Team ReadMe
Recently, we paid a few visits to the Sri Lanka Youth Centre in Maharagama (better known as the National Youth Services Council) on the 4th,5th and 6th to attend Youth Fest SL 2013.
What is Youth Fest SL you ask? It’s one of the largest youth gatherings, that aims to inspire today’s youth to achieve their dreams in life and broaden their horizons as well as offer networking opportunities not just with Sri Lankans but also foreigners as well.
So how exactly did Youth Fest SL 2013 try to achieve these aims? Well let’s take a look a back starting from Day 1, which kicked off with an Apple ad about a quote by Steve Jobs: “Think different”.
Afterwards, we had a short welcoming address by Bhanuka Bodaragama of the organizing committee and moved onto lighting the traditional oil lamp. Next we had Mr. Damitha Samarakoon, one of the co-founders of Youth Fest SL, explain in his own words, that Youth Fest is a place to find people who think the same as we do, promote our ideas and most importantly, make many friends.
After Damitha’s speech Mr. Rashitha Delapola, secretary to the chairman of Sri Lanka Youth took the stage, explaining why youth initiatives are important mentioning, “Youth are not only the future but the today of this country”. He also announced that the next World Youth Conference will be held in Sri Lanka in May 2014, which marks the 1st time it was held outside the US or the Europe.
Once Rashitha wrapped up his speech, it was taken over by, well a Bedouin (The Arabs that roam the Sahara desert) who said, “I want to see the world!” Who was this mysterious Bedouin? Why none other than the chair of the conference (no we don’t mean chairman since it’s too mainstream for Youth Fest apparently) Mr. Samantha “Sam” Karandagoda (@Sam_lk)
After Sam introduced himself (and said goodbye to the Bedouin disguise) he announced that the attendees would be divided into teams that were named after countries, based on a magic word on the back of their Youth Fest card. The teams were: Sri Lanka, India, China, France, Hawaii, Japan, Slovakia, Turkey, UK, Kenya, Spain and the UAE.
Following the division into teams, each team was asked to say “hello” (the magic word on the back of the cards) in their country’s respective language. Afterwards Sam explained the rules of the event: respect others and keep phones off.
Next we had the chief guest of the event, Mr. Lalith Piyum Perera, the chairman of the National Youth Services Council who gave a brief summary of what Rashitha mentioned and also said “It’s high time to change old methods of involving youth”.
After Lalith wrapped up his speech, Sam introduced us to Mr. Fahad Farook from WildDrift, who was in charge of the outdoor games of day 1. Fahad kicked things off by guiding everyone through a dance and then explained the games that would be played after lunch, each lasting 30 minutes for a team.
Afterwards, Damitha took the stage once more to brief us on another game: the Management game where each team had to create some promotional material aimed at tourists for some locations here in Colombo and present it on day 3.
Afterwards Sam took the stage once more to explain the “Idea board”, a place where the attendees could share their ideas with each other, which is how Needy Readers (@NeedyReaders) was born at a previous Youth Fest. Following Sam’s explanation, lunch was served
Following lunch, the event moved outside to the grounds, for the games which were conducted by WildDrift. The games of the day were:
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China Wall
A selected blindfolded team member must hit an object while guided to it by the rest of the team shouting random words.
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Giant Walk
Here each team had to use wooden logs as “feet” in a 2 lap race. As Sam said, this was a great test of teamwork.
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Magic Carpet
Each team had to go from point A to point B of the field using a limited number of magic carpets. (Okay they were actually mats)
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Trust Fall
Here each team member had to walk up onto a table and then simply fall down, trusting his/her team mates to catch them.
After the games ended, each team received a 10 minute break before a debriefing session, where videos were played about how some teams planned beforehand and their comments on the games. In between videos, the WildDrift team explained how the games aimed to strengthen teamwork and the importance of it in overcoming challenges.
Following the debriefing session, the points each team had earned was counted and the top 3 teams were: Team Slovakia in 3rd place, Teams India and Hawaii in 2nd place, and the winning team at 1st place: TEAM SRI LANKA!
After the results were announced and Sam took the stage once more, to give a very special prize to the guy and girl that appeared most in the videos: hugs, then he explained the management game in detail, before a snack break was called into order.
Following the snack break, the various teams gathered outside in the grounds once more to socialize and make some basic plans for the upcoming management game. Afterwards everyone went back into the auditorium, for a short dance session, with the most popular dance being the Tunak Tunak AIESEC style:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c60eZdWPtpc
Following the dance session, there was a paduru party where dinner was served marking the end of day 1. That’s it for now; stay tuned for Day 2 of the Youth Fest chronicles folks!
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