This was the first session I ever attended in IESE. My expectations were high. The speaker was His Excellency Lee Kuan Yew, the Minister Mentor of Singapore. He was the ex-Prime Minister of Singapore and someone who kicked off the development revolution of Singapore to eventually transform her from a developing country to a prosperous one that we know today. So there were a lot to learn from his experiences.

The summary of the things he mentioned were
1) Emphasized the importance of English to Singaporean people on how it would open endless opportunities to them.
2) Opened up the country to multi-national companies (MNC) that would bring a lot of jobs and transfer of knowledge. This was something other neighbors like Malayasia and Indonesia had not done.
3) Made sure the quality of education is the top notch one. Every Singaporean would then be prepared to take the jobs the MNCs had to offer.

Overall, he was a very confident and eloquent speaker. His experiences were more interesting to listen when he answered the questions from the audience. Previously, he was just reading off from something he had prepared earlier. The prepared speech was informative as well, but not as interesting to listen to as the question and answer session.

There were English to Spanish and vice-versa translators on the scene behind the auditorium. I could see them when I turned back from my seat. At one point, the voice of the translators was louder than the actual speaker, which I found to be a little weird. However it was fixed quickly. Bravo to the technical team of the auditorium. The auditorium is quite sophisticated. I am impressed.

So yes the speaker session was up to my expectations. Bravo to the ‘Continuous Education Program” who organized it. It also gave me an opportunity to see our Dean Prof . Jordi Canals in person. I had seen his photo in our brochure but hadn’t seen him in person. He was the moderator of the event.