Monthly Archives: November 2013

6th EBAC Meeting and 10th annual APBF 2013 in Bangkok

UNESCAP EBAC APBF

The 6th and my first EBAC meeting took place on Monday followed by the one and half day 10th annual Asia Pacific Business Forum. The great event got kickstarted on Sunday at the British Club in Bangkok, where we gathered together with the Connectivity Task Force lead by Barbara Meynert. It was also the first time for the whole team to meet together in person. We had had fractal meetings with parts of the team in Bangkok and Hong Kong, but this was the first time the full team was present. It’s just amazing how important meeting in person is, and how much more effective it is compared to exchanging emails and speaking over phone/Skype. The working team consists of 10 people with all very unique skills, and is set to deliver an online SME platform to connect and support the SMEs in the Asian region.

First of all, it’s a fun project to work with, but it is also a very important for the regions growth, which has been now stressed in many occasions. Over the EBAC welcome dinner, hosted generously by Barbara, the UN ESCAP Executive Secretary Ms. Noeleen Heyzer accented the importance of SMEs and the sustainable connectivity between them.

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3D Printing Industry partners up with Mediabistro to produce Inside 3D Printing trade shows

3D Printing Industry - Inside 3D Printing - Mediabistro copy

It’s official. After months of waiting and waiting the day is finally here. Mediabistro just announced their investment in 3D Printing Industry and that going further the two companies will be producing Inside 3D Printing worldwide trade show series together.

At 3D Printing Industry we obviously were waiting this quite anxiously and unfortunately it took longer than anticipated to get everything in order. Things in Asia can sometimes take time, but there’s no point going into details here. The developments are great and will strengthen our leading online media position in the 3D printing realm. The partnership makes perfect sense for both companies and the same model has worked wonders in the past for many.

In fact, it’s a bit of a funny story. When we first met Alan in April in New York he was explaining how he usually operates the trade shows and media partnerships. I mentioned to him that it sounded very much like the model used by Search Engine Land with SMX shows. Maybe I should have done my research better, as it was Alan’s original model that he had created for Search Engine Watch when it was still owned by Jupitermedia. Live and learn.

The times ahead are very exciting for us.

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One week as a tour guide in Bangkok

Bangkok Skyline from Blocs77

I like having guests. Living in Bangkok doesn’t unfortunately allow that too often, because of the holidays in the west, so everyone tend to time their Thailand holidays towards the dark and cold autumn/winter period. The past week has been quite hectic on the guest storefront. First, my younger sister and her husband came for their honeymoon (Congratulations!) after cleverly avoiding the wedding ceremony and reception back home. Smart move, I have to admit. They stayed for a day and headed down South to Koh Lipe before returning via Bangkok back to Finland. Then an old childhood friend of mine and his girlfriend arrived in Bangkok to start a 3-months Asia tour, which to be quite frank I am jealous of. And finally, my parents landed on Thursday to add to the soup. So, I transformed myself into a Bangkok tour guide for the past week.

This is what we went through:

Monday

I introduced my friends to MBK – one of the busiest shopping centers in Bangkok, since their hotel was nearby and it was their first visit to Bangkok – to start with something easy ;). The usual Phad Thai noodle joint in the food court had sadly pumped up the price, again.

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How to use Facebook to promote your website?

Facebook_Logo

Facebook pages seem to be like an opinion these days – every website / company has one. However, it’s surprising how few can actually make it work for them, in terms of converting the likes to traffic, or creating an engaging page where people comment, discuss and share information. It’s easier said than done.

The purpose of this post is to look into couple points that I have noticed working well for Facebook pages I have been involved with in the past. There are tons of articles in the web about this topic, but it seems like everyone of them are saying the same thing: what to post, when to post and so on: generic best practices. I browsed several of those and found most them of very little use. I mean they are good to get started, if you have no clue, but they will not take you very far. Unless of course, you are willing to spend hours and hours daily for long period of time. I am not saying that I have discovered a magic formula, but there are actions that can greatly boost the basic efforts.

The look of the page – Branding

The look and feel is where it all starts – very basics really.

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gamesGRABR sourcing funding at CrowdCube

gamesGRABR

What pinterest did for wider audience, gamesGRABR is doing for people who love games. It’s THE social network for gamers. The idea is based on curating games collections, discovering, engaging, playing, sharing them with other gamers, and following the trends of the favorite games and players – across all game platforms.

gamesGRABR recently launched an equity crowdfunding campaign that aims to raise £150,000 in return of 7% equity. Things are looking good: so far they have raised £116,000 with 46 days to go. What makes the set up even more interesting is that after they reach the £150,000 an additional £200,000 will be added from their existing investors. The company raised £250,000 seed funding round earlier this year and have successfully developed and launched the website. If you are new to how crowdfunding works I wrote an article about it earlier.

In the past months have been working closely with gamesGRABR to support their online marketing and analytics. I am excited about the concept, and it has proven to raise attraction: 35% of the visitors are returning. They are making the desired actions on the website; playing, downloading and buying games.

The team is very knowledgeable and professional and I think the future for the project is looking very bright.

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