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SEAN has become a household term in Bali, since the province has hosted many of the grouping’s meetings this year.

“We always welcome an ASEAN conference because it surely brings buyers to our shops,” said Nyoman, an attendant at souvenir shop just outside the Nusa Dua hotels complex.

While serving a foreign tourist inside his shop, he pointed at a big banner across the street and said people recognized the ASEAN banner because of the grouping’s frequent events in Nusa Dua.

“It is well-known here,” Nyoman said.

Indonesia is hosting a series of ASEAN ministerial meetings, including the ASEAN Regional Forum, a meeting of 27 countries, inside the Nusa Dua complex. These meetings will attract around 2,000 people from around the world.

Meanwhile, just a kilometer from the Nusa Dua complex, education ministers from 18 members of the East Asia Summit will meet to discuss ways to meet the latest challenges in education, a meeting that will bring hundreds more to the area.

“At least the event will benefit the people surrounding the event. Also, with the event, people will get familiar with ASEAN,” said Foster Gultom, secretary to the Indonesian Foreign Ministry’s director general for ASEAN cooperation.

But turning ASEAN from a mere discussion into a people-centered community by 2015 will take more than just an event.

“An event will introduce ASEAN to the wider public. But it’s the real benefits to the people that will get them involved, and create a feeling of ownership,” ASEAN deputy secretary-general Bagas Hapsoro said.

He said all the stakeholders of ASEAN — students, businesspeople, farmers, fishermen, housewives and academics — should all reap benefits from ASEAN.

“We in the ASEAN Secretariat are trying to introduce ASEAN to many areas in Indonesia by engaging people in activities that can benefit them,” he said Monday while supervising an ASEAN corner near the Westin Hotel conference room.

While many criticize ASEAN as a mere forum that is elitist, Indonesia, the current chair of the grouping, is committed to making it an organization that is recognized and brings benefits to people.

Other members have expressed their support for such a vision.

Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa has repeatedly said that while officials’ meetings were important, people must be the backbone of ASEAN.

The Foreign Ministry’s director general for ASEAN cooperation, Djauhari Oratmangun, said his office had visited many universities, schools and business and civil society groups to discuss ASEAN and its benefits.

“We should never tire of getting people involved in ASEAN activities,” he said, mentioning the ASEAN rock festival, ASEAN batik festival and ASEAN small-scale business conference as examples of people’s involvement in the grouping.