Monday, July 18, 2016

US Independence Day Gala Dinner 2016 @ Equatorial Hotel Penang

In conjunction with America's 240th Independence Day, American Malaysia Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) is collaborating with its organising committee – First Solar, Jabil, Hotel Equatorial Penang, Celestica, Tech Dome Penang, and Venessa Diamonds and had a gala dinner at the Hotel Equatorial Penang on 1st July 2016

This gala dinner was a charity event that aimed to raise funds to support the community and to strengthen the bilateral relationship between Malaysia and the United States. The event was held at the Grand Ballroom of Hotel Equatorial Penang and hosted His Excellency Joseph Y.Yun, the U.S. Ambassador to Malaysia, The Honourable Penang Chief Minister Mr Lim Guan Eng and 400 distinguished guests. 

"Special thanks to Hotel Equatorial Penang for having us that evening."

There were many booths set up at the foyer of Grand Ballroom selling all the art & craft stuff by local and international schools and aimed to raise funds for the charity bodies.

We all should always respect the dress code for events and wear what we are suppose to.
Ling Tze and I took quite some time to decide what to wear prior to the event.

We all look fabulous that evening, all properly dressed and smart looking.
From left: KenCK, me, Gibson & Ling Tze.

There were a few activities arranged at the foyer before the event starts. All the guests were entertained by photobooth and served with canape and some boost.

One of the main sponsors for the event, China Southern Airlines.
They also sponsored one of the biggest raffle draw prizes, which is a round trip to America.

Guest all gathered at the foyer for networking and activities before the event starts.

Don't miss a chance to capture some good shots, since I hardly dress like this for events.

The venue was lovely with elegant set up for the gala dinner. Grand Ballroom of Hotel Equatorial Penang can host up to 1000 of peoples depending on set up, the venue was perfect for private events.

Programme of the night includes some highlights like toasting ceremony, food & video presentation, live bands, glamorous fashion show, live auction and raffle draw.
We all tried our luck but too bad we didn't manage to bring anything home, but we were happy as we also contributed a part to the charity.

The tickets were selling at RM3,000(per table) or RM300(per person). The Diamond Sponsors of the event were First Solar and Finisar while the Gold Sponsors are CTC, Intel, Ideal Property, IDT, Jabil NationGate Group, Plexus, and UGL. Silver Sponsors are Agilent Technologies, JW Marriott KL, The Ritz-Carlton KL, Motorola Solutions, and St.Jude Medical while other sponsors will be Venessa Diamonds, China Southern Airlines and Hotel Equatorial Penang.


Welcome speech by Master of Ceremony & Organizing Chairman, YBhg Dato S.H. Wong. 

Then marched in a team of American soldiers carrying USA Flag, and then followed by a toast by our Penang Chief Minister YAB Tuan Lim Guan Eng and US Ambassador His Excellency, Mr.Joseph Yun for the good relationships all these years. Then followed by the speech of His Excellency Mr.Joseph Yun and the National Anthem of US.

Speech by CM YAB Tuan Lim Guan Eng.

Then followed by National Anthem of Malaysia, "Negaraku"

Appreciations to all the sponsors of the event.
Here are all the representatives from all the companies.

Fund collected were donated to Amcham-Machee Scholarship, the newly opened Tech Dome Penang and Dreamz Foundation.

The gala dinner entertainment started with the famous Jazz band, Jazzhats, featuring Ray Rozzells. The band is one of the most popular band in Penang. 
They live up to their reputation and their performance were excellent.

We also enjoyed our 5-course dinner specially prepared by Hotel Equatorial Penang & Chef Jean-Claude Plihon.  He  started in the industry at the Hotel Beaurivage and continued his Chef training in Michelin stars kitchens in France. He has spent twelve years with Fairmont Hotels in various location around the world before joining the Grand DFW as Executive Chef in 2009. Chef Jean-Claude Plihon's cooking philosophy is a reflection of innovation, passion and sustainability focusing on taste above all, choosing the finest ingredients from the region’s best growers and producers.

Starter
Tiger prawns - Fennel - Citrus ginger emulsion

Soup
Corn velouté

Appetizer
Roasted beet salad - Goat cheese crema - Hazelnut crumble - Cherry vinaigrette

Mango sorbet - very interesting and refreshing.
Perfect to kickstart your tastebud and get you ready for your main.

Main
Roasted Chicken - Seabass - Chanterelle - Asparagus - Romesco

Dessert
Fromage Blanc cheesecake - Apricot - Pistachio - Honey ice cream
The cheesecake was one of the lightest and softest cheesecake I've ever tasted before. It was perfect to my liking and blended well with the ice cream on the plate as well as nuts and berry that gave this course a little crunch.


Other entertainments of the night are fashion show by Jo Chuah Collection as well as some masterpieces by Venessa Diamonds. All the dresses were lovely and the jewelleries were glamorous.

One of the highlight of the event was the live auction where there were a few valuable pieces put out for auctions. One of the items that attracted me the most would be this unique and lovely art painting - Golden Tianmen donated by Dato S.H. Wong(Chairman of the American Malaysian Chamber of Commerce). Other items were Yellow Citrine & Blue Topas Pendant by Venessa Diamonds, Double-Strand Pearl Necklace by Venessa Diamonds, Hudson Baby Bourbon Whisky, Stalls in Penang watercolor painting by artist Lee Eng Beng.

Then we also participated in the Raffles Draw, though we didn't win anything but we enjoyed the excitement to be part of the game. 

The event ended with another performance by Jazzhats and all the guests were invited to dance with the music. It was a lovely evening and great event held at the Hotel Equatorial Penang.

Hotel Equatorial Penang
Address: 1 Jalan Bukit Jambul Penang 11900 Penang, Malaysia.
Contact no: +604-6327000 | Fax: +604-6327100
GPS: 5.3371507,100.2846181
Map

Google Street View

Friday, July 15, 2016

CREATE @ His Bus Depot | Where The Power Of People Turn Possibilities Into Realities

Have you ever thought of joining an all new experience?
Have you ever thought of what you can do with your power?
Or have you ever thought of how you can inspire people?

Think  Inspire  Experience
CREATE!
This what CREATE is about!
Bringing people together to share, engage and be inspired to create an all new experience for everyone! And it’s quite apparent when I was at CREATE. We were treated to activities that requires us to work together with new found friends in achieving an engaging experience. Read on and you’ll find out more!

*Many thanks to CREATE for having me at the event*

I've arrived quite early on that day, expected that the weather could be a real pain in the ass as it was an outdoor event. Surprisingly CREATE has got it covered and provided a nice and rather enjoyable venue fully equipped with cooler fans that all the participants were quite happy with it.

There were bands playing earlier before it gets dark. We were also given some coupons that allow us to request songs from the band / DJ. But apparently a lot of people requested my favourite songs so what I did was just indulging myself in my favourite music!
Never have thought that those requested songs are like my Spotify playlist! Great minds think alike maybe?

Introducing #Mashtag Wall!
A rather interesting activity for the participants. What we need to do were arranging all the provided words to form a sentence. Take a picture and hashtag #CREATEMY and #Mashtag and we get to walk away with lucky draw prizes!
Did I win? Keep reading and you will find out more from below!

A cute little frame for all of us.
We can use it as photo frame to take pictures around and hashtag #createmy.
I was glad to meet Junor Law and Charrisa Tan. They were my partner-in-crime for the night.
We had a lot of fun taking photos and participating in all the activities of the night.

Crowd-In-Motion
I was really surprised as I remembered I've watched a video about cycling for healthier life and also for something else on the internet before. But be the one who is cycling for this event? This was really fun and it was really tiring doing it!
Managed to walkaway with some prizes too since we completed the challenge!

Basically you need to find another 4 persons to join us, and all 5 of you will be cycling together to complete the challenge. In case if any of you got tired, the other 4 can still back you up as long as you are not giving up. That's how it works and bring people together too!
You can tell from my face that I cycled really really hard!
What you need to do is to cycle and fill up the bars together with your teammates. 
You have to fill them up in seconds or you will lose the chance of winning some prizes.

CREATE: New Experiences Together
CollaboArt Wall
This is the wall that brought even more people together! A huge colouring wall that got us so excited!
The wall that can bring out the creativity of all the guests by inviting all the guests to express their fond memories toward Penang and also they can drraw their favourite memories into the wall.
This wall also contributed by the local Penang-born and bred influencer Koh Yung Shen, founder of The Swagger Salon and also DJ Ramsey Westwood. When asked about what they are impressed the most by Penang, they recalled memories of hanging out in Komtar, the iconic Penang Bridge and of course, the unforgettable Penang foods!

I was impressed by Charrisa's sense of arts. She can draw a tribal print out of nothing!
Simply amazing! I respect all kinds of art people all these while!

And that's me in action, photo thanks to Junor Law.
Left some prints for JJ In Da House, promotes my blog at the same time. 

CREATE Stage
The main highlight for the event where they brought together a few artists and also performers to bring up the heat for the event.
The night was featuring the internationally acclaimed artists, The Sam Willows and upcoming local artists, Paperplane Pursuit, Talitha Tan and also DJ Ramsey Westwood and DJ Alexis G.
So the party started with some spinning by DJ Ramsey Westwood.
You will not be strange to this DJ who has traveled around Malaysia and also out of Malaysia for his DJ journey. His music was rather comforting and brought up the heat of the night.
Some are even dancing on the dance floor and chilling around enjoying good music while talking to their friends.

As it gets dark, I can see more and more people coming into the party. It was getting more and more crowded but also very fun at the same time seeing people hanging around and make new friends.

Paperplane Pursuit in action!
This live band was quite popular in Malaysia and they have been featured on the radio channels and also they one of the current pop band that is getting popular these days.
I can also see many of their fans gathering on the dance floor and listen to their singing. No doubt, they are really good and made the evening even more interesting.

They were so friendly that they allow their fans to take photos with them. Here are some photos we had. Ling Tze was rather happy to meet them too!

Coming up next!
The Crowd-In-Motion's peak hour unlocked another heat to the famous band Sam Willows!

Sam Willows is made up of siblings Benjamin and Narelle Kheng and their friends Jon Chua and Sandra Riley Tang. They are from Singapore and traveled around the world bringing music to other countries as well.
They are one of the top guns of the night and their popularity is really high! A big crowd occupied most of the dance floor just to listen to their music and dance or sing along!
They presented their songs from latest album "Take Heart" such as Take Heart and All Time High, as well as other covers that they did.
It was really fun that I also start liking their music already! I'm now following their Youtube channel also do follow them at http://www.youtube.com/thesamwillows

I even made a live video of them singing and party along with my facebook friends!
It was really fun and great night!

Also, we have another session of lucky draw games and I was selected to be one of the winner!
It was really fun and felt lucky to be there! But I did gave away half of my prize to the girl who didn't win anything at the game. Sharing is caring, no?  <3 p="">

Before we end the night, we have the sexy goddess Alexis G spinning for us!
The music, beats were simply awesome and we all partied until midnight, even the rain could not stop us from partying! We were just dancing, drinking, talking all the way until the party end!


 It was real fun meeting people at the event, playing games together, achieving the winning and spending time doing all the activities, partying till late night.
I wouldn't mind if there's any other event like this and I would really love to go again!
Photos below shows some of my friends Cecilia Black, Tommy Ooi, Charrisa Tan, Junor Law, Wanida, Niki and Ling Tze! It was fun hanging out with you guys!

The CREATE festival in Hin Bus Depot serves as the preview of an even bigger festival coming in the pipeline. For more information and a chance to attend the next CREATE festival, register yourself at www.create.net.my for you exclusive invite to the next festival. Be part of a an event, made happen by individuals like you and your friends & family.