What's Hot in 2009 Dialogue

The last dialogue I attended was the Malaysia Bloggers Buff 2007. It was a workshop come forum for fresh and veteran bloggers to speak about the importance of responsible blogging in Malaysia. The passed Monday, I attended the What’s Hot in 2009 dialogue organized by the Cradle Investment Programme (CIP) in collaboration with Malaysia Entrepreneurs (MYE). I actually only heard about this event from a friend of mine who heard from a friend of his either via Twitter or elsewhere. Hail, social media! :D

Anyway, I actually didn’t see the additional word; dialogue, when I was reading about the event. My expectations was an event where the speakers would share their insight on what’s to be hot in 2009. For example; due to the increase in oil the retail industry will be hit and consumers will look towards online as an alternative. But when I was there, it wasn’t like that.

Instead, we had invited speakers from prominent sectors in Malaysia. They were:

• Mr. Nazrin Hassan (CEO of Cradle Investment Programme)
• Prof. Zainul Faziruddin Zainuddin (Director of USM Innovation Office)
• Mr. Shahril Tarmizi (COO of Malaysian Communication & Multimedia Commission – MCMC)
• Mr. Peter Tam (Partner Accounts Manager of Microsoft Malaysia)
• Mr. Mohammad Hazani Hassan (COO of Kumpulan Modal Perdana)
• Mr. Hasnul Nadzrin Shah (Creative Multimedia Cluster Manager of Multimedia Development Corporation – MDeC)
• Dr. Sivapalan Vivekarajah (Advisor of Technopreneurs Association of Malaysia – TeAM)

During the event, there was multiple hardware problems with the microphone. They kept changing them over as though it only was the microphone to blame. Well, I’m not a sound engineer so won’t comment much except say it was quite embarassing for the speakers and host.

I found the dialogue not very satisfying because there were too many areas to cover in too little time. The event was only from 10:30 AM until 1:30 PM. The introduction of the speakers and their background already took up almost 15-30 minutes. Plus, they even had a self-introduction but thank goodness while doing that they actually hinted of what their sectors were looking for in 2009.

By the time we got down to the main topics, it was already 12:00-12:30 PM. The topics discussed were:

• Outsourcing
• Funding
• Web 2.0

There may have been 4 topics but I only recall upto 3. In between dialogues, there was plrenty of feedback from the crowd. I’m going to say they never expected the crowd to be as interactive until they had to limit the questions to progress forward. Then at the end of every topic, they’ll pose the question to the floor, “Is Web 2.0 hot or not?” and judge by the number of hands.

I was completely unhappy during the Web 2.0 portion of the dialogue. Why? Well, do you what Web 2.0 is? Can you tell me what it is without telling me it’s Facebook or AJAX? Exactly.

During the topic about Web 2.0, the terminology was overused while even my friend beside me asked what is Web 2.0. Thankfully, Daniel from MYE was there and added the point Web 2.0 isn’t Web 2.0 unless the experience is friendly enough. Thank you, Daniel!

Personally for me, Web 2.0 is about designing and developing a website or application emphasized on the user experience plus using online tools to market or maintain it.

Anyway, I’d still attend this event next year but I hope it’ll be a full day event instead. At least there’ll be ample time for speakers and the floor to pose crucial questions which may affect them in the year.