National Cashflow Competition 2018 | 24 March 2018 | Great Eastern Centre for Excellence
24th March 2018 was no typical Saturday in the CBD. Unlike typical slow-paced Saturdays in Raffles Place, the Great Eastern Centre for Excellence was abuzz with activity from as early as 8.15a.m.. Members of the NCF organising committee have already assembled at the event venue, all hyped-up and ready to witness the crystallisation of the past 10 months of planning.
The first wave of participants from the Open Category arrived at around 9.30a.m.. Our participants for the Open Category are mainly University students, with working adults making up the participant pool as well. Excitement gradually built up as more and more participants arrived and before long, the entire holding area was filled with participants eagerly anticipating the start of the competition. The doors finally opened at 10a.m., and participants made a beeline for their allocated seats in the competition hall.
Once the participants have settled down, our game master conducted a quick and succinct final briefing for the participants. Shortly after, the 1st preliminary round officially commenced! Unlike previous installments of NCF which utilised board games with paper money and manual scoresheets, the “L Cube” board-game used this year digitalised the gameplay entirely, literally, entirely. Everything was done on an iPad shared among the 5 players at each table. Think virtual dice. Dashboard showing a quick snapshot of each player’s assets and liabilities. Virtual transactions and settlement of payment among players. Virtual updating of scores. No longer do facilitators need to run around collecting dice accidentally strewn out of tables by (overly) enthusiastic participants. No longer do players have to wait for other players to finish their manual calculations of the amounts to pay for each transaction before the game could move on. Technology is truly a blessing! Apart from the added convenience, the innovative gameplay also meant that participants could focus their attention on applying the financial knowledge that they have picked up to strategise their next moves. This transformed learning experience is definitely a milestone achievement for NCF, as we turn a decade old this year.
After 1h 15 min of intense competition, the winner from each table was revealed! The winning criteria for the L Cube board-game is a factor of asset valuation as well as happiness level. Many participants found this interesting, because it actually simulates real-life quite well – having a huge load of assets without happiness didn’t seem too enticing. Winners from each table then advanced to the finals, which was to take place in the evening.
In the meantime, participants from our pre-university & post-secondary (PUPS) category have already arrived. The momentum of the event just kept building up! At 12.30p.m., doors opened once again, this time for our PUPS participants, and the game commenced shortly after. After 1h 15 min of gameplay, the winners were revealed.
Our final preliminary round was the Secondary School category. Crowds after crowds of students clad in school uniforms arrived at the venue with their teachers. The atmosphere was instantly livened up with the endless chattering among the students. We could tell that they were all really excited for the game!
Preliminary round 3 for the Secondary School category commenced at 3p.m.. As a facilitator of the game, it was heartening to see students engaging with one another in issues that wouldn’t commonly occur to students their age; Issues such as the courses to study in polytechnics / universities, getting WSQ certificates to operate cafes, making top-ups to CPF accounts, purchasing different types of stocks under different economic conditions etc. Gaining access to financial knowledge from a young age definitely has its value, since the awareness would build up and allow for better personal financing decisions to be made in the future. We truly appreciate the school teachers for signing their students up for NCF, and for giving us the opportunity to extend financial knowledge to them in a fun way!
We welcomed our Guest of Honour, Mr Sarjit Singh, who is also our club advisor, to grace the finals of the NCF. We also welcomed our distinguished guests to join us in witnessing the finals of the 2018 NCF as it unfolded.
The final round commenced at 5.30p.m.. You can imagine how intense the competition was, as the final round was a match among the ones who emerged victorious from the grueling preliminaries earlier on! Our finalists competed against players from their respective categories, similarly in a 1h 15 min gameplay. This time round, the results were only to be released at the end of the event.
A special session was arranged for all to pay tribute to Mr. David Ng, our senior from NTU-IIC’s 16th Executive Committee, who passed away in a tragic accident last year. David served as the Executive Vice-President of the club and played an instrumental role in transforming NCF to the success it is today. His endless drive, humility and persistence in achieving together as a team was fondly remembered by Mr. Sarjit Singh, who shared a close relationship with David both during and after his term in IIC. Mr. Sarjit also sought to drive home the message on the importance of valuing relationships. David’s family and friends were also present at the tribute session. His sister delivered a compelling speech as we gathered together to commemorate the life of David, an extraordinary individual, an exceptional role model.
The next segment was a lucky draw, where 3 lucky individuals walked away with shopping vouchers. The prize presentation then followed. Our finalists waited with bated breath as our Emcees announced the results of the top 3 winners from each category. This year, we introduced a new award for the Secondary School category, which recognizes the achievement of schools based on the average scores of finalists from each school. The 3 schools with the highest scores received the award.
The event concluded with a closing speech by Che Jui, chairperson of NCF 2018. He highlighted the journey of NCF throughout the 10 years and expressed his gratitude to all parties for contributing towards the success of the event.
All in all, NCF 2018 was a major success, and it would not have been possible without the help of various parties, including our club advisors who have given us tremendous support throughout the entire planning period, our sponsors for providing us with our event venue and our goodie bag items, our organising committee members who have worked tirelessly from conceptualising the event to driving down to the details to ensure that all loose ends were tied up, and last but not least, our enthusiastic participants, who have shown us what being intellectually-curious meant, and for giving us this opportunity to work towards fulfilling our club’s mission. There is so much that our committee is thankful for, and there is so much for us to take away from this journey. We do hope that the experience has been equally fulfilling for our participants. We hope to see everyone again at NCF 2019, and we promise that there will be something new to look forward to!
Till next time!
