Tuesday, 30 October 2007

The day started in a major rush. Anwar was trying to finish the powerpoint for the LSE presentation, with Rizal bugging him to finish it. This is so too common a scene. When we finally got ready, we left the apartment by 10.15am.

(Najjah and Sarah wondering where to go...)

(Anwar, Rizal and Sarah heading towards LSE)

Our first International Roadshow in the UK kicked-off with a meeting with the London School of Economics (LSE). The meeting was scheduled for 11.30am. The journey took about 30 minutes from our apartment to LSE by the tube. We arrived ten minutes early and proceeded to the main reception at the Old Building.

(Rizal, Sarah and Najjah waiting outside of LSE)

(Front view of the LSE Main Building on Houghton Street)

(View of Houghton Street)

After getting detailed instructions from the frontdesk’s attendant, we walked to Tower 2 to meet Ms Fay Strachan, PA to Ms Rosemary Gosling (as well as the meeting coordinator). We then walked to the meeting venue at one of the teaching buildings on Houghton Street. Ms Strachan assisted us in preparing and setting up the equipments for our presentation.

LSE was represented by the representatives of the External Study Department in the attendance of Prof. Jonathan Kydd, Dean of External Study; Prof. Wayne Morrison, Director of External Law Programme and Ms Rosemary Gosling, Director of External Study.

(Anwar presenting to the LSE team)

The meeting started off at 11.50am with a welcoming note from Ms Gosling. She shared with the team some experiences they had gained while building linkages with external parties such as Dubai and China. Before going into detailed presentation, Anwar briefed the purpose of the meeting/visit and the Flash presentation was shown to the audience.

(Members of the LSE team listening to the presentation)

The LSE’s group was then introduced to the progress of the KLEC project and the proposed collaboration between KLEC and LSE. A discussion was then held and some of the issues covered include the LSE's latest development in China and the prospect of LSE working with KLEC in various possible models.

The presentation finished at 1pm. We took a group photo before we were off to an exclusive restaurant at the Waldorf Hotel for lunch - 100% covered by our hosts!

(From left to right: Sarah, Rizal, Prof. Wayne Morrison, Anwar,

Prof. Jonathan Kydd, Ms Rosemary Gosling & Najjah)

It was a good presentation and well-received by LSE. Upon recommendation from Ms Gosling, the KLEC team will be following up with the International Relations Office of LSE for further presentations.

**Meeting Malaysian student at LSE:

As we were walking down to the meeting venue…..

Student: Hi…dari Malaysia ke? *He looked very excited.
Najjah: Ya, saya.
Student Hi, saya Hamid.
Najjah: Saya Najjah.
Student: Ada talk ke kat sini?
Najjah Actually kita ada presentation kat sini. You ambil course apa?
Student: Political Science, first year.
Najjah: Ohh..ok. Nice meeting you Hamid. Got to go. Jumpa lagi.
Student: Ok, bye.
Najjah: Bye. They are my team…*pointing to Anwar, Rizal & Sarah…
Anwar & Rizal went to Hamid and they shook hands.

Ms Gosling also took the opportunity to talk to Hamid.