It is interesting what kind of people you will get to meet when you go to a conference that gather youths together,  especially when it is international.

Quite recently, Youth Engagement Summit 2009 or YES2009, was held in Putrajaya International Convention Centre on Nov 16 and 17.

This conference gathered youths from Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia. They were incredible line up of speakers arranged for us in this summit.

From  co-founder of Twitter Biz Stone to crash survivor on Andes, Nando Parrado to Donald Trump talking to us live from Trump’s Tower at the U.S and Malaysia’s very own self-made millionaire, Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes.

Many other prominent speakers like Sir Bob Geldof, Dr. Mamphela Ramphele, Gary Kasparov, David Magliano were also there.

Of course, the speech was really great and inspirational. They were different from the rest and that’s what makes them so special. It was a great experience.

But for me, YES2009 impacted me in a different way. From YES2009, I get to know many friends from all over Southeast Asia and I was really surprised what they have achieved at such tender age.

Sure, I’m like almost the same age with most of them and being actively involved in university as student council but it is not much compared to these people.

I met Ralph Irish S. Aguda from Philippines. He is 22, just like me but he is already so far ahead of us. At this age, I’m sure most of us in Malaysia are still studying in college or university.

Ralph is a government officer in Philippines working for the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).He is working on the improvement for youth in his country. I

n Philippines, there is a big digital divide in the society where most youth do not have access and knowledge of digital technology. He hopes to make a change by empowering the youth in his country so that it would make the Philippines more competitive as information technology has been so important to all of us now.

How many youth in Malaysia are actually trying to make a different in such a major scale? Heck, how many adults are actually making a significant difference for youth out there?

That’s one example of interesting and great youth that I met during YES2009. At the end of the first day as we are heading back to our hotel, I was sitting alone in the bus with an empty seat beside.

Then came a group of Indonesian and one gorgeous lady suddenly asked if anyone was sitting beside me. I was taken aback for a second and then I told her that the seat is empty.

So she sat down along with the other Indonesian delegates and we start to introduce ourselves to each other. Turn out that she is Miss Indonesia 2009, Nadia Zahara!

Who would have imagined of meeting a beauty pageant at such an event? I mean come on, such beauty are only to be seen on corporate events or anything else that has bunch of guys but definitely not a place with bunch of kids, oh, I mean youth.

She was pleasantly friendly and was very nice to talk to. Did I mention most of the Indonesian are winners of their respective provinces?

There is still more and it is going to take more a few pages to tell who I have met. From Vietnam, we have a young boy, Nguyen Duc Long at the age of 17 who is working on a project that helps to teach children the arts of making traditional games in Vietnam to preserve the tradition of the nation.

We have another Indonesia, Julian Sukmana Putra, who is working as SAP Consultant at IBM Indonesia. He is just 22 years old but he is working his dream job at IBM.  Of course, from Malaysia, we have AIESEC members who have been actively involved with youth empowering activities.

I got to meet Cafrey Ma, the National President of AIESEC Malaysia and Brandon Lim, Vice President of Communication of AIESEC Malaysia. As soon as YES2009 is over, there will be working on National Entrepreneurship event that will be held coming December.

There are many wonderful youths out there who are working to make a change in this world and they all seems so far ahead of me that it makes me feel like I’m not working enough for my community and my country.

Again, you can never guess what kind of people you can meet by joining youth events. I learn that you can be inspired not only by prominent figures like Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes, you can even get motivated by peers of same age, those who are making a change that could impact the world.

With that said, I really hope that will inspire more youth to be actively involve with youth activities so that they get to meet people and learn from such activities. As quoted from the movie Forrest Gump, “Life Is like a Box of Chocolates… You Never Know What You’re Gonna Get!”.

Really, you will never know who you will meet in life. So, I urge you people, go out and meet some people! Get your lazy bum from sitting in front of the computer or being a couch potato.

Go and meet people. You will never know that the next time someone ask if the seat beside is empty and sit down, it could turn out to be Miss World herself. Think about it!

- By Khong Chi Chung