Tangs Singapore | ingridmak.net

Social Media Breakfast 6 (SMB6)

March 29th, 2009 | 5 Comments | Posted in Events, IMO

It’s been awhile since I’ve last updated the blog, been tied down by school work (last 2 weeks of the ter, yay!)

There’s just so much to blog about (HBO True Blood event, my overdue blip.fm review, SMUBE Campus Radio etc), so do keep checking the blog in the next few weeks to come !

Anyways, attended my “virgin” Social Media Breakfast (SMB) yesterday night and boy, I’m glad I took the time off from work to.

islandcafe

SMB6 was held at Island Cafe, Tangs at 7pm in conjunction with Tangs virtual launch of its SecondLife store and Earth Hour. (That probably explained why it was not a “Breakfast” but a really late one instead )

Being my first SMB experience, I was looking forward to meet new people and mingle around. (which of course I did)

Seeing familiar faces from Plurk was great because I can’t exactly call myself a Social Media Junkie or a Blogger per se , was feeling rather “extra” in that sense.

As for the consumer panel, I will not go into details of what the discussion had to say as you can read Dorothy‘s live-blogging action here.

Just a few words on the event itself as a participant of the night

1) Venue and Technical Glitches – I guess the SMB team is unable to do much about such constraints, the venue was indeed alil small for such a crowd (I’m guessing at least 80-100 people turned up?!) but I felt it was rather cozy and a smaller area tends to bring people together easily (like you have no choice but to mingle around..haha) It was quite disappointing that the venue caused another problem which I’ll mention next.

The audio system was rather flop right from the start, but such technical glitches are not to be blamed ? Coming from SMU Broadcast & Entertainment, I know best that such problems are the last thing an organizer would have wished for, especially after soundcheck etc…but there’re really nothing much to be done during the event itself if sh*t happens. I guess the team will probably learn from the “mistake”.

2) Type, Not Chat- I understand that alot of people were there to network/mingle around, but I feel that it’s only basic courtesy to respect the panel and listen to what they have to say. Like hello, there ARE people who are straining their ears and trying to catch up on the conversation betwee n the panel. Ok, maybe the audio/venue problem has a part to play but I was rather annoyed by the fact that it IS already difficult to listen to the discussion and people are chattering away at the back. I’m not saying that it’s bad (ok,quite rude actually) to talk or comment here and there but be alil more considerate ? If you are there to catch up with a friend, kindly do it outside. Maybe SMB should have this “no talking,just typing” rule in the future. haha

Of course, I understand that people were late and pretty much jammed outside the main discussion area, but bear in mind that it IS rather small, and people don’t exactly “whisper”.

3) “Social Media…what ?” – I was quite amused by the fact that those sitting down were whipping out their netbooks and 3G/WIFI devices during the event. But it was rather sad to see the discussion(s) were not exactly about the consumer panel. I was probably one of the few who tried to twitter away during the event, mainly to keep track of the discussion and make notes. Plurk was as usual a more “informal” topic starter with the usual plurkers plurking about random things. I thought the SMB participants could have been more involved via these platform if you’re like some “introvert” or too shy to speak up during the panel discussion. In fact, I was quite surprised that not many people were involved with the panel discussion or twittering questions/comments regarding the topics. In the end, I find that Plurk and Twitter have become a feedback outlet for the SMB team instead, with people commenting or complaining on the venue/sound etc.

4) Cheep Cheap Cheep,Free ! – Is this a Singaporean (bad) habit/trend ? Are people turning up for events just for the free food/drinks ? I overheard someone going “wah..so fast no more drinks already..yadda yadda” and I’m quite sure I didn’t see him/her was not very active (or rather,not even there) during the panel. What’s an event without food you say ? Sure, food can still be provided but at your own expense. “How can like that !” So does that mean you are NOT coming for the event IF you were to pay for your own meal ? I do think that less(er) people will turn up because of this change if the team decides to take away the “free meal”. But hey, I’m sure you guys out there are really turning up for the content and not the free meal right ?

5) Discussion Topic (s) – Perhaps because it’s a consumer panel, I felt like I didn’t “learn” much about Social Media/Marketing but I could relate to them as a whole. I understand that SMB acts more like a “beginner/introduction” to Social Media but I think some of the participants were looking for more in-depth discussions. Perhaps a closed-event would encourage that. But having an invite-only event also defeats the purpose of “introducing” Social Media to more people out there and engaging them. I guess the SMB team will have to consider alot of factors to see how the next SMB can cater to both groups.

6) Tangs Virtual Launch – I was quite “lost” during this segment because 1) I didn’t bring my specs (haha) – it was too far away and the screen was kinda tiny. 2) Maybe a live Demo and hands-on will be more interactive 3) Explain why Tangs decide to use SecondLife which doesn’t seem to be a very popular platform for Singaporeans ? (correct me if I’m wrong, because I’m not a SecondLife fan)

7) Earth Hour – “errrr…so what do we do now ?”, “lights off ! yay!” was my reactions before/during the lights off period. I was expecting more but I guess with people streaming out of the room, the “atmosphere” was kinda dampen. It was still rather interesting to talk to people in the dark (that explains why I’ll probably NOT recognize/remember the ones I’ve met..haha..excuses)

These are just some personal thoughts on SMB6. I’ve enjoyed myself a great deal and great to meet some of you out there (do leave a comment/drop me an email at ingridmak (AT) gmail [dot] com if you happened to be one of them!). I’m looking forward to SMB7 already.

You can read Daryl‘s personal comment on SMB6 here as well. I think some of my concerns were explained/reflected in his post.

P.S: I figured that I need some grammar/spellcheck plugin (haha), too lazy to edit. Sorry ! Not many photos taken either, too dim for my N82..anyone wanna sponsor me a proper DSLR ? =P