Updated author Minho Cha, March 4, 2018
For me, the January 2018 Initiate 48 is something that I will always remember and cherish.
As a past Initiate 48 attendee, I understood the highs and the lows of what occurs as you progress throughout the Initiate 48 weekend. The sudden rush of excitement when you and your team stumble onto that breakthrough. The disappointment and despair you feel when a mentor begins to question your most basic assumptions to change the way you understood how your product could work. It all ended with an incredibly exciting, but intimidating, pitch in front of real entrepreneurs and potential investors. It was these widespread combinations of experiences that made my first Initiate 48 one of my most precious and cherished ones.
Comfort Zones
When I found myself applying for the Events Team to help out at the next Initiate 48, I was unsure if I really wanted to step out from the environment of being an attendee but, I’m so glad that I did.
As a participant you’re only able to see the Events Team, known as your “buddies”, scurrying about the event ensuring that it ran smoothly. I soon learnt that this was only a fraction of the responsibilities of an Events Team member.
As an Events Team member, you will be tackling unique problems throughout the whole Initiate 48 weekend. It can range from how you interact with your group, to arranging the watermelon slices for the mentor afternoon tea in the ‘prettiest’ way. Personally, I found that one of my biggest challenges was waking up early enough so that I could make it to the venue on time and begin to set up for the day.
Helping Others
I had two groups to take care of. Now that I look back, these two groups were complete opposites. Team 1 hardly required any assistance and it was crazy to see this team accept my tough questions and then be able to answer them within minutes. In this environment, I quickly learnt that being honest even if it was brutal was the best way to enrich their experience.
However, I quickly learned that this wasn’t the case for my second team. They had a completely different dynamic. They required more guidance than my first team and struggled to find a clear direction with their product — which was completely understandable and a common occurrence at any Initiate 48. So with this group, I found it essential to be more of a mediator in order to foster the necessary discussion to help them find their footing.
My Takeaways
At the end of the day, being an effective communicator is the primary role of an events team member. Being able to mediate and resolve conflict in your groups; being able to communicate clearly with the rest of your team; being someone that the attendees could turn to should they require any assistance, is essential for this role. After all, you’re there to ensure that the participants’ experience is as enriching as possible.
My experience as an events team member was truly remarkable. Unlike the participants, I wasn’t able to create a product but I had gotten a different kind of enriching experience. Everything from holding ten boxes of pizza, talking to your groups to helping participants is something that you will never forget. I still remember the speeches during presentation night; I still remember the satisfaction when I realised what I, myself, had accomplished and what I had helped my teams accomplish. To this day, I still truly believe in the core message that the Initiate 48 weekend delivers: that young people possess enormous potential, if only they had the motivation to tap into all that potential.
