Adoi Magazine Malaysia

I was up in KL the last week to attend a forum organized by the 4As (Association of Accredited Advertising Agents Malaysia) entitled Power Of Web 2.0 - Branding, New Media, Politics. The panel speakers included blogger-turned-politican Jeff Ooi and Premesh Chandran (Malaysiakini).

Predictably, they were going to talk about how blogs affected the recent Malaysian election but I certainly didn’t expect politics to be the main topic. My poor French friend Richad (Eyeka Asia), who came all the way from Singapore, definitely look lost that afternoon. Apart from some insights about Malaysiakini’s traffic numbers and Ham’s witty jokes, there wasn’t anything else worth mentioning. Jeff Ooi couldn’t make it and that video about college students was entertaining at best - we already know that (city) kids nowadays spend more time on the Internet than on any other medium.

The trip wasn’t all bad in the end. My feedback to 4As about the forum attracted a call from Ham the next morning, who put up my email together with photo and phone number on his blog - naturally attracting criticism from die-hard supporters.

Well, good or bad publicity is still publicity. :)

I also got invited by Ham to speak on SEO at the annual Malaysian Media Congress in August but had to KIV because of the baby due in July. This is the 3rd speaking invitation I’ve had to reject - sigh!

Ham’s a warm and genuinely nice chap actually. He’s also the guy behind Adoi Magazine, the leading magazine for the local advertising industry.

Anyway, it’s nice to be back home and blogging again. Lots of reports to catch up before I go off for appointments again next week in Singapore.