Getting Interactive

Nine weeks of hard work but it was all worth it.

The 3^rd Annual Commfest (Communication Festival), organised by the public relations students of Taylor’s University’s School of Communications,  was a successful event.



One of the organiser’s Nur Afiqah Suhaimi said: “After more than 9 weeks of hard work, we ended up seeing good results. All the activities were well accepted by the students and received a lot of attention.”

Themed Social- Lympics (Social Media Olympics), the event was a combination of both social media and sports and took place at the campus from 10am to 4pm.



Commfest saw students taking part in various social media games and activities. There were nine activity booths and these included games booths including InstaChallege where youths took part in challenging sports adapted from online games.



The reason why the fest was so themed is because youths seem to spend so much time on social networking sites without having face-to-face interaction and physical activities with each other. Through these various games, it was hoped that students would have the opportunity to participate and communicate with others.

Taylor’s University’s deputy vice chancellor Pradeep Nair, who launched Commfest, said: “Youths need to know how to balance their social networking life and get involved and partake in outdoor activities.”

The social media sports and activities were inspired by famous social media applications such as Instagram and Facebook.



Nabil Jeffri and Jason Lo writing on the Facebook wall

Facebook came alive that day when students were able to update their status on a life-sized board. There were many students who actually wrote on this huge wall. They were given the chance to post anything. Other games included Snakes & Ladders, Tetris, Instacaps, Candy Burst and Instaclock.

Instaclock featured challenges and games revolving around a huge manmade clock. Every time the clock stuck an hour, participants were in for some surprises.

Instacaps being just like Instagram allowed one to take a picture and add irrelevant captions to it. The one with the best caption was allowed to keep the picture and receive a prize. This activity also attracted many students who took pictures against a huge handmade orange frame.

In Candy Burst one would have to pay RM2 to give an estimation of when the mammoth- sized balloon was going to burst. The person who got the time right won RM777. At approximately 3.37pm it was raining candies when the balloon next to the Facebook wall exploded. It was an intensifying moment as there were many students who were seen biting their finger nails, closing their ears and just anxiously waiting to find out if their estimation would win them the prize money.  Once the candies were on the floor many people rushed to pick them up.



Photo Booth as the name suggests was where anyone could dress up and stand in front of manmade props to have a photograph taken. People were able to snap pictures of themselves and also take a group picture with their close friends. There were props given like hats, rabbit ears, glasses and others.



 

Lecturers getting ready for the InstaRace

InstaRace saw interesting challenges between lecturers and students. It was an activity that was inspired by the TV series The Amazing Race. This activity however added a social media twist to it, as it was a challenging competition in which lecturers/administrative staff and students had to complete a seven-obstacle course around the campus. It was such an exciting activity as most students cheered on their favourite lecturers.  The teachers and students were seen frantically running with the clues to find the items needed to win this challenge.

Four women from the divisional office won the race and with two groups of students taking the second and third places.

Vivien Koh Kim Suan, one of four women from the winning group said: “We never expected to win because we thought it impossible to complete the seven obstacles in 45 minutes. The toughest was one of the activities from the InstaChallenge where we had to spin 360 degrees in a space ball and not throw up.”

“Although we had to undergo all the challenges she said they had a fun and exciting experience.

The age-old game of Snakes & Ladders was played not on a board but a huge mat that represented the board. One had to roll a huge dice and step forward while answering various questions. This game got most of the students participating as it was a very interactive game where you could see students laughing and having a friendly competition.

Nadia Zahed, a broadcasting student from the semester 4, said that she really loved playing Snakes & Ladders. “I really had so much of fun and I also got to interact with my friends and even the organisers who were in charge of the game. Although I ended up losing the game, I honestly think this year’s CommFest was planned really well and I think it did achieve its purpose,” she said

The unpredictable weather did not stop people from playing these games. However the crowd started easing away after 2pm.  Commfest was also attended by various well known personalities like Tune Talk chief executive officer Jason Lo, and  former Miss Malaysia/World 2010 and Taylor’s alumnus Nadia Heng (School of Communications) and National Youth icon 2012 Nabil Jeffri (School of Business). It was these special guests who kick-started the games. Both Lo and Nabil were seen having a blast.

Various vendors such as Tune Talk, Galaxy.fm and Nestle also set up stalls. Galaxy.fm drew the crowds as the youth were given the experience to broadcast live radio shows.

Organising comitee(sem4 and 6)