Camera! Lights! Action! - The First Successful Open House for SOH in January

School of Hospitality (SOH) made its maiden appearance at the RP Open House 2009 held on 7 and 10 January 2009, with the objective to promote the School’s three diploma courses to parents and ‘O’ level students, and to showcase the School’s commitment in grooming the future professionals in quality service, events and hospitality industries

TRANSFORMATION, was the theme for the School and this was in line with RP’s overall concept of Paint your Future with RP for this year’s event.  

Located at a prime spot near the Agora halls, a huge photo-mural of Singapore’s skyline formed the backdrop of SOH’s booth. Various activities were organised to entice thousands of visitors who thronged into the booth over the two-day event. Many student ambassadors dressed in business suits and uniforms representing different professions of the hospitality industry were on hand to attend to the visitors and answer their queries about the diploma courses. 

Activities at the booth 

Exhibition panels on the diplomas were put up and a three-part SOH video clip was screened continuously. Games like The Wheel of Hospitality and Great Set Up Challenge were hosted by the student ambassadors. The highlight at the booth was a skit performed by the students of Diploma in Customer Relationship and Service Management (DCRSM) every half hourly. 

The Great Set Up Challenge Game is to educate the student visitors more about dining etiquette such as the correct way of placing cutlery and the usage of each piece of cutlery.   

The Wheel of Hospitality Game was played similarly to the popular Wheel of Fortune game show. Instead of winning cash and travel packages like the TV game show, the visitors walked away with interesting prizes if they answered the questions pertaining to hospitality and events correctly.  

The making of the first SOH skit 

“When the Organising Committee was asked to put up a skit by the Deputy Director, Mr Albert Toh, my jaw dropped! I was tasked to form the cast with student volunteers from SOH during the last two weeks before the December school vacation,” said Ms Nancy Chan, a senior academic staff of SOH. 

“There was not much time to coordinate for the production as it was seemingly a remote chance of getting our students to come back for the many meetings and rehearsals during their holidays. But I was wrong. I had support from my colleague Christopher Thomas, who was able to ‘guarantee’ a cast from his student supporters.” 

Indeed, the group of nine students from DCRSM came to the forefront. Students were given a brief on the theme “Transformation of SOH student into a hospitality hero”. The rest was history. Students took lead roles to develop the storyboard, assign the acting roles and rehearse many times during vacation break and after classes. 

According to lead student cast coordinator Audrey Ng Hui Shan, she said, “It was tiring but there was a lot of fun along the way too. We had a lot of support from the facilitators involved but they allowed us to make most of the decisions and this actually gave us a lot of confidence. We were very motivated by the remark made by our Deputy Director Mr Albert Toh when he sat in the first meeting. He said, 'Do it only when it is fun, if it is not, don't bother anymore.' From then on, we had the fun element in our skit too.” 

The production of the SOH video clip 

Seven marvellous students were called upon for filming of the first SOH video clip during the December vacation break. They stood under the afternoon’s blazing sun, waiting patiently without complaints for their turn to be filmed by a professional production crew. 

Due to the tight deadline, Programme Chair of DCRSM Mr Alan Leong had to be roped in to personally supervise and work behind the scene to ensure that the producer met the schedule in getting the video on time for the Open House. Kudos to Mr Alan Leong. 

Read More on our students' reflection after the open house.