ScandAsia met Emelie Heden, the president of YP Singapore, to a quick Q&A to put focus on the group’s presence and activities in the city state. Emelie Heden works as marketing manager and has been in the city for six years.
Q: What is YP?
A: YP stands for Young Professionals and is a networking tool for young Scandinavian Professionals and students staying in Singapore.
Q: What does YP do?
A: We organize different events to give young Scandinavians a platform to meet and network with each other. We have one monthly event every third Friday at Indochine Forbidden City Clarke Quay and several tradition bound events such as Swedish Midsummer celebration, crayfish party and glogg during the year. The consistency of events it key to keep the number of members increasing. We have not been this many members since 2008, which was before the recession.. We have widened the scope a lot the past year by firstly reaching out to our Scandinavian neighbours. in addition we have also tried to promote Sweden and Scandinavia to other nationalities. We have now Singaporean, Japanese, French and Dutch members to name a few. YP has never been as international as it is today- and for that we are very happy.
Q: Who can join YP?
A: We aim at the age group of 18-35 years and we are focusing on Scandinavians, but we gladly welcome other nationalities who – however – often join our events.
Q: How many are you?
A: At the moment we have 85 paying members, but we have almost 700 members in our Facebook-group.
Q: Paying members? What does it take to be a member?
A: After paying 50 sing dollars as professional (25 student) you can join the events and enjoy “1 for 1” offers in the bar at the monthly event. At our traditional events the members also have discounts of different kinds.
Q: Can you do more than just be a member?
A: We always need new board members to arrange and follow up on the events we are organizing, and if you like to organize events, promote and socialize we might be looking for you. So feel free to ask us if you are interested in spending more time with YP.
Q: Why do you spend time on YP?
A: It warms my heart to see when people create a new network through YP, when phone numbers and business cards are exchanged. It is a good place to start building up your social base and make new friends. It also helps you know the city better and it is beautiful to see what people can get out of meeting each other over a beer or a drink. People come and thank me every time we have these events, and tell me that they really appreciate what we are doing.
Q: What did YP do to you?
A: YP helped also me creating my social platform in Singapore. Through YP I found new friends, that were my best friends and family for many years, before they went back home. And that is actually the sad thing about living in such a transit country as Singapore is, sooner or later they will decide to go home, and it can be very tough to say goodbye to good friends – I can tell.
