September 15, 2009

Star Appearance: Guy Kawasaki at Web Wednesday Hong Kong

Calling all Hong Kong Digerati!

Apologies for the short notice but I've only today confirmed that we will have the pleasure of speaking with Guy Kawasaki, Start-up / Marketing / Tech / Blog / VC star, who happens to be in Hong Kong for a few days.

On Wednesday 16th September at 6:30pm, we'll meet at the usual place, Volar Bar & Club, Basement, 38-44 D'Aguilar Street, Lan Kwai Fong, Central. So please turn up early if you want to put your questions directly to Guy. Within half a day, we already have 100 confirmations, so please let us know you're coming by signing up on Facebook or this blog.

My friend, the ever astute Belle Liu of Beansbox says:

Definitely a must-go event! Especially if you're interested in these topics:
* Innovation and product development.
* Entrepreneurship
* Intrapreneurship
* Evangelism, sales, and marketing
* Technology trends
* Competition (how to drive your competition crazy)

Here's his official (more formal) bio:

"Guy Kawasaki is a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm and a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine. Previously, he was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc. Guy is the author of nine books including Reality Check, The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way. He has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College".

But I prefer the more personal way he introduces himself, under "My Real Story". Some poignant extracts that will ring true with anyone who lives in Asia:

"I was born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1954. My family lived in a tough part of Honolulu called Kalihi Valley. We weren’t rich, but I never felt poor-because my mother and father made many sacrifices for my sister and me. My mother was a housewife, and my father was, at various times, a fireman, real estate broker, state senator, and government official.

...After Stanford, I attended the law school at UC Davis because, like all Asian American parents, my folks wanted me to be a “doctor, lawyer, or dentist.” I only lasted one week because I couldn’t deal with the law school teachers telling me that I was crap and that they were going to remake me.

...Luckily, my Stanford roommate, Mike Boich, got me a job at Apple. When I saw what a Macintosh could do, the clouds parted and the angels started singing.

...In 1995 I returned to Apple as an Apple fellow. At the time, according to the pundits, Apple was supposed to die again. (Apple should have died about ten times in the past twenty years according to the pundits.) My job on this tour of duty was to maintain and rejuvenate the Macintosh cult.

...Currently, I’m a founding partner at Garage and co-founder of Alltop as well as a husband, father, author, speaker, and hockey addict. Alltop is an online magazine rack that I hope you’ll check out—you’ll probably enjoy Innovation.alltop, for example. I’ve also written nine books. My latest is Reality Check. You can read about my other eight books here."

More on Wikipedia and his blog. Guy also regularly tweets and has over 170,000 followers on Twitter (@guykawasaki). He humbly describes himself on his Twitter profile as "I am a firehose that answers the question: What's interesting? Co-founder of Alltop".

I've been a fan of Alltop for a while and have used the China News Page (below) for a while.

2 comments:

Agnes Chow said...

Hi, Napolean!

Never had the chance to talk to u at Wed Web cos u're so popular. I want to thank you for making this happen every month. I've been to 4 and enjoyed them all. I've won a moleskin once, never felt so lucky :D

I'll see u tonight at the impromptu kawasaki night.

Cheers,
Agnes Chow

Napoleon Biggs said...

@Agnes: Thank you for the compliments. Good to hear that you're enjoying the Web Wednesday gatherings, especially when you win prizes? Keep coming!