Special Member Offer: One Month Free Hosting with DediPower!

As a follow up to their generous sponsorship of Web Wednesday HK's 2 Year Anniversary (May '09), DediPower (www.dedipower.asia) is now offering our members One Month's Free Hosting.

All you need to do is contact Kheng Sim on (852) 3185-0688 and commit to a 12-month contract of their 100% uptime managed hosting services. You've got until 31st August to take up this opportunity, so Power up on Dedi now!

You can follow them on Twitter (twitter.com/dedipower). According to their groovy interface, their most recent client is knowhownonprofit.org, a knowledge base for "everything and everyone you need to know to run a non-profit". Good on yer!

Podcast: Benjamin Grubbs, Turner Entertainment

Thanks to the able (and patient) ears of Henry Oh, Co-Founder of Socialutions and the Hong Kong Start-up Association, we can now bring you the upgraded audio recording of my interview with Benjamin Grubbs, Regional Head of Interactive Media for Turner Entertainment Networks Asia, owners of Cartoon Network Asia.

Benjamin refutes the rumour that ecommerce is not booming in Asia and gives us insight on Turner's ventures into online gaming (Ben 10, Tom & Jerry and other cartoon characters), new forms of interactive education (Mathletics), user-generated cartoons (ToonCreator), virtual merchandise and creative ways for content owners to work with advertisers online.

Recorded at Web Wednesday Hong Kong V26.0 at Volar in Lan Kwai Fong on Thursday 2nd July, 2009.

Web Wednesday - Social Mixer V27.0 (Aug 5)

Calling Hong Kong Digerati!

A shout out to Ben Grubbs for being a highly informative and savvy guest at our July mixer. We'll be posting the podcast to this blog and our podcast channel (podcasts.webwednesday.hk) within the next few days.

Our next networking event will be on Wednesday 5th August, where apart from meeting some great people, you'll have a chance to listen to Leon Ho (leonho.com), local Internet pioneer and founder of Stepcase, who own the popular international productivity blog, “Lifehack.org”


and have developed several iPhone apps.


From the Lifehack.org website, "This site is dedicated to lifehacks...hacks, tips and tricks that get things done quickly by automating, increase (sic) productivity and organizing... endorsed by many major newspapers and publishers...rated in the #100 most popular blog by Technorati."

We'll be talking about how to get things done in a digitally-cluttered world, how to survive the daily demands of social media (and still keep your job!) as well as how to successfully port your business to the iPhone.

Leon obviously practices what he preaches as, given all his entrepreneurial endeavours, he still finds time to tweet, blog, post photos to Flickr and share interesting website links on del.icio.us. And if you want to get to know him more, you can view his profile on LinkedIn, bug him on Facebook as well as track him down on FriendFeed.

The night kicks off at 6:30pm and ends around 9:30pm, so you'll have plenty of opportunity to mix with the movers and shakers of our local Internet and global blogging communities.

There will be an entrance fee of HK$100, unless you're a bona-fide student, in which case it's HK$50. This includes one complimentary drink. All other drinks are at Happy Hour prices. (We will issue a receipt, if you require one). As per usual, we will donate 10% of entrance fees to a local charity (this time, we're looking at Oxfam's local programmes).

Do invite fellow GTD practitioners to join the Asian Digerati on Wednesday 5th August at Volar Bar & Club, Basement, 38-44 D'Aguilar Street, Lan Kwai Fong, Central.

Sign up for the event on Facebook, LinkedIn or on this blog.

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

Hej där!

Napoleon Biggs
Founder & Host - Web Wednesday

Podcast: Top100.cn - Gary Chen

If you missed Gary Chen, CEO of Top100.cn, guest speaker at our most recent social mixer (June 3) in Hong Kong, here's your chance to listen to the podcast.

I must admit that Gary was a quite challenge to interview as he held his cards very tightly to his chest. Nevertheless, it's worth a listen as - apart from hearing me speak Mandarin - Gary does admit to the difficulties being faced by music companies in China and explains how he sees Top100.cn's partnership with Google ("Google Music") becoming an advertising-driven role model for websites in other parts of the world. May they succeed!



A shout out to Henry Oh, for spending what little spare time he has to take this recording up a notch in terms of sound quality. Henry was a previous guest speaker at Web Wednesday Hong Kong and is the co-founder of Socialutions and the Hong Kong Start-Up Association.

Podcast: Freestyle Beatboxing - HeartGrey and Anton

We warmed up the crowd - and really got Victor going! - with two local lads who performed freestyle beatboxing at the last Web Wednesday social mixer in June.

At first sight, they looked like two normal, timid high-school kids but...with a microphone in their hands, they became the groovy artists, known as "HeartGrey" and "Anton".

Listen to their performance by clicking on the play button below.



Many thanks again to Henry Oh, for editing out all the background noise and making a recording in a nighclub sound so good. Henry was a previous guest speaker at Web Wednesday Hong Kong and is the co-founder of Socialutions and the Hong Kong Start-Up Association.

Web Wednesday - Social Mixer V26.0 (July 2)

Calling all Hong Kong Digerati and cartoon lovers!

Due to the public holiday on July 1st (Hong Kong Handover Anniversary), we'll be moving Web Wednesday to THURSDAY 2nd July.

Topic: "Ben 10: creating a new multimedia cartoon empire", interview with Benjamin Grubbs, Regional Head of Interactive Media for Turner Entertainment Networks Asia (owners of Cartoon Network Asia).

We'll be talking about online gaming, new forms of interactive education, user-generated cartoons, virtual merchandise and creative ways for content owners to work with advertisers online.

The night kicks off at 6:30pm and ends around 9:30pm, so you'll have plenty of opportunity to mix with the movers and shakers of our local Internet and global entertainment industries.

There will be an entrance fee of HK$100, unless you're a bona-fide student, in which case it's HK$50. This includes one complimentary drink. All other drinks are at Happy Hour prices. (We will issue a receipt, if you require one). In fitting with the theme, we will donate 10% of entrance fees to a children's charity.

Do invite fellow Generation Z marketeers to join the Asian Digerati on Thursday 2nd July at Volar Bar & Club, Basement, 38-44 D'Aguilar Street, Lan Kwai Fong, Central, Hong Kong.

Sign up for the event on Facebook or on this blog.

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

Napoleon Biggs
Founder & Host - Web Wednesday

Web Wednesday Goes Gaming in Cantonese

After two years of building a buzzing community of English-speaking Digerati who meet monthly for "Web Wednesday", I'm proud to announce our venture into the local creative community with a new spin-off event in Cantonese.

"First2Forward" is a fun idea that came from Brent Horner, Associate Creative Director of MRM Worldwide. (I kowtow to his fluent "Pak Hwa"!).

Here's our wall banner with it's Chinese slogan - “搶先傳世界”. (Do you get the pun?):


First2Forward is a fast-paced game show. Two top creative directors, battling it out over five rounds of competition. One event that reveals the freshest, funniest, and freakin' coolest stuff from around the Web.

First 2 Forward就是由城中兩位出色的創意總監，進行五個回合的激戰，誓要以最快速度，將網上最千奇百怪、搞鬼惹笑、怪誕瘋狂的網上資料公諸同好！

Web Wednesday - First 2 Forward Game Show

View more Microsoft Word documents from Napoleon Biggs.

Join us the third Wednesday of every month to find out who's got the hottest links in Hong Kong.

比賽將於每個月的第三個星期三舉行，想知道哪一位參加者能夠找到最多網上人氣連結？立即參加就可以！

Match #1 features Thierry Halbroth, Sr CD, McCann Erickson Vs. Mark Ringer, ECD, TBWA\Tequila and will be held on June 17th at Volar, starting at 8pm (creative types like to go out later!).

Sign up on Facebook. (Below is the email we sent out to the Web Wednesday members as well as the HK4As member list).

I'd like to thank Adobe for their support and for providing their creative suite of design tools as valuable prizes: Adobe Creative Suite 4 Premium and Photoshop Lightroom 2. Great prizes from Adobe!

Let's get forwarding! 傳世界吧！

(Yes Victor, we've finally got there! Thanks for pushing for an event in Chinese and for helping get the word out on HongKongPhooey.wrodpress.com)