September 28, 2007

In Memoriam...Xiao Pei wo xiangnian ni!

One of my closest friends, Andrew Pagliero, died in a car accident in Dong Guan last weekend. He leaves behind an adoring wife and charming seven year-old son. Sadness is not a strong enough word to describe the loss. So I'll leave it to Bob Dylan...that man with a sad, wiry voice.

September 21, 2007

Hong Kong takes AIM!

On Thursday 2oth September, a crowded room in HKUST's premises in Central saw the official launch of the Hong Kong Association of Interactive Marketing, to be known under its catchy acronym "HKAIM" or "Hong Kong AIM".

We were lucky enough to pin down the founding chairman, Francis Fong, to ask why he had set up HKAIM. Click below to listen to the interview.


powered by ODEO

Given the masterful job the executive committee carried out in recruiting notable dignitaries - PCCW Chairman, Richard Li and IT Legislator, Sin Chung Kai - I believe they have started off on the right footing with the local business community. Now is the time to engage the actual interactive agencies and people who practice digital marketing every day and give them a powerful path to promote and educate the rest of Hong Kong's business and student communities as to the successes and pitfalls of interactive marketing.

We recorded the speeches below for anyone who missed the event:

Richard Li, Chairman of PCCW Ltd


powered by ODEO

Sin Chung Kai, Member (Information Technology Functional Constituency), Legislative Council, Hong Kong SAR


powered by ODEO

Charles Mok, Chairman of ISOC-HK


powered by ODEO

September 19, 2007

A Cackle of Hong Kong Bloggers

Last night, Jeremiah Owyang, a well-known web strategist from Silicon Valley, graced the Hong Kong blogging community with his presence. Hottest thing in USA? You guessed it, Facebook! Listen to his interview below.


powered by ODEO

September 18, 2007

Why do US tech firms fail in China?

For some great insights into the reasons why US tech companies struggle to win in China, listen to Christine Lu of China Business Show interview Eric Rosenblum, GM of Global Strategy for RealNetworks.

September 17, 2007

scmp.com contest - full list of winners

To all wiki'd Web Wednesdayites,

Thank you for enthusiastically taking part in our recent contest, sponsored by the scmp.com.


We are now happy to announce the full list of winners as per their names and renditions below. The top prize was presented at the last event and the remaining prizes will be handed out at our next event on 3rd October.

Top Prize: "Hong Kong - A Portrait in Photos, 1997-2007", awarded to Howard Hunt , the HyperFactory, for his creative video rendition, filmed and edited solely on his mobile phone.

Second & Third Prizes: "They Mean Business - 50 Exclusive Interviews with Hong Kong's Top Executives".


2nd Prize: Rebecca McKinnon, HKU. Listen to her response.
3rd Prize: Aaron Farr, Jade Tower. Listen to his reponse.

Runners Up: three award-winning USB mugs, to warm your tea during an aircon-induced Hong Kong winter.

Ivy Ho - Jones Lang LaSalle. Listen to her response.
Sherry Wong, Digitas China. Listen to her response.
Peter Burton - Activ8 WorldWide. Listen to his response.

Brace yourselves for the next round of sponsored contests and you could be the winner of free cocktails at Lotus.

Social Mixer V4.0 - Caught on Camera

Our friends at Tin Roof Rusted Productions have created another great video of the last Web Wednesday Event on 29th August 2007.

September 13, 2007

New day, new venue, new format

Thank you for your enthusiastic participation in Web Wednesday. Now that the event has over 170 members on Facebook and attracts 80+ people, we have some exciting developments to announce.

Firstly, a change of day: from the last Wednesday to the first Wednesday of the month. This is mostly due to the conflict with public holidays in the upcoming months. So the next event will be on Wednesday 3rd October.

Secondly, a change of venue: from the Bohemian Lounge (still a great place, especially if you enjoy live jazz music) to Lotus Restaurant & Cocktail Lounge, 37-43 Pottinger Street, Central Hong Kong. On top of the 2-4-1 extended happy hour drinks offer, they are generously providing free finger food.

Thirdly, a change of format: we will be introducing a new "sofa session" where I spend 30 minutes (7:00 - 7:30 pm) conducting an informal interview with a prominent member of the internet community in Hong Kong. Our first guest will be Kevin Huang, CEO of Pixel Media Asia and Vice Chairman of the Hong Kong Association for Internet Marketing.

Look forward to seeing you all on Wednesday 3rd October at Lotus! Please continue to invite friends, colleagues and business acquaintances to join in this fun networking event.

September 10, 2007

Aiming for the digital skies!


On Thursday 20th September at the Hong Kong Club Building, a bright new dawn will break over the local internet industry - the birth of Hong Kong's very own Association of Internet Marketing (HKAIM). The founders of HKAIM have successfully obtained the backing of the relevant departments of the Hong Kong SAR Government, the Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) and various educational institutions and will be promoting all aspects of the local Internet industry as well as encouraging graduates to consider it as a worthy career path.

The main draw cards for the inauguration event are Richard Li, Chairman of PCCW, Marion Lai, Director General of Telecommunications - OFTA, Sin Chung Kai, Legislative Councilor and Charles Mok, Chairman of the Hong Kong Internet Society.

If you want to be part of this exciting new movement and rub shoulders with Hong Kong's top telecom dignitaries, you can click here to fill in the official invite to the inauguration. We look forward to seeing you there!

September 5, 2007

The contest must go on!

What started off as a contest on Facebook has now been extended into the wilds of the Web Wednesday event. The braver members contributed their great minds to fill in the blanks - "I can't live without my daily fix of ... because..." - and we have now posted these to our blog for you to listen and enjoy. Click on the icon below to be taken to our podcast page on Odeo.

My Odeo Podcast

The judging panel at the SCMP.com will be patiently listening to each one to decide who shall receive the remaining five prizes and we will announce the 'talented' winners at the next social mixer on Tuesday 25th September.

September 4, 2007

More free papers? The Standard joins the crowd.


Sing Tao News Corporation, the local media powerhouse, announced that from Monday 10th September 2007 it will no longer charge subscription fees for it's English language newspaper, The Standard.

Although industry observers expect this move to change the local media landscape, it's not the first time that Sing Tao has ventured down this path. It has succeeded before with Headline Daily (頭條網), which has become the largest-circulating free newspaper in Hong Kong at 700,000 copies.

The big question is whether advertisers will flock to the Standard given the stronghold of it's main rival, the South China Morning Post, which dominates the English newspaper market and is making a good run of it's online presence, the SCMP.com, with multimedia content (podcasts, videos, audio) and creative ad formats.

Or are they simply preparing themselves for a future new life as a purely digital paper?


September 3, 2007

Hold the Quechup!

Be warned! New social networking site, quechup, is using under-handed tactics to acquire members. When it seems that you are simply being asked to "check for friends" by entering your email address and password, the bandits will proceed to mail all your contacts without asking permission.

If you've fallen for their trap, like many networking addicts have, be ready to issue apologies to your friends for “spamming” them inadvertently.

On the flip side, we have to thank these crafty crooks for making us aware of such an easy way to access our address books, all because we want more friends. The PR fallout from such an event is going to lead to change in the invite process and may well halt some of the viral referral elements of social networking.