MANILA, Philippines - To mark the grand finale of Oakwood Asia Pacific’s 50th anniversary celebrations, Oakwood Premier Joy~Nostalg Center Manila hosted a cocktail reception featuring the 12 winning images of the “Trust Is….” amateur photography competition.
Wong Chi Keung of Hong Kong was formally acknowledged as the grand prize winner for his image captioned, “Trust is… a smile” and personally received the grand prize of a Canon EOS 5D Mark II from Oakwood Premier Joy~Nostalg Center Manila’s general manager Brian B. Connelly. Wong won two round-trip business class airline tickets to Manila and accommodations at Oakwood Premier Joy~Nostalg Center, a prize worth SGD $15,000.
The 11 runners up each received a Canon PowerShot A3000 IS camera and complimentary room stays at Oakwood properties within Asia Pacific. Six winners from the Philippines were also awarded at the cocktail event, namely, Vincent Arnuco, Mary Grace Marquez–Cabanilla, Rodgen Jabor, Cristhom Setubal, Nicky Sering and Carlo Zamora.
Oakwood Premier Joy~Nostalg Center was chosen as the first Oakwood property to present the photography exhibition which will run through March 31 at the property’s lobby. Gracing the launch were Oakwood Asia Pacific’s director of marketing Caroline Leong who gave a recap of the 50th anniversary activities during the program, as well as marketing manager Tricia Ang.
The exhibition will travel throughout Oakwood properties in the Asian region within the year, displaying 12 brilliantly shot images chosen from numerous submissions by aspiring photographers within the region. They will also be commemorated as a “limited edition” series of Oakwood postcards providing a wonderful pictorial display of the definition of trust in line with Oakwood’s reputation as “the most trusted name in serviced apartments worldwide.”
“The contest results are testimony to the wealth of talent possessed by amateur photographers across Asia Pacific, and to the trust exhibited in our services,” said Howard Ruby, founder and chairman of Oakwood Worldwide. “Trust goes beyond words, and there is no better way of concluding our 50th anniversary celebrations than with these spectacular photographs.”
The competition held in partnership with Canon – a leader in photography, digital imaging and office solutions – generated popular interest from across Asia with hundreds of amateur photographers registering their images online at the Oakwood 50th anniversary micro site.
The five other runners up are: Nilesh Bhange (India), Ahmad Iskandar Abdullah (Singapore), Ahmed Sindi (South Korea), Sivabalan Nagayah (Malaysia) and Rebecca Fraley (Singapore).