I’m Kiril Hristov, an MSc Tourism Marketing and Management student at BU.
As a person who has never crossed Europe’s borders, I was very keen to take part in BU’s Global Festival of Learning in Malaysia. I saw this as an opportunity to improve my cross-cultural skills and develop new ones. As a Tourism Marketing student I understand how important for the workforce in this sector is to demonstrate awareness about cultural differences and especially the uniqueness of the Asian tourism market, which has a population of 4.5 billion people.
The exciting programme during BU’s Festival of Learning in Malaysia introduced to me different spectrums of life, culture and business in Malaysia. I took part in Malaysian cultural and educational events and visited historical locations. I collaborated with Sunway University members of staff and attended business meetings, which all exposed me to work in an international context and helped me develop valuable global skills.
Taking the role of event manager gave me the opportunity to put the knowledge gained on my course into practice. During the Festival of learning, day by day, I was faced with interesting challenges, which I had to overcome. What is more, those challenges triggered my curiosity to explore and learn much more about Malaysian culture and business than I expected. I believe such an educational trip is priceless experience helping you to evaluate and improve yourself. The Global Festival of Learning helped me to develop skills and competences highly appreciated in today’s business world.
As an event manager I developed a range of skills and competences. For the first time in my life I got to experience people management and team work in an international context and I think I did well. I improved my critical thinking in the events that we performed where I used negotiation skills to balance between different opinions in order to deliver result, which will satisfy the majority of people.
The Global Festival of learning Malaysia 2016 gave me the opportunity to have a wider vision of the world, get to know practices that I have never experienced before, and develop new skills and create friendships for life. I am really thankful for the opportunity to be part of this cultural experience where I put into practice the knowledge I gained at BU and developed a range of global skills which will help me succeed in my future career.