Last week, my family came over to Melbourne during the Easter vacation period and we had a great time discovering different parts of the colourful city together.
We opted for a slightly different itinerary this time around (its the second trip for my family), exploring neighbourhoods that were slightly off the beaten tourist track and enjoying what typical Melburnians would like.
One of the things which truly impressed me about the University of Melbourne was how active its various student organisations are. I do receive daily emails and notices in my student email about various causes to support, talks to attend, concerts to participate in, and groups to join in. Some of the student ECA groups even have job descriptions inked on their websites, complete with the mandatory hours and duties that you need to fulfill.
Whenever I walk around the campus – either en route to the library for studying or the cafeteria for lunch – I notice that there is a constant hive of activity generated by various student clubs, societies and associations. Apparently, there never is a dull moment here. Having gone out of the education system for quite a while, it was interesting to see how various causes were so actively and passionately lobbied by these idealistic youths.
Last Friday, a couple of us decided to walk to campus to check out the night market organised by various student groups. Apparently, this was an annual activity pitched at raising funds for the various societies and clubs.
Street art along a wall in North Richmond
Being an avid runner, I often jog around the Parkville and Carlton areas near my university campus and chance upon street art along various walls, pavements and fences. Some of the air-brushed displays are aesthetically beautifully and probably the result of considerable and painstaking effort to create enduring works of art. Surprisingly, I don’t see that many acts of graffiti which are overtly anti-establishment or vandalistic in nature (or perhaps I haven’t been to those neighbourhoods yet).
While musing on this phenomenon, I chanced upon this interesting article by Mark Holsworth who reported on how several merchants in the Brunswick suburb of Melbourne (just a stone’s throw away from where I am putting up at Carlton) have engaged street artists to decorate their shopfronts. Holsworth highlighted two examples of this could be done tastefully. The first is a convenience store located at the Lygon/Brunswick area:
One of the greatest challenges facing communicators and marketers in the arts is the balance between satisfying artistic input and commercial (or public) interest.
Courtesy of woodleywonderworks
I was invited to a sharing session yesterday afternoon by David Shaw, Director at Effective Brands and a former marketing stalwart at both Lenovo and HP. Founded by Marc De Swaan Arons, the company embarked on a worldwide global brand study seven-years ago which now includes close to 100 global brands with a database of about 40,000 marketers. In the study, the branding consultancy focused on global marketing challenges and possible solutions to overcome them.
Here are some of the key highlights which I picked up.
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.
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.
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.
It was a starry starry night, with blogging stars and celebrity bloggers alike thronging the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) last night. ACM was all abuzz when the Omy Blog Awards was held at its River Room. Bloggers and social media users from all walks of life – students, young adults, mothers and fathers – gathered to participate in the event. It was a pretty interesting experience for me to combine work and play.
During the course of the evening, I had the privilege to meet both old and new friends from the blogging communities. They include Chun See, Marina, Claudia, DK, Chillycraps, Eastcoastlife, ieatishootipost, Sparklette, Samantha Chan, Angela Jean, Alice Cheong, Sabrina, and Miss loi amongst others. Special thanks to the team at Mypaper/Wo bao and Omy, Editor Chim Kang and Alvin, for having this event at our museum. Many thanks too to my hardworking team at NHB – Wei Chong, David, Kimberly and Kenny – for making this possible.
Courtesy of AIMS
Yesterday evening, a good friend and journalist at Zaobao called me to ask for my views on the freshly minted recommendations by AIMS. I gave her some inputs from NHB’s perspective. How we are actively embracing social media and reaching bloggers – not only on our own turf (Yesterday.sg) but through outreach programmes working with various online communities.
Some of you may already know that we have changed a position from e-Marketing to Social Media Marketing. I am also encouraging my team members to participate in various communities by attending their gatherings and meetings. You may wish to read more about NHB’s approach and views in the article at Zaobao (in Mandarin).