Discounts for Omni-Channel Retailing Conference

Event organisers, Diversified Communications, will be joining the upcoming Web Wednesday social mixer to say a few words about the Omni-Channel Retailing Conference, held at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre on 9th and 10th June, 2015.

For the lucky draw on the night, they are generously offering a full delegate pass, valued at HK$10,500 for non-retailers and HK$3,500 for retailers.
For all Web Wednesday regulars, you can get 50% off by using code "#OCR15WW" when you register here.
I've had the pleasure of speaking at the last two conferences (see photo below) and I continue to be impressed by the calibre of the attendee, all C-suite retailers looking to tap into this new phenomenon in cross-channel retail.

My new venture in innovative software for multi-channel retailers, purecomm, was launched at last year's Retail Asia Expo (Diversified's main exhibition space), with a booth designed to look like a boutique! Yes, our software stood out from the typical ecommerce software vendor outlay.

AlphaSphere to play at Web Wednesday

Wicked last minute news!

AlphaSphere, the award-winning expressive musical football, will make a special appearance with a live performance at the upcoming Web Wednesday on April 1st. Who said networking was boring!

Inventor Adam Place came up with the idea at university after growing bored with conventional keyboards to play synthesized music.

"On a keyboard, the keys are just controllers, they're not really like notes on a piano," he said. "But with the AlphaSphere, the notes change as you press harder and harder, you really engage with the instrument, and you can perform with it."



Adam is generously offering an AlphaSphere me (worth US$199) as a lucky draw prize for the event so come along and drop your namecard at the door. Web Wednesday members get a reduced price for the AlphaSphere nexusseries, a more metallic upgrade.

Follow AlphaSphere on Twitter (@alphasphere), Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

Watch/listen to Jason Hou (侯珺硕 ), a young composer from Beijing, make the musical ball sing.

Nixplay at Web Wednesday Hong Kong (V94)

Mark your diaries for our 94th social mixer on 1st April , 2015 from 6:30pm - 9:00pm at Orange Peel, 2/F, Ho Lee Comm Bldg, 38-44 D'Aguilar Street, Central, Hong Kong.

We'll be talking about the Internet of Things with Mark Palfreeman, Founder & CEO of Nixplay, the #1 best selling cloud photo frame on Amazon US. His tech team are credited with winning the AWS Internet of Things 2014 Hackathon in Las Vegas.

We'll learn from Mark why he started this business in Hong Kong and how he is merging the tech and marketing know-how of this city with the production capabilities of our Chinese compatriots across the border.

See who else is attending on our Facebook and MeetUp event pages.

If you're up for a challenge, Nixplay and Invest Hong Kong will host the Asian Internet of Things Hackathon in Hong Kong later this year.

Follow Nixplay on Twitter, Facebook, Google or LinkedIn.

Entrance fee of HK$100 includes one free drink and the chance to rub shoulders with the smartest fools in Hong Kong (it is April Fool's Day, after all).

Watch Mark being interviewed on Bloomberg below (link here):



And here is a short intro to the whole Nixplay cloud photo frame offering...

Podcast: Digital Marketing Predictions 2015

Over 240 people attended our last social mixer! Who would have thought that fortune telling was so popular! In this case, it was more about predicting the future of digital marketing in 2015.

If you missed the interview, feel free to sit down with a warm cup of coffee (or ice cold whiskey) and take your time to digest the wise words of our panel of experts, David Ketchum from D+D, Vincent Lau from Deckers, Winnie Cheng from an FMCG and Dominic Allon from Google.

Digital Marketing Predictions 2015

Mark your diaries for our 93rd social mixer on 28th January, 2015 from 6:30pm - 9:30pm at Club 18, 18-20 Lyndhurst Terrace, Central, Hong Kong.

We’ve lined up a fine selection of industry luminaries to kick off an unpredictable evening of forecasting digital marketing trends in 2015.

Our guest futurists for the evening are:

• Dominic Allon, Managing Director of Google Hong Kong
• Vincent Lau, eCommerce Director for Deckers (Asia Pacific)
• Winnie Cheng, Assistant eBusiness Manager for Colgate Palmolive (Asia)
• David Ketchum, Chairman of the Digital + Direct Marketing Association of Asia

Sign up via Facebook or MeetUp. (We charge HK$100 at the door to cover the venue and soothe your palate with one complimentary drink). Our events have a reputation for a good night of learning, networking and the best of British wit!

To whet everyone’s appetite, here are my predictions for the year:

• Online advertising will become programatic and personal, but only a handful of brands and agencies will understand how to leverage it.
• Social media will find a way to convert buzz into bucks, led by the Asian networks.
• Mobile payment will become the norm in China, the USA will seek desperately to catch up.
• Fashion brands will realise that shoppers are ready for omni-channel retail.
• The media houses will take back content and find new ways to monetise it.
• Big data will become big insights but humans will remain unpredictable!

This event is presented in association with the Digital + Direct Marketing Association Asia, a renewed and revamped industry association that brings together the best of the Asia Digital Marketing Association, the Hong Kong Direct Marketing Association, HK Social and other affiliate digital, mobile and marketing industry groups from around the region.

Lolita Taub at Web Wednesday Hong Kong (V92)

Join us on Wednesday 3rd December for an impromptu gathering with Lolita Taub, who left her cushy software sales job at IBM USA, to travel the world in search of fellow female entrepreneurs.

By the time that Lolita reaches our shores, she will have interviewed 20 female entrepreneurs in 7 countries for her YouTube channel, "The #F Show". We're looking forward to hearing the inside story of a new tribe that she calls, "female millennial future entrepreneurs", or "femfupreneurs" for short! You can find Lolita on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.

Doors open at 6:30pm on Wednesday 3rd December at Club 18, 18 Lyndhurst Terrace, Central. All types welcome, especially those who fancy themselves as female entrepreneurs or eager mentors.

You can turn up on the night or, if you want to see who else is coming...sign up via Facebook or MeetUp.

The entrance fee of HK$100 includes a complimentary drink and the chance to rub shoulders with the future (and current) moves and groovers in the tech start-up and digital media industries in Hong Kong.

Who knows? If you're a true "go-getter", Lolita might even want to interview you for her show.

Come disrupt and release your inner geek!

BarcampHK is back!

Hong Kong's biggest user-generated unconference is back on 15th November at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in Shatin, New Territories.

Started back in December 2007 by Angus Lau, Steve Fleischer, Napoleon Biggs, Aaron Farr, Marcel Ekkel, Mikael Öhrén and Ben Lee with the first gathering in the Yahoo! offices in Causeway Bay, the event has now grown to over 600 local geeks, entrepreneurs, activists, artists, social commentators and thinkers who come together for one day to share their passion and tech knowledge in a relaxed, multi-lingual atmosphere.

Find info about past BarcampHK events on this blog (not all, unfortunately), the Wiki page and Flickr (2007 and 2008 and others). Find barcamp on Facebook and Twitter.

A GIANT SHOUT-OUT to Ben Lee and Belle Liu who make this event such as success every year.

If you're curious to learn more about the grass-roots of tech creativity in Hong Kong, put aside all your weekend obligations and head over to the Esther Lee Building at the Chinese University of Hong Kong on Saturday 15th November, 2014.

Register only at barcamp.hk and get your hands on a free lunch, stickers, freebies, beer and more!!

The agenda is loose, like all good "un-conferences" but here is a structure that you can work to.