Six months of logistics, trophies, and name tags — and why it made me better at design and product management.
In March 2026, I joined JCI Victoria as a volunteer. I didn’t join with a grand plan. I joined because I wanted to do something useful with my time, meet people outside my usual circle, and honestly — because I think you learn things in a room full of strangers that you can’t learn at a desk.
What I didn’t expect was how much of it would feel familiar. My realization on organizing events: it’s product work. There’s a user (the guest). There’s a journey (from invitation to applause). There are edge cases (the judge who arrives early, the trophy that arrives late). And there’s a team making a hundred small decisions under time pressure, hoping the experience holds together.
The SDG Enterprise Awards: Three Days, Three Different Products
My main commitment this year was the SDG Enterprise Awards 2026 — an event recognizing companies in Hong Kong doing real work toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals. I became a part of the organizing committee across three event days, and each one taught me something different.
Judging Day: designing for people who can’t afford
On Judging Day, my job sounded small: prepare and distribute name tags for the companies and guest judges, support registration, help input some judges’ scoring data against the SDG criteria.
But small jobs are where experiences break.
A judge who can’t find their name tag in the first thirty seconds isn’t thinking about sustainability anymore — they’re thinking about whether the event is organized. That’s similar to a user problem, transplanted to a conference room at 9am. People arrive carrying context: they’re busy, they’re giving their time for free, and their patience and impression matters.
So the name tags weren’t “admin.” They were part of an onboarding journey. The registration flow wasn’t “logistics.” It was the first screen of the product.
The scoring data entry was the part that stuck with me most. Judges’ scores feed directly into which companies get recognized. One mistyped number isn’t a typo — it’s a data integrity issue with real consequences for real businesses. If you’ve ever argued about form validation or input constraints in a product spec, you already understand this. The medium changes; the stakes don’t.
Kick-Off Day: the experience is the sum of unglamorous details
Kick-Off Day was guest registration, seating guidance, award certificates, refreshments, photo backdrop foamboards, equipment checks. None of that is glamorous.
I kept thinking about a principle from design work: users don’t experience your architecture — they experience your seams. A guest doesn’t see the run sheet. They see whether someone greets them, whether their seat is findable, whether the certificate has their name spelled right, whether there’s a decent photo of them in front of the backdrop later.
Meticulous preparation isn’t a personality trait. It’s a design decision you make in advance, on behalf of people you’ll never meet.
Awards Day: shipping under pressure
Before Awards Day I oversaw procurement, testing, and delivery of the award frames and trophies, prepared certificates for guest speakers, and guided winning companies through the ceremony.
Procurement is a product manager’s problem wearing a different hat. You’re managing vendors, timelines, quality checks, and a hard deadline that does not move. The ceremony happens on the day it happens. There is no “we’ll do the awarding in the next sprint, maybe via zoom.”
Testing the frames before delivery felt like the most natural thing in the world to me — because that’s just QA. You don’t discover the defect when the winner is on stage. You discover it in the rehearsal, or better, upon delivery.
And guiding winners through the ceremony? That’s live user support. People are nervous, excited, unsure where to stand. Your job is to make the complex feel effortless for them, in real time, with a smile and ease.
Post-event: the deliverable nobody assigned me
After the awards, I developed the content outline, collaborated with the chairlady of SDGEA and the president of JCI Victoria, and produced the video for the SDG Enterprise Awards 2026. This one was self-initiated — and it’s the part I’m proudest of, because events evaporate. Three days of intense preparation, applause, and emotion, and then it’s gone. What remains is what you document.
A post-event video isn’t a souvenir. It’s the artifact that carries the event’s meaning to everyone who wasn’t in the room — sponsors, future participants, the companies themselves. As a designer, that’s the work I care about: not just making the thing work, but making the thing travel.
AI Future Leaders 2026: photography as empathy practice
I also supported the AI Future Leaders 2026 kick-off and competition day — preparing and presenting awards to guest speakers and judges, and capturing both candid and formal event photography.
The award presentation part reinforced what Judging Day taught me: ceremony flow is choreography, and choreography is design. Someone has to think about who hands what to whom, in which order, at which moment — so that recognition feels professional instead of improvised.
The photography taught me something quieter. Good event photography is empathy with a shutter. You’re watching for the moment a nervous student finally smiles. The handshake that actually means something. You’re constantly asking: what does this person need from this moment? That’s not a camera skill. That’s a user research skill.
What I actually learned
Six months in, here’s my reflection.
Preparation is invisible — which is the point.
When registration flows, when the trophies arrive tested, when the certificates are correct, nobody notices. The absence of pain points is the product.
Every role is user-facing if you look closely enough.
Name tags, seating plans, scoring sheets, award frames — each one is an interface between an organization and a person who’s trusting it with their time.
Documentation is a deliverable.
The video, the photos, the certificates — the things that outlast the event are what give the event a second life.
Teams make it work, not heroes.
Everything I described happened because committee members covered for each other constantly. I guided winners on stage because a teammate trusted me with it. That’s the job everywhere, volunteer or paid.
Why I’m telling you this
I work as a digital designer and product manager. When prospective clients or employers ask what I bring, the temptation is to list tools and titles.
But the truth is more useful: I bring the habit of treating every touchpoint like it matters. I learned it doing product work, and I’ve been practicing it every month since March — at registration desks, while assisting the participants, while displaying and lining up trophies at the ceremony, and behind a camera. The venue is has changed, but the practice of product work doesn’t.
If you’re building something — a product, a program, an event, a team — and you need someone who sweats the details and sees the journey, I’d genuinely love to talk. And if you’ve been thinking about volunteering: do it. Pick an organization doing work you respect, show up consistently, and take the unglamorous tasks seriously. You will learn more than you expect, from people you never would have met otherwise.
The best preparation for the work you want is doing excellent work where you already are.
Thanks for reading! 💗
