First 2 Forward - Match 5 (Oct 21st)

Web Wednesday's foray into new events for the Asian Digerati continues with First 2 Forward, the bilingual game show hosted by the multi-talented MC Hyperlink (Pictured in all his eccentric glory below!).
"What is First 2 Forward?" you may ask. MC Hyperlink tells it like this, "It's like a TV game show. It's like a creative department show n' tell. It's like nothing you've ever seen!".

Still don't get it? (I didn't at first!), "First 2 Forward is...Two top creative directors. Five rounds of competition. One event that reveals the freshest, funniest, and freakin' coolest stuff from around the Web". In Cantonese, "First 2 Forward就好像電視遊戲節目一樣，由兩位參加者進行5個回合的比賽，各人需要根據不同的要求，找出最精彩、最搞笑、最貼題的超連結即可。而首次參加比賽的2位參加者均為城中出色的廣告創意總監，且看他們哪一位能勝出首次比賽！"

Tempted? Follow First 2 Forward for the latest updates on Twitter (@first2forward) and come to Match 5 on October 21st (a Wednesday, course!) to watch James Reeves, Creative Director of McCann, battle it out against Jay Oatway (@jayoatway), Tech-Culture Trend Hunter, Digital Journalist, Social Media Evangelist and previous guest speaker at Web Wednesday Hong Kong.

We even have a groovy, bi-lingual email invite, designed by MC Hyperlink's creative crew at MRM Worldwide, that goes out to our 1,800+ members.
From this month on, First 2 Forward will be hosted at the Philia Lounge, 4 Arbuthnot Road, Central. Doors open 8:00pm. Show starts 8:30pm.

Introducing ... celebrity judge crowdsourcing! Be ready to say your piece and put up a score because MC Hyperlink will be diving into the audience to select random judges for every round.

第五回: 2009年10月21日晚上8時Philia Lounge, 中環亞畢諾道4號

AppsXchange Asia - 20% discount

The nice folks at Questex Media, who publish a wide range of B2B magazines (including Telecom Asia, Network World Asia, Computer World Hong Kong and Enterprise Innovation) and run various trade events and conferences, are offering Web Wednesday members a 20% discount off their upcoming event, AppsXchange Asia.


As you can tell from the name, this event will bring together leading lights in the mobile telecoms field to talk about the growing popularity of apps stores and to address the impact of cloud computing on mobile services and business models.

If apps are your thing and you want to rub shoulders with the mobile operators, then register here (don't forget to enter the promotion code "WEWE") to attend the two day event on 16-17th November 2009 at the J.W. Marriot Hotel in Pacific Place, Hong Kong.

[Web Wednesday is an official supporting partner of this event, alongside the Mobile Entertainment Forum, the Mobile Marketing Association, Mobile Monday, the Hong Kong Wireless Development Centre and the Hong Kong Wireless Technology Industry Association.]

Fame and Fortune - Prizes at Web Wednesday!

Hello Future Glitterati,

We've got some fab prizes lined up for the upcoming Web Wednesday on 7th October:

1st Prize: Gift certificate for dinner at trendy new restaurant SOHO8 with either LUMINA stars JuJu Chan or Michael Chan. Gift certificate worth HKD 888, dinner with actor is priceless!

2nd Prize: A walk-on role in Lumina's next YouTube video, featuring LUMINA stars Emilie Guillot and Simon Yin.

3rd Prize: A glossy LUMINA notebook autographed by the cast.

Sign up to let us know you're coming by signing up on Facebook or LinkedIn and turn up on the night to drop your namecard and take your first step towards becoming a Web Celebrity.

Web Wednesday Hong Kong - Social Mixer V29.0 (Oct. 7)

Calling all local Digerati and Glitterati,

This month (Wednesday 7th October), we'll be bringing the glamour of Hollywood movie-making to Web Wednesday!

Our guest speaker will be Jennifer Thym (@jenthym), the writer, director and producer of "Lumina - The Web Series", Hong Kong's 1st foray into distributing and marketing a fantasy thriller via the web.


Jennifer will be joined by members of the cast (actors, videographers, musicians and producers) so don't forget your autograph books! Sign up for the event on Facebook, LinkedIn or via this blog.

LUMINA is free to view on their website (luminaseries.com) and their YouTube Channel (youtube.com/luminaseries). Being very web marketing savvy, Lumina fans can also keep updated via Twitter, Facebook or AliveNotDead. Within two weeks of launching, Jennifer had already signed a distribution deal with KoldCast.tv in the US.

Watch the latest episodes embedded here:



As Jennifer describes it: "Filmed on the RED One and starring JuJu Chan, Michael Chan and Vince Matthew Chung, LUMINA is a dark, densely woven fantasy set against the sparkling backdrop of Hong Kong. Lumina Wong (JuJu Chan) is beautiful but works far too much; although she lives in a city of millions, she still feels lonely and isolated. Late one night, Lumina has a chance encounter with Ryder Lee (Michael Chan), a handsome young man from another world that she can see in mirrors and darkened window reflections. She revels in the fantasy relationship until mirrorspy Eben Sanchez (Jacob Ziacan) comes into her life, warning her of the treacheries of the people of the Dark Realm. Soon Lumina must choose between the safety of the world she knows and the deadly allure of the unknown."

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 meet some talented local artists!

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).

We will donate 10% of entrance fees to Oxfam's relief work in Philipines and Vietnam in the wake of Typhoon Ketsana.

Do invite budding producers and entertainment gurus to join the Asian Digerati on Wednesday 7th October at Volar, Basement, 38-44 D'Aguilar Street, Lan Kwai Fong, Central.

Guy Kawasaki is the Jackie Chan of VC

It's been incredible how many people have been begging me for a recording of Guy Kawasaki's recent guest appearance at Web Wednesday in Hong Kong. I've been hit on from Twitter, email, Facebook...you name it.

So, here it is. The moment you've all been waiting for...Guy Kawasaki in action!

He spoke for two hours so Belle Liu of Beansbox had to chop her recording (filmed on a Flip video recorder) into two sections. Thanks for your help with this, Belle.

Impromptu Gathering at Web Wednesday Hong Kong - Guy Kawasaki (Part 1)



Impromptu Gathering at Web Wednesday Hong Kong - Guy Kawasaki (Part 2)



I'd like to personally thank Guy for being such a great sport and sparing two full hours of his valuable time to come and share his life experiences and quick wit with the Hong Kong Digerati!

Star Appearance: Guy Kawasaki at Web Wednesday Hong Kong

Calling all Hong Kong Digerati!

Apologies for the short notice but I've only today confirmed that we will have the pleasure of speaking with Guy Kawasaki, Start-up / Marketing / Tech / Blog / VC star, who happens to be in Hong Kong for a few days.

On Wednesday 16th September at 6:30pm, we'll meet at the usual place, Volar Bar & Club, Basement, 38-44 D'Aguilar Street, Lan Kwai Fong, Central. So please turn up early if you want to put your questions directly to Guy. Within half a day, we already have 100 confirmations, so please let us know you're coming by signing up on Facebook or this blog.

My friend, the ever astute Belle Liu of Beansbox says:

Definitely a must-go event! Especially if you're interested in these topics:
* Innovation and product development.
* Entrepreneurship
* Intrapreneurship
* Evangelism, sales, and marketing
* Technology trends
* Competition (how to drive your competition crazy)

Here's his official (more formal) bio:

"Guy Kawasaki is a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm and a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine. Previously, he was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc. Guy is the author of nine books including Reality Check, The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way. He has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College".

But I prefer the more personal way he introduces himself, under "My Real Story". Some poignant extracts that will ring true with anyone who lives in Asia:

"I was born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1954. My family lived in a tough part of Honolulu called Kalihi Valley. We weren’t rich, but I never felt poor-because my mother and father made many sacrifices for my sister and me. My mother was a housewife, and my father was, at various times, a fireman, real estate broker, state senator, and government official.

...After Stanford, I attended the law school at UC Davis because, like all Asian American parents, my folks wanted me to be a “doctor, lawyer, or dentist.” I only lasted one week because I couldn’t deal with the law school teachers telling me that I was crap and that they were going to remake me.

...Luckily, my Stanford roommate, Mike Boich, got me a job at Apple. When I saw what a Macintosh could do, the clouds parted and the angels started singing.

...In 1995 I returned to Apple as an Apple fellow. At the time, according to the pundits, Apple was supposed to die again. (Apple should have died about ten times in the past twenty years according to the pundits.) My job on this tour of duty was to maintain and rejuvenate the Macintosh cult.

...Currently, I’m a founding partner at Garage and co-founder of Alltop as well as a husband, father, author, speaker, and hockey addict. Alltop is an online magazine rack that I hope you’ll check out—you’ll probably enjoy Innovation.alltop, for example. I’ve also written nine books. My latest is Reality Check. You can read about my other eight books here."

More on Wikipedia and his blog. Guy also regularly tweets and has over 170,000 followers on Twitter (@guykawasaki). He humbly describes himself on his Twitter profile as "I am a firehose that answers the question: What's interesting? Co-founder of Alltop".

I've been a fan of Alltop for a while and have used the China News Page (below) for a while.

Barcamp HK 2009 - Grass Roots Internet Event

As a co-organiser of Barcamp Hong Kong (#barcamphk), I am proud to say that we successfully brought together a wide cross-section of the tech, design and start-up community for our 3rd annual unconference in Hong Kong. My tagline for this event was "dip into the grass-roots net community in Hong Kong". I should have said "dive" as we were truly consumated by the talks and all the fascinating people you get to meet at such a laid-back event.

I was going to devote time to writing a long blog post but then my fellow co-organiser, Aaron Farr (CubicleMuses.com), invited me to work from his summary. In following with true Creative Commons principles, I've provided a slightly altered ("mashed-up") version below. (Thanks, Aaron!)

This year over 300 campers attended 35 sessions on 12 September at Turner International’s beautiful offices in Quarry Bay. Topics ranged from iPhones to ethics in social media. Microsoft provided an XBox which went to the most popular presenter of the day, Kin Ko for his session on mobile gaming in China. River Ho walked away with an iPhone 3GS from Pinpoint Asia.

But prizes aside, the whole day was fantastic and left me (us all!) exhausted. This was definitely our best barcamp yet. Read on for links, photos, and notes from the day.

Google Wave

Aaron did a packed session on Google Wave, for which I got to play around with live! For those who want more info, check out:

• Sign up for Google Wave (includes video)


• Wave Protocol website


• Wave APIs & code


• Aaron's diagram of wave protocols

If you have a Wave account, you can find this tech guru at jaaron@wavesandbox.com

Links

We’ll add more as I find them:

• Facebook event with photos


• BarCamp Wiki


• Photos on Flickr


• Tweets


• Belle’s videos on Blip.TV
  
  
  
  • the Lumina session [Lumina website]
  
  
  • the iPhone forum
  
  
  • Bill’s Go Indie video
  
  
  • River’s Analytics session
  
  
  • William’s iPhone developer session
  
  
  • Google Wave Part 1 and Part 2


• Andrei’s slides from his HK Government funding for startups session


• Ben’s slides on Pylons + Tokyo Cabinet


• Video of Kin Ko’s winning talk on Mobile games in China


• Andy’s links from his session on open source design


• Hitchhiker’s Guide to Startup Survival slides


• Poken made a splash


• Preetam Rai’s Travel 4 Web 2.0 slides


• Bill’s blog on his Go Indie session


• Alan Knowles’ review on his blog, “Smoking toooooo much PHP”


• Sammy Fung wrote about his session on GoGoGo (English Version)

Sessions

Here’s a copy of the final schedule for the day.

Many, many thanks to all those who made BarCamp HK possible, especially the other organizers, Aaron, Belle, Ben and Henry, and to all the sponsors who generously gave us support: Turner, Microsoft, Adobe, Net Dimensions, Cyberport, Pinpoint Asia, DediPower, Dookas and Socialutions.

And of course, barcamp couldn’t exist if it weren’t for everyone who attended and participated. Thanks to everyone who shared a session and put up with me moving sessions around.

Get Involved

If you know of any other barcamp hk links please add them in the comments.

If you’re interested in getting involved in barcamp hk next year, then please add your name to the wiki. We’re always looking for more volunteers and sponsors. And please leave feedback (here or on the wiki). What would you like to see next year? What worked well? What didn’t? Personally, I’d love to see barcamp reach a broader audience of participants from film, art, and music industries.And if you liked barcamp hk, then don’t forget to attend other barcamps in Asia. Preetam Rai has a great weblog featuring barcamps in south east Asia. BarCamp Phnom Penh is coming up next month.

And a picture of me with my Flip video recorded taken by the lovely Ryanne (@laihui), who blogs at NiceSoda.com.