December 31, 2009

Web Wednesday Hong Kong - Social Mixer V32.0 (Jan 6)

Happy New Year! May all your virtual 3D dreams come true!

We've had some great speakers over the last year, including star appearances from Guy Kawasaki and Matt Mullenweg. And let's not forget our local talented artists from Lumina, the Web Series!

In 2010, we'll continue to bring you a wide range of speakers to illustrate the amazing variety of activities that people conduct on the Internet.
We're kicking off the new year full of hope by talking about "How to become an eBay Millionaire?" with Benjamin Mark Wee, also known as "That eBay Guy", the Singaporean entrepreneur who successfully broke down barriers between online and offline retail, and made wads of money from doing so. Apart from tapping into his experience with eBay, we're going to find out where ecommerce is thriving in Asia and what his predictions are for the future direction of online shopping, like mobile payments etc.


As the last mixer was so cosy, we'll stick to our new venue at Backstage Live, 1/F Somptueux Central, 52-54 Wellington Street, Central (just up the road from the famous Yung Kee Restaurant).

They continue to offer a special price of HK$40 per standard drink and they are offering 2 Free Admission Tickets to their live music shows (regular-price of HK$180 per ticket) as one of the lucky draw prizes.

The mixer will kick off at 6:30pm and wind up around 9:30pm, with the interview at 7:15ish. If we're lucky, Backstage might even have a live band perform later that night.

As per usual, there's a HK$100 entrance fee, including one complimentary drink. Our lovely assistant, Vivian, will issue receipts if you need one. (For students, you can get in for HK$50 without free booze). Thereafter, all standard drinks will be charged at a special discount of HK$40 each.

We will donate 10% of entrance fees to Oxfam's Unwrapped Gift Campaign, providing sheep and goats to poor farmers in China. Send your own goat.

It's the first Web Wednesday networking event of the year, so do come along and bring a new friend who's been curious but has never quite made it. Sign up Facebook or this blog. If you want the event added to your calendar, then click here.

Looking forward to seeing old faces and meeting many more new ones!

December 11, 2009

Start 2010 Alive!

The coolest dotcom in town, AliveNotDead, has asked us to help promote their New Year's Eve Party. The founders, Patrick Lee and Stephen Wang, spoke at Web Wednesday V22.0 (watch the interview) so we're happy to help them recruit more digerati to attend what is sure to be a collection of Hong Kong's most interesting up-and-coming talent!

The event has an all-star lineup of world class DJs, including actor and fashion icon Sam Lee (aka DJ Becareful (YouTube video), DJ Miss Yellow (YouTube channel), Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy co-founder DJ Enso (YouTube video) and World DMC finalist DJ Noodles from Taiwan (YouTube Channel).

Here's Noodles in action!



Sign up on Facebook and buy your tickets here. There is a private VIP party with dinner for HK$1,500 or entry to the countdown party is HK$250 in advance, HK$300 at the door, and HK$200 after 1am and includes 1 free drink.


Forget Facebook, get Face-2-Face!

One of my goals for Web Wednesday, since the outset in June 2007, has been to promote local entrepreneurs, especially if there is a digital element to their business. Apart from running the premier networking community for Hong Kong's digerati, now widely know as "Web Wednesday", I'm also actively involved in promoting grass-roots entrepreneurship through annual events like Barcamp Hong Kong (barcamp.hk) and communities like the Hong Kong Startup Association (hksua.com.hk).

And now, one of my firm's clients, British Airways has come along to offer travel grants worth HK$11 million to 30 small to medium sized businesses in Hong Kong. Simply apply online by clicking on the banner below (or on the button on this blog's sidebar on the right).

Win business travel for a year with the opportunity grant, seize the opportunity for your business now.

This will lead you to BA's grant microsite, where the full terms are listed. Note that the application closes at 11:59pm on 15th January 2010 and is only eligible to companies that employee less than 150 people. If you are selected, your company will get "10 return business class flights to be used in Club Europe and/or Club World between 1 March 2010 and 28 February 2011".

Note from the screenshot below that the site also has icon prompts (using AddThis) to share the offer via Delicious, Twitter, StumbleUpon and, their poor cousin, Facebook!
Full disclosure: British Airways is a client of Fleishman-Hillard, where I lead the digital integration team for Asia. I am not receiving any direct compensation for this post. In fact, I strongly believe in activities like this where commercial entities set up grants as a means of giving back to the community, even if it is a form of marketing.


December 3, 2009

Ending the Year Backstage

Dear Digeratus,

Nicely packed networking session at Web Wednesday HK (V31.0) last night with 120+ guests at our new venue, Backstage Live.

My thanks to those of you who came and listened respectfully to Joanne Ooi (twitter.com/joanneooi), Founder of the Clean Air Network (http://hongkongcan.org/). Joanne appreciated the chance to share her experiences building her worthy (if not, slightly scary) cause via social media and told me that she had "made some great connections last night".

Apologies for last minute cancellation from Admob. Guess you don't want to put a step wrong when the princely sum of US$750M is on the table! Christian Cadeo has promised to make an appearance in Feb or March 2010. He owes us BIG!

Our next mixer is set for Wednesday 6th January and I'm busy locking down one of eBay's biggest power sellers in the Asia Pacific region.

Until we next meet, have a refreshingly human holiday break and promise me you'll disconnect for at least one day. It's good for the soul!

Thanks for all your support through 2009! We're looking forward for an even more socially connected 2010.

Napoleon Biggs
Founder & Host - Web Wednesday

December 1, 2009

Help Clean Up HK's Air!


Given the crescendo of talk about air pollution in Hong Kong, I thought that it would be fitting to invite Joanne Ooi, Founder of the Clean Air Network (www.hongkongcan.org), to Web Wednesday on 2nd December (Final Social Mixer of 2009!) to give us a few words about how her environmental NGO is planning to "clean up HK's filthy air by educating and mobilizing the public about the health impacts of air pollution".


Here's a very powerful - and quite horrific - video that HKCAN has produced, titled "停止呼吸! Breathing Not Allowed (健康空氣行動Clean Air Network)". Not for the faint of heart! You have been warned.

Become part of the movement to clean up our local air, sign the petition now: English | Chinese.
Join the 8,000 plus activists on Facebook (facebook.com/cleanairnetwork) and follow their latest updates on Twitter (@cleanairnetwork).