I ThinkBIG in Brunei ~ Social Media Revolution

Continuing on my experience in Brunei, I felt really, really great for I've made this trip.  Before leaving for Brunei, you could not have imagined how much obstacles I need to go through.  It was a test on myself in handling adversity.  I braved myself and accepted that challenge, to re-discover how much I am capable of handling uncommon scenarios in my life.  To this,  I have renewed respect for my ownself.  Its an all win situation for me, HOORAY!!!

A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man be perfected without trials ~ Danish proverb

With myself having a winner's spirit, its time for me to share the secret of winning, and this can be found at the ThinkBIG, Innovate 2011 forum.  The forum focused on technology and entrepreneurship.

Food for thoughts from the forum

photo credit : Leanna Photography

The sheilas from Sabah (L-R: CC, Leanna Chong & AngelBear).  R we fashionistas or naut?? I'd like to think of the better, hence the former, pls.... hee hee.  The guys weren't feeling too well.  Rungitom was all pale from an episode of sickness last night, hence would rather not be in the pic, while Dinoza was full of sickness, staying at bay (the hotel, I meant).

A 5 star hotel's cup of tea with biscuits to start my day

Opening address by the Minister of Communications, Brunei

The forum was all about using information and communications technologies (ICT) for entrepreneurship.   Traditional businesses of opening a shop and pray for customers to patron is an old school of thoughts.  Then there was the use of advertisements to attract customers.  Nowadays, its all about building relationships and staying in touch.  Do you have various membership cards in your hand?  What is the function of these membership cards?  The art of informing and being informed is being pushed a notch higher with the use of social media and such.  By way of myself starting a blog and attracting you to read this is already a baby step towards entrepreneurship. *I did not know that, until now. GOSH!! Naive me *

The forum touched on alot of the crucial issues on support given by banking and government towards start-ups and small medium enterprises (SME).  Though its more on the Brunei scenario, it does not differ much from where I come from.  Various real life cases of using internet tools as as business tools were also presented with a few prominent entrepreneurs as speakers.

Colourful list of various social media apps/tools

That list showed the running numbers (was still running live) of people posting, tweeting, downloading, visiting etc etc via the various apps.  A simple conversion means these are TRAFFIC .  Looking at the numbers that kept going upward was fascinating.  I swear it woke me up from a "you-do-not-have-my-attention mode".
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Technical support and facilities of a 5 star hotel.

While I was "in the zone", I could not help but appreciate the technical facilities provided by the hotel.  Man!!, even our 5 star hotels can't provide all these.  I say, our hotels need to buck up, instead of telling the same old story of "I am old.  I am incapable.  I ignore whatever your requests".  (Been there.  Heard that).

All in all, the forum was very enriching.  I especially liked the part presented by Ann Burgraff.  She's voted 'Top Start-up Mentor in Asia' within 'The Founder Institute' in 2010.  Below is one of the videos she used in her presentation.

Well, that wraps up my "formal" education in Brunei.  I hope it helps ignite the entrepreneurship spirit in you and to affirm you, this path has been tested and is possible.  

Next post will be my eat, drink, play and joy in Brunei.

** My heart twinge at this afternoon's tragedy of the collision of a train and an oil tanker in KK, Sabah.  Its total bizarre that such thing happened here .