Our 11 entries for ITEX won us five gold, five silver, one bronze and five special jury awards. What make me most proud is the fact that one of the special jury awards is the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organisation) award for Best Woman Invention that goes to Dr. Tan Guat Hun, a true blood Rantau Panjang Kelantanese. This is for her smart pesticide invention, a phage-based biopesticide against plant diseases. A Johore-based company together with UTM Skudai is now up-scaling the product and is currently being tested on dragon fruit plants. This phage thing is very specific in its action. The fact that the technology has its origin from the medical sciences is also something to be proud of. Technology is indeed crossing boundaries.
A model of Dr. Tan's phage and its working mechanism below
The IDB award has made us US$100,000 richer. Too bad the we have to loose out to PDRM for the AIPM 2011 (Anugerah Inovasi Perdana Menteri), though we were among the three finalists. Winning could have mean that we be richer RM1 m, but that is not to be. Talk about the IDB US$100,000, it was promised that everybody in the organisation would have a taste of it. It's going to be gulai kawah for all! Maybe we can parcel out the winning to all stations for our 2011 Hari Raya do.
Back to the PC. We had this great digital backdrop, buntings and banner announcing our ITEX and IDB wins. But as Murphy's Law goes, anything that can go wrong will go wrong, Murphy was indeed working against us that morning. While the Minister was visiting the booths displaying the winners, we were (including the press) made to wait in the PC room. We had nothing but just the backdrop to feast our eyes on. It then drawn upon us that IDB is made to mean International Development Bank while the date is 21 Julai 2011 (Jumaat)! Only God knows the panicky state that we were in. Good thing it was a digital display. We really counted our blessing. It was quickly edited, but then the press group was already staring at our blundering ways. It was easy to correct the backdrop but not the printed buntings and banner. We had them removed from the PC room.
Indeed this is a lesson learned. Need to be more deligent the next time around before the powers that be go hopping ......
The glaring mistake on the bunting. IDB would not like it.
Congratulations for winning the awards.
ReplyDeleteCheck and recheck by as many people as possible with the boss making the final check. Such mistakes are simple mistakes but can reflect badly on the organization and thus must be seriously thought of. The guy who spotted the mistake saved the day for the rest. A lesson well learnt I guess.
Pak Zawi,
ReplyDeleteUnderstood the feeling well, as embarrassing as it was torturous. The PR team preparing the function promised to have others outside the team view their work the next time around. The downside of learning through experience is the need to make mistakes before being taught the lesson.