The Singapore Business and Social Association held a Celebration dinner on the 12th of August, in celebration of Singapore's 52nd National Day.  

The organising committee had a tight schedule of 6 weeks from the point where decisions were made to pull an event by the association, after failing to successfully join the Students associations within the 3 major university in Adelaide to organise a joint event.  We were very grateful that the event was sold-out a week before the event, despite adding the 3 reserved tables but regret that we had to turn away interested guests due to a limitation on the limited liquor licensing for the event.  

We are also pleasantly honoured to have The Honourable Zoe Bettison; The Honourable Jing Lee; and The Right Honourable Martin Haese; present at the dinner as our Guests-of-honor, extending their utmost support for SBSA, and donating bottles of wine for our raffle draw.  

Our Main Sponsor, Singapore Airlines also donated a pair of economy class return tickets to Singapore for auctioning, and Mr Hugh Chevrant-Breton, Manager of South Australia also extended the offer by including an additional 10kg of baggage and SIA lounge access for the winner of the auction.  The tickets were eventually auctioned for $1440 at the end of the night and we thank Mr. Damian Doennig for his generous bid.

A multicultural programme was lined up for the night starting with an inspiring Indian Dance performed by 19 year-old Ms Mitali Mukherjee, followed by a guitar solo by Mr. Ian Sofian, a fellow member of SBSA.  Ms Cynthia Yue Shen from the School of Chinese Music and Art performed with a Hulu Flute, and we had a Samoan performer, Ms Fale also singing of us and we ended the evening to familiar songs presented by the Indonesian Choir group led by Ms Sesilia Awe, also involving the guests in a sing-along to the tune of Waltzing Matilda. 

We also had a raffle draw held, with prizes from our sponsors including 5x$100 dining vouchers for Singapore House; 2 pairs of OzAsia Festival Tickets for "HOTEL" Parts 1 & 2; 2x pre-packed XuRong premium abalone; 10x$20 dining vouchers for Empress; and bottles of wine from our honourable guests and corporate member SVN, wine sponsor for the night.

Last but not least, we would like to thank the Guest-of-honours, all guests, sponsors, performers and the organising committee for making the first major SBSA event a success and we look forward to your continual support for our future events.