The ICAAP programme book and delegate's photo IDWith the welcome and opening ceremony over on Sunday, and with the shuttle bus drop zone for our area being quite far from our hotel, we decided to rent a van to fetch us at our hotel and send us to BICC. We were charged IDR70,000 per trip, that's about RM24 or so, or about RM3 per person. The Congress was only for 4 days, so we thought might as well make our lives easier by renting the van for all 4 days. Besides we had to bring loads of Buddy Bears to be placed at our exhibition booth at the Asia Pacific Village. The bears may not be heavy, but they were bulky!
On the first day, after sending over our bears to our booth and putting up some posters, we rushed off to attend the opening plenary session; which was supposed to end at 10.15.
Since the opening of the Asia Pacific Village was at 10.15, we got out of the plenary session by 9.45 am and headed straight to our booth to get our Buddy Bears all ready for presentation and distribution.
Since we had the same delegates attending ICAAP to man (or woman!) our booth, we had to take turns at the booth. I had wanted to attend workshops, symposia or oral abstract sessions on the topic of HIV women and children, and there was one such workshop at 10.45 am on the first day. But we were so busy setting up our booth, I lost track of time and only noticed it when it was almost 10.45 am. I immediately dashed off to the room where that particular workshop was supposed to be held, only to be told that it was cancelled. How frustrating!
But over the 4 days, I did manage to attend 3 plenary, 2 symposia and 3 oral abstract sessions - and in between I managed to help out at the booth, go round to see the other booths and even managed to sit down and chat with some new and old acquaintances; all certainly useful in expanding our network.
In addition to that I also managed to join a field trip on the first day. I had also signed up to join another field trip on Tuesday, but during my absence from the booth, someone from a TV production had come to our booth wanting to arrange for an interview with me. My colleagues had agreed for the interview to be held during lunch break on Tuesday. The field trip was also supposed to be during lunch break, so when told about the TV interview I had to cancel the field trip.
On Tuesday itself, since we wanted our booth to be full of Buddy Bears during the interview, we made sure the bears were only distributed after lunch, ie after the interview was over. And oh, I found out that the person who had arranged for the interview was none other than Anom. Yep, we finally met, of all places, in Bali, not Malaysia!
Having the booth (which we got for free) was indeed a blessing. More people now know about our Buddy Bears and we also managed to get lots of new networking all over Asia Pacific! Simply grrrreat! Some of the visitors even wanted to buy our bears but we remained firm with our NOT FOR SALE policy. Oh, I'm sure there would have been a few who actually lied by telling us they were dealing direct with HIV infected children and wanted the bears to be given to the children. But we didn't have any lie detectors to determine that - the bears which didn't land in the right hands, let's just say they were for promotional purposes.
My poster presentation was on Wednesday. I needed someone tall to put it up as the poster was big and the boards were quite high, so I got my tallest colleague to help me out. And before we took off the poster at the end of the day, we made sure we had a group photo in front of my poster.
Exhibitions ended on Wednesday as Thursday was just the final plenary followed by the closing ceremony. So on Thursday we traveled light to BICC, without having to travel with the bears.
Since we weren't told what time exactly the closing ceremony would end, we told our van driver to fetch us at 12.30 pm. We left the hall at 12.25 pm although the closing ceremony was not over yet. But we already knew that the next ICAAP will be held in Busan, Korea.
Overall, being a first timer to ICAAP, the whole thing was an eye-opener for me. Not only did I learn new things, I also managed to expand my networking and the experience was indeed refreshing. I do hope to follow up on things here at home so we Buddies can improve our services to the community, in particular the PLHIV community.
Coming up next... Part 3 - Ronda-ronda Bali
12 comments:
A pretty hectic week but a very fulfilling one too, from what I gathered! Good ya.
What is the follow up to this Congress?
Let's get on to the ronda ronda Bali soon ya ;)
Looks like the Congress was a huge success. It's always great to meet and make new friends, kan? Sure Kak Pi punya FB friends dah bertambah-tambah sejak balik dari Bali ni :)
So, will you be going to Busan nanti? Next year ke? Or do they have it every other year?
Had ronda-ronda Bali tu yang cheq suka... :)
Pi? So you kena interview? Keluar kat TV or papers?
Kalau dah pamous nanti,jangan pi lupa we all plak ok Pi?
Naz,
We'd need to follow up with our new networking, and maybe find ways how we can work together. Also we may need to think about implementing any of the good programmes already done by others - whichever may be suitable for us. Whatever it is, nak kena discuss dulu with the other board members.
Wanshana,
I was on FB for while but later gave up. Malas. So how lah to tambah FB friends like that? But am definitely keeping in touch via email with my new found friends.
ICAAP is held every 2 years, so the next one in Busan will be in 2011. Not sure yet if I'm going, but for the moment, I doubt it. Bali is cheaper... (yeah, yeah, I'm a cheapskate!)
Mamasita,
Pamous amendenye?? Dah dua tiga kali keluar kat paper & magazine, tak pamous pun. Kalau muka macam Karisma Kapoor lain lah, ni muka macam ayam berak kapoor...
Anyway, the interview in Bali was for TV, not paper.
Kak Pi.. thank you for agreeing to be interviewed. It was great to finally meet you. Shaza said the first package was this morning -- tapi that one is generally on the conference la. In a couple of days will be about u kot.. Will let u know once I know more.
oo.. Kak Pi, one other thing, Shaza did set up the interview with you (or your colleague) directly -- I was merely giving her some ideas/leads as this is the first time for her to report on HIV/AIDS stories..Marah plak Shaza nanti ;).. Anyway, thank you very much.
Anom,
Shaza called me yesterday saying that the producers want me to be interviewed live. But our problem is we're trying to keep a rather low profile. Too much exposure will make the HIV families I'm dealing with feel uncomfortable because I visit them at their homes quite often. So although publicity is good for Buddies in order to get support from the public, still nak kena control sikit our publicity for the sake of our clients.
And in addition to that, the interview is on a working day - I kerja lah! And my office work tak ada kena mengena langsung with my voluntary work. Dah lah the whole of last week cuti to attend ICAAP...
Hi Kak Pi,
I think the reason why they wanted to get you on 'live' is because you represent the non-stereotype persona on this issue -- if you appear on tv it will help decrease the stigma - tak banyak, sikit mesti ada especially towards the 'urban community' who are still strongly against PLWH which belongs to certain groups...
Tapi I totally understand your reasons -- it's difficult if you are well known, nanti orang kampung of your clients will start noticing.. Having said that, the target audience of that show is the 'urban' crowd. Your clients, neighbours and families might not even watch it.. But again kak -- it's your call..
Anom,
This high profile/low profile thing had always been a dilemma for us. Too low profile and we don't get the much needed support from the public. Too high profile and the HIV infected/affected families don't want to be seen with us. Since the main purpose of Buddies is to provide moral support to PLHIVs, it's them we have to prioritize.
But anyway, I didn't really have to think too much this time... the interview is supposed to be on my working day so no need to pikir panjang-panjang lah... takkan nak cuti memanjang...
i baca terbalik. terbaca pt 3 dulu.
tapi takpe. enjoy baca, terasa mcm i ikut sama ke hulu ke hilir dengan you. phew! nak tarik nafas pun mcm tak sempat. ;D
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