Finally it is the day, the day where the top 30 teams from different universities in Malaysia meet together in Imagine Cup 2012 Malaysia local final at Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. I have never been to Kota Kinabalu, so I’m very excite to attend the Imagine Cup. Of course I’m also very excited to what students bring this year. Imagine Cup 2012 Malaysia local final here I come.

The Imagine Cup will be take place at The Pacific Sutera Hotel which is a very nice hotel between the nice beach and golf field. Students are arriving from different states and start preparing their booth for tomorrow presentation and exhibition. Some students are busy decorating their booth while some are very busy preparing their presentation script.

Before the welcoming dinner, all the competitors were brief about the flow of the 3 days event of Imagine Cup, actives detail, competition detail and so on. The second day will be all about competition. The top 30 teams will need to go through a 10 minutes of presentation + 5 minutes of Q&A on a open booth presentation tomorrow. The top 6 teams will be selected and move to the final round where they are given 20 minutes of presentation + 10 minutes of Q&A in a close room presentation. Unlike last year, the top 3 teams and the ultimate team will only be announced during the dinner tomorrow instead of before the dinner. On the third day, all students are invited to the water actives at Manukan Island! Yeah, but I don’t know how to swim… but you will still get ton of pictures from me.

I can feel that the Imagine Cup Malaysia this year is much more organized and much more better than last year. Students are also getting better. When I approach them to start a conversation, they are not shy to tell me about their team. Team Sirius from UPM give me the stronger impression. They shout so loud when they team name is call, and they are very friendly when I chat with them. Well done and I’m looking more for tomorrow and third day.

The most important activity of the day is the welcoming dinner, which all competitors and mentors are invited to a BBQ dinner. The event is started by welcome speech given by Ananth Lazarus (Managing Director of Microsoft Malaysia) and YB. Dato’s Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin (Minister of Higher Education). We also have performance from UMS art students singing and perform culture dancer. This sound just like the worldwide final of Imagine Cup which I like it. This is a good time for students to get to know other teams from different universities. Finally, each team get introduced and present a certification of participation at the end of the welcoming dinner by the invited VVIP.

Tomorrow will be the judgment day, I bet the competitors are burning the midnight oil to prepare for tomorrow presentation. All the best to them and we shall see what the students manage to bring us this year.

by Ooi Keng Siang – MSPSMT via Ooiks’s Blog

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