It's a wrap! #TSP2021 #BeSteadfast

 

Alhamdulillah 

الحمد لله الذي بنعمته تتم الصالحات
With that, we end The Straight Path Convention  2021, "Be Steadfast".
Alhamdulillah I am very grateful once again to be given the opportunity to contribute to this event once again, and to interact with these amazing people, Masha Allah.
Some say "you're always the MC", but I never take that for granted; I take every opportunity as if it were my last and give it my highest level of professional commitment to play my part to the extent of my abilities, for the event to be a success.

This year's convention - the first time ever done online - was an interesting learning experience for me, personally, too.

With Emcee-ing from home, comes the typical challenge of #WorkingFromHome - in two of the talks, my 3-year old boi was screaming "nak abah" and in one instance, I had to calm him down and slowly put him to sleep and tuck him into bed, *just in time* for Q&A. (Sounds like another typical day at the virtual office, innit? 🤣).
But Alhamdulillah for the great ni'mah of our families, and Alhamdulillah all crises were successfully averted without disruptions to the event😅.

I really enjoyed the Q&A format for this online convention - there was a lot more closeness to the shuyukh / speakers to have great personal dialogues with them. TSP forums typically have all the speakers gathered in one sitting, where we address the collected questions and randomly assigned which speaker should assign them. With this convention, the questions were a lot more focused and related to the topics, and there was a lot more human touch and connection in the one-on-one approach.

One of the things I remind myself to do as MC is to create a warm and welcoming atmosphere to the shuyukh and speakers, to make them feel like they have established a genuine connection with us. I always believed that these short interactions  plays an important role in facilitating the success of the event, when they are comfortable to impart their knowledge to us, and leaves a memorable mark on them for years to come 😊.

For those of you who tuned it, please do share your feedback and thoughts on what you thought of the event, and on my own personal performance as Emcee in the spirit of continuous improvement.

May Allah accept from the organizers and the team who made this first-time online event a success. Allahumma barik.