The Hub: http://the-hub.net/

It’s kinda like a gym membership but you work on your business, project, but not your body. And, you meet all kinds of people. Unlike a gym, they don’t distract you with their curves, grunts, or stares.

So cozy. Library. Kitchenette.

IOh, check out the wood on this guy.

It’s actually rolled up card board with a flat board on it. This hub is packed with this thing. Doesn’t look too expensive to make eh. But very nice.

And, you can rent meeting rooms with plenty of sunlight! Helps you grow.

Me chilling out with the heater. It’s like 2 degrees right now in London.

For a small space (2000 sq ft) it’s incredibly well used.

And… This is how the hub makes money.

This business model allows it to span all over the place!

Isreal, Berkeley, etc.. when is it Kuala Lumpur’s turn?

Watch this space… ;)

Think about it.

Maybe major events to change your life, were orchestrated in days. Major changes in your life, perhaps happened in moments of decision. Or waves of massive action.

This is true, at least for me.

So, naturally, I got curious… how many power moves I could make by the end of 2009?

I mean, I had a great year. Easily my best. But I really wanted to nail it good. But. So there I was with 5 days left, and Christmas Eve party hangover. What could I do?

I started with the only thing I knew. Penning my thoughts down on a list. Then, I got to work:

1. Learned the ukulele (I can play most chords and a few songs now, wrote one of my own songs too)
2. “Acquired” 7GB of new music to lay the soundtrack for 2010
3. Spent a full day’s worth of quality time with mom and dad (hard to come by)
4. Renovation! Turned my room into a creativity and rest zone (formerly known as war zone). Turned the outside of my room into a hardcore work zone (proven productivity, I tested it!)
5. Done a whole bunch of nagging office work
6. Printed out, designed, and put up my vision board to remind myself of the aspirations which guide me.
7. Got back on my usual (but improved) fitness addictions with a bang!
8. Designed a flyer for a legendary party (totally got in flow… loved it. Pointless creative expression… ah…)
9. Threw a legendary party to celebrate life as we know it

Man. The party was SO last minute. But it really came together way beyond my expectations!

Thanks to Jenn, Gabby, and a whole bunch of friends I don’t see very often but still trust me enough to ditch their plans for a quirky mixed bag of crazy…. we had a good one.

Highlight: Turns out Gabby’s friends from Canada and I grew up with the same anthems and when they took over the playlist, it was heaven all night long. And Jenn turned plain eggs and mayo and vegetables into some designer food OMG give me more! And the people, the jokes, the dancing, the conversation… ah… I’ll let the vivid pictures and videos crop up on Facebook. Let me get back to my point.

Admittedly, I failed to record an EP and publish a compilation of short stories on absurdity. But can’t hate a man for trying right? I’m still pretty proud of what I achieved to top off 2009 as the best year of my life.

So much cool stuff in 5 days…

And I know I’m not the only one.

Many of us are truly fortunate enough, to live in an age where were so connected, so full of ideas, energy, opportunities, and control. Our potential is limitless. And to think, all it takes is action. A few days of consistent, addictive action. Only a few days… and we can have so much immediate positive changes in our lives…

Wonder what will we be able to do with the whole of 2010? ;)

How fast did the past 100 days slip by?

Say your age is 25

If you think you’ll live till 75, this means you have 18,000+ days left to live.

Having fun in your youth? You’ve got 5,000+ days till you hit 40.

Not sure when you might die? Who knows how many days you have left…

So. Out of all the days ahead of you… how many are you dedicating to being unhappy or uninspired?

Count your life in days… and maybe you’ll make today count :)

Untitled pixel sketch by Khailee

By Chris Carlson/Associated Press

Barack Obama speaking in Portland, Oregon. “The most spectacular setting for the most spectacular crowd” of the campaign.

When we do YOUTH’10, we’re going to get some of these goose bump giving photos.

Photo adapted from Thinkpanama

Imagine this: RM30 million is yours. All yours.

How will you invest it? Think big playa. Big playas usually think for a moment before they invest RM30 million. So I’ll give you a moment to think.

Yes. Invest RM30 million in a smart way. What will you do…

What was that?

Buy 2 giant pandas?

Pandas you say. Hmm. 2 giant pandas. You’re thinking ‘out of the box’. I like that. Sounds like a plan. Let’s buy 2 giant pandas then.

JEEZ LOUSIE I GIVE YOU RM30 MILLION AND YOU BUY 2 GIANT PANDAS guess what sis that’s what Zoo Negara plans to do with RM30 million See the article on theStar.

Wait wow wow wait wait… let’s not jump to conclusions here! There’s more to the story.

First, let’s get our facts right.

In Zoo Negara’s defence, they’re not going to spend RM30 million just 2 giant pandas. They know exactly what they’re doing.

From the article in the Star:

… Malaysia was eyeing the giant pandas, ringtail lemurs, white tigers, and golden monkeys from Chinese zoos. “On our end, we might be sending them our milky storks and painted storks, and other animals which we have in surplus.

Golden monkeys! This how big time playas do deal-making. It’s not just “Oh I’ll take 2 of those what are they giant pandas yeah OK two of them for 30 quid” It’s more than that. Big deals involve golden monkeys. As in like, gold. And milky storks, just like in the stock market.

Think big playa investments stops there? The deal gets sweeter.

“If we do get the giant pandas, one male and one female, they will come with their own curator, veterinarian and Chinese bamboo.”

Don’t settle for the just the friggin Pandas, big playas get the works, like a McPanda Happy Meal, supersized to RM30 million.

Does it make sense now?

Maybe not. But this is where the lesson begins.

Introducing: Productive Absurdity

Some things don’t make sense at first, but they can be very useful to us if swung the right way.

I call this ‘Productive Absurdity’.

 
Photo adapted from XianMing

To grasp the bull of ‘Productive Absurdity’ by its horns, or rather, the panda by its ears, do the following

1. ACCEPT that some things don’t make sense to you, and might not make sense to anyone! Does absurd stuff really frustrate you? I understand. But then again, maybe I don’t understand. It’s absurd! None of us will never understand it. Our brains aren’t equipped with that kind of superpowers. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be in PEACE with things which don’t make sense at all, right?
2. FIND a way to make it useful. Either by laughing at it, learning from it, tweaking the idea, letting it spike your creativity, use it to inspire others to take action, or use it make them laugh, cry etc. Think about it. The very same energy you use fighting with the absurd (knowing you will lose)… converted energy making the absurd very useful. Suddenly, you’re a Productive Absurdity ninja!

For the seriously introverted, this may remind you of existentialism and absurdism if you’re thinking about “In a world without meaning, you’re free to creating meaning for anything”.

You nailed it. Create meaning.

This is exactly what we’re going to do with the 2 giant pandas, since the big playas and golden monkeys involved in the deal seem unstoppable.

You too can apply Productive Absurdity to this example, as we return to alternative panda investment strategies used by big playas:

The big picture of Return on investment

OK, let’s say, on some alien planet somewhere, we have a zoo which aims to spend RM30 million of taxpayer money on 2 giant pandas. That may be absurd right? And perhaps, not so productive if left at that. But sprinkle a bit of Productive Absurdity and you will get…

Alternative Investment Strategy #1:

RM30mil for a giant robotic panda instead! If it’s going to be absurd anyway, might as well make it useful! Build a giant robotic panda! ROI? A giant robotic panda will attract more tourists than two normal everyday bamboo eating slow moving real pandas. Same price. More tourists.

And consider the positive externalities: It may even attract Ultraman to fight it. Now you will have a fight Don King might promote to get EVEN MORE TOURISTS just like how the Thrilla in Manila worked for the Philippines, we will have the Paannnnda in Malaysia. Boom. There’s another genius idea.

 
ABSURD AND AWESOME ARTWORK: Love at first Fight, by Malaysian Artist, Munkao

Alternative Investment Strategy #2:

Extend the same logic to the Malaysian Economic Stimulus Package. Cancel entrepreneurship grants, and spend the cash not 2, but 200 pandas instead! Think big! That will attract tourists more than 2 pandas can. Do the math. 100 times more tourists, minimum. We can even put the 200 pandas on the F1 tracks and have this massive panda race. And shoot a Malaysian film based on these F1 pandas, called “The Fast and Furriest”. Kung Fu Panda grossed $631,910,531 so let’s say we gross the same, we would have made back our money, AND we get to keep 200 pandas for MORE box office hits. Eg. We get the 200 pandas to hit the gym, then shoot the film “200”.

(Yes. Believe it. The view of this animated panda’s crotch. Stare into it. This grossed USD600M. Absurd. But productive. Imported oriental culture and sold it back to China. Very productive.)

See how far Productive Absurdity can take you?

Smart people don’t restrict their ideas to pandas. See how it can be applied to tigers in Penang: You won’t believe it. See article on theStar

In summary, Productive Absurdity makes life a ride in an amusement park. Just accept things in general may not make sense, and find a productive use for it anyway :)

Trust me, I do this for a living. I rally a generation of bored youths on YouthSays.com and carefully take time to unlock their potential to save the universe from doom.

Absurd? You bet.

//

Further reading thinking:

• What do Malaysian Youths at YouthSays have to say about Panda Investment strategy?
• Wikipedia’s entry for "Absurd Humor"
• All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning. ~ Albert Camus

I never asked to be “called on” to serve my country. I somehow always did stuff for sheer enjoyment, curiosity, or giving in to the little voice in my head.

(Man. That crazy little voice, guiding my every action. Wait. Which voice is it now. Maybe it is my heart? My greater calling? Or is it my conscience. Or the devil. Oh little voice, you’re probably the net result of choice and conditioning.)

Whatever it is, the little voice told me that the 1Malaysia National Youth Consultative Council had decent copywriting and some promise. The government is looking for 20 young individuals to represent the voice of young Malaysians and advise them. Hmm… why not I bring with me the voice of 170,000 young Malaysians from YouthSays?

Anyhow I applied, was shortlisted and have done Round 2 of sending in a CV with a photo of me grinning innocently. Let’s see where this takes us…

Yeap, we have opened up a local YouthSays for a few countries in Southeast Asia. No big launch, PR etc yet… just gonna get some Southeast Asian friends to populate each site with some content before I go all out and rock out.

I also had a great work week with the team. We were faced with a lot of sudden deadlines and required quick thinking, and I discovered that the business innovation team (who builds the social technology behind YouthSays.com’s web experience) have a specific way of sitting when they put their brains on over-drive.

It’s kinda squatting tiger hidden dragon I know, but we’re talking about the modern workforce here. They are different from our dads.

So yeah! Great YouthSays is now open in 10 countries, but we have like zero members in some of them. I emailed some friends:

“Heya.. over the past year My team at http://youthsasia.com have used http://malaysia.youthsays.com to unite over 170,000 malaysian youths to advise brands, business leaders and the government through 200 research projects and 3 million survey questions answered. the youths are also helping each other out and learning about each other via our public discussions, generating more than 300,000 repsonses. we also brought these youths together for a massive festival with 100 activites , 36,720 visitors, across 3 days.

What about other countries apart from malaysia?

Well, moments ago we opened up the platform to all Southeast Asian countries. See http://youthsays.com

If youre in {country} you’ll notice its all kinda stark naked. Haha. It might be a bit buggy too.

Im writing to see if you’re interested in signing up for YouthSays in your country, just testing it, and giving me your feedback and ideas. Especially if you see a potential to improve it etc… if you’re busy that is ok. But who knows, your few minutes on YouthSays could be the first step to really unleashing untold awesomeness down the line…

Hope to hear from you.

If you have regional friends feel free to steal my words and tell em like it is. And if it helps, you can try the patented “Business Innovation Power Stance” to boost your effectiveness! Let me know how goes!

This is a rough script I spent all night preparing. Will be delivering it in 3 hours. Will take it down and edit later. Just posting it online in case of emergency. (The leaked unedited script has been removed. Go for the final polished one on the Youth Asia website!

.

See Why the MMC2009 kinda rocks.

The 6th Malaysian Media Conference (MMC) is an annual alumni of about 250 media pundits, industry specialists and key media decision-makers in the fields of media, marketing, branding and advertising across Malaysia. Amongst the speakers featured are thought leaders in their space from Malaysia, Singapore, India, Australia and Japan.

So what thought leading stuff am I going to share?

No, my bear wrestling and kamasutra expertise is for another conference.

I’ll speak about young people: How they’re shaking up everything we know about marketing, and what we can do to collaborate with them.

More on this from the Youth Asia website http://youthasia.com

I’ll also be showing people pictures of my grandmother. YES IT IS RELEVANT.

I’ll blog more about this when I return. Life is pretty awesome right now and I can’t wait to write more.

SOOOO if you’re going to be at the MMC2009 please say hi don’t be a stranger! Yah I know it’s like RM1,000 a ticket but I’m sure some of you can find a way ;)

I’m not the only one speaking of course, the other people have some pretty powerful ideas to share! See who else is speaking:

ANDREAS VOGIATZAKIS
MANAGING DIRECTOR, OMG, MALAYSIA

Andreas Vogiatzakis is the Managing Director, Malaysia of Omnicom Media Group Asia Pacific and oversees the overall operations for the award-winning OMD, PHD as well as WMD brands in Malaysia.

A true internationalist, Andreas started his media career with DMB&B in New York and later managed JWT’s international clients in Greece for several years. He set sail to Japan thereafter, establishing D’Arcy’s media department and later restructuring Starcom to be the strongest international media independent in Japan. He later moved to Taiwan as the head of MindShare Group and later relocated to Malaysia, assuming his current role at the helm of Omnicom Media Group (OMG) in Malaysia.

With a passion for excellence, and armed with strong media and management experiences spanning three continents and six countries, Andreas has elevated OMG to a highly desirable position in the Malaysian market.

Under his leadership, OMD Malaysia has grown from strength to strength. The agency was conferred the Silver Award in 2008 for Best Office of the Year in South East Asia – the only agency from Malaysia and the only media agency in South East Asia to win this highly coveted industry award.

Andreas’ exemplary achievement and contributions in the global and local business communities has not gone unnoticed. He was inducted in the International WHO’s WHO of Professionals in January 2009.

An active member of the Malaysian Media Association (MSA) chairing the committees of Hot Topics and Training, Andreas is also the Vice Chairman of the ABC Board. He also sits on the Board of Directors of the European Chamber of Commerce in Malaysia (EUMCCI), is the Media and Public Relations advisor in the Advisory Council of AIESEC Student Organization, and a judge in the Malaysian Effie Awards in 2008 & 2009, as well as the MSA 2009 Malaysia Media Awards.

Training being one of his favorite contributions to the industry, he has been organizing and conducting high rated media training sessions for various clients, the Advertising/Media industry as well as Universities locally and regionally. A much sought after industry speaker, Andreas has been invited to numerous industry talks and forums, and has received extensive publicity across the region.

Born and raised in rural Greece, Andreas grew up amongst olive groves and vineyards at the heart of the island of Crete in the Aegean Sea. He graduated with High Honors in Advertising and Marketing from the University of Florida and is married to Lisa, an American-Japanese and they have a five year old son, Alexi-Akito. Andreas is a cigar aficionado, and tremendously enjoys the combination of a good cigar with good company!

Omnicom Media Group is the leading global media communications company of the Omnicom Group, Inc. It provides strategic planning and buying, research and other media services to over 5,000 clients in more than 100 countries. In Malaysia, OMG is made up of three media specialist companies: OMD, PHD, and WMD.

Emmanuel Allix
Managing Director, Asia Pacific
Pudding Media

Emmanuel is the Asia Pacific Managing Director for Pudding Media. In his role, he assumes the responsibility of the Asian operations and drives Pudding Media’s operations and business in the region. Emmanuel joined Pudding Media from GroupM Interaction (a WPP media investment company) where from 2006 he was their Regional Technology Development Director for Asia Pacific. In this position, he was overlooking GroupM Mobile Advertising activities for the whole Region and has been working with various Brands, Telcos and Technology providers to build a sustainable Mobile Advertising business.

Emmanuel was also an APAC MMA Board Member in 2008 and is a regular speaker at various events including CommunicAsia, Media360 and AdTech.

Prior to joining GroupM, Emmanuel had spent more than 10 years in the IT and Internet arenas across Asia and Europe. He founded and run one of the first Internet Website development startups in France back in 1996, creating and launching several Websites and online activities for major French companies. He also led KPMG Consulting France E-Commerce Strategy group for a year and a half and worked on various assignments for Butagaz, Peugeot, Manutan, and National Ministry of Education. In 2001, he joined Singapore Airlines to head their E-Commerce initiatives for nearly 6 years.

Khailee Ng
Youth Asia

Khailee Ng is the Executive Director of Youth Asia and The Youth Intelligence. His team has been leading youth communities since 2006, connecting brands and agencies to the motivations of youth via research, direct engagement, and mass activation. Youth Asia founded and manages Malaysia’s Largest Youth Opinion Community, YouthSays.com, with over 160,000+ young Malaysian members. They also organize Malaysia’s largest youth lifestyle festival, YOUTH’09, and continues to organize and empower youth communities across the region.

Back in his student days, he has led student movements in music and activism which won him various awards, including the KLue Blue Chilli Award. He is also the only Malaysian to win the Asian HSBC Young Entrepreneur Award. He completed his degree in business at the top 2% of his class a Valedictorian having studied in Sydney, San Francisco State and UC Berkeley. He previously spent years with MindValley, mobilizing online communities in the US and UK with entrepreneurs and technologists from 16 countries, winning the international award for the Most Democratic Workplace.

Now he spends his time with his pet cactus, and empowering youth communities all over Asia.

Ian McKee
CEO, Vocanic

Ian McKee is CEO and chief strategist for Vocanic, a company that specialises in Identifying Influencers and crafting strategies to engage and activate them to launch word of mouth and Social Media campaigns for clients such as Heineken, StarHub, Discovery, Top Shop, Nokia, Symantec, Adobe and others.

Prior to Vocanic, Ian was MD for Informative Asia Pacific working on customer dialogue and Influence marketing projects for brands such as Zuji, DBS Bank, HP, Nokia, BP, and Mars brands such as Cesar, Pedigree, Starburst, M&Ms and others. Originally from the UK, Ian has called Singapore home for the last 13 years.

Mike Da Silva

Mike Da Silva is recognised as a leading global authority on Promotion Marketing and a pioneer of the Industry in Australia, the United Kingdom and Asia.

He is CEO of Sydney based, MDSA Promotion Marketing, with clients who include: Qantas (for 15 years), ANZ Bank, Australian Merino, MySpace, News Digital Media, The Great Barrier Reef Preservation Project, the Brand Australia Project, ACCOR, DFS Galleria, Universal Pictures, Paramount, ING Direct, eBay, PayPal, Fox Pictures, SONY Pictures, Warners, Dreamworks and Tourism Western Australia.

Mike is also CEO of NMA/MDSA Entertainment Marketing Australia and Asia, with offices in Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Beijing, London, Tokyo & soon Partnerships in Mumbai & Kuala Lumpur.

Mike has addressed conferences on Promotion Marketing and Branded Content in locations as diverse as London, Buenos Aires, New York, Hong Kong, Chicago, Paris, Singapore, Jakarta, Mumbai, Seoul, Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur, Beijing, Pune, New Delhi & Sydney.

Last month in Hong Kong, as a guest of The Hollywood Reporter, Mike addressed an audience of Filmmakers on ‘Monetising brands in Movies” during the Asian Film Awards.

Mike is a winner of the MAA Worldwide International Marketing Professional of the Year award, for his work in developing Promotion Marketing throughout the world, a Winner of the Asia Brand Congress, Brand Leadership Award and a Global Super Achiever Award for his work in Promotion Marketing throughout Asia.

He is the Immediate Past President of the prestigious 42 year old, New York based, Marketing Agencies Association Worldwide. MAA has Members in 19 Countries. The first time this position has gone outside the USA and UK. Prior to being elected to the Presidency, Mike was International Executive Vice President for MAA for Asia for 12 years.

He has been a Member of the International Advisory Council for the Asia Brand Congress for 2 years and a Member of the Australian Direct Mail Association’s Digital Council working on a Code of Practice for Social Communities in Australia,

Mike is the Founder of the Promotion Marketing Awards of Asia, “The Dragons of Asia” which is, after 10 years, has become the most prestigious Marketing Award Programme throughout Asia. PMAA Dragons have Zonal Directors in all Asian Countries.

For 4 years he has been Vice President, Marketing for the MAA Globes Recognition Programme operating in USA, Canada, South America, UK, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. Mike works with Marketing Groups in Israel and Turkey, developing their own Promotion Marketing Award Programmes, modelled on the PMAA Programme. His role also includes the MAA Global Academic Marketing Challenge which recognises young Promotion Marketers, in partnership with the World’s leading Universities and Business Schools which he pioneered in 2006.

Recently, Mike was awarded the Australian Defence Medal for his service as a Medic in the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps. At a ceremony last night in Sydney he was awarded the Australian Marketing Industry’s first Lifetime Achievement Award.

Peter Pek MCSD

Business Times calls him a “Branding Guru” and the Malay Mail hails him as “Asia’s leading brand strategists”. Peter Pek has over a decade and a half of working experience in the branding, print, design, publishing, PR and advertising industries on three continents. He is also a writer, columnist, editor, publisher, designer, creative director, public speaker, corporate celebrity, radio and television personality.

One of the world’s leading brand strategists, he was one of the host and judge of the corporate reality television series The Firm, where he played himself for 2 seasons (23 episodes), acting as a corporate leader and mentor. The show premièred prime time nationwide on ntv7 and Astro’s Channel 107 in Malaysia in 2007.

On New Year’s Day, 2008, he began hosting his own branding talk show, Brand Malaysia with Peter Pek, on Radio24. The show began podcasting episodes through the show’s website in March 2008, making him one of the few Chief Executives in Asia and the first in Malaysia, to podcast.

Peter has worked for a number of leading advertising agencies in London including Euro RSGC, J. Walter Thompson and Saatchi & Saatchi; and has produced work for numerous brands including the Arab Banking Corporation, Heathrow & Gatwick Airports, Barclays Bank, BMW, British Airways, British Telecom, Citroën, Coca-Cola & Schweppes, Dell, Eurotunnel/Le Shuttle, The Guardian newspaper, Lloyds Bank, NCR, Microsoft, MTV Europe, Prudential, Safeway Supermarkets, Sky TV, Sony PlayStation, Swedde Bank, Telecom Italia and Toyota.

He has directed many launch publications in the UK including Sky Magazine for Sky TV, Microsoft Magazine and New Nation Newspaper for Elizabeth Murdoch. In Australia, he has worked with the Australian Financial Review, the continent’s most respected financial newspaper. He also held the position of Editor-in-Chief of Manila-based Food & Beverage Magazine before returning to Malaysia.

Credited for bringing the Superbrands project to Malaysia, Peter was the publisher and co-editor of Superbrands Malaysia’s first book project in the country. He was also a member of the inaugural Malaysian Superbrands Council. He designed the Superbrands awards seal logo used around the world. He later disposed of his interests in Superbrands in 2003.

Currently, he is the Chairman and Group CEO of The Mercatus Group, Malaysia’s largest international brand management consultancy. He is also the Executive Director of Reputation Mercatus, its PR subsidiary.

He is the Immediate Past President of the Rotary Club of Gombak, and has served as the District Secretary for Communications for many years.

Peter has spoken at many conferences, seminars and workshops around the world. In Malaysia, he has spoken at many events and conferences, including some organised by the Asia Business Forum, Marcus Evans, the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers, the Franchise Association of Malaysia and the Asian Strategy & Leadership Institute (ASLI).

Prashant Kumar - CEO of Mediabrands, Malaysia ) Universal McCann & Initiative)

Prashant has been a leading champion of Integrated Communications planning in the Asia-Pacific region.

Universal McCann Malaysia is a thought leader & business partner to a string of blue-chip clients including Coca-Cola, J&J, F&N, Proton, Telekom Malaysia, Dutch Lady, MasterCard, Taylor’s college etc.

Universal McCann has won a string of innovation awards including twice Grand prix winner & thrice Agency of the year runner-up in last 4 years & the only Cannes media lions & Festival of media finalist. Prashant also started the highly successful UM Consulting to offer marketing consultancy & ROI analytics to UM clients in Malaysia. He has also been pivotal to the agencies win of almost 100 million worth of new business in the last one year.

Before this role, he was heading Communication Planning for Asia-Pacific in Universal McCann, traveling extensively from Japan to China to India driving strategic creativity across the region and helping win a series of new business for the network. Having been part of several global task forces, he also helped develop UM’s Global Communication Planning agenda.

At the very start of his career, he founded a dot com company in 1999, but had to close down due to dotcom crash. He ended-up writing P&G’s first Digital Strategy in India. He is probably the only Google -certified search expert among Media Agency CEOs in Malaysia.

He has taught at leading ad & marketing schools in region: Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore; Institute of Advertising, Singapore; Mumbai University, Mudra Institute of Communcations, India etc.

He has also been the Guest Speaker at TN Sofres University, Asia Youth Conference, KL Brand Equity Conference, Telenor Asia Conference etc & was a Mentor at Media Magazine’s famed ‘Mediaworks’.

He chaired the Malaysian Media Awards 2009 & was recently elected as the Vice-President of Media Specialists Association. He has been widely quoted in the regional & Malaysian publications for his thought leadership in media marketing industry.

He was the first member of Malaysian Media Community & the only one from SE Asia to be invited to the much coveted Cannes Media Lions jury this year. At 33, he was also the youngest jury member.

Prashant is a budding aviator & loves to take a sortie over the lush & breathtaking Malaysian countryside. He is also a proud father of a 2 year old son.

Rahul Thappa
Managing Director, Mindshare Malaysia

Rahul has worked as a communications planner gaining vast experience in Ogilvy Advertising India, EuroRSCG India and OMS India; and with diverse brands like Microsoft, Intel, Dell, Electrolux, Samsung, McDonald’s, Unilever & GlaxoSmithKline. Rahul joined Mindshare Malaysia in 2003 and was given the responsibility of the buying and strategic planning functions for the Unilever business. In 2005, he moved on to head a business unit comprising Unilever, Kraft and MEASAT Broadcasting Networks. Rahul took on the helm as managing director of Mindshare Malaysia in 2008.

Roy Tan
MANAGING DIRECTOR,
CARAT MEDIA MALAYSIA

Roy graduated from the University of Western Australia with a Bachelors degree in Commerce majoring in Accounting and Finance.

His experience spanned across the information technology industry as well as interactive and full service local and international agencies and networks.

Roy held the position of the Chief Operating Officer in Sil Ad, managing brands such as Sony, Nissan, Lycos and adidas prior to Carat Malaysia.

Rediscovering his passion for media, he rejoined the Carat office in 2003.

Before his promotion, Roy was the Managing Director for Carat Interactive. He handled BMW, Malayan Banking, Southern Lion, Philips, and Lam Soon.

Neeraj Roy
Managing Director & CEO
Hungama Mobile

Hungama Mobile is the largest aggregator, developer and publisher of BOLLYWOOD content in the world. Hungama has developed a digital distribution network spanning 37 countries with over 150 partners across Mobile, Internet, Cable VOD and IPTV services, representing over 300 original content owners across Music, Movies, TV, Sport, Lifestyle content.

Hungama Mobile has now launched a Bollywood channel with over 150 operators in 37 countries on networks such as SingTel, Maxis, MTN, O2, Telis etc and also internet based services such as Apple iTunes, MSN Music, Yahoo! Music etc

Hungama are the owners of the three biggest entertainment portals in South Asia, Hungama.com and BollywoodHungama.com, The # 1 Bollywood portal in the world and GamingHungama.com. Hungama Mobile has an active Mobile Entertainment and Marketing/Applications business, which has been engaged with over 300 brands and developed over 1000 interactive campaigns. Hungama has won over 60 awards in Digital Marketing, including 4 ABBY Golds, PMAA-Singapore and the Globes in Miami.

Neeraj was voted amongst the ‘50 Most influential People in Mobile Entertainment’ globally 3 years in a row. He was recently selected amongst the ‘Top 10 MobiThinkers of 2009’ globally.

Neeraj is the Chairman of Mobile Entertainment Forum, an organization of over 200 members from all the entire value chain of the Mobile Entertainment business. Neeraj was one of the founders of TiE in India and has been on the Board of TiE Mumbai chapter for several years. Neeraj is also an active speaker at various international forum such as the Mobile World Congress, MIPCOM, Cannes Film Festival, CTIA etc and on several domestic and international committees advising on the global Mobile & Digital Entertainment community.

Fiona Graham a.k.a. Sayuki

Japan’s first ever foreign geisha!

For the first time in the 400 year history of the geisha, a Westerner has been accepted, and on December 19, formally debuted under the name Sayuki. Sayuki is specialized in social anthropology, a subject which requires anthropologists to actually experience the subject they are studying by participating in the society themselves.

She has been doing anthropological fieldwork in Asakusa - one of the oldest of Tokyo’s six remaining geisha districts - for the past year, living in a geisha house (okiya), and participating in banquets as a trainee. She has been training in several arts, and will specialize in yokobue (Japanese flute).

Sayuki took her doctorate in social anthropology at the University of Oxford, and specializes in Japanese society. She has spent half of her life in Japan, went through Japanese schools, and graduated from Japan’s oldest university, Keio. Sayuki has lectured at a number of universities around the world, has published extensively on Japanese culture, and is also an anthropological film director with production credits on a wide range of international broadcasters.

The book “Sayuki: inside the flower and willow world” came out in 2008 with Pan Macmillan Australia and a documentary is being filmed on it.