Sunday, 20 January 2019, 11am, Festive Walk East, Our Tampines Hub

This weekend, Our Tampines Hub (OTH) will bustle with an exciting array of lifestyle brands and vibrant fringe activities, at the 99%SME Retail Carnival. Held from 19 to 20 January, the event follows the revamped 99%SME platform (www.99sme.sg) launch for the nationwide movement co-founded by Singtel and DBS, which helps SMEs adopt digital technology to grow their businesses.

Making up 99% of businesses in Singapore, SMEs employ 70% of Singapore’s workforce and contribute to nearly half of our GDP. The retail carnival is just one of the omni-channel marketing opportunities the 99%SME movement offers these local entrepreneurs, and aims to rally all of Singapore to discover and support SMEs by shopping with them either online or in-store.

Organised by 75 second-year students from Temasek Polytechnic’s (TP) School of Business, the event is part of an ongoing partnership between TP and OTH, to enhance student development and community engagement. Through this event, students had the invaluable, real-world learning experience of working with DBS and Singtel as clients, who contributed expert advice and resources to see the event to fruition. Not only did the students exercise creativity in planning, designing, preparing and executing an event, they also sourced and successfully onboarded new SMEs to the platform.

“It has been an extremely fulfilling journey working with the various parties involved; having first-hand experience in the preparation and execution of this event,” shared Tasmeen Tan, a TP Retail Management student. “The exposure has certainly enhanced my knowledge of retail and events management, and the key skills I have learnt will be beneficial to my learning and future career.”

In support of Singapore’s Smart Nation initiatives, the carnival will offer cashless payment modes. Also, OTH PAssion card members will enjoy special privileges at merchant booths.  Additionally, the event will feature interactive fringe activities such as games, performances, as well as origami and lantern-making workshops.

The Programme on Sunday, 20 January will be as follows: