Sam Chan - I am not a photographer. Just a photo enthusiast and for the last three year, my blog is skewing toward photo blog.
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Barcamp Hong Kong 2011 – The 5th year. Same time as I have been in Hong Kong. This year I really did not stay for the talks. I went to take some photos at the introduction and left at around 11.45am.
Usually I have my drawing class on Saturday. This year…I did not do much at Barcamp.
From the Barcamp introductions and the board schedule, I get a feeling the startup scene was much stronger as compared to the previously.
A lot of apps developers. This year…apps dominate the Barcamp scene. Old dawg like me…just don’t fit anymore. (more…)
One of my favorite tech event for the year. Every year I would hang around and see what new stuff I would learn. This year its no different. I came to learn and take picture.
The venue at Time Warner.
A huge overhead projector…show the Barcamp logo.
The crowd…
Adobe sponsored Tees…$30.00 Hkd each.
I have always like their pantry. The coffee machine that churn out cappuccino, latte and espresso.
Kin (www.lakoo.cn) talk about mobile games in China. This round…I understand a little better on the overall mobile game in China because he presented it in Cantonese.
I always thought there is money to be made in mobile games and have always wondered how to break into this market. But I don’t have the programming capability. I can only become a spectator on this one.
Save this one for last because need to do some rambling. Alex Kong (www.akasas.com). A very successful malaysian entrepreneur who started asiatravelmart.com and afoofa.com came in to do a presentation on his latest venture.
I left after five minutes because I can’t take a Jaguh Kampung doing his self promotion. He said…’Some of you might know or have seen me in CNN, Businessweek…blah…blah. I have been awarded numerous award….blah…blah…My product are use by MAS, AirAsia…blah…blah). Can’t take this Jaguh Kampung bullshit, man….
In malaysia, I would never be able to meet this guy. He network with the ministers, datuks and tan sris. But in Hong Kong, we are in the same network circle…go figure…hehee…I probably be seeing him again this wednesday because Guy Kawasaki is coming into town.
If he has come in by saying…’My name is so and so…I have developed many internet product and have been some what successful.. in some and this is my latest product…I want to share with you and hopefully spread the word about my latest product’…wouldn’t that be nicer…shit…I would not be rambling so much.
Anyway, I had fun at Barcamp. Thanks the organizers and sponsors. Some slides below for your enjoyment.
I went to 4 talks. First was online marketing – customer aquisition, second was augmented reality – as a game, the third was mobile game – can it be profitable and the last reengineer the hk futures market (the most interesting and the most funniest).
Online Marketing – Speaker – Sarah -
The topic was interesting. People like always wanted to know what it the SECRET to acquire customers. The speaker – Sarah (used to work for EuroStar).
The only thing that I learned from this talk was paid search. It will drive traffic to your site and affliate could also bring on some positive results. The rest…I think EuroStar still use PRICE as a competitive advantage. Just like any other budget airlines, price and advanced booking is the key.
Augmented Reality – Speaker – Ben Lau
You can check out the Wiki if you don’t know what it’s.
It new stuff to me. That is why Barcamp is so interesting and you can’t get this info anywhere unless you go to a paid seminar.
Can it be a commercially viable products? Well, still a long way. But interesting to know…
Now, this guy you wanna to know. If you are a Java Mobile games developer and wants to get into the chinese market. This is the guy that will bring you in.
He has developed 2 Java API that can port into any telcos in China. You can ride on his portal and API’s without the headache of talking to each telcos. Also, all the payment gateway from SMS, prepaid card, alipay and others are in place. Off course, riding on his platform, you need to share profit. No free lunch…ok…
Reverse Engineer Hong Kong Futures Market – Speaker – Wang Hang
This is by-far the most interesting and funniest speaker. I want to say…he is a brillant guy, too.
The way he presented is like he has found the secret of unlocking the Hong Kong Stock Index behavior and he found a way to make money out of this. He was like damned excited and wanted to share this ‘secret’.
Well…people…there is no secret. He just found another way of doing it…that all. All he did was trying to retrieve the Tick Data from the net and testing it with indicators like Linear Regression. He has Data feed but his data feed is via some local stockbroker that stream to a JAVA chart.
Wang, if you are reading this (like if my blog hv tonnes of people coming to read..hehhe), you don’t hv to use this method to do it. You can setup an account with Interactive Brokers. IB provide data feed and historical data. Plus they will give u the API to port into their data server. Then download a software called Tradestation 2K (it’s a discontinued version but you can find it through BT). I like Tradestation 2K because you can program it anyway you want and backtest it. From here, you can test all kind of time frame using different indicators. Linear Regression is good but it’s not the ultimate. There must be some filtering technique to prevent fake price spike.
What Wang showed was a good direction but it’s a long way from profitability. He shoud test the data with higher time frame and different indicators. He might sees a different picture. The goal is to trade less but with maximum kill (profit).
Aiya…I wrote too much. Well, Barcamp was awesome. I want to thank all the sponsors and organizers for making this happen. Every year, the experience was different. Last year, I predict the same kind of crowd would be around for this Barcamp but I was wrong. There were a lot new faces and new technologies talk. Let hope next year is far more different.
Last year I took a pix with Yahoo backdrop. So, this year have to do one with Time Warner backdrop.
Ed…the man who sponsored T-shirts for this year Barcamp and last year, too.
Charles Mok dropped by during the day. I am a little saddened because he did not win the I.T. seat on Sept 7 election. To me, Charles is more of a grassroot guy and Samson is more of autocratic guy. Off course, I like a grassroot guy. I will never be able to see or talk to an autocratic guy because he so high up in his God table.
This is my second year attending [tag]Barcamp[/tag] [tag]Hong Kong[/tag]. Times really flies. Last year it was at Yahoo office but this year the venue change to Time Warner office at Tai Koo Place. I really like the office. Spectacular seaview and awesome pantry.
The registration counter. The only thing about the registration is the security guard took our ID number. Are they going to safeguard the information or will it leak out. I am worried.
Check out the view.
Getting ready…
Awesome signage…
This one end of the pantry…
I like this one…the espresso machine. I downed 4 latte that day…hehhehe….
This is the other end of the pantry.
I don’t know about you. But I love this place. Recycling bins. Simply awesome…
More pictures…I put into slides.
The people start to gather to check out the board. They want to know who put what topic up for the day.
Initial round of topics…
Everybody get together to introduce them and get at free T-shirts. Sponsored by dookaz.com
Hong Kong… you need to be bilingual. Belle from beanbox.com is doing the english and Ben from Hkday.net was doing the cantonese version.
The place was jammed packed. I am guessing…there should be above 250 attendees.
Adobe and dookaz.com sponsoring different themes T-shirts for $20Hkd. I bought one…too good to pass on.
I did not do any presentation but I did engage in some of the conversation about legality issue and pushing the boundary as an internet startup.
My first time putting my picture up.
With Rebecca Mackinnon. I look like a jailbird. Now..u know why I don’t put up my pix.
Met Leon Ho (voted top 25 Young Entrepreneur in BusinessWeek). He make me feel obsolete in the internet industry.
Henry Oh brought up an issue about legality issue about certain pornographic mobile contents might accessed by a minor and the content provider might be legally liable in certain countries even though the content might not be from his company.
I agreed we should be aware on the legality aspect of pornographic content but as an INTERNET start-up. One should pursue on launching the product and worry about the legality issue later. Internet technology or idea don’t last long in the internet space. You could claimed you are the first that create this technology but without money and marketing superiority. This so-called ‘First’ don’t meaning anything.
My point is to get the product on the market first. There ample example on companies that get the products out to the market first ( RIM – Blackberry – sued for infringement and later settled, Microsoft – should say more, Vonage – almost shutdown when the other side seek an injunction to stop them from acquiring new customer and YouTube.com – CBS launch a 50million suit.)
The next thing after attending [tag]Barcamp[/tag] was some Déjà vu language that I have heard in 2002 and 2003 in K.L. First, the language of ‘Globally Centric’. In the case of HK, ‘China Centric’. In KL, the saying at that time was, if your internet company does not catered to the world audience, the VC will not pump money into your company. Coming forward to 2007 HK, the saying is if your company does not cater to China audience, no VC will pump money into your company.
In 2002, I thought this is a valid argument but in 2007, it’s a fallacy. This is a bunch crap shit that I have ever heard. One of the case in point is AirAsia.com, a malaysian home grown budget airline. When they started in 2001, with only 2 planes and $2 million ringgit in working capital and a web-only ordering system, the odd were against them. At time, they operate on domestic route only and in 2001 the broadband penetration is about 5% or less and most users still using dial-up.
But the consumers bought tons of ticket via the internet. Why? The product. They offered the lowest price in town and the only way to get them is via the net. If the consumer/s don’t have internet connection, they will find one. And AirAsia.com is the success story today.
What does it has to to with the internet and population(or so called critical mass)? If you have a compelling product/s that the consumers wants and need. Your potential customers will find ways to buy it from you. So..the language of ‘China Centric’ and ‘World Centric’ is full of shit to me. Its a language created by VC to say ‘NO’.
Another similarity is VC money is scarce in HK, which is the same language that appeared in KL during year 2002. In 2007 HK, same story. The technology has advanced but the VC money is still the same story.
So..damn Déjà vu…man
Now…after all the HOO HAH about BarCamp, what is next? Barcamp is good to network and learn some insight on technical aspect of programming, on how to scale your web-server, printing technology and etc. I do sincerely take my hat off to the organizers of Barcamp (you know who u r, so I won’t name names…too lazy to write) and the sponsors ( I like my Barcamp T-shirt and the Pret-A-Manager sandwich). So much hard work has been put into it.
Finally, I don’t know if any media coverage for this BarCamp Hong Kong. I realized without coverage from mainstream media house, BarCamp will not expand itself and the next session will be attended by the same bunch of people. That is my thought….
