2025 – Writing Workshop
VDMI held Writing Workshop 2025 with the theme “The Value of Writing – Urban Living”, on 06 – 08 May 2025 in Puri Jaya Hotel, Central Jakarta. This workshop was facilitated by Kristin Samah and supported by Marsen Sinaga. Joined by 20 participants consisting of VDMI alumni and grantees throughout all partners in Indonesia.
This workshop was created as a reward and appreciation for grantees or alumni who joined VDMI Excellent Writing Club consistently contributing the articles for A2A Newsletter and VDMI Magazine, and also those who have been selected for the VDMI 2024 IDEAS Writing Challenge. IDEAS means Inspiration, Digitalization, Education, Art/Culture, and Science. By joining this workshop, hopefully the quality of their writing product will be much better, broaden their thinking, more vocabulary, grab the reader’s attention. The participants will have better writing technique.
We are now entering the post-truth era, a condition in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than emotional appeals and personal beliefs. Simply put, it is an era in which lies can masquerade as truth. Also, there are logical fallacies and syllogisms, where in our daily experience we often receive information without checking it first so that we immediately digest it without thinking whether it makes sense, so that the news could be a hoax or a lie or information whose source is unclear and whose validity cannot be accounted for.
Therefore, it is necessary to have the ability to see things from a broader perspective in order to be able to analyze the most appropriate information. The first thing is by strengthening writing skills, especially in compiling information obtained from observations in the field. The first day, Kristin also reminded why we should write and techniques in conducting observations to sources, things that must be prepared and asked, taking the angle of the problem that will be raised in writing is important as well as how to create a title that attracts readers. Marsen Sinaga provides mindfulness sessions every day in the morning before the start of the session and in the afternoon after the session closes, which aims to prepare participants physically and mentally to stay focused in participating during a three day writing workshop to achieve optimum results.
On the second day, participants were divided into four groups tasked with observing life in Jakarta from several perspectives, such as lifestyle, economics, mental health, and transportation. After observation, participants prepare for the writing by collecting and combining all information that they get. As an appreciation, the twenty participants were given a STIFIN test by Henri Murhadianto SE.M.M. as HR practitioners. This is a test used to determine a person’s personality by reading their fingerprints. STIFIN is sensing abbreviated as S, Thinking abbreviated as T, Intuiting abbreviated as I, Feeling abbreviated as F, and Instinct abbreviated as In. Each participant gets test results on the second day with suggestions for developing their potential and skills, so that they can focus more on their respective strengths.
On the last day, the participants continued with the writing assignment accompanied by the facilitator with discussions and various questions from each participant. At the end of the session, the participants were required to present the results of their observations about mental health, economics, transportation and lifestyle. Each participant is required to submit a draft of the writing, a collection of the participants’ writings which will later be published as a book with the theme of urban living.
For VDMI alumni and grantees who want to become members of the Excellent Writing Club, please contact a.susanto@vandeventermaas.or.id. See you in IDEAS Writing Challenge 2025!
