Another record was set tonight to cap this year’s successful WiT Singapore 2018. About US$50,000, double the target, was raised at the Charity Talent Auction held at the closing cocktails, sponsored by Adara.
Children will receive the nutrition they badly need.
The auction of talent and time of some of the industry’s best leaders, as well as prizes donated by Singapore Airlines, Cempedak Island, Shangri-La International, Sidecars, AccorHotels and Dusit Hotels, benefitted, for the second year running, the Negrense Volunteers for Change (NVC) Foundation in the Philippines.
The funds will go into building classrooms and learning materials, lovebags for children from kinder to grade 7, food for the children, and flipflops for children who now walk barefoot to school.
“I’m awed by the spirit and generosity of the charity auction participants. Our NVC member who attended the event shared videos of people singing and passing a hat around just to get more contributions for the benefit of people who are perfect strangers to them. This was truly a sharing of time, talent, and treasure for those in need. Seeing this outpouring inspires us to keep working hard to ensure that all the donations go where they’re needed most, and to share the love and concern of the WIT 2018 participants with their beneficiaries. Thank you so much!”, said Therese Ng, a trustee of the foundation.
The money raised was made possible by the generous donations of the following talents:
- Chef Shen Tan, OwnSelfMakeChef (Private Home Cooked Dinner)
- Deep Kalra, Chairman & Group CEO, MakeMyTrip (2 hours mentoring)
- Rod Cuthbert, Founder, Former CEO & Chairman, Viator; Former CEO & Chairman, Rome2rio (5 hours mentoring)
- Adrian Currie, Senior Vice President, Booking Holdings (5-hour of Queenstown, Central Otago, New Zealand, or mentoring chat over a flat white pinot noir)
- Bobby Healy, CTO, Car Trawler (Golf, Tour of Guinness Factory in Dublin, review of business plan, product strategy plus feedback).
- William Bao Bean, General Partner, SOSV/Managing Director, Chinaccelerator (5 hours mentoring)
- Eric Gnock Fah, Co-Founder, Klook (5 hours mentoring)
- Greg Schulze, Senior Vice President, Commercial Strategy & Services, Expedia Group (Dinner with Expedia Asia Leadership Team)
- Louise Daley, Deputy CEO, AccorHotels & Yeoh Siew Hoon, Founder, WiT (Dinner)
- Stephan Ekbergh, CEO, Travelstart (5 hours mentoring)
- Jenny Wu, Managing Partner, Baidu Capital (5 hours mentoring)
- Rob Rosenstein, Chairman & Co-Founder, Agoda (5 hours mentoring)
- Fritz Demopoulos, CEO, Queen’s Road Capital (5 hours mentoring)
To top off the night, Lucas Peng, CEO of Peak Hospitality Solutions and singer Wendi Koh sang while a hat was passed around, raising almost $2,000 in cash.
“We are so thankful to those who donated their time and expertise, and to those who made bids,” said Yeoh Siew Hoon, founder, WiT. “Thank you too to Martin Symes and Louise Daley, deputy CEO of AccorHotels Asia Pacific, for being the auctioneers who raised the bar on the bidding.
“I know the NVC Foundation will put the funds to good use, as they did last year, and change the lives of the children they support. I also know one of the matches made tonight – between mentors and mentees – will possibly change someone’s life and business for the better.”
Since 2008, the WiT for Good programme, through supporting local arts and crafts, as well as local communities, has raised more than $500,000 for the betterment of women and children throughout Asia.
