No, read on, this isn’t as boring and dry as it sounds, trust me! 
I was at the very informative InvestSmart event at Taylor’s University Lakeside Campus the other day. InvestSmart is an initiative by the official Securities Commission Malaysia (Suruhanjaya Sekuriti) which has a goal of making you an informed and confident investor.
The way they approach this is with a good dose of fun and education embedded in the aforementioned fun bits. The InvestSmart initiative aims to:
- Encourage you to take control of your finances with apps and software use such as generate an invoice as a financial tool.
- Enable you to exercise judgement and discretion in making investment decisions
- Raise awareness on the role of the SC and their agendas
…and to that end, they appointed a lot of interesting speakers to talk about investment and how to manage your finances. There was a speech by the Guest of Honour, YB Khairy Jamaluddin who came to the stage wearing a very dapper outfit, with matching pink shoelaces and socks. I don’t think I can rock pink as well as he can!
He was also there to launch the InvestSmart app which you can find on Google Play Store or the Apple App Store.
There was also a panel discussion themed “Take Control of your Life and Finances: Anything and Everything is Possible” where the attendees can talk and get feedback from the speakers, who come from a diverse field with one thing in common – they’re all successful young Malaysian entrepreneurs.
The four (4) speakers are:
- Hidayah Hassan, Creative Director and Founder of Cipela
- Hugh Koh, Co-founder and Creative Director of Pestle and Mortar
- Shanker Joyrama, Founder & CEO of Orion Social Media
- Adrian Yap, Co-founder and Chief Executive of Freeform, Founder of Urbanscapes Arts Festival
I thought that would make for an interesting morning so I went bright and early at 7 am to catch the panel speakers in action. Not only was the auditorium (it was a lecture hall in Taylor’s University) packed, there was a lot of interaction between the crowd and the speakers too.
Also, the speakers came with gifts in the form of discount codes for their stores, where relevant! 🙂
There was also an interactive games and exhibition area where you can win:
- ASUS Transformer Book T100
- GoPro Hero 3
- Crumpler Sling Bag
- RM 1,000 PRS vouchers
You just need to get four (4) stamps from the 4 interactive games booths and drop your completed slip into the box for a lucky draw win. I decided to give it a go and did all the booths.
Interactive Games Booth #1 – Soccer
Each game booth comes with a question booth so you need to get both correct in order to get the two stamps e.g. complete the task and answer all the questions about investing correctly. The first booth aims to educate you about goals (pun intended) and has a soccer setup on one end and the Q&A on the other.
You need to complete both to get the two stamps required to participate in the contest.
Interactive Games Booth #2 – Ping Pong
This is a booth where you match the ping pong balls (which has answers to them) to the correct box. There are about 10 ping pong balls so you really need to know your stuff to get them all right, and yes, you need to sort every single one of the small bouncy balls to get a stamp.
I did everything right the first time, but then again I’m slightly older and have a couple of investments under my belt so I know all the answers already. Plus, I read the entire handbook while waiting for the program to start since I arrived 45 minutes early. 😉
Interactive Games Booth #3 – Basketball
I thought this was the most interesting booth, maybe coz I didn’t think my hand eye coordination was that great. I managed to score every single ball that I threw, despite the balls being of different sizes.
There are answers written on the basketballs and questions on the hoops. You need to search for the correct answer on the basketball and throw it into the hoops in sequence.
The game itself is about InvestSmart which I thought was great! This makes learning about investing and finances entertaining instead of just being a games booth.
Interactive Games Booth #4 – Red Light Scam Alert
This is also an interesting interactive games booth where you are asked questions about potential scams. Answer it right, and you get a green light. Get it wrong, and the red light comes on and you have to start all over again!
The red light comes with a satisfying buzz too! I heard it go off several times, which was what attracted me to the booth in the first place.
I didn’t win the prizes but everyone who completes the four (4) tasks will get a complimentary USB drive, which was great since I collect these things.
I thought the InvestSmart event was a fun and educational way to get people to be aware of their finances and learn more about investment opportunities at a young age so Taylor’s University is the perfect place to hold it. I didn’t know you could start investing in stocks at 18 years of age until that day!
Learn more about investing and finance management at InvestSmart. It has a lot of tools and tips for everyone, and you can always check for suspected scams here.
