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Meet Sheldon Gooi, Director of The Production People (TPP), who joined RP's Specialist Diploma in Immersive Experience for Business. This Specialist Diploma allows entrepreneurs to adapt to the fast-changing industry through Augmented and Virtual Realities.
Maybe the old cliche is true, that most children rebel against their parents. But as we’ve seen time and again, there is more than one way to achieve success other than the path well-trodden. Sheldon Gooi is a 49-year-old Singaporean businessman whose parents were both teachers. He did well enough in his studies to attend the National University of Singapore, but left to pursue a career in business instead. With a keen interest in “music and parties”, Gooi wondered if he could combine his passion for music with entrepreneurship. Speaking to Mothership, he candidly said that his parents did not see “partying” as a valid career option, and hoped he would continue his studies instead. However, Gooi persevered, and started off by venturing into “Mobile Discos.” His hard work and positive attitude managed to win the respect of his parents and that turned things around. He recalls:
They were however supportive when they saw I was serious and putting in effort to make the business work, rather than just using it as an excuse to go to parties.
Today, Gooi is the Director of The Production People (TPP), a company providing technical support for live events. TPP provides audio, lighting, video and structures, which involves a lot of detailed and technical work. Gooi has a small team, but also works with many freelancers to deliver the shows his clients entrust him with. He adds, “I guess what’s really exciting is that there are many different kinds of shows, as well as clients, so no two days are ever alike. Live events also provide an adrenaline rush like no other.” One day, the Programme Head of Republic Polytechnic’s Specialist Diploma in Immersive Experience for Business, Jackie Tay, approached Gooi, thinking that his staff could benefit from the programme by learning news skills they could use in their business. The specialist diploma aims to harness emerging technologies in Augmented and Virtual Realities, and show businesses how they can use them to enhance their own products and services. The pandemic limits physical interactions at commercial venues and keeps people at home. This led to a growing demand for immersive experiences through digital technology.
The next step is to make the experience as immersive and as true to life as possible, and technological know-how is the way to get it done. But Gooi found himself intrigued. “When I looked through (the course), I realised that there was a lot I didn’t know, for a very current topic, so I decided to enrol myself,” he said. Gooi started a one-year course in June 2021. He elaborated that what intrigued him was how much he did not know about this new and emerging industry, with things like Augmented and Virtual Reality seeming as “alien” technologies to him. However, he did recognise that events in a virtual world are becoming more accepted by the public.
I had always been doing live events, and with Covid, we moved into virtual events quite quickly. Getting a deeper understanding into immersive experiences and the prospect of being able to bring better outcomes to my clients is what motivated me to sign up.
Once he signed up, Gooi quickly got to grips with the curriculum, which included both theory and practical classes. “The first half saw us in more technical classes, like 3D Art Asset Creation, where I was surprised I could build a 3D model of a living room with animation. The modules on Lighting & Projection and Soundcape are somewhat related to my work, but with the focus on immersive experiences, and the perspective from the audience, it changed my way of thinking.” Soundscapes are the recording and cueing of sounds that contribute to an immersive experience, which goes very well with 3D Asset Creation. Gooi was particularly proud of his 3D model, saying he “quite amazed” himself.
A 3D model depicting a home entertainment set-up
Even being able to explain how a lighting and projection design contributes to the impact on the audience is something I never focused on in the past. In the Immersive Reality module we were exposed to AR, VR, 360 Virtual Tours, and Unreal Engine. Unreal Engine is used widely in my field of work, so getting introduced to it has been very useful, but getting proficient in it still requires a lot more work. I was able to make a 360 Virtual Tour of our own livestream studio.
The events industry has been hard-hit by the pandemic, given the lockdowns, crowd restrictions and safety management measures put in place. Gooi shared that his company was very badly affected, with revenue in 2020 just 20 per cent of pre-Covid levels. Fortunately, he had some support. The Temporary Bridging Loan implemented by the government was helpful in obtaining low-interest loans that kept the company afloat. But the main thing was to adapt to the changing circumstances, and take advantage of new opportunities.
We pivoted into online events in mid 2020, and also took the opportunity of the downtime to migrate our inventory and show management systems. Being in a unique industry, we could not use off-the-shelf business software, but instead found industry-specific solutions that are now working very well for us.
Gooi said that while things have improved, there’s still some way to go before reaching a full recovery. The Covid restrictions still in place mean that many events are still unable to proceed. However, Gooi appreciates the new skills and knowledge he picked up from his Republic Polytechnic’s Academy of Continuing Education (RP ACE) course. “I was able to see my work day to day in a broader scope. Understanding the audience experience I believe will be very useful as I work on growing and expanding my business,” he said. Gooi also hopes others will find an opportunity to help their own ventures, no matter their age.
Just do it! Lifelong learning has always been a buzzword, and older people either don’t think they can learn anything new, or don’t think they are able to go back to a learning environment. Adult learning is very different from school, and the programme is well tailored to add value to working adults. No regrets!
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Meet Denise Quek, a business analyst for Shopee. Denise created her first private Runescape server when she was 12. Her passion in gaming and technology led her to join RP's Specialist Diploma in Applied Artificial Intelligence.
An “obsession” with massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) kick-started Denise Quek’s career in artificial intelligence. The 24-year-old, who currently works as a business analyst for Shopee, spent many days playing Runescape and Maplestory on private servers. But instead of focusing on the game itself, she started to take an interest in the technology behind the private servers, adding features to base source codes, and performing port forwarding to allow others access. At the tender age of 12, Quek successfully created her own private server on Runescape. Although she was unable to maintain it indefinitely, the experience ignited a life-long passion for technology and the things that one can create with computers. She said: “I really enjoyed the experience of building something from scratch.”
While most Singaporeans are bilingual, Quek is also fluent in SQL, Python, CSS, Javascript, and other programming languages. In a typical day, she builds internal tools and dashboards, performs analysis of new campaigns to help out her colleagues in the Marketing and Business Development, and automates tasks to improve efficiency. But these skills were a departure from what she learned in school. Quek took the “traditional path”, attending Jurong Junior College and then earning a degree in Business Management, with a double major in Marketing and Information Systems at Singapore Management University (SMU). She graduated cum laude, specialising in data management and information security. But she felt as though her career could be given a boost by learning new skills in a field she was interested in. So she signed up for a Specialist Diploma in Applied Artificial Intelligence at Republic Polytechnic -- but she didn’t tell her parents.
Quek was most worried about how her parents would react to the idea of her taking a diploma. “I didn’t think I would get their support because diploma is traditionally seen as a post-secondary education (pathway), and I was afraid of being dissuaded from taking the course.” When she told them a month before the course started that she was going back to school, her parents were far from thrilled. “Their first reaction was, “You have a degree and are going back to poly to get a diploma? Why not a Masters?” They are rather traditional, and did not consider a specialist diploma as a post-graduate qualification.” However, Quek managed to convince them that taking courses would help her in learning new skills that would be useful for her career. Luckily her parents began to have a better idea of what she was learning in school, such as how to create chatbots, and started being more supportive.
Photo from Denise Quek
E-commerce is also an industry that heavily uses algorithms to improve customer experience, such as item recommendation, bundling, image search, and propensity modelling, and I believe there are many opportunities to apply the skills (she learned for work).
Going to Republic Poly was quite the experience for Quek. Quek had to take night classes three times a week, from 6:30pm to 9:30pm. It was “quite hectic”, as she had to take eight courses as part of the programme. Quek even had to give up overseas trips just to study for tests. However, she said it was “thrilling” to get the chance to learn and upgrade herself. Quek describes the courses as more focused on application, with multiple lab sessions at a time. Among the things she learned was setting up a virtual assistant to recommend food items to customers. Her classmates were a mixed bunch, but mostly working professionals -- engineers, marketing executives, and self-employed entrepreneurs. Quek enjoyed studying with the group, whom she described as “supportive”. With the course under her belt, Quek uses the skills she learned to solve real-world problems in her job at Shopee.
Quek feels that if a company uses AI in their daily operations, everyone in the organisation, i.e. both strategic and operational level staff, are encouraged to upskill themselves in these new technologies, which would allow them to better understand the necessary tasks involved with integrating AI. With advancements in tech, Quek believes that anyone working with big data or data analytics will need familiarity with AI. Not necessarily knowing how to write algorithms by themselves, but what they can do with them, and potential pitfalls. Quek gave the example of chatbots or automated customer service machines, which more Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are using these days. Such bots help with reducing manpower costs and response times to customers, but there are considerations, such as deciding how to handle exceptions in extraordinary circumstances.
Although notable tech experts such as Elon Musk have sounded warnings on the dangers of AI, Quek believes that it is up to humanity to monitor the risks and mitigate them before deployment. “We should not fear the advancements of AI but rather, we should take steps in monitoring and evaluating the uses of AI, especially in industries such as automotive and healthcare.” With the current trends, programming languages and coding skills may be as essential in the future as reading and writing are today.
Upskill and advance your career. Register for RP ACE’s courses today! Find Out More