My Live FeedBack from Gourami
So I'm back from the Shell Gourami held at the Shangrila Rasa Ria Resort in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. It was absolutely amazing
.
The program itself was fantastic - there's obviously been an immense amount of work gone into producing the case/s for it. Shell should really be commended for the initiative and depth of the program. I was allocated into the Sales & Marketing Team, and due to my HR background was also the S&M rep in the HR team which comprised of a member from each of the upstream (exploration) and downstream (manufacturing and Sales&Marketing). Having been involved in Sales and Recruitment/Selection with AIESEC, these two suited really well. It's pretty cool to look back on the amount we were able to produce in the space of 3 days! Late nights of working, but no more so than running a conference, I think the difference was having responsibility for 
outcomes and results as a delegate/participant, whereas at AIESEC conferences a delegate's role is to learn. Something I'd suggest worth looking at what outcome expectations could/should be placed on a conference delegate (maybe not at a first conference, given it's normally a big enough experience as it is)
outcomes and results as a delegate/participant, whereas at AIESEC conferences a delegate's role is to learn. Something I'd suggest worth looking at what outcome expectations could/should be placed on a conference delegate (maybe not at a first conference, given it's normally a big enough experience as it is)The part of the program which was most noticeable was the people. The cultural element was there with students from the Asia Pacific, which was quite reminiscent of an AIESEC conference, but it was the calibre which was astounding. English not being the natural language of most people there, when people would put forward ideas or get up and present their team's work, I couldn't help but think back to Uni tutorial presentations which didn't rate at all compared to what I was seeing and hearing. The selection process obviously worked!
Staying at a 5star resort was an interesting experience. The food and accommodation was absolutely amazing, but also lacking something. I missed lunch on my last day at the resort due to running behind time, so rather than that I caught a bite to eat once we got into KK,
My biggest disappointment was not getting to see much of Kota Kinabalu or the surrounding area (like Mount Kinabalu or the islands off the coast). I'd be keen to go back to Sabah to really experience it. On the transfer from the airport to the resort I had a good chat to the local logistics person about foresting etc, and she mentioned that one of the programs the World Wildlife Fund runs with some of the villages where tourists can basically do a
home stay in the rain-forest. While I can't imagine it'd be cheap (hopefully most of the money would go to the people/environment around the home stay), what an experience that would be!!! This also gave me a bit of insight 
into the logging question I mentioned in a previous post about going to Borneo. My thought was that logging occurred and governments weren't doing enough about it, and that logging companies were exploitative. That hasn't changed, but at the same time recognise that the Malaysian government is trying to do something about it (now having set aside quite a bit of rainforest), with good help from the WWF. What surprised me was the thought of the indigenous people, that rather tha
n logging being bad, it meant that modernisation would come due to the roads and any other infrastructure which came with it. Obviously not having formal education means they don't see the long-term implications of logging, or the squalor that many 'modernised' Malays live in.Anyway, I've also attached some pics. if you want to see more i've got a flickr account
Labels: Brett Gibson, Fun, Gourami KK, Update