My INSTIKI Experience

What is INSTIKI? It is a university based in Denpasar Bali that focuses on IT and technology. I was privileged to be chosen as a guest speaker and be part of a Q&A session on December 3, 2023.

I didn’t find this out until later, but there were other candidates, I was chosen as the guest speaker and not just appointed as one. This made me feel quite good, to be honest.

I have no idea what the criteria were or what the qualifications needed to be, but here I was on the way to not my first speaking engagement but certainly my first in Bali. I met Rangga and his team in a coffee shop many weeks ago and signed a contract. All and I was thinking that the contract was a little over the top.

But There Were 250 People.

This I had no idea of and so the contract made sense. These people paid to be at this event and then there were the online Zoom participants. All in all, 185 people were in attendance in person and the rest were part of the Zoom event.

The event was well run and very well managed by the teams. Right down to the details of an MC and the national anthem, prayers, and even some Balinese dancing thrown in for good measure. Along with snacks and drinks, it felt like a well-oiled machine without a “proper” teacher or professor in sight. It was all run by the students. I commend them on their efforts for being so professional and pulling off such an event with ease and precision.

In pure Indonesian fashion, like on a movie shoot, we were given little snack boxes and lunch after the event. I was surprised by the turnout and the size and enthusiasm of the INSTIKI students. They were there because they wanted to be not because they had to be and that sure makes a hell of a difference.

We All Had a Great Time

I had no idea what I was going to be asked. This was interesting as they wanted my comments to be real and kind of put me on the spot. There was a bit of a communication barrier but that was to be expected. Certain questions were a bit unclear and hard to understand. Of course, the students asking the questions were nervous and I am proud of them for standing up and asking questions in English. My host Suci was admittedly nervous but once we got on stage it was smooth sailing. Though I felt the questions could have been harder, the point was to relate to the students and encourage them to learn English and the importance of learning English for the IT field that they were in. This is particularly important for their future in Bali where business and tourism go hand in hand.

We stressed the importance of proper grammar in ads, copywriting, and even down to poorly written Instagram ads that do not create trust or professionalism between the business and the possible clients. When I see a poorly written ad, it automatically makes me think.

If they can’t get this right, how can they do…

Whatever your business is, create proper ads and if you do not know, ask people. The issue is that many times people think they know but they do not. This is where many individuals and businesses need help.  There are many expensive billboards being rented for advertising that have poor translations and therefore make little sense in English. They make sense to Indonesians speaking English but not to foreigners. This needs to change if you are serious about your business.