Business and management articles | Cooler Insights

Podcamp 2.0 and The Story of Yesterday.sg

November 3, 2008 • Blog • 5 comments

Giving my two cents worth on Yesterday.sg

At the kind invitation of Yi Xuan from SMU, I had the privilege of attending Podcamp 2.0 – an unconference of sorts organised by SMU, where doyens of the digital space proferred their views and insights on social media. Together with me were several bloggers and podcasters like Claudia, Melvin Yuan, Priscilla Tan, Daniel Tsou and Farinelli (of Tech 65), DK, Coleman, Preetam, Michael Netzley, Amelia Wong and others.

Sharing the story of how the National Heritage Board (NHB) – probably Singapore’s most ancient organisation – could leverage on social media, I hoped that I inspired some of the corporate representatives to venture forth. As an interest-based blog, Yesterday.sg took the slow and steady growth approach and the blog is still going strong after being around for two-and-a-half years (or 31 months to be exact). Social media outreach is a team effort driven by my great colleagues from team CCIP (especially Kim, Wei Chong, Kenny and Roy), as well as our dear Friends of Yesterday who have stuck with us through thick and thin.

Debates, Discussions and Dilemmas at DMFest 2008

November 2, 2008 • Blog • no comments

Panel discussion on Web 2.0 and Building Online Communities moderated by Mark Laudi

At the invitation of Text 100 and the Singapore IT Federation, I had the privilege of attending the recent Singapore Digital Media Festival 2008 Television 2.0: Internet Services & New Media Mashup.

Together with me were other bloggers and podcasters like Shunjie, Pat Law, Claudia, Bernard, Darryl, Daniel, Coleman, Clapping Trees, Preetam, Howie (from The Digital Movement), Andrew Peters, Shalabh, the Tech65 crew, and a few others.

The Parable of the Spider

September 21, 2008 • Blog • 6 comments

I spotted the above spider making his home at the lift lobby just outside my home. The little guy has been there for weeks, and interestingly, no efforts have been made to clean up his silky home. I don’t really mind though as I have a thing for spiders.

In fact, there are some lessons that you can learn from them, which relates pretty well to the world of marketing.

How To Write a Great Speech

September 17, 2008 • Public Relations • 4 comments

Michelle Obama at the DNC (courtesy of AP Images)

[This post was updated twice on end March 2015 and 27 July 2016]

Michelle Obama brought the house down at the Democratic National Convention this year. Her wonderful speech affirming Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was widely lauded as one of the best speeches made in the ongoing race for the President of the United States, with elections slated for 8 November 2016.

Some have even proclaimed that she was the star of the show that night – and she isn’t even a politician by any measure of the word!

Social Media Breakfast 3 @ Asian Civilisations Museum

August 16, 2008 • Blog • 20 comments

ACM is the proud venue host of Social Media Breakfast III

Social media is what it is because people simply love to socialise. And boy did I get a major dose of that yesterday morning at Social Media Breakfast 3 (SMB3), courtesy of Daryl Tay, Claudia, and Derrick.

Rest In Peace Randy

July 28, 2008 • Blog • no comments

Do you know who Randy Pausch was? Well, he did something extraordinary, and the whole world grieved recently at his passing.

Despite suffering from a terminal pancreatic cancer, he chose to leave an indelible legacy to his three young kids (and inadvertently the world) when he chose to live life to the fullest despite dying. In doing so, he inspired millions and created a revolution through a simple heartfelt message. His Last Lecture video (below) was viewed by millions, and showed the power of social media networks in spreading a message of goodwill and humanity.

A university professor at Carnegie Mellon University specialising in virtual reality and human computer interaction, Randy made history when he delivered his last lecture – both figuratively and literally – to a capacity crowd. In it, he spoke about achieving one’s childhood dreams, and the simple lessons in life that one should take whatever one’s circumstances. The presentation was especially memorable because Randy did it with a wicked sense of wit and humour, without once feeling sorry for himself despite having only months to live.

Telling the Bad News

July 23, 2008 • Public Relations • no comments

Crises can be opportunities if handled well, as these Chinese characters show (courtesy of tingilinde)

One of the most important skills PR practitioners need to know is crisis communication. That is when things go wrong but need to be made public. Public listed companies would probably be most familiar with this when sharing their quarterly earnings reports.

Hiding the truth is probably one of the worst things to do in such a situation. The widespread availability of information and records through both the internet and public libraries makes it difficult for one to fudge. Sooner or later the truth will come out, and it would be far better coming from you rather than a third party source.