S.C.N.U.K. Events: 2nd Networking Session

Article by Michele Koh, Photos by Eugene Ng

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Date: 3 June 2006
Venue: Shakespeare Globe Café, Bankside

It had been raining for the last week, but on Saturday the 3rd of June, the weather was gorgeous: the sun was dazzling, the sky was clear and the cobbled streets of Bankside were teeming with Londoners and tourists out to get a tan. This was an auspicious day for the Singapore Creative Network UK - we held our second networking session at the Shakespeare Globe Café.

Our first networking session held on the March 25th brought many Singaporeans living in London together for the first time. This time, our purpose was to introduce new members - industry representatives and international friends. Some members who came for our first gathering gave a second appearance, and we were joined by many new faces. We had a crowd of about 35 people. It was a diverse crowd of students and professionals from the age of 19 to 40. We had Singaporeans who have been in London for less than a year, Singaporeans who have lived in London for a decade or more, individuals from Malaysia, Hong Kong, Canada, Britain, Spain, Lebanon and Switzerland.

Being one of the hosts of the event, I felt compelled to make some sartorial changes. I am normally a jeans, T-shirt and sneakers girl, but I decided I would make the extra effort for this occasion. I wore a brown pencil skirt and heels, and even painted my toenails the same shade of red as the Singapore flag! As I walked along the path close to the river, I realized that perhaps I shouldn’t have worn heels. It’s one thing to sashay down the flat, even cement sidewalks of Orchard Road in three-inch stilettos, but it’s a whole different ballgame when you have to hobble along brick and cobblestone surfaces.

Chris, Ziad and Matt were the first to get here. Chris is a visual merchandizing student at the London College of Communication who will be doing theatre set design at Central Saint Martin’s next year. Ziad is Chris’s classmate from Lebanon and Matt is Ziad’s friend who just flew in that morning from Beirut on a private jet.

Friend of a friend of a friend…that’s how networking works! Matt is the editor for a Lebanese fashion magazine called “Aishti”, and through him we got a glimpse at some of the perks of being a high flyer in the media industry. Matt told us that the reason he was in London is because he was one of the ten people selected for a competition to win the latest Nokia Vertu mobile phone. The consolation prize involves something called “concierge service” – where you call up the company organizing the competition and they will get you whatever you want, from a bottle of vintage merlot to a sharpee puppy, within reason of course, nothing too kinky! According to Matt, celebrities use concierge services all the time. I never did find out if Matt won the competition, as he and Ziad had to dash off to another appointment

The next two to waltz in were my fellow journalism classmates Gabby from Spain, and Dave, a South London boy who was working at the Globe Café that day. Dave told me that Jazzy Jeff from the American sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Bel Aire” was performing at the Globe and that he would be interviewing the actor for Southwark News. A few minutes later, the fashion students from Central Saint Martins arrived, and boy did they make a grand entrance. Eugene Lin, a womenswear student interning at Vivienne Westwood, had his hair shaved with a spiky Mohawk fringe, a tank top, which revealed lovely bronzed, muscular arms… and a skirt! Rachel, who specializes in menswear, breezed in looking like Audrey Hepburn from “Breakfast At Tiffany’s”. She wore a blue rose-printed flared frock with a short matching blue knit top, baguette handbag and cream coloured espadrilles. The colour of the dress was very unusual and I told her that I really liked it. Rachel told me that the dress was actually white and the roses dark blue, but after one wash, the whole dress turned blue! I should try that sometime! Even thought poor Rachel was down with the sniffles, she looked as bright as a summer’s day.

We had a surprise guest – Malaysian product designer Benson Saw and business associate Ian Macready. Benson is a partner of Voon Wong, a Singaporean product designer. Together, they are voonwong&bensonsaw – the award-winning duo now based in London. Eugene Ng contacted them via their website and they came even though they have not met any of us before. How brave!

Joyce was a face from the past. An ex Convent of The Holy Infant Jesus (C.H.I.J) girl like myself, we recognized each other right away and started reminiscing about our secondary school days, the nuns, the teachers and fellow students. Tim, an arts and political magazine editor from Canada, Chloe from Switzerland and Valentina from Hong Kong were amused by our take on the unconventional and sometimes ‘havoc’ lifestyle options of a few Singaporean convent school girls.

Joyce who now works as a visual arts office for the Arts Council England, traveled two hours from Brighton to be with us. Tim has just moved to London from Montreal three months ago. Valentina who previously worked with the Creative Industries development department in Hong Kong is now doing an internship at the Clore Duffield Foundation. And Chloe is doing research on film and audience impact at King’s College and Film London.

The others arrived fashionably late and slowly blended in with the early arrivals. Among them were Ian, a filmmaker who later switched to IT, and branding designers Joshua, Wilcox and Alex, who have all lived and worked in London since 1998.

The session continued till 6pm. After that, Sylvia, Che Yok, Eugene, Ian, Alex, Josh, Adrian, Wilcox and myself adjourned to Nandos for dinner. Five whole peri-peri chickens were not enough for the ravenous boys, so we got more. We bantered on about Singapore in the 1970’s. Ian recalls that the Singapore he remembered as a boy was not the ‘vibrant global city’ it is now. It was one big construction site, full of dust. Josh and I swapped stories about flat mates from hell. Josh once shared a flat with a rent boy who insisted on working from home and I have a flat mate whose pet ferret likes to pay surprise visits at night, frightening the bejeesus out of me! As we got more comfortable, Wilcox and I showed off our tattoos. Ian said back in his day, the most daring thing teenagers did was get their ears pierced. Sylvia recalls spiky punk hairstyles as the symbol of rebellion when she was a teenager. With a mixed crowd of different ages, nationalities and interests, we learned much from each other and could appreciate generational, cultural, personal, political and lifestyle differences without judgment or prejudice. We ended the night with a few pints at an English pub and by 11.30pm my feet were happy to get out of those heels.

Thank you all for coming and making this such wonderful experience!