Kota Kinabalu: Sabah has a rare quality that sets it apart from event destinations worldwide, the ability to transform visitors into better human beings, said international event design expert, Ruud Janssen.
“People coming to Sabah for their conferences are elevated to a level where they become better humans. This is an extraordinary skill,” said the Switzerland-based Event Design Collective Global Co-Founder cum Managing Director, who has organised events across the globe for over a decade.
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“I travel across the world, I go to many events, I design many events with many different organisations. But I have never seen this before. This is precious. You must cherish this,” he said at the 3rd International Business Events Forum here, Thursday.
The forum was jointly organised by the Malaysian Association of Convention and Exhibition Organisers and Suppliers and the Sabah International Convention Centre, with Daily Express as media partner.
Janssen grew to respect Sabah through his experience working with Sabahans during an Event Design Certificate training programme last year.
He spent 10 days in Sabah discovering what he calls the Sabahan spirit.
“It took me 10 days to discover it. But when I finally found it, my partner Marie-France and I were thrilled by this concept,” he said, describing what he termed augmented humanity.
“In a world filled with AI, we need a lot of AH,” Janssen said, playing on the acronym to emphasise that in an age increasingly dominated by artificial intelligence, Sabah’s human touch offers something technology cannot replicate.
He also extended his thanks to two Sabahans who contributed to making the event last year special.
He publicly thanked Chanet Ham, whose persistence first brought him to Sabah.
“Chanet had the audacity to fly halfway across the planet in 2018 to IMEX Frankfurt without registering, or so I thought,” he recounted.
“She was nearly on time and she was knocking on the door, saying, ‘Please let me in.’ And I said, we are about to start. The room is full. And what did Chanet say to us?
She said, ‘Well, I sent you four emails, and the reason why I flew over to Frankfurt was to be in this session. So, can you please let me in?”
“And how can you say no to the smile and to the persistence and the drive to want to learn something new? She gave meaning to ‘never take no for an answer’,” he said.
He also acknowledged a student volunteer named Noel Julian, who helped him when his glasses broke during the event.
“I was crawling into the back of a car on my way over early and because I am not the tallest European in that car, I decided to crawl to the back. And my glasses all of a sudden shifted, resulting in one of its temples breaking,” he said.
“Now, normally in most countries, I would have to spend two and a half hours finding a tissue and trying to get my glasses fixed so I could see again. In this country, that is not necessary,” he said, pointing out how Sabah’s hospitality to augmented humanity is proven again and again.
“This is the influence we can have on each other and on each other’s lives if we pay attention to the small things that can happen around us,” he added.
