Communication Shutdown Revealed

Make your donation to Autism charities around the world here.

Facebook fatique? Come Shutdown!

Something mysterious is afoot. And it happening on October 1st. No. it's not the anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China...it's to do with addiction... [Correction: I've been fooled, it's actually happening on November 1st. Keep your eyes peeled!]




Visit Communications Shutdown on the web, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Pumping soundtrack by star DJ David Guetta.

Magic - Web Wednesday hits 40!

Web Wednesday has hit 40 (months old)! To celebrate, we will have the funniest magician in Hong Kong, Andy Comic (andycomic.com), wooing the audience with his bilingual, impromptu show at our next social mixer on Thursday 16th September. [Yes, Web Wednesday is in denial but we couldn't afford the red sports car so thought that magic would fit in nicely with the topic of "The Dark Art of Search". Besides, Andy tells me that when he's not doing magic, he's programming PHP!]

The Dark Side of Search - Social Mixer V40.0 (Sept 16)

Calling all Asian Searcharati!

On the back of all these global search gurus attending the SES Conference in Hong Kong, I've invited a special guest, Max Sim, the ex-head of search for Rupert Murdoch's news and real estate empire to speak with us about the "The Dark Side of Search" at Web Wednesday - Social Mixer V40.0 on Thursday 16th September, 2010.

Whilst at News Corp, Max worked on the following real estate sites: realestate.com.au, propertyfinder.com, propertyfinder.ae, squarefoot.com.hk, realcommercial.com.au, casa.it, athomelorraine.fr, athomealsace.de and athome.lu.


We accept SEO/SEM virgins and black hat practitioners. White hats are asked to come under cover, just in case there is trouble! Sign up on Facebook or this blog to let us know that you're coming so that we can warn the bouncers.

As per always, we kick off at 6:30pm and wind up around 9:30pm at Volar Bar & Club, Basement, 38-44 D'Aguilar Street, Lan Kwai Fong, Central, Hong Kong. Do come early as we may have a special performance lined up.

Discounts for SES Hong Kong

Search Engine Strategies ("SES"), the world-renowned conference on search and social marketing, is coming to Hong Kong on September 13 and 14th, 2010!

Organized and programmed by the SES Advisory Board and SearchEngineWatch.com, the conference will be packed with sessions covering PPC management, keyword research, SEO, social media, local, mobile, link building, duplicate content, multiple site issues, video optimization and usability, plus networking events, parties and more.

We've negotiated a special discount rate for our members of 25% off (Sorry, the correct discount is 30% off, even better!). So instead of paying the regular US$995 for the 2-day conference, you'll pay US$746.25. Book your tickets now by visiting seshongkong.com and entering the code, "SESWW2", in the booking form.

Incisive Events, the owners of SESHK, are also generously sponsoring the top prize (a free delegate pass worth US$746.25!) at tomorrow's Web Wednesday social mixer so do come along to mix with the local Digerati, Searcharati, Twitterati and Social Media Gurus.

You can also follow SESHK on Facebook or Twitter (@sesconf_asia). The event hashtag is "#seshk", track it here. A first for a conference in Asia - a list of the speakers active on Twitter. I'm sure there will be plenty more firsts at this event.

I'll be moderating a panel on "Search & Social Games Goes Mobile" at 12:10 on Tuesday 14th. See the full agenda here.

Next Social Mixer on 25th August - Data Privacy

Calling All Asia Digerati,

Apologies for the last minute notice but I've had to postpone this month's gathering until Wednesday 25th August.

It'll be worth the wait...as the topic is "Data Privacy - does it really exist on the Internet?"

Our guest speaker will be Charles Mok, outspoken advocate of data privacy, well-known local internet entrepreneur and founder of the HK Internet Service Providers Association.

Read more about Charles on Wikipedia in English or Chinese. Read his blog - Charlesmok.blogspot.com (mostly in Chinese) or follow him across the internet on Twitter, Facebook, SlideShare, YouTube and Flickr. That's not the half of it, you can also find him on Sina Blogs (blog.sina.com.cn/charlesmok) and Sina Weibo (t.sina.com.cn/charlespmok), where has more 19,500 fans!

I'm working on another guest who will add some gun-powder to the evening so keep your Facebook eyes open.

See you on 25th August! Sign up on Facebook so we know you're coming.

Napoleon Biggs
Founder & Host - Web Wednesday

StartUp Saturday HK - Aug 7

Just when you thought that the web had run out of alliterations, along comes "StartUp Saturday", Hong Kong's answer to the TechCrunch 50. This first-time event is already over-subscribed but, if you've got a great new idea, why not turn up?

Casey and his clan have done a great job with this event and recruited a fine selection of successful local ex-start-ups as speakers and budding entrepreneurs to showcase at the event in Cyberport on Saturday 7th August 2010.

If you want to network before or after you get there - or simply listen and learn -you can chase these entrepreneurial types down on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and their Posterous blog.

Casey has also started work on a list of local technology start-ups.