least expect them. Not to mention that exploring all of it left us drained at the end of that night. But some of us just wouldn't go down!
The boys and I went out for drinks every time we could. A lot of drinking, a lot of cheering and a lot of bonding.
DAY 3
The 3rd day consisted of a machine learning hackathon that went on for the whole day until about 8pm. You could ask the rest of the MSPs about my face at the end of it, just PURE EXHAUSTION! Frustrated to no end, it was still a really great experience since I was in a team with another Japanese and a Vietnam MSP (You guys know who you are !). After the ordeal, I was invited to join the Indian MSPs for another night market adventure and you know what I said ? .... WHY NOT ?!
The thing about the night market is that you need to be a little careful when travelling in a group. There is just so much stuff all over the place and one can get easily pulled to a stall while the others found something else to indulge their selves in.
THE FINAL DAY
Sad to say, I found out by the end of the 3rd Day, that I still didn't socialize with everyone in the summit. I aimed to correct that on this day. The day comprised of speakers ranging from Microsoft Imagine Cup Finalists/ Winners to startup entrepreneurs who have blossomed into full caliber CEOs.
Michael Teoh himself, made an appearance as the final speaker and it was his role to promote team building exercises between the hundred MSPs. I was stoked, this was the 2nd time I met Michael and am looking forward to the 3rd encounter. You would think that we had to sit still for 4 hours and listen to speakers and presentations, then go home with sore bums. But you couldn't be more wrong!
We danced, did yoga poses,made a human pyramid, did handstand push ups and even swapped shoes! Through all of it, we developed a better bond between almost everyone in the Summit.
WHAT I HAVE LEARNT
I cannot cover EVERYTHING that happened in the Summit, it's just like another night market of memories. But I have a small list of things that I learned from interacting with everyone in the Summit.
- It's not about who you interact with, but how you interact with them ! - You would think that some of the MSPs are childhood friends with one another, but we only knew each other for 4 days!!
- A journey with no obstacles, is no journey at all ! - Overcoming obstacles is the fun part of learning and the only way you can learn!
- Weird times call for weird leaders ! - Your selling point is to be unique. Common is boring !
- You always have a choice! - Stop making excuses. You are in charge of your own story!
- The real leaders are the ones who volunteer first ! - If you want to lead the example, you have to BE THE EXAMPLE!
Truly a experience I'll never forget! See you in the next post ! :D
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