On Monday, 3.14, I attended my first “public appearance” for 2011 at TANGS Orchard. The memories from Blogathon flashed back when I stepped onto stage. Almost felt there’s something about me and TANGS that got me back again. Perhaps its a sign? Hmm…

This time, I was invited by Shiseido to share about my whitening journey with White Lucent with guests at White Day 3.14.

From now till 20 March (Sun) at TANGS Orchard
Receive a Business Class Set with every $160 nett spent. Two sets for you to pick, the White Lucent Set or the Revital White Set.

PLUS! You’ll receive an exclusive White Day Limited Edition Chocolavion treat from Shiseido Parlour in Japan when you top-up your spending to $180 nett. This is available in limited quantities!

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!

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!

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.

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…

Happening THIS Saturday at 7PM. YES! 7PM! Not am ok! We’re having super late breakfast this time round. Perhaps it should be Social Media Beer instead! I’m sure Tangs serve Beer, please bring cash as its BYOB night! This is happening at Tangs Island Cafe on the upper most level (can’t remember its 3rd or 4th or 5th??) but ya! Just take the lift from inside the mall and head up to the highest level accessible to public and you’ll find us there!

Beside the usual discussion on social media and networking and good company, we’re putting you into a dark challenge! Between 8.30pm to 9.30pm, Tangs will be participating in Earth Hour! Yes! 60 mins of darkness. Can you keep your cool and enjoy the session in candlelight with the rest of us? Come try it out! It’s going to be quite an experience!

If you’re not going to be there, don’t forget to switch off your lights and if possible all electricity around you too during Earth Hour ok! Help save our planet!

For more details about SMB6, please check out our official blog and facebook event page. Oh! And if you’re twittering, blogging, flickr-ing or watever-online-ing about SMB6, don’t forget to tag it with #smbsg6!

See you on Saturday!!

Psss… we’re also going clubbing and dancing after that! Join us too! Time to let our hair down down down down down…