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To kick off the CIE Enterprise Series, the Business Intelligence Portfolio at CIE was proud to organise three popular talks under the "Business Series" umbrella, covering aspects of business and law pertaining mainly to Singapore. All three talks took place in the final week of September.
i) Foul! Law and the Internet: Were you Odexed?
The first session held on Monday 24th September was entitled: “Foul! Law and the Internet”. Led by Thomas Koshy, CIE facilitator and writer at MediaCorp Press’ “Today” paper, this event saw a record turnout of more than 400 curious students. The session centered on copyright law, particularly in the context of a recent high profile case involving anime downloading.
The session commenced with a screening of a short but lively video animation of the anime downloading case. This was followed by a hilarious sketch by fellow schoolmates. The sketch depicted an enactment of two friends discussing copyright infringement by downloading anime. They also discussed the implications of such infringement to companies which produced the works.
To complete the educational session, Thomas presented an overview of the legal implications of copyright infringements. He explained how intangible assets like video recordings can be easily and perfectly copied in this digital age. The idea of Intellectual Property (IP) was explained – in particular copyright, as a means of protecting creative forms of expression. The primer on copyright law covered how it originates, how it might be infringed, the defence of fair dealing and consequences of copyright infringement. Thomas also shared several case studies along with the punishment that individuals and organizations have suffered for such acts.
ii) Business Journalism : A Treat by Keith de Souza
The second installment of the Business Series held on Tuesday 25th September was a sharing session entitled: "The Magic Pen that Tells the Story" by News Radio 93.8’s morning drive time deejay Keith de Souza. Keith enlightened journalist enthusiasts on the life of a broadcast journalist. He regaled the students with stories of interviews with foreign dignitaries, celebrities and market movers during his time as foreign correspondent and host of Money Mind.
He demonstrated the skills of proper pronunciation and articulation for broadcasts through impromptu and unrehearsed staged news reading sessions by students in the audience. After encountering pronunciation glitches of unfamiliar names and terms, and a contrasting live demo by Keith himself, the audience better appreciated the professionalism that came with the job.
He also contrasted the different factors to consider when writing business stories for school against those for a business audience. He advised to keep the article short and simple as the main purpose of it was to inform, request or persuade.
Through this talk, we learnt that being a Business Journalist Radio Deejay was not easy because they are faced with different forms of pressure while running the show live on air. However, the job is interesting in the sense that it also allows them to meet people and travel all around the world to gain experience. A total of 430 students attended the talk, 20 of whom received 93.8 t-shirts for active participation.
iii) The Power of Statistics
The final installment of Business Week showcased “The Power of Statistics”, especially in economic considerations. Mr Chua Kia Chee, Head of Research and Statistics from EDB gave students an overview of Statistics in Singapore, as it is used by public sector agencies for planning and operations. The talk was held on Friday 28th September 2007 and attended by an overwhelming crowd.
Mr Chua enlightened the crowd on the uses and stakeholders of such information. Mr Chua illustrated the importance of statistics especially in analyzing trends for government’s various decision making stages (formulation, evaluation & monitoring), and to forecast or predict future directions. The talk combined both elements of economics and statistics in formulating strategies and devising plans for the economy.
Mr Chua also pointed out that all is not smooth sailing in the world of numbers – he shared the difficulties encountered in collecting and analyzing data. Students better appreciated the effort and considerations behind the published figures they come across as being more than just numbers churned out of a system. By taking it one step further, Mr Chua also touched on the international aspect of statistics - using appropriate basis of measures to compare countries’ performance and development.
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