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| Law
officers go all out to peddle their ideas |
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| A
team of officers trying to win
over Senior Minister of State
for Law, Associate Professor
Ho Peng Kee. |
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The
Ministry of Law (MinLaw) held its first-ever
marketplace
experience
at the new Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) at
Empress Place on 4 July 2003. The Conquer! Marketplace
experience was the culmination of MinLaw’s
three-part Innovation Festival 2003 with the theme “Dream!
Build! Conquer!” This latest event saw officers
peddling their ideas in a bid to gather chips and
support from key decision-makers, colleagues and
guests.
Have
you ever seen law officers “hawking” their
wares? Well, 75 officers of all ranks from various
departments, statutory boards and the headquarters
did just that at MinLaw’s second Innovation
Festival (IF) — all in the spirit of innovation!
And the takeaway? A bagful of chips and loads of new insights and ideas generated
by colleagues and guests!
Gearing up for the conquest
The
75 officers who participated in the Conquer! Marketplace
experience were so inspired by the Dream! Road
Shows held earlier that they formed 10 teams
and signed up voluntarily.
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| The
room filled with balloons symbolised
a marketplace of ideas. |
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The teams came up with their own big dreams and ideas and were suitably armed
during the Build! Workshops and consultation sessions with innovation tools
and practical tips on how to refine their ideas, and grow and market their
innovations.
During the Conquer! Marketplace event, teams came prepared to conquer the market
and make a difference. Some arrived looking smart in sunflower berets, others
came decked in black complete with trench coats to mirror the “Mission
Impossible” theme. Yet others came with loudhailers, banners, models,
prototypes and marketing gimmicks to wow the visitors into parting with their
bag of chips.
An ‘uplifting’ innovation experience
The Conquer! Marketplace opened with Minister for Law, Prof S. Jayakumar, and
Permanent Secretary for Law, Mr Liew Heng San, releasing balloons into ACM’s
River Room.
The room filled with balloons symbolised a marketplace of ideas. Just as there
are buyers and sellers in a market setting, there were those with ideas and
those looking for ideas at MinLaw’s special marketplace.
Everyone present played a part in the exchange of ideas by generating new ideas
and insights, jotting them down and clipping them onto the balloon ribbons.
Even more ideas were sparked off as officers bumped into the “floating
ideas”, read them and added their own insights!
The teams’ first opportunity to bag chips arose when Prof Jayakumar led
the delegation of senior management, guests and colleagues on a tour around
the marketplace. All 10 teams eagerly tried to win over the Minister and the
rest of the delegation with their models, publicity stickers, freebies and
even knick-knacks like party poopers and lollipops!
During the one-day marketplace
experience, each team also had five minutes of airtime to go on stage to pitch
their ideas. Hidden talents were revealed
as the teams rapped, danced, screened award-winning movies, put up skits, sweet-talked
and worked the crowd to entice them into making a visit and parting with their
chips.
Chock-a-block with ideas
The 10 ideas in the marketplace were varied and ranged from beautiful dreams
of a roadless Singapore and hassle-free parking to practical ways to tap on
Singapore’s intellectual capital and improve service quality in MinLaw.
In addition to the teams’ ideas, over 170 new insights and ideas were
generated by the visitors and guests.
At the end of the day, all 10 teams stood up to the test and emerged as worthy
victors and conquerors in their own right. Through the rigorous
three-part
process, the 75 officers gained practical means to grow their
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| To
mark the opening of the Conquer!
Marketplace, Prof Jayakumar and Mr
Liew released balloons into ACM’s
River Room. |
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ideas
and propose them to key decision-makers.
The process also injected officers with confidence to pursue their dreams and
ideas.
All 10 ideas will be surfaced to senior management again. Upon their endorsement,
the teams will proceed to further develop and implement their ideas. |
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By
MinLaw
Next: Innovation Market Day
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IF 2003
Conceptualised by a young team from
various divisions in MinLaw, Innovation
Festival (IF) 2003 aimed to help
officers go beyond the initial stage
of generating ideas (which IF 2002
achieved) to growing and nurturing
them into innovations that create
value for the organisation. At the
same time, elements of fun and competition
were introduced to stimulate creativity.
The organisers of IF 2003 drew inspiration
from the World Bank’s Development
Marketplace (DM) model of seeding innovation. Explained President of the World
Bank James D. Wolfensohn: “The Development Marketplace is a real opportunity
to come together, with no bureaucracy, with no preconditions, and no preconceptions
about each other, just about ideas and trying to see how we can help people.
It is, in fact, the very best of development: people-based, partnership-based,
with development impact.” |
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Daring
ideas are like chessmen moved forward;
they may be beaten, but they may
start a winning game.
Johann Wolfgang
von Goethe |
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