Opening Ceremony Welcome Speech

Mark Sin

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Ladies and Gentlemen,

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I am so pleased, to welcome all of you to the first Singapore Festival in USA.

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Joining us, I would like to welcome from San Francisco, Director at the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of International Trade and Commerce, Mark Chandler.

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Also joining us, from the Consulate General of Singapore in San Francisco, Consul-General Craig Lim, and his wife, Mrs Jacqueliine Lim, and Consul Tim Ye Ling.

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The Singapore Festival owes a big gratitude to our many sponsors, who took a big bet on SingaporeConnect, to host this unprecedented event, our largest and most complex ever. I’ll like to thank the Singapore Global Network, for believing in us, and acknowledge our many other sponsors, donors, marketplace vendors, food vendors and, even many of you, our kampong heroes, who have contributed so much. To all of you again, thank you.

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Let me tell you how the Singapore Festival started. It was a walk, right in the city of San Mateo, I had with Richard and Susan. I said something like, “Heh Richard, for Singapore’s 60th National Day, shall we do something special?” And without hesitation, I think his passion lit up and since then, I think, and I think all the other volunteers, and his wife, also think, his passion went into overdrive.

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Following, I posted a message throughout Singapore Global Network’s boards. One person responded. Tabitha. Our artistic and creative. With Richard and Tabitha as chair and co-chair, we built a core team of volunteers.

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May I now invite, my wife, Celeste, Richard, Susan, Tabitha, and all the core volunteers and their families, to please stand? I like everyone to recognise your sweat, sacrifices, and stress that have brought the Singapore Festival to life. It is a monumental achievement, and mark my words, this is history in the making. You have demonstrated that this can be done. We have made the largest ever celebration Festival of its kind in the USA, and there will be another Singapore Festival.

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For those of you aren’t from Singapore, some maybe even coming by an event about Singapore for the first time, I dearly hope you will enjoy yourselves today. I hope you will feel the energy and uniqueness of Singapore. What I would most love for you to feel, is to feel a little more connected to Singapore, whether to its people, its food, or just, the concept that a small island can be host to the world, a global connector of people, a place where ideas can be realised.

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Thank you all of you once again, for being part of a dream, made reality.

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