Taylor’s InnoFest 2019, an event that Taylorians have been looking forward to since its announcement, officially commenced on the 25th of November. This event is, as the programme leader of the event phrases it, a fantastic opportunity to encourage collaboration among the different schools and allow students to flaunt their mind-blowing inventions to their peers. InnoFest did not come to fruition all on its own – behind the scenes, a group of organizers worked tirelessly to ensure the success, and they have some thoughts on this impressive event.

From left: Christine Ng, Gabrielle, Cheng Yee, Xue Wen, Emily Choong, and Stephanie.

“InnoFest is a showcase of innovations and ideas”.

The words of the project leader, Christine Ng, precisely sum up this exciting event. This year’s InnoFest focuses on a highly pertinent theme: sustainability. The organizers aim to convey the importance of sustainability by incorporating it into all projects at the exhibition.

The event was made possible due to the immense contribution from students of 8 different schools, who, despite their varying educational pursuits, all collaborated impressively due to their common, combined goal: to make this event an absolute success.

The project leader believes that “Innovation – this spirit of creativity – in and of itself has no limits or boundaries”. This same notion was withheld by all team members as they worked tirelessly to create InnoFest 2019; an exhibition to celebrate curiosity and creativity.

When asked to describe InnoFest, the Finance Leader Chee Cheng Yee replied concisely: ‘Idea, execution & passion’.

These three words perfectly capture the very essence of this event. InnoFest sets out to explore the students’ inventive side, demanding enthusiasm and participation in order to successfully produce a show-stopping display. This event required nothing less than 100% of the organizers and exhibitor’s effort and teamwork to make it work, and it is through the mantra of these three simple words that InnoFest has boomed into such a success.

Emily Choong, the marketing leader, proudly admits that this year’s InnoFest has changed from previous years’- and for the better. Her team attributes the immense improvements to their time management skills and proactivity. They also gave special commendation to the efforts of their lecturer, Ms. Joann, who had acted as a guide to assist the committee navigate through project planning.

The organizers expressed their intention to make the InnoFests in years to come bigger and better, with bigger displays and different themes to encourage creativity. They hope that this event continues to challenge and inspire students with futuristic inventions and innovative ideas is a general consensus shared amongst her members.

Stephanie, the program leader for the most hyped event of the year, didn’t only tell us how she defines InnoFest from her point of view, she also enlightened us about the ‘behind the scenes’ strategies that adorned the whole event in its most presentable form.

“InnoFest is about bringing students from different schools together to showcase their talent in developing a product/project. In other words, it is a great platform for students to participate and witness Taylorians’ creativity and hard work” – averred Stephanie.

Additionally, she mentioned that it’s a great opportunity for students of every program across the campus to have an insight into what people from other courses do.

Nevertheless, hosting this one of a kind event required one of a kind effort, planning, and execution. Since most of the organizers hail from not only different courses but different faculties as well, it necessitated them to take their communication over a WhatsApp group to schedule meetings every week and stay back after each lecture in order to brainstorm their ideas. According to Stephanie, the process of meeting new people and working alongside them had been a fun process. However, there had been challenges and obstacles that needed to be subjugated. One of which was being unable to control the uncertainties that might arise amidst planning or during the event. As a result, teamwork was crucial and having a great team was just as important. To Stephanie’s relief, her team was dedicated and committed to their jobs and was adept in their fields. Furthermore, the team had an individual exhibition team who were trusted with the responsibilities of every tiny detail so as to ensure that nothing goes wrong.


Through this roller coaster journey of managing this highly anticipated event, the programme leader certainly realized one thing – being an event planner is not as easy as it looks. One must go through a lot of hardships, rejections, and only then it is possible to reach common grounds with everyone involved in the project.

The event itself screams “perfection” in everything that was done and involved. Every little detail was taken care of. It’s no joke to pull off such a unique event so brilliantly. Hands down to the whole organizers’ team!


*Photography by Theodore Lee