My Version of 2014 - Compfest
I have made a list of what I have to achieved in my time as a student in ITB.No, participating in a conference is not on the list..:) But I would really love to win a competition. There are a lot of my friends who win trophies at their time. I was wondering, will I graduate from ITB never tasting the experience of participating in a competition?
Well, thank God, no..:D
On the last day of the 6th semester, Me and two of my colleagues (Dinda and Gunawan) registered for Compfest Business IT Case Competition 2014. As the name suggests, it's a case solving competition on IT and Business field.
Ever since an alumni named Niki introduced me to case study, I've loved it. It trains you to think flexibly, understanding the nature of an organization, synthesizing feasible solution, etc. So, the three of us entered it just for the sake of having fun..:)
What's the hardest part on registering? Choosing your team name.
We spend a lot of time talking about it and then we remembered our friends who won an amazing Project Management Competition. They used the names of the lecturer of Project Management course.
So we decided to use our lecturers name as well, but who?
We are all looked up to our Head of Programs, Mr. Arry Akhmad Arman for his eccentricity and wisdom on Business-IT field. We also looked up to Mr. Baskara Nugraha because let's face it, he's too awesome on the field of IT.
So due to our admiration to them, their names become our team's name, Baskarry..:)
We did the competition prelims on our internship. It's hard because we never had the chance to meet. All of our work for prelims is done through the use of Facebook chat and Dropbox.
Thank you, technology.
It took a while for the committee to announce the finalists.
To make things worse, I'm bad at this kind of thing. I can't concentrate all day, I checked the web again and again to no avail so I decided to lay down my phone and took a bath.
Well, the announcement was released when I've finished my bath.
Thank God, we are through..:)
Dinda was very hysterical while Gunawan missed the festivities.
On to Jakarta for the finals~
On Jakarta, we're locked down on a room while making a presentation about "SAP 2014 : Reaching for the Cloud". It's a case from Harvard Business School. The solution will be presented in the morning.
Trust me, this is the second worst sleep-deprived moment of 2014. We're all tired from the activities on the afternoon, but still have to do the case until 5AM the following morning.
Tiring? You bet.
Fun? Words can't describe it.:))
We laughed a lot, we experience lots of things together, we reveal the faces we normally do not show to anybody at class.
Well, at the following morning we prepare our presentation and go to the meeting room to meet the judges.
I thought they'll be nobodies. Oh God, how I was wrong.
The judges are Mr. Riri Satria (founder of VA2 and ex KPMG consultant), Mr. Risman Adnan (Director of Samsung Research & Development Institute Indonesia), and Mr. Danny Handoko (Bussiness Development Manager Traveloka.com, ex Boston Consulting Group Consultant).
Yeah, they are like the Ruby Weapon, Emerald Weapon, and Omega Weapon of FF7. They are our judges.
It's a closed room where only we and the judges along with the committees were inside. We present it perfectly as trained, but we couldn't answer all of the judges questions as perfect as the presentation.
Well, we accepted it and move on. We have some pictures with the judges and all of the participants and then we have some free times.
Thankfully, one of our coach, Samuel Natalius, offered us a tour around Depok to relieve our stress, so we took his offer and had a tour to University of Indonesia..:)
After the tour, we are back to the awarding night ceremony. Actually, we have heard about most of our competitors. They have achieved some things like participating in APEX, or winning a similar competition. We came here with nothing like that so we are not expecting anything too fancy here.
But yeah, in the end they called our name to the stage as the first winner..:)
No, none of us expected it. We're already relieved when our juniors, TimSenator, got their hands on Runner-Up position but yeah, we're very happy to win this, especially with our coach, Samuel, watching in the crowd. It was a special moment for us.
It is a very good idea to participate in this kind of competition. It's an experience you'll never get on classes. You get to know people, you traveled places, and you get to know your colleagues better..:D
Test your luck, never hesitate. Remember your friends who gave you their help on your journey.
2014 was Baskarry's year.
Next year?
It could be yours..:D