Okay, we cheated with the pic above from Mardi Gras. But so what? It gives us something to shoot for at future Homecoming events. But let’s now keep all of you (who missed out last Sat) in the loop on the fun side of Homecoming events.

Did I mention we have a rooftop BBQ-party on the top of Suntec City Towers this time? And what a blast it was with the great food and great company!

NOC Homecoming is really more about the people than the program. To be specific, its about the conversation between the people – the entree of Homecoming. The program, talks, panel discussions blah blah are really like an aperitif to this entree. Sometimes, “karaoke-singing” like below can also be an “apertitif”.

Haha… (I jest, its actually Jinyao from NOC Stockholm 1st batch sharing his experiences there)

Its a great chance for cross-college and cross-batch interaction, more so for the fresh returnees from our existing 4 colleges of Silicon & Bio Valleys, Shanghai and the new kid on the block of Stockholm. Too often, even for myself, we get caught up in our microcosm of our own NOC college community and fail to understand that we are only a small piece of the jigsaw that makes up NOC.

For the career professionals and entrepreneurs in our midst, Homecoming has been a relatively new concept in recent years. But, no matter what field we are in, I always apply this rule to meeting new people or networking, for that matter. Network horizontally but focus vertically. Innovation resides at the gray fringes of cross-disciplinary & cross-industry interaction. And we at NOC, are inhabitants of a highly diverse but well-connected community plugged into the soul of some of the global business hubs.

It could be the startup maverick who dropped out of his Master’s Program or the young buccaneers of NOC Shanghai roughing it out in the hustle of Shanghai. The energy and passion oozes out of their pores and come on, dun we all occasionally need to be infected by this kind of raw enthusiasm?

Note:

flickr-logo.JPGAll pics from the event are tagged “nochomecoming2006″ on flickr.com. If you have pics too, upload and tag them the same way so we can all share.
View the rest of the photostream here.

Admin Note: The writer, Bjorn Lee, is from NCSV 6. Click here for his personal blog.