From 6pm on 17 July to 6pm on 18 July 2009, 10 bloggers lived 24hrs of their lives inside TANGS display windows for a blogging challenge. I was one of the 10 bloggers who were selected for this campaign. It took me more than a week to recover from the lack of sleep and up till today, my clock is still struggling to get back to the usual settings.

Why did we do it?

It was an opportunity to for the sponsors to showcase firstly, the Intel ultra-low voltage processors in a lifestyle setting and educate about the technology behind the Lenovo IdeaPad U350 laptop. And to excite the audience to enable them to see that technology can become a fashion accessory too. Especially with the Lenovo IdeaPad U350 for the “ultramobile road warriors” out there. And for Tangs, its to launch their revamped website and to direct traffic amongst the bloggers and passerbys to enter Tangs.

Personally, I’m doing this because of several reasons, and no, winning the challenge is NOT one of them! Firstly, because I know all the three sponsors personally and I want to support their campaign. Secondly, this was like a survivor challenge inside Tangs, when will anyone get to do such crazy things again? And thirdly, I wanted to experience how it would be like looking out from inside the display windows for 24hr. I was expecting to see crazy things in the middle of the night along Orchard Road, but sadly, nothing happened. It was all peaceful and quiet on the Friday night.

Getting Ready

Preparing for the 24hr away from home, as usual I over packed my stuff. This is very common for me! I always bring more than I should when I travel or go for stayovers. I’m the kind of person who needs everything around me *just in case* I need them. So for the neither long nor short 24hr, these were what I packed…

Barang Barang I brought to #bthon

Inside my big Simpsons bag, I have a smaller black bag which I call my “Run to toilet” bag. As we’re only given 10-mins of toilet break every 2hr, I want to make sure I have all the things I need at the toilet within reach when my toilet break comes. Inside holds three smaller pouches which holds:

1. wet wipes, facial tissues and body powdersheet.
2. body mist, perfume, hand lotion, Kiehl’s multi purpose balm and evian mineral water spray
3. basic makeup stuff which I didn’t use

Then I also have three mobile phones and their respective charger with me, my DSlite and charger, Sony Walkman, multi-plug, usb hub, Nikon D40 and tripod. Out of this list, I only used the Nikon D40 for less than 3 hours and the DSlite for 15mins! The heaviest bulk in my bag and I never even used more than half of them! FAIL!

And the other stuff you can see from the above photos. All also not used except for the whiteboard and stuff.

My Outfit (Sponsored by Tangs)

For all 10 bloggers, we were given S$500 each to shop for a set of outfit that we have to wear throughout the 24hr. Its all about being comfortable and cosy for me. So I picked my usual choice of outfit. Total price was pretty close to the S$500 limit.

What I wore at #bthon

• Tokidoki T-shirt from the Spring 2009 collection
• Tokidoki Women Geo Half Sleeves Storm Hoody
• Living Doll black pants
• Fred Perry Sunpower Gingham in Black/White

Beside the outfit sponsored by Tangs, all of us also got our choice of products from Kiehl’s worth up to S$200. I will share more about them in my next post. More thoughts and photos will be coming up soon!

I am back! And I’ve got so much to share! First, a challenge which I’d accepted while I was away in Bandung. Still cannot believe myself that I’m going to do it! *sweat*

Happening from 1800 hr on 17th to 1800 hr on 18th July 2009.
More details coming soon.

… and which story one decides to read and believe depends on that reader’s preference, choice, taste, understanding of the topic and knowledge.

It was the first social media discussion that got all hot and sweaty (literally) over at Open Room tonight. Only Ogilvy dares to do something that most brands and agencies are afraid of, mixing the traditional media (TM) journalists with the social media (SM) bloggers together in the same room to discuss about Journalism. And may I quote, Journalism as explained in my trusty dictionary in my macbook states that – “the activity or profession of writing for newspapers or magazines or of broadcasting news on radio or television.” Hmm… nope, it didn’t include bloggers nor online digital storytellers. Let’s see what Wikipedia (the community dictionary) explains Journalism…

Journalism is the production of news reports and editorials through media such as newspapers, magazines, radio, television and the Internet. Journalists—be they writers, editors, photographers, broadcast presenters or producers—serve as the main purveyors of information and opinion in contemporary society.

There. The community speaks.

What am I trying to proof here? The way content is consumed depends on the way a person prefers or are aware of. Both the TM and SM know very well about this and they do well serving their own group of audiences. Let’s take the big boy in TM for instance, they’ve got BT for the business minded individuals, New Paper and Wan Bao for the tabloids and sensational news, and they’ve got magazines catered for different types of population. As for ST, guess I’m classifying it under the general category. Just like most of the blogs here in Singapore. No niche, just write whatever they were told to and censor whatever that’s not to be told.

In SM, there are blogs, websites, forums and lots of people we can follow on twitter, facebook, plurk or whichever social networking site you can name. But the smart users who are using these tools read, follow or participate in their selection due to their choice and needs. I won’t follow someone whose tweet nothing but conversation between his/her followers nor will I want to read a blog on a regular basis if that writer simply posts random things that doesn’t matter to me. Smart users know how to filter out the noise and focus on what matters to them. Same goes for TM. No one (with no reason other than its job responsibilities) will read every single publication and every single page in the TM publications.

Yes, I agree with Daryl that habits die hard (for the older generation), but for the young ones, we pick up new things everyday and our habit changes as we grow together with this new channel of information that’s available for free. And these young ones are eventually going to continue to grow and progress and changing their daily habits. Whether or not reading the newspaper daily will eventually become one of their favorite pastime in years to come, no one knows. Perhaps they’ll still read about the news, but from other channels and ways. So the questions now is how are the TM and SM storytellers evolving and embracing this change to match what may come in the future? Its about delivering the right content when the user wants it. Not when you think they want it. Consumer always have their final choice. No one can force them.

Than there’s the thing about credibility and professionalism. TM journalists state that they are the credible sources, but what about the many misquotes, over sensationalizing of topics, featuring article of certain products as there’s sponsorship involved, reporting of things that they see only one side of the picture, and publishing news that are of no need for public concern e.g. death of someone due to suicide. Personally I have got bad experiences with these things. How can I trust 101% that the TM is giving us accurate and credible news? What about the parts that were not published?

If citizenship journalism is encouraged by the TM, than what makes the differences from a blogger reporting about an incident or happening on their own blog or twitter as they’d encountered it and a citizen that posts up to Stomp? Citizens are encouraged to Stomp about happenings so that the big boys can get the traffic from tabloid or gossip hunters to visit their website, increase their pageviews and get advertising dollars from all the flashing irritating banner ads. If they can do that, than why can’t the bloggers?

On a final note, I’ve to say this again – I read what I want to read, if I’m not interested in the war that’s happening out there nor the new jet that some army purchased, I can’t be bothered. When I really need to find them, I search! If google or yahoo (or bing) doesn’t list your content within the first 3 to 4 pages, I’m sorry you didn’t reach me. Eventually I’ll get my source from somewhere else. Whether or not the source is 100% reliable, its all up to the smart reader to decide.

Updates – posts I want to remember

• POV from Daryl, one of the panelists at Open Room
• Interesting analogy by Lucian
• Ian’s thought never fails to make me put on another thinking cap
• Brian’s shares the building of future media organisation (with reference to Monocle.com)

I did this before for Nadnut and she really did fly to Australia and I won myself a set of Wii. But this time, I cannot make up my mind on who to rally for since all five contestants are people I know! So I’ve decided to dedicate a post here to help all of them get more votes (i hope) from you (my dear readers). There’s nothing for voters to win this time round, but I think each of these five bloggers have got their own list of things they would do for you to vote for them! So read on and find out about them and what this contest is about!

Few months ago, I was suggesting to another agency about this idea I got as a blogger but sadly they didn’t get what I meant and interpreted it another way which didn’t quite work. Today at Canon’s first blogger event (together with Ogilvy), I’m so happy that they got it!!

For future events organisers, if you’ve got cameras and bloggers, give us a card (SD, memory xD or whichever that fits your product) to use and take home. This is much appreciated than some thumbdrive or even a DVD!

Thanks Canon for the thought and looks like a great start to more of such events! Congrats to the team!

More on the products later… got few more in the list that’s loooong overdue!

It was a great great event! Lovely venue, beautiful scenery, great weather and with so many powerful chips! Very sleepy and tired now, so I shall let the photos do the talking for me. More thoughts on the event and Intel chip in the next post. (After my post on the NE Show firework video!)

Intel Centrino2 Press Event at OneDegree15 @ Sentosa Cove