Social Mixer V48.0: CNNGo - A Travel Start-up!

Calling all Asian Digerati!

As the summer holidays are around the corner, it's time to talk travel. So this month we are interviewing CNNGo, a travel start-up born here in Hong Kong.

Our guest speaker will be Andrew Demaria, Editor-in-Chief of CNNGo,Turner International’s Asia-based online travel and lifestyle platform, which launched in late 2009. Based in Hong Kong, he manages a team of 18 staff and oversees more than 500 freelance contributors across nine countries, with sites in four languages (Traditional Chinese (Hong Kong), Simplified Chinese (Shanghai), Japanese (Tokyo) and English (across Asia). Follow CNNGo on Twitter (@cnngo), become a fan on Facebook or join the Group on LinkedIn. They don't have a presence on the Chinese social media yet.

Our 48th social mixer (only two more 'till we reach 50!) will take place at Volar Club on Wednesday 8th June from 6:30pm to 9:30pm with the talk/interview starting at 7:15pm. Venue is Volar, 38-44 D'Aguilar Street, Lan Kwai Fong, Central, Hong Kong.

Let us know you're coming by signing up on Facebook or this blog.

As per usual, there's a HK$100 entrance fee, including one complimentary drink, a free talk, high-quality networking and the chance to win lucky draw prizes, including some highly desirable CNNGo swag!

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 special happy hour prices.

This month we continue to donate 10% of entrance fees to the Japanese Red Cross. (Read our earlier post about donation options).

Looking forward to meeting many new faces and welcoming old friends and inspired travel bloggers!

Thank you, Gerd Leonhard

A massive "Thank you!" to Gerd Leonhard for proving that he truly is a "media futurist" and for sharing his predictions on the future of selling entertainment at last night's social mixer.

For once, I didn't have to quieten down the audience as Gerd's talk kept everyone in mesmerised silence!

Not only is he a futurist but also a savvy marketeer; just look at this screen capture of Twitter to see him in action promoting last night's talk.

And here are his slides, hosted on Slideshare (slideshare.net/gleonhard) or download them from Owly. Until today, I had no idea that Hootsuite hosted documents in the cloud! (Thanks again, Gerd).

Selling Entertainment Online: The Future (WebWednesday Hong Kong)

View more presentations from Gerd Leonhard

Discounted tickets to Digital Matters 2011

Digital Matters (digitalmatters.asia), our promotional partners for this month's social mixer are generously offering 20% discounted tickets to attend their conference on the monetisation of video content on 24-25 May in Singapore.

Sign up here to enjoy this offer.

They are also offering one complimentary ticket (worth US$1,099) for our lucky draw. So come along to meet the local digerati, hear Gerd Leonhard predict the future of selling entertainment and win the prize!

Social Mixer V47.0: "The Future of Selling Entertainment Online"

Calling all Asian Digerati!

On May 4th, we have teamed up with Digital Matters to bring you a one of the leading media futurists in the world, Gerd Leonhard, CEO of TheFuturesAgency.

On his Twitter account (@gleonhard), Gerd describes himself as "Keynote Speaker, Think-Tank Leader, Futurist, Author & Strategist, Idea Curator, Occasional Heretic and Visiting Professor FDC Brazil". Download his free books from here.

Gerd will talk about the dramatic changes in our consumption of media and entertainment and why and how people will pay for it. He will define some of the megatrends (globally and with a special focus on Asia) and share some of the key foresights he has gained in working with over 100 clients.

Our 47th social mixer will take place at Volar from 6:30pm to 9:30pm with the talk/interview starting at 7:15pm. Venue is Volar, 38-44 D'Aguilar Street, Lan Kwai Fong, Central, Hong Kong.

Let us know you're coming by signing up on Facebook or this blog.

As per usual, there's a HK$100 entrance fee, including one complimentary drink, a free talk, high-quality networking and the chance to win lucky draw prizes, including complimentary tickets to Digital Matters Conference in Singapore, 24-25 May 2011.

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 special happy hour prices.

This month we continue to donate 10% of entrance fees to the Japanese Red Cross. (Read our earlier post about donation options).

Looking forward to meeting many new faces and welcoming old friends and budding future gazers!

Tonight: Lucky draw prizes from Zhuhai

Our guest speaker for tonight's Web Wednesday Social Mixer, JJ Verdun, is generously donating some hyperlocal prizes for the lucky draw. So come along to Volar (6:30pm - (9:30pm) and drop your namecard in the bowl at the door (sorry, we gave up on the SMS contest a while back!) and you could be the lucky winner of one of the following:

3rd Prize: 2 tickets for the Beishan World Music Festival, held in a little village within Zhuhai on Saturday 23rd April.

2nd Prize: Dinner voucher for new Mediterranean Restaurant, Azur, in Zhuhai. See photos on Deltabridges.com or watch the background video below:



1st Prize: Room for two people at the Holiday Inn Zhuhai, the only international chain hotel in the city.

Bridge the Pearl River Delta on April 13

珠三角的同胞们！ Calling all fellow Pearl River Deltoids!

For our gathering this month, we are joined by Jean-Jacques Verdun, Founder of Delta Bridges Media who publish deltabridges.com. JJ will share with us how he has built a successful business community in the Pearl River Delta and how he plans to take over the networking scene in Macau!

JJ is also the organiser of Macau After Work (join the Facebook Group) and in 2010 launched the Beishan International Jazz Festival which has now morphed into the Beishan World Music Festival.

This month's Web Wednesday HK Social Mixer is on 13th April and will start at 6:30pm and wind up around 9:30pm, with the talk/interview starting at 7:15pm. Venue is Volar 38-44 D'Aguilar Street, Lan Kwai Fong, Central, Hong Kong. Let us know you're coming by signing up on Facebook or this blog.

As per usual, there's a HK$100 entrance fee, including one complimentary drink and the chance to win lucky draw prizes. 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 special happy hour prices.

This month we are donating 10% of entrance fees to the Japanese Red Cross (read the previous post about donation options).

Looking forward to meeting many new faces and welcoming old friends from across the delta!

Next gathering on April 13

Due to a tight travel schedule, I've had to postponed this month's social mixer until Wednesday 13th April. Once the speaker is confirmed, I'll set up an invite on Facebook (Group and Page), and share it via Twitter (@webwednesday) and LinkedIn.

In the meantime, see if you can spot yourself at the March event (see previous blog post) where our guest speaker was the CEO of Groupon Hong Kong, the company formerly (or still?) known as "uBuyiBuy" (their Twitter handle remains as @uBuyiBuy_HK):