THERE is nothing like a short trip abroad to get the creative juices flowing, what more if it is to an exotic place like Bali.
At least, that is what Institute Advertising Communication Training’s (IACT) student-run advertising agency Creactive believed in when it organised a five-day skills enhancing and team-building trip to the island recently.
Two lecturers accompanied the 11 Creactive students on the trip.
“There are only two words to describe our experience in Bali – mind blowing and enthralling,” said project coordinator Felicia Wong Nyuk Ching.
“The Balinese culture is really rich and unique. I am so glad we organised the trip,” added the 20-year-old lass, who is pursuing a diploma in mass communication.
Her team-mate, Suah Boon Chuan, 23, agreed.
“Bali really rocks,” said the advertising/ marketing communication student. “The trip was a great learning experience for me.
“I found out so many things about Bali and the Balinese culture first-hand. It beats learning from Discovery Channel any day.
“And the best part is, I got to know my team-mates better and bonded with them,” Boon Chuan added.
Creactive was set up to give students more exposure to working life in the advertising industry, said IACT lecturer May Gan.
The agency allowed students to work with real life clients rather than just do homework. The students often took on the roles of manager, assistant manager, account executive, graphic designer, copywriter and project coordinator.
In Bali, the students’ challenge was to come up with an integrated campaign for Sony PSP and Apple iPhone.
The results of the students’ hard work, together with a video presentation and a photograph expo, were showcased at the Creactive Bali Ad-Works Exhibition, held at the IACT gallery in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, after the trip.
Aimed at giving team-members the chance to share their learning experience, the exhibition also offered IACT students an overview of the advertising scene in Bali.
Source: http://thestar.com.my/
April 15th, 2008
Irawaty Wardany, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar
Development in Bali is still centralized in the southern region of the island, while other regions remain underdeveloped, a gathering concluded Friday.
“Currently development in Bali tends to be centralized in the south while the north and east remain underdeveloped,” a tourism industry figure, Jro Gede Karang Tangkid Suarshana, told a business gathering Friday.
He urged developers in Bali to expand their development projects to underdeveloped areas.
“But developers should not touch rice fields again since fields are decreasing every year. It is estimated the rate of rice fields’ conversion has reached 1,000 hectares annually, due mostly to housing project developments,” he said.
He said developers should remember that development projects in Bali should not eliminate the character of Bali, in which people and nature live in harmony.
“That is the richness of our culture. If we do not preserve that we would not have any advantages over other provinces,” Jro Karang said.
Director for consumer banking at Bank Negara Indonesia, Darwin Suzandi, shared a similar view with Jro Karang.
He said Bali should be developed without discarding the island’s local wisdoms and while preserving its cultural and natural balance.
“We don’t want to change Bali into a metropolitan city, because Bali is well known for its nature. The nature of Bali is its main attraction,” he said.
I Ketut Sugita, head of the Bali Housing Developers Association, said many developers were still unenthusiastic about expanding their projects to the east and north, areas like Buleleng, Tabanan, Jembrana and Karangasem, because the areas had little proper infrastructure to support such development.
“All stakeholders should cooperate in developing Bali. If the government first built infrastructure and simplified procedures for getting development licenses, I believe developers would be interested in expanding their projects to those regions,” he told The Jakarta Post.
Besides, he added, developers need new land to meet their obligation to build housing for low-income people.
The government has devised a 1:3:6 scheme for housing project developments. The scheme means that for each luxury house they build, developers are required to build three middle-class houses and six houses for low-income people.
Sugita said they could not afford to meet the obligation in Denpasar and Badung because of the price of land in these areas.
“The development projects should be supported by the government,” he said.
A senior official at the Indonesian Real Estate Association (REI), I Gusti Made Aryawan, said it was difficult for developers to expand their projects to the east and north of the island because most public facilities were located in Denpasar and Badung.
“You can see that universities, tourism facilities and administration centers are centralized here (Denpasar), and similar facilities cannot be found in the east and north,” he said.
However, he added, eastern regions like Gianyar, Klungkung and Bangli are better positioned for future development because of the presences of the IB Mantra express highway that connects the regions with Denpasar.
Source: The Jakarta Post
April 15th, 2008