WCOA Day 3

Really, this was the most tiring day so far.  At least, up to this moment.  But my guess is that, tomorrow will be twice as tiring as today, since our program extended until 10.00 pm.

The shuttle bus left the hotel at around 8.25 am.  We were supposed to leave at 8.15am, but few 'professionals' just didn't act like one.  Didn't care much about being punctual, and about other people too.  Of course we were caught in a quite bad traffic jam, and reached KLCC at 9.10 am.  We lost the first 10 minutes of the Plenary session on "Accountants - Sustaining Value Creation in the Borderless Economy".  Luckily, the first speaker was from Chinese Taipei, spoke in Mandarin, and watching the live feed from the room I was in means I had to listen without any translation.  Guess that was luck on my side.  One of the passenger from India or Nepal, complained to the shuttle coordinator (a UM Accountancy student from Kobusak, Penampang), telling her that the bus should leave earlier, 8.00 am ,the latest.  I thought to myself, "Isn't this man among those who delayed our departure from hotel?  Yes, he was, and he complained like it was everyone's but his fault."  

There were several sessions, discussing several topics at the same time, in a number of different rooms/halls.  I chose to stay in the same room until the end of today's session.  Easier for me to find a perfect spot to sit and focus on the presentation.  The second topic was presented by 4 panels, on "Corporate Reporting - The Way Forward."  

Then after lunch, it was a topic on "SME Financing in the Global Market - Is there room for improvement?"  One of the speakers was from Malaysia, Dato' Hafsah Hashim, the CEO of SME Corp Malaysia.  I was really proud to say that she shone much more brightly in the session.  The audiences almost fell asleep during the first and second panel's presentation, but when it was her turn to present, even the snoring ones came alive and listened with newly sparked interest.  She really delivered, and I think almost everyone in the room could really see the SME scenario in Malaysia, how the SMEs are getting help and assistance in almost every aspect possible from the SME Corp.  She also laid in details on how the SME Corp reaches out to the SMEs, and how the SME in Malaysia are not spoon fed, but have to meet the assistance (ie the SME Corp and the Goverment) half way to make it happen.  Well, that's just a summary.  See, this shows I can really understand despite the fact that I am 'notorious' for my habit of dozing off during lectures.

During the lunch break, I had a chance to have a small talk with another two Nigerian gentlemen.  There are, in fact, 600+ of them (Nigerian) in this Congress.  Funny thing happened when you are not really concentrating on what you are doing.  I was asked to take their picture on digital camera.  I took their picture, and took a single glance at the image, then I thought, oh my, the image was dark.  By that I mean, the image and the background was dark.  The men specifically asked me to carefully try to capture the best picture.  When he inspect the picture, it turned out, it was perfectly ok, nice and bright.  I guess I thought the picture was dark because I couldn't see both of them in the picture.  Hehehe, if you know what I mean.  Then one of them asked for my biz card, and once again, oh my, I forgot to take it with me.  I told him that, and with serious face he told me not to commit the same mistake again.  Actually, I didn't forgot the bizcard at all, they were there in my purse all this time, I just forgot to remember.  Anyway, my bad.  Another bad day, I guess.

 'See' what I mean?

Finally, the last topic of the day was very much related to me as a public servant, a Government Auditor...it was on "Public Sector Accounting: Overcoming the Issues and Challenges".  This one is more about the adoption of Accrual Accounting in Government reporting and accounting.  

Well, that's about it for today.  WCOA Day 4 coming up, tomorrow.  

Good night, everyone.