The Godfather Dinner & Dance

The recreation club with our company is very active in Singapore.  It is run by employees for employees and they arrange many events throughout the year.  We recently went to the Gardens by the Bay 5K that they coordinated and just last week to the Dinner & Dance (D&D).  We don't have these D&Ds in the US so we had no idea what to expect (I think this is their version of a Holiday Party).  All they told us was it is really just a dinner and no one dances, many people will dress to the theme, and its usually a lot of fun.

The theme this year was "The Godfather" and you were supposed to dress up to represent your favorite mafia or clan.  This was a learning experience for me because I was clueless on Asian gangsters.  The four that they highlighted in this event were:

• Paikia - Singaporean "bad kids"
• Mafia - We are all familiar with the Mafia although it was funny to see their interpretation of American gangsters
• Yakuza - An organized crime syndicate in Japan commonly identified by their tattoos
• Chinese Triads - One of the largest organized crime groups with currently over 250,000 active members worldwide.

We decided not to dress up as we had no idea how serious people were about this and gangster outfits were not on the list of things to pack when we left Houston.  Our going in expectation of this event was that there would be a couple hundred people that would sit down in a hotel ballroom, eat dinner while some mild entertainment went on, and then maybe some mingling post dinner.  This was far from how the event actually went!

Cocktail hour (if you can call it that since there was no alcohol) was held outside of the ballroom at the Marina Bay Sands.  While you sipped your soda or juice you could get your picture taken with one of the many backdrops and props, play lazer tag, get air brushed tattoos, or get your hair sprayed with some bright color or glitter.  Derek and I opted to get our picture taken a few times and did lots of people watching.

This is what happens when you
don't dress to theme!

I didn't get the memo that this was
a serious picture.

Some elaborate costumes

We noticed there were a lot of people arriving and they were all decked out to the theme.  This was about the time we realized this was a much bigger deal than we thought.  We proceded into the ballroom and noticed that there were seats for 1,300 people.  This was just the number of people they could fit in the venue as they had to turn people away that wanted to buy tickets.  It was shocking to us that there were 1,300 employees and spouses/significant others in Singapore that would get involved like this.  Our company has almost 10,000 employees in Houston and the recreation club there could never get 1,300 people to do anything so the turn out was very impressive.

HUGE ballroom

Dinner was served family style and our table opted for the Chinese meal.  I will admit that Derek and I were not crazy about the food and as you can see from my plate it wasn't always appetizing. Some of the menu highlights: baby octopus, marinated jellyfish, sliced abalone with sea cucumber, and steamed marble Goby (its a fish and it came with its head).  The meal was served in nine different courses and as we dined for four hours we were treated to some very interesting entertainment.

Hey Octopus!

They started off with a professional quality video about the different clan leaders (who were employees) which set the scene for the events that night.  The four leaders were gathering at the D&D to determine who would become the next Godfather.  Our table was in the Mafia section so as the night went on, the four clans competed in various events to earn points that would gain their leader the right to become the next Godfather.  It was creative, elaborate, and well executed. The attention to detail and level of involvement by so many people was mind blowing.

This is a video of the representatives from the four clans performing a little number, of course it was Gangnam Style again.

They had a professional emcee conduct the events and keep up the energy in the room.  It seemed like everyone was really enjoying themselves and we had a good time too.  There were a few peculiar things that happened that made us realize we were not in the US:

• Heaviest man competition - thankfully these guys volunteered
• They asked each clan to bring up the sexiest lady - nope, not awkward at all...
• Lightest woman competition - thank goodness there were two young girls there so the women did not have to be weighed right there on stage and their weight announced!
• If you were identified to have one of the best costumes you had to go on stage and do a dance medley - I think this is where the Dance in Dinner & Dance came in
• They asked all 1,300 people to come surround the stage, sing together, and clap their hands - and everyone actually did it
• Shoulder massage train - I can't make this up.  I had to take a picture to prove it.  Nothing like awkwardly massaging the shoulders of your coworkers.

Sorry for the poor picture quality.  I was too busy
rubbing Derek's shoulders.

Overall it was a great event and we can't wait to see what they do next year.  In the meantime, we have another D&D to get ready for that is being put on by Derek's organization in the company.  I think this time we will try to dress up to the "Pop Star" theme.