YEM - Rocking GEW 2009 !

These guys - I call them the F-MAD team are rocking GEW this year.

F - Fareez
M - Michael Teoh
A - Aidan Chew
D- Daniel Cerventus.

Together - they are the force behind YEM - Youth Entrepreneur Malaysia.

YEM exists to create "an entrepreneurial community among youths in Malaysia".

Last year, their dynamo - Daniel Cerventus organized one of the most exciting events during the Week - the Start-up camp. The start-up camp brought together an immense number of aspiring entrepreneurs and established entrepreneurs together .

Many youth who were sitting on the fence - not sure if entrepreneurship is for them - took the plunge as a result of the camp.

This year, we made YEM the Youth Catalyst.

To-date - the 4 handsome young men has done wonders - their head honcho - Michael Teoh, a celebrity on his own accord is usually seen in GEW t-shirts at events. Its almost like having our own Tiger Woods marketing GEW !

They will be on TV this week - creating more buzz on GEW.

Watch out for this team - they are taking the entrepreneur community by storm !

Cheers

For Fresh Updates - Refer to My Tweet

Dear Friends and Partners,

Amazing things are happening in Malaysia for GEW2009 ! I have been super busy with my team working and supporting partners put together an amazing array of activities and events to rock GEW 2009.

In fact our activities began from the day we launched GEW2009 on 21/2009 ! That event - a colorful one was sponsored by the British High Commission and the UK Trade and Investment.

Many activities has taken place since then.

I think the time has come now for me to give you an day by day quick update on all the things that are taking shape.

Follow me on my personal tweet : http://twitter.com/DashInsights for fresh updates and other thoughts I may have from time to time.

Thank you - will see you all here for one more summary of all the events before we move in completely to the tweet. It will also save you time - to just get the top of the line updates.

Cheers

Meeting SWEPA

This entry is one week overdue lah.....but better late than never !

FINALLY ! I met SWEPA : the Sabah Women Entrepreneurs and Professional Association.

From left : Johan Amilin, Emily (WG), Hanaa Wong Abdullah (Deputy President of SWEPA) and Ursula, SWEPA.

I was in Sabah last week for a client event. I thought it would be a good opportunity to meet SWEPA - and my team made it possible and we met at the Borneo Paradise Resort Hotel.

Thanks to Johan for being kind enough to bring those lovely ladies over.

SWEPA was one of the biggest supporters of GEW last year under the then President Ms Dolly Jimayol. They not only delivered impressive activities but also drummed up immense media awareness for the week.

This year the President of SWEPA is Dato' Adeline Leong. Hanna is the Deputy President.

We met for slightly over an our and I must admit these women have passion and they want to ensure entrepreneurship thrives in Sabah and no one is left out. They want to MAKE THEIR MARK.

The SWEPA ladies promised to discuss and revert with a plan for the week. I am sure they will blow us away !

Thanks to Hanna, Ursula and last ut not least Johan to drop by to pay me a visit.

Cheers

The Stanford Global Innovation Tournament in Malaysia

As we march closer and closer to the Global Entrepreneurship Week, our various partners are taking the initiative to organize and lead programs and events that spark the entrepreneurial fire in the young. One such organization is Alpha Catalyst - our Innovation Catalyst for GEW09.

Alpha Catalyst is the lead driver for the Stanford Global Innovation Tournament in Malaysia. They are not only organizing the competition here for the Global challenge, they are also stirring a great deal of hype and interest by unleashing a Malaysian problem prior to the announcement of the Global challenge.

These gives 2 chances for winners to participate and win . Truly Taking the Loca, Global !

Please visit their site : http://www.gitmy.blogspot.com/ to see what they are doing.

Alpha Catalyst has managed to line up an impressive list of sponsors to support the challenge. They are an Innovation company and they have truly used their own tool to make the challenge happen in a big way in Malaysia.

Congrats to Azim and his team for pulling the challenge off !

Alpha Catalyst - Our Catalyst for Innovation !

Azim and his lovely wife, Dr Suraya are both great friends of ours and supporters of the Global Entrepreneurship Week.

This soft-spoken couple are an inspiration not just to the GEW team at Warisan Global but also to me. I have never come out of a discussion with them without being inspired to look at things with "new eyes" ! They can nudge one to think and see things in new and innovative ways - all in their vintage non-threatening and pleasant manner.

Azim and Suraya run Alpha Catalyst Consulting - a boutique Innovation Consulting firm, based in KL, established since 2000.

For GEW 2009, Azim and Suraya will be co-hosting the Stanford's Global Innovation Tournament (GIT).

Their plans for GEW 2009 and what they did for GEW 2008 will be on the website soon.

We have invited Alpha Catalyst to be the Innovation Catalyst for GEW.

Catalysts are partners who are able to exert a wider impact on the entrepreneurial community - they organize activities and do more than just organizing one activity as per the definition of a partner.

The Catalyst category is introduced in Malaysia to acknowledge partners who have contributed a great deal to GEW 2008 and are able to influence a wider audience in 2009.

I am pleased to have this dynamic duo on board.

Meeting Jude.

Met an interesting young man last evening - Jude Jiunn Yoong Chia is his name (pic)

Actually Jude and I have been trying to meet for sometime now and only yesterday we finally managed to sit down to chat. I am glad I met this very smart and passionate guy, who came with another equally capable and passionate lady by the name of Yen.

This is how Jude introduced himself via email to me:

"I'm still a business analyst/ researcher on project basis in Malaysia. I also author globalization reports for Global Voices Online at Harvard's Berkman Center. Recently selected in Twitter's Top 100 opinion leaders in social entrepreneurship by Social Edge, Skoll foundation. Currently initiate long-term pursuit to set up social enterprise, still in early stages of fieldwork in urban slums, Malaysia with objectives to identify globally scalable & replicable social mission."

We spent about an hour talking about what we do and I found Jude to be a keen proponent of Social Entrepreneurship - seeking out real opportunities to work in urban slums. He tells me he is currently doing some work in Sentul.

"We aspire to find a way to take what we do global", he says looking straight into my eyes.

I am keen to follow this man's progress and have invited him to participate in GEW in any which way he can ignite a few with his passion.

We await his proposal which he promised to send soon.

Another day spent meeting good people.

8/8 :100 Days to GEW Countdown

It was a sunny Saturday afternoon on the 8th of August.

The program : Countdown : 100 Days to GEW.

The VIP : Dato' Saifuddin Abdullah, Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Patron for GEW Malaysia (the Patron)

Time of the event : 12pm to 4pm. The event was to start with a networking lunch followed by the event proper and a press conference. The patron's scheduled time of arrival :1.30pm.

One and a half hours for people to come, register and settle down for relaxed lunch. We did not want to rush anyone on a Saturday afternoon.

It was a simple Malay lunch - fried rice, satay and a few other items including some Malays kueh for dessert.

More than 80 people came - Partners, people new to GEW and friends.

Our our Main Media Partners, Media Prima Group were there in full force - NTV7, NSTP, Berita Harian since 12pm.

Also present was Malaysia SME. Other media such as The Edge requested for the stories to be sent to them as they were unable to attend.

Saloma in a sense is a perfect location for such gatherings - located at the heart of the city, a few metres away from KLCC, it has ample parking and the food is not bad.

Everyone was relaxed, had lunch and was networking. There was camaraderie among the partners. Many knew each other and was glad to catch up again.

The Patron arrived close to 2pm. He was held up at another earlier meeting, down the street at the Nikko Hotel.

The program began as soon as Dato' arrived.

The itinerary was simple - 10 Minutes for the opening remarks, 10 Minutes for the 100 Day gimmick and about 30 minutes for the sharing by catalysts and partners. We had to play press conference by ear - depending on the Patron's time.

We allocated the most time for the catalysts and partners to share what they planned to do for GEW. We wanted the Patron to hear them.

However, there was a time constraint now. Dato' had to leave by 2.40pm. The media too was waiting for him for the past 2 hours and they wanted to have a press conference with him too. So the pc is now on.

This means, he had to adjourn to a press conference by 2.30pm and then leave by 2.45 latest to make his appointment by 3pm.

I gave a quick 2 minute welcome remark, followed by the Patron's inspiring speech.

Dato' in his speech urged universities and college students to become more entrepreneurial and encouraged them to participate in the GEW activities by either organizing their own activities or by attending partner activities.

He mentioned that not many students in Malaysian universities and colleges are becoming entrepreneurs as soon as they graduate compared to their counterparts in other countries. He wanted to see this trend reversed - more ventures created by young people.

The 100 Day to GEW Launch gimmick was designed to create interaction between the partners and the patron. The gimmick was to fix a 8 piece jigsaw puzzle of the backdrop to the board on the stage. 6 people were selected from the sponsors and catalysts including the Patron and I.

2 other partners were selected at random - Datin (the Patron's wife) helped to draw lots.

This was fun - everyone had a great time on stage and the media and photographers had a field day taking photos of people trying to fix a velcro mounted styro-foam backdrop on stage.

This was followed by several sharing sessions by the catalysts and partners. 10 people were selected to do this.

However, as we approached the 5th partner, we had to move the patron to the next room for the press conference. The remaining partners carried on listening to the sharing session.

The Deputy Minister spoke about the relevance of GEW, being enterprising and also various matters relating to the event at the press conference.

This was covered extensively by the media.

The same night we were on the main news, the late news and also the next day in the afternoon news.

The newspapers also carried the story widely.

We thank everyone for being there to make the event a big success. We thank the media too and last but not least, our Patron, Dato' Saifuddin Abdullah for his continued and untiring support of youth entrepreneurship in general and GEW in particular.

Cheers