So sad right? Long weekend but I’ve to work (together with my team). But to make it less sad for us, I want you to come join us at work for fun this long weekend!

If you were to stay awake for 24hours, what would you do? This weekend, ten of us would be put to the test of surviving a 24hr Blogathon inside TANGS display windows! Theoretically speaking, we will be living on more than 24hr without sleep from Friday to Saturday! Simple math…

Working backwards:

• Sat 8pm: Reach home, shower and KO (hopefully!)
• Sat 7pm: Dinner (if there’s still energy left)
• Sat 6pm: End of Blogathon (#bthon)
• Fri 6pm: Start of Blogathon
• Fri 5pm: Reporting time to change and setup
• Fri 4pm: (For myself) Meet Cheryl at Tangs to try the pair of shoes I selected
• Fri 3pm: Leave home for Orchard
• Fri 2pm: Shower and get ready for 24hr w/o showering!
• Fri 1pm: Get some work done and assigned.
• Fri 12pm: If I can make myself sleep till 12pm that’ll be best! If I jump out of bed before 12pm than also no choice lah!

So you see! Base on my calculation, I will have to be awake from 12pm Fri to about 9pm on Sat. I hope I can survive that!

To prep myself for this ultimate challenge, I’m going to start listing down the things that I’ll have to bring to keep me occupied for the 24hr and some tips on how I am going to stay awake.

Claudia’s packing list for #bthon

The tech stuff:

• DSLR camera
• Tripod for DSLR camera
• Mobile PhoneS + charger(Yes! More than one)
• Sony Walkman + USB cable
• Nitendo DSlite + charger
• Multi-plug adapter
• USB Hub
• Remembering all my passwords!

Non-tech stuff:

• Face towel to freshen up
• Wet facial tissue + Wet Wipes + Kao Biore Body Powdersheet
• Tissue paper
• Fluffy pillow to hug and support my chin when my head feels heavy (To buy one on Fri!)
• Sour and mint candies
• Whiteboard + markers + duster
• Muji notebook + pens for doodling
• Vicks inhaler + Vicks rub + Kiehl’s multi purpose balm aka Superbly Restorative Skin Slave
• Body mists + perfume
• Toothpicks
• Listerine mouth wash
• Hair clips
• Sunglasses + Cap (I’ve got hootie!) for the morning and noon sunlight
• Sweater for the night coldness
• list to be continued… what else will I need?

Claudia’s tips for surviving #bthon

• Watch movies/ drama online (suggested by molemole)
• Revamp my blog theme (again)
• Play games online or on DSlite
• Eat sour candies/ sweet
• Chat with fellow bloggers in other windows, at home or wherever they may be via MSN/ Twitter
• Plan for my new project idea
• Catch up on my blog posts (many many outstanding!)
• anymore suggestions?

The 10 bloggers in blogathon are:

• Claudia (that’s me lah!)
• DK
• Dottie and Stephie
• Hillary
• Jayden
• Melly
• Nadia
• Nicholas
• Sheryo

Come by TANGS (Orchard) on Fri-Sat to see us in action!

On 31 March 2009, we had our very first Twitter centric meetup in Singapore. Incidentally the planned date fell on a Tuesday, so we just casually called it Tweet! Tuesday. (Adding it to the collection of Mobile Monday and Web Wednesday.)

How it all started
One fine day, Claudia saw a new message in facebook (sadly it wasn’t born on Twitter!) from Kelvin. He shared that Laurel was coming to Singapore and asked if Claudia was keen to gather a few social media people together for a dinner with Laurel. And than the discussion continued and from a simple pay-your-own-bill dinner gathering became a bring-your-own-food gathering at The Sail.

As we were not sure if Laurel were able to make it for the gathering, we decided to we needed to have something plan on our side too. So as our conversations were mostly happening on Twitter and Facebook, we decided to focus on something and Tweet! Tuesday was created.

Not another stand-around-and-network-whilst-eating-free-food session
Being involved in the planning and executing of a number of social media community events and seminars, I’ve seen and encountered quite a mix of people and have my own perceptions formed. But still, none has been ideal yet. Perhaps SMB has kinda spoil the community with free food and free networking. But IMHO, an ideal session should focus more on the content sharing and take aways by each individual. But this is not an easy one to achieve since everyone attending will have a different set of prior knowledge and skills. To strike a good balance is tough.

So what happened on the first Tweet! Tuesday?
Yes, there were still free food, thanks to everybody who came with their contribution to the voluntary pot luck and Kelvin for the pizzas and beers! And yes, there were still the stand around and network portion. But we also had two short sharing on a common theme – that is Twitter. Kelvin and I did a little sharing on how Twitter is generally used and a few tools that is useful. When Laurel arrived, she is very kind to also share about the things she do and how Twitter and Facebook were very much used in her country.

Although the sharing was short and perhaps nothing much for some, but I felt that it was a good start for Tweet! Tuesday.

What’s next?
To find and link ALL Singapore users in Twitter! At least that’s what @sgtweet is attempting to do. But looks like its going to be quite a hell task for manual adding.

Seriously, after the first session, Kelvin and I have been too busy with work and haven’t got time to strategies. And there were also a couple of those attending who mentioned that they would like to co-host Tweet! Tuesdays too. So I’m going to go ahead and start a list of to-dos for Tweet! Tuesday hosts. This list will forever be in editing mode…

Tweet! Tuesday SOPs

• Venue big enough for 40-50pax
• Keeping the attendants list below 60pax
• Have at least one topic to share or a guest speaker coming
• Has to be voluntary pot luck session
• Have AV set-up if possible
• Limit to 1 Tweet! Tuesday a month
• … to be edited and continued…

So if you’re keen to co-host a Tweet! Tuesday, feel free to get in touch. To be updated and kept in the loop of future events, please follow @sgtweet or join the social media people facebook page.

My thoughts and reflection on SMB6, this time round, from a participant point of view instead.

Total of about 60-70 close to 100 people turned up at SMB6 held at Tangs Island Cafe. There were the usual social media breakfast participants, bloggers, practitioners, and also a handful of first timers. Having talked to a few of them who were there for the first time, they were quite puzzled at what was happening and everyone behind couldn’t hear nor see what the panel was discussing. Even if everyone were to remain quiet, those standing behind the pillar will not be able to see nor hear anything. That’s perhaps why everyone choose to talk among themselves instead. I’m guilty for this too. But really, this cannot be blamed. What do you expect those behind to do? Also saw a handful of people who came and walked away soon after as the place was overcrowded. If you were one of them, apologize for the lack of space. Hope to meet you at future social media gatherings.

After five successful SMBs and good feedback, this one came as quite a punch to the team (including myself). So what really went wrong?

The Venue
Tangs being located at Orchard seems like an ideal place to hold such gathering. Everyone knows exactly where Tangs is and getting there isn’t much of a hassle. But when there’s a space constrain for an expected crowd of 50 (at least), the venue might not be the most suitable. Add on a panel and launching of the Tangs Secondlife store, the venue is surely not appropriate.

The Agenda
To be very honest, I have no idea what happened on the other side of the room. I tried hard to listen and see what was going on, but I couldn’t hear nor see a thing. By the time I went in after helping at the registration, all the seats were taken and the limited standing space (to see the panel) was already cluttered with people. This means SMB is growing and many people are really interested in the discussions and knowledge sharing, but this also means we’ll need a much bigger venue for future SMBs! Its hard to find a suitable location and with our zero budget, the challenge is surely there.

Would really love to hear from those who were seated in front to share about your thoughts about the discussions. Looks like it was a chatter about consumers on facebook and loyalty card program.

Earth Hour
When the lights went off, half the crowd was gone! Wasn’t it supposed to be a networking and catch up time instead? But seriously, not easy walking around in the dark and introducing yourself. There were people tripping on other’s feet! Good thing no one got hurt.

SMB6 sure is a good learning point for the team. And really thankful to those who stuck by us after so long and for your understanding and feedback. The team is always learning and growing. So we need your feedback! Please spend 2 minutes with SMB6 feedback form. Or drop your comments below…

My first encounter with Barcamp was Barcamp SG II in May 2008. No posting found in this blog on that because that event didn’t interest me enough for me to share? Nope. I didn’t blog about it because I left within an hour after arriving. It was one that targeted at the developers and I kinda got lost in there.

Good thing we’ve Preetam onboard this time round, with his experience with many Barcamp sessions from different countries, we know this was going to be a great one. And it was!

Here’s my experience, breaking down into 1) as a planner, 2) as a speaker and 3) as a participant.

Morning fellow campers, participants, friends and foes! It’s the morning of Barcamp SG!! I’m sure now, Preetam and his group of volunteers are setting up and making sure everything is in order. While I’m on my way to Clementi now, in the train. Hope I can get there by 9am.

I will try my best to do some live blogging throughout the day and perhaps if voters voted, I may do one impromptu session to talk about “Live Blogging”! Hmm… imagine doing that and live blogging at the same time!! Hohoho!!

Right, time now on my mac is 8.20am. I’ve 40mins to get down there in time. I’ll be back once I reach NP.

Oh wait! Yap! The Red is with me today! Come meet her and take a photo k?

Alright… looks like I’ll be twittering and flickering instead!! Follow the action at #barcampsg3!