Picture this… huge container boxes with artsy design showcase, glass house, cosy corners, snacks and drinks, enjoy local band performances by For This Cycle, Inch Chua and many more. And for those who love to party, come on down on 19 September and catch DJ Andrew T from Butter Factory spinning from 9pm onwards!

Take part in a Photo Challenge with your favorite bloggers from 4pm to 6pm daily! All you need to do is to strike the most INQpressive pose with your favorite bloggers, snap it, upload it to facebook and tag it! The best photo will win a pair of 2009 FORMULA 1 SINGTEL SINGAPORE GRAND PRIX Sunday Walkabout tickets worth $256/pair! Which bloggers will be there? Hmm… I shall not reveal, just come and find out! Or better still, pull your favorite blogger down and snap a photo with him/her! Don’t waste your chance to win the walkabout tickets!

So for the next three days, come on by INQ launch at Ngee Ann City, Civic Plaza and find me! I’ll be there daily from 4pm to 6pm. I want to take photos with you! But I’m not there as a blogger-blogger lah, but for work loh, but I don’t care lah! Come take photos with me ok! Just come k?

More details available at facebook event page and Singtel’s website.

See you there!

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!

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.

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.

As part of the planning team for Barcamp SG

I don’t know how I got involved in the first place, got an email for a gathering of various thought leaders and community leaders in Jan. That session was rather unproductive imo. Group was too big for any proper discussion to get through, and there wasn’t much of an agenda or structure set prior to the meeting. Somehow the only thing that got through from that session was the date of the event.

Discussion was supposed to take off and be carried out online in a google group, but after a month of waiting, nothing seem to be happening. That’s when some of us got worried and decided to just take up the planning part and get Barcamp going.

After a couple of hour discussion with Preetam, Bill, Kelvin and myself at a cafe, things got started and planning finally took off. The Barcamp SG3 wiki was up, registration forms up, sponsors started to come in and Preetam spent much of his time organising and putting pieces together.

And as all Barcamp, there’s really nothing much to worry about on the camp day. Everyone just help themselves to whatever was there and get themselves engaged. IMO, the beauty of Barcamp is for learning and interaction to take place in a messy yet structured environment.

See! No one’s needed to mend registration too!

Our aim is to shift Barcamp to become a less tech/ developer centric event, and hope to bring in more people from different walks of life together. There’s no money to pay, nor money to waste. Just lots of engaging conversation, sharing, learning and fun! I can’t wait for the next camping session!

And I concluded… you don’t need a big team to get things done. Small team can work wonders too! Its the quality not the quantity that matters.

As a speaker

Barcamp is really about sharing and provoking thoughts with participants. And that’s what I hope my sharing did. Interestingly, I signed up for a pre-scheduled session via the Barcamp SG3 wiki and also put up a by-voting session. So I ended up hosting two Barcamp sessions in the same Barcamp! One was on “How i Live Blog” and the other on “How facebook communities cannot work for your brand?”.

Guess those who came for my “How i Live Blog” session mistook my title. It was really meant for a session where everyone shares how “i” (they) live blog. But only one of them in the room had done live blogging before! And I wasn’t prepared to conduct a live blogging workshop. So instead, the session became a discussion of the tools for live blogging and how twitter and various hashtags feeder help improve interactions between people in a live set-up. If you’re wondering why we use #barcampsg3 in our tweets, that’s to consolidate all tweets from Barcamp SG3 together and these can be viewed at hasttags. Users can also follow live updates during such events with #tags at http://tweetgrid.com/ and http://twitterfall.com/. Personally, I prefer http://twitterfall.com/ and will sure be using it more often!

The session was pretty interesting and I think many of us learned couple of new things during that 25mins. Love the spontaneity!

I’ve some thoughts in mind about live blogging. Will post that up in another post sometime next week. It should an interesting piece for discussion.

The other sharing which I’d spent 8.5hours preparing was on “How facebook communities cannot work for your brand?” Again, the session was meant to be a trigger for participants to see and reflect on how they have used facebook and how they can improve and better engage their audience. Perhaps I should have structured my sharing in a more direct and less thought provoking way.

For those who were at my session, mind sharing your thoughts and feedback too? I would love to hear from you. You can drop me a note in the comments or contact me directly.

I did some tweaking with the slides since it’ll probably make less sense to those who wasn’t there. So here I’ve uploaded an updated version with more slides on the thoughts and minus the introduction part about myself.

Here’s some of the reminding people at my sharing…

I will be sharing the full findings from my “How do I facebook?” survey in another post. Perhaps, I might do a Part 2 with some of the questions you all asked that day. If you have any in mind, do share them here too so we can compile and do a “How do I facebook part 2″ together.

As a participant

So how was your Barcamp Singapore 3 experience? Share them here and also help with this simple survey too.

The beauty of social media… more links to follow about Barcamp SG3…

• Speakers slides are available at Slide Share
• Photos from Barcamp SG3 on flickr
• #barcampsg3 on twitter at hashtags
• Join Barcamp Singapore in facebook

Other blog posts on BarcampSG3…

• Barcamp SG 3 – “How to produce & publish your music album online, practically free, without a music production company or distributor” by Ivan
• BarCamp Singapore 3: a truly socially constructed experience by Kevin
• Live from Barcamp: How to bluff your way through an interview on Information Architecture by Brian
• Live Blogging from BarCamp 3 afternoon session by Farinelli
• Barcamp 3 at Singapore by Chin Yong
• Barcamp Signapore 3 by Coleman
• Barcamp Singapore 3 by Minggen
• Barcamp SG 3 by Aaron
• anymore to add to the list?

That’s the end of Barcamp SG3! Next up will be BlogOUT09!!! Have you registered already?? I hope to see you there too!!

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! ]]> http://claudia.sg/2009/02/live-from-barcampsg3-at-ngee-ann-polytechnic/feed/ 0 http://claudia.sg/2009/02/lets-talk-about-sex-for-females-only/ http://claudia.sg/2009/02/lets-talk-about-sex-for-females-only/#comments Tue, 17 Feb 2009 16:55:44 +0000 claudia http://claudia.sg/?p=2976 I’m sooo behind time and I’m sacrificing my limited time tonight, in between a proposal, to get this up so that you ladies out there won’t miss it. I always stand by the phrase “Good things must share!” So here… I’m sharing Sex with you my lady friends. (Cause internet is for porn!)

For females only! Head down to Vivo City by 21 Feb 2009 and discover what true inner beauty is! This is one of those time where you leave your bf, steady, husband and guy friends outside while you and your girlfriends spend some time pampering yourself. And best of all its FREE! (Don’t you just like that word?) Got free goodie bag too! Which comes pack with discount vouchers, free trials and a sexy condom too!

Get truly gorgeous and head down to Vivo before they pack up and leave! Catch sexciting exciting activities such as pole dancing demonstration, communicating love workshop and eyebrow trimming services, or simply enjoy a free coffee and R&R at the lounge. Get ready to show your girl power! Because beauty begins with being empowered!

This is happening at VivoCity Central Court B, Level 1 from 16 to 21 Feb 2009. This event is brought to you by HPB and sponsored by many many other brands. But that’s not really important. Most important is you get to discover yourself and get FREE stuff! *LOL!*

I’m not going to say much, let’s let the pictures do the talking… but don’t just scroll, view and forget leh! Bring all your girlfriends down and get that goodie bag! It’ll come in handy! *winks*

You not going get to learn. But you get to shop too!
But sorry, you can’t buy anything there. Just window shop k?

No! These are not free! Nor for sale!

Relax yourself at the lounge.
Don’t worry, no saleman will come up to promote them!

And take a shot at the ‘Reveal your future’ booth.
See how you’ll look when you’re 60!

I think I look more like 80 in the picture loh!

Click here to view photos taken with Samsung Innov8

Footnotes:
Truly Gorgeous on facebook and the event here.
Check out Let’s Talk About Sex too!

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