From 1977 to 2012…Gold Class…Grey Lounge…Champagne…Red Carpet…Luxurious setting…High Spirits and “The Amazing Spiderman”, all these put together made the Singapore UON Alumni night a Golden and Memorable experience for the alumni.

The opening event of this year’s alumni, held on 13th July’12, was the ‘Gold Class Movie Night’ at one of the most scenic places of Singapore, Vivo City. The grey lounge, exclusively booked for the alumni had a luxurious look and perfect ambience for socializing. The event received an overwhelming response; the tickets were sold out within 24 hours of the first promotion email with a long waiting list. This shows how well promoted and popular the UON alumni events are getting.

Chit chat, tinkering of glasses, exchanging pleasantries, sharing of jokes and work life experiences was all that was happening for the first 45 minutes at the grey lounge. The alumni were well served by the Golden Village staff. The staff made it a point to assist each guest personally by offering drinks and taking dinner orders, which was to be served during the movie.

The event was graced by our super-achiever, 1977 batch Alumni, Minister of National Development, Singapore, Mr. Khaw Boon Wan along with his wife and by Pro-Vice Chancellor & CEO of UON Singapore, Mr. Bob Cochrane. They were pleased to see the number of alumni who had turned up and also the efforts being put in by the committee in reaching out to one and all, regardless of the graduation year.

The current Singapore Alumni Committee President - Kaushik Bhanushali, expressed his gratitude towards all those who had contributed to make the event possible. He thanked the Alumni for their wonderful support with a special mention to Mr. Khaw Boon Wan, Rosemary Thompson, Australian Alumni Team, Bob Cochrane & Peter Warring. He also thanked Singapore Alumni Committee for their efforts & organization to make this event a glowing success.

In his speech, Mr. Bob Cochrane stressed the importance of networking & urged the alumni to not miss the great opportunities to network. He congratulated the Singapore Alumni Committee for their superb organization and enthusiasm.

Mr. Khaw Boon Wan, a Singapore Alumni Chapter Patron, felt emotionally overwhelmed to see the efforts of the Alumni Committee and thanked the committee for inviting him. He also shared a testimonial for the event:

“It was an amazing experience, watching “The Amazing Spiderman” with fellow alumni. As Bob put it, networking is both useful and fun. The Movie Night served that purpose very well. I hope the Committee will also try to reach out to the alumni from other sectors and other communities so that a larger network can be forged, with amazing results, I am sure.”

----- Mr. Khaw Boon Wan (Batch of 1977) Minister of National Development, Singapore

Lavish Dinner, Champagne, Popcorn, Cheese Cake and Coffee were served during the screening of the movie. The Alumni left the hall with smiling faces and a great feedback regarding the event. Everyone appreciated the venue and movie selection and gave an assurance to promote the upcoming events & bring along their batch mates.

The event feedback forms helped the team understand that a number of fellow alumni wanted to join the movie night but couldn’t due to limited seats. For the future events, the Alumni Team now intends to engage an even larger alumni base. The team also received a few other testimonials from the alumni:

"The movie night alumni event was highly enjoyable - food, location and setting was perfect plus to add to that the opportunity to meet our alumni and current Minister of National Development, Mr. Khaw Boon Wan, was the cherry on the cake. I'd definitely attend an alumni event again"

----- Nurfaiza Isa (Batch of 2012) Environment Health Officer, National Environment Agency

"The Gold Class Movie Night arranged by UON Alumni, Singapore was a fantastic experience - food, location and all the arrangements were perfect. It was a really well-managed event, where I was able to not only enjoy but also connect with my UON Alumni and widen my network. Now, I am eagerly looking forward for the next alumni event. Keep up the good work."
----- Desmond Kwang (Batch of 2010) Entrepreneur

"The Gold Class Movie Night was truly Gold Class. UON Alumni, Singapore Committee has truly done a fantastic job. It was an amazingly well-organized event, where I was able to network with my UON Alumni. If the future events provide as irresistible an experience as the 'Gold Class Movie Night', then I am eagerly waiting for it."
----- Rashid Ahmad (Batch of 2008)

Not to forget, the willingness to take up responsibilities amongst the alumni committee members was highly impressive. Kaushik Bhanushali and Nayan Patel led the team well and also made all the arrangements with the UON administration and Golden Village Management. Sanket Bothra did an excellent job with promotion of the movie night, collecting responses regarding food preferences and communicating with the alumni on behalf of the committee. Chandni Dinani prepared the structured feedback form whereas Vishal Bishnoi and Rongxiang Tan managed the Registrations. Parth Soni captured the wonderful moments during the Movie Night and Shrijesh Patel took up the responsibility of collating the same and along with Sriram Balasubramanian also managed the guests during the event.

The committee worked with full synchronization and their camaraderie with the fellow alumni was for all to see.

A successful event is only possible with good leadership and communication. Kaushik Bhanushali, not only kept the organizing committee well informed but also made it a point to involve the UON staff with the event preparations.

The motive of such events is to make Alumni feel special, make new friends and most importantly network. Looking at the response for the first event, the team expects a bigger crowd for the upcoming events. The event was meant to be remarkable and special; the gold class experience has definitely helped to generate this feeling amongst the Alumni.

As the present Singapore Alumni Chapter President, rightly puts it “UON Alumni are super-achievers in their respective fields and the Alumni committees' task is to get all of them under one umbrella. We as a committee should work towards establishing a strong & cohesive Alumni community, which should be envy of the best colleges. The path is not easy but we have started in the right direction, now just have to keep the momentum going”.

The Singapore Alumni committee has grown from strength to strength over the years and we expect more participation in future. The committee will continue to work hard to extend the UON family in every possible way.

--- By Chandni Dinani