Conference in Sydney

My 1st ever conference.. Don't know what to expect.

We had our agendas, we had our fun, we had alot of dinners, we even had a lot of walk to many places.. It was crazy but it was a good get together. :)

01 Oct 2007. Met Stephane and Louis at Changi. After much arrangement, we managed to get our seats together. 7 and a half later, we arrived Sydney International Airport at 7pm. It doesn't look like an airport to me, it was quiet... In fact, too quiet. Only a handful of people in the Departure Hall. Nothing much to see, we left airport for our hotel, Bayview Boulevard at William Street. We hopped into a maxi cab and within seconds, our attentions were all diverted to the meter. Their meter was jumping like every 5 seconds! For every KM travelled, it will cost AUD1.79 and for every waiting time, it's AUD46.20 every hour! By the time we reached Bayview Boulevard, it was about AUD65!

When we reached Bayview's lobby, we were a bit disappointed. It doesn't look like 4 star at all. Well, during this period, hotels in Sydney were quite packed. But luckily, room was refurbished recently.

My room.. Looks good, had a plasma on the wall, ironing board, in room safe and it's quite spacious.

02Oct 2007. We had to be at Sabre's office at 9.30am. Me woke up at 7.30am (gosh.. SIN was 5.30am!!) to prepare and it was pleasant, everyone was there for breakfast. At 9.30pm, we were all greeted with a spectacular view...

My room view, no harbour view..

Across the street are 2 very expensive showrooms.. Ferrari and Maserati. Joel will love staying here.

On our way to North Sydney to Sabre's office. We had to cross the Harbour Bridge. I can see people climbing the Bridge.

It's a nice bridge to climb.. Too bad, i don't have spare time for its bridge climb.

Tadah!! View from Sabre office at Blue Street. I would love working there. Everyday with nice view and not view of HDBs!

And this is the smoking view.. Good huh? Such a good view to relax and collect your thoughts.

After a full day of training, New Zealand Tourim Board treated us happy hour at 25th floor Bar. Free flow of drinks and finger food!

Me and Vivian. She's my Market Manager. She's in charge of Greater China and i'm her Market Coordinator. She's Taiwanese with a US passport based in Shanghai.. Whereas i'm based in SIN. Great working distance. :)

Left to right: Keiran - our senior Market Coordinator based in Sydney, Yograj - Market Coordinator in India, Kritti - India Market Manager, Me and Helen - Korea Market Manager.

Vivian, Kritti, Helen and Me.

03 Oct 2007. Today we start our conference. It was crazy.. From 8.30am to 5pm, agenda after agenda, i was dozing off one after another. Lucky the conference was held in Bayview's Meeting Room. After a long day of agendas, Accor hosted dinner for our contingent at Australia Square's Summit Restaurant.

Front to Back: Me, Louis - Maket Manager for Singapore and Indonesia and Stephane - Market Manager for Malaysia, Brunei and Philippines. We were the 1st to reach.. The rest were late.

View of Sydney Harbour Bridge from Summit Restaurant.. It's a revolving fine dining restaurant.. Good view. Must try.. Dinner from AUD100 per person.

Left to Right: Me, Stephane, Andy - Market Coordinator for North Asia and Geraldine - Merchandising. We were having fun bullying him..

Left to Right: Me, Stephane, Andy, Vivian and Geraldine. It was a pure having fun moment, Andy likes being the centre of attention.

Left to Right: Me, Stephane, Helen - Market Manager for Korea, Isabel - Market Coordinator for SE Asia, Geraldine, Vivian and Kuoniko - Market Manager for Central Japan.

Left to Right: Stephane, Isabel, Louis and Me. All 4 of us are based in Singapore. Jennifer was absent from the dinner.. If not, it will be the 5 of us.

After dinner, some of us gathered for a memory. Too many to name.. Ok, we have Andy, Stephane, Atsushi - Market Manager for Southern Japan, Abdul - Regional Manager of India, Isabel, Helen, Vivian, Kuoniko, Christina - Hotel Operations, Kritti, Me, Louis, Yograj, Erin - Market Manager for Western Australia and New Zealand, Alex - Regional Manager for Australia and New Zealand, Keiran and Elitea - Market Manager for Hongkong, Macau, Taiwan and South China.

04 Oct 2007. Another long day of conference. Another night of dinner hosted by IHG aty Intercontinental Sydney's Harbour Room. View was fantastic. We could see both Harbour Bridge and Opera House. How i wished we stayed here instead..

View from the Harbour Room.. IHG actually booked the whole room for us. Another night of dunno-what-i'm-eating.. I have been stuffing all kinds of food in my mouth since arrival in Australia. Stuff that tasted good, funky and raw.

Me and Vivian taking a moment off gossiping.. There were alot of gossiping in the house!

Helen, Keiran and Vivian.. These 2 ladies had been talking about Keiran, talking about how charming he is, how he looked like David.. Haiz.. He was quite reluctant to take this picture after all the teasing from the both of them.

Back to Front: Louis, Helen, Elitea, Isabel, Vivian, Kuoniko, Geraldine and Me. After dinner, taking a moment off gossiping.. Again. What else is new? Everyday i hear gossip.. I have 4 big gossipmongers in the house!

Geraldine and Andy.. Geraldine was getting worried when Andy started getting loud.. Andy was high on alcohol and he started his nonsense, scaring Geraldine. She's constantly seeking refuge from Me or Louis.

Andy and Stephane. Brother moment.. NO! I meant Sista moment! Because Andy is a sista!

After dinner, we walked back to our hotel. It was cold but a nice walk.

Lousy photography.. Both picture not in place...

05Oct 2007. Last day of conference. Hooray! We started this morning with a Backstage Tour at Opera House. Woke up at 5.45am (SIN 3.45am!!) for the tour.. Tour start at 7.15am. We were divided into 2 groups and tour ends at Opera House staff cafeteria with a sumptumous breakfast. After breakfast, we had to be back at Bayview for half a day of conference.. Damn! Luckily, we Market Coordinators, don't have to sit till the end of the conference. We were given the green light to leave early for some last minute shopping at West Field Bondi Junction before our dinner at Paddington Bowling Club.

When i was taking picture of the Harbour Bridge, Vivian and Louis were running behind me.. Can you see her running?

This is our Opera House Backstage Tour Guide.

Left to Right: Jennifer - Market Manager for Thailand and Vietnam, Geraldine and Me in the Concert Hall.

Me, Helen and Vivian, somewhere in Opera House.

Top to Bottom: Jennifer, Isabel, Stephane, Me, Louis and Geraldine at Opera House steps.

There was Hui Ping, Geraldine, Hemanth, Kuoniko, Alice, Vivian, Jennifer, Me, Paul, Isabel, Louis, Helen and Stephane. Paul is our Hotel Team boss..

The whole Travelocity contingent! About 40 of us, from all over the world, mostly from APAC.

Greetings from Sydney Opera House!

On our way back to Bayview for conference, we walked through Sydney Botanic Gardens. Keiran and Chris was telling us that every evening before the sky gets totally dark, we will see alot of flying objects up in the City sky.. Those were not birds but of these! BATS in the city!

We were let off the last agenda. Thus the 5 of us went Bondi Junction for a break. Shopping, food, puppies... Keiran was sitting in front, that explain why he wasn't in this picture. We were the only 5 that left early.. The rest? They were sulking when we left... hahahaha

This is our very last event in our schedule. Bowling and BBQ dinner at Paddington Bowling Club.. Yup, it's Old Men Bowling. Apparently, youngsters in Australia are falling in love with this sport. Not me.

Celebrating the end of a hectic conference!

We were divided into 8 teams with about 5-6 members in each team. We had to name our teams.. So my team was called Aloof-fool. We had teams naming themselves, Chicken Rice, Kimchi, Team Vegas, etc.. Too many weird names for me to recall.

Louis, Geraldine, Chris and Me. I had to give all my Australian counterpart a hug here because this is where i will leave and not see them till the next conference.

And the very day, i left Sydney for Perth.