A decade of excellence

Reaching ten years is a significant milestone for many, and such milestones call for a celebration. This year, the Singapore Management University (SMU)’s Master of Professional Accounting (MPA) programme turns ten and on Friday, August 26, 2016, the programme revelled in its glory with a night of fun and games — a nice break from the usual humdrum of calculating taxes.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves and backtrack, just a little, to earlier in the year when we were first approached to organise MPA’s 10th anniversary gala dinner. We saw their 10th anniversary as an opportunity to not just host a gala dinner, but to also use the event as a means of connecting all of MPA’s scattered alumni. As such, we set about on the task at hand, thinking through various ways and activities that could help connect the alumni. The first order was, of course, to use social media. We set up a Facebook page, inviting current students and alumni to like it and share it with other friends and alumni.

Next, we rolled out a weekly tagging competition, titled MPA Balance the sheet, where the students and alumni could answer a series of short questions and tag their friends to join in the fun. This was all great fun and the page soon garnered over a hundred likes.

Of course, our actual task was to organise the gala dinner, and organise we did! With the theme of glitz and glamour, we created an atmosphere of decadence, fitting of MPA and its accomplishments. We’ll let the following pictures do the talking.

Dressed to the nines, the guests were able to walk down the red carpet and flaunt their wonderful outfits for the night. At the registration area, an innovative guestbook was set up where well wishes could be written and stuck on.

With a huge thanks to the various sponsors, the following items were displayed prominently near the registration table. Sticking to the team of glitz and glamour, the silent auction bidding jars were dipped in magical unicorn dust turning them golden and glimmery. Right next to the silent auction table was the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) table, where a slideshow of all MPA’s past CSR activities was shown. A laptop was also provided for guests to donate on the spot.

With a variety of fun props, the guests had a ball of a time posing in front of the camera. Prints were also available nearly instantaneously!

With help from the hotel for the innovative handkerchief fold, we slipped in our programme highlights (with a cute bow stuck on!) inside to make it look like a suit. For the VIP tables, we also printed name tents attached to recycled corks. Yes, decadence doesn’t have to come at the expense of the environment!

For the many professors, students, alumni and partners of the MPA programme, the night was a great chance to connect, reconnect, and let their hairs down to truly celebrate all they had achieved. The three hours passed almost too quickly, and it was clear nobody wanted to leave at the end when the MPA students stayed on to belt out to their favourite songs on the stage.