As part of IDA’s efforts in promoting the adoption of Cloud Computing, they are calling out to interested parties to submit their proposals for innovative cloud based projects.

This call was launched last week, on 15th May 2012 at CloudAsia 2012. Successful proposals will receive 50% support of cloud resources and access to the Institute of Infocomm Research and Exploit Technologies’ Intellectual properties (IPs) and Big Data advanced analytics software and tools.

Submission of project proposals will be open till 16 July 2012. A public briefing on Call 5 will be held this coming Friday.

Public briefing on Call 5 cloud computing proposal

Date: 25 May 2012.
Venue: 10, Pasir Panjang Road, Mapletree Business City, #10-43, Singapore 117438
Time: 9:30am – 12:00pm (Registration starts at 9am)
Click here to register.

More information on the Call 5 cloud computing proposal can be found here.

As with most conferences, Seed Forum will be packed with company presentations, company pitches, keynotes and a networking lunch.

Attendees of the event include individual investors, investment companies and other key finance intermediaries who will gain first-hand insight into a select group of innovative born global companies looking to expand their internationally. They can expect to meet executives of aspiring born global companies from Scandinavia who will be presenting their investment case at the forum. Each of the presenting companies have been pre-selected by the Seed Forum selection panel.

About Seed Forum

Seed Forum is a global organization hosting investor conferences in more than 30 countries and is considered as one of the most professional and experienced venues for presentations of investor ready start-up companies.

You can find more information on Seed Forum at www.seedforum.org

Unwired 2012 Photo: Unwired

With the mobile industry exploding and more opportunities unveiling itself in this industry, companies are no longer undermining the mobile phone.

Singapore’s independent wireless and mobile conference, UNWIRED 2012 conference, have thus emerged to explore the various opportunities and challenges in the mobile industry.

Some of the key issues which will be addressed in the conference includes smarter networks for a smoother mobile experience, machine-to-machine communications in future, the future of mobile cloud services for consumers and corporates, a unified interface for phones, tablets and PCs to access cloud services, and more. Third of its kind in Singapore, UNWIRED 2012 will not only see representatives from Google, IDA, StarHub, Samsung, Microsoft and more on stage for its keynotes, but also demos of the first Windows 8 devices this year.

Details:

What: UNWIRED 2012 conference
When: May 31, 2012, 1pm
Where: Angsana 3F, Level 3, Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre, 10 Bayfront Avenue, Singapore 018956
Website: www.unwired.com.sg

There will also be after-event drinks at MBS for a great networking session.

Each conference pass costs S$80. Members would be entitled to a 25% discount upon entry of the discount code – MBS50.

Three complimentary passes would be given to readers of e27.  To stand a chance to win at the passes, simply leave a comment telling us why you want to be at the conference.

Adobe User Group Indonesia will organize Adobe Camp Indonesia to raise the awareness of the local Adobe community and introduce attendees to the local user groups.

On the 24th of May 2012, participants of the Adobe Camp Indonesia would hear from a strong line up of 12 speakers, and be exposed to the various Adobe tools through multiple approaches such as demos, hands-on trainings, and team coding sessions, etc. There will also be case studies featuring examples of projects build using Adobe technologies.

The speakers of the event includes:

Tomas Krcha (Adobe Platform Evangelist)
Harrie van der Lubbe (Quince Asia)
Ahmad Fathi Hadi (Adobe Community Champion, Founder & CEO Tandif)
Ade Herdiansyah (Senior Interactive Developer)
Xing Jun Long (CEO Jotter Production)
Bisri Mustova (Founder Parampaa)
Arief Widhiyasa (CEO Agate Studio)
Arie M. Prasetyo (Developer of @GamelanApp)
Tubagus Saepul Anwar (Senior Adobe AIR Developer)
Harry Saputra (UX Designer, JomSocial)
Jesika (RYK Media Creation)
Muhamad Salman Alfarisi (Creative Multimedia)

Details:
Venue : Al-Azhar University Jakarta, Indonesia Jln. Sisingamangaraja, Komplek Mesjid Agung Al-Azhar, Jakarta Selatan, 12110, Indonesia
Date : 24 May 2012, Thursday
Time: 8am – 6pm
Fee : Free

For more details, please visit http://www.amiando.com/adobecampindonesia2012.html

GMIC sees Dou Dou winning G-Startup and leading Internet companies share the importance of mobile platforms in Asia.

The Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC) is an annual three-day conference organized by the Great Wall Club of China. GMIC is now in its fourth year and is growing from strength to strength. The conference recorded an attendance of 5100 participants and with almost a quarter of that from international participants.

Having spoken to many participants, the general sense is the conference is one of the most well organized events in the tech sector of China. It is largely unique because of its international representation of participants as well besides the participation of a good mix of Chinese startups and large internet players.

The conference is divided into three trackes, i.e. the Main Stage keynote presentations, the G-startup track and the AppSpace track.  The Main Stage keynotes are largely invited speakers from a mixture of Chinese and international players. Notably some speakers of the Main Stage included Pony Ma, founder & CEO of Tencent, Lei Jun, CEO of Xiaomi, and Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote.

Meanwhile the G-Startup was a startup contest that saw various international and Chinese players pitching to a panel of international judges from various investment and startup background. There was an ongoing track on various topics organized in forum format, mostly on topics related starting up.

For the AppSpace track, there were experience-sharing sessions from successful mobile Internet firms and also presentation of platforms by the  more established platform players and content aggregators.

One of the key observation points from the GMIC conference is that it is obvious that the next frontier for the Chinese Internet players are the mobile Internet and the war has already arrived. Tencent and Sina were both going all out  to show in style and might their ambitious plan to create their own mobile Internet eco-system. Their platform initiatives include publishing roles that they openly court games and content startups to work with. In one of keynote presentation, Taobao, the leading Internet auction player in China, shared that as much as 55 percent of their daily traffic comes from a mobile device now.  The message was overwhelmingly clear and loud … the mobile Internet is now as important as the Web.

On the G-Startup front, Chinese startup DouDou won the first place while Korean startup Between* won the second place. DouDou is a parents and teachers communication app that facilitate interactive communications between the parties with regards to the child’s development in school. Between* is a messaging and photo-sharing app for couples. Between* has recorded more than 750,000 users since launch and is about to test its revenue model soon. Notably both winners have simple concepts, but their products are well designed and well thought of.  The judges must have had a lot of real world experience to realize that it is mostly about execution when it comes to startups that could make it versus those that couldn’t.

In the conference venue, notably some of the international companies that had struck partnership with Chinese companies are also making their presence felt. Halfbrick, the Australia-based maker of the successful Fruit Ninja game has set its eyes on the Chinese market.  Flipboard, the magazine-styled news and social feed app has a ongoing strategy to focus its first international expansion in China. Founder and CEO of Flipboard Mike McCue was the founder and CEO of Tellme Networks, a voice portal that was sold to Microsoft for US$800 million back in 2007. It will be interesting to see where Flipboard intends to go with their simple but intuitive app.

About Kin Wai, Lau

Kin Wai is a serial entrepreneur, investor and corporate advisor.  Juggling among a few roles he actively pursues, he is currently a partner at Fatfish Medialab, a Singapore based mobile app incubator.

Federico Folcia (CEO & Co-founder of Roomorama.com) Speaker at Echelon 2012

Federico Folcia is a Italian entrepreneur who loves to travel but sick of hostels and dingy budget hotels and the typical cookie-cutter hotel rooms. Enter the idea of matching travelers for alternatives to hotels for residential accommodations with a local flavour, Roomorama.

Together with his partner, Jia En Teo, Roomorama.com enables anyone to rent out their property to travelers looking for short-term stays. He will be speaking about travel in a panel discussion at Echelon 2012 this June.

“We launched Roomorama out of our own needs when traveling. My partner and I love to travel but we were tired of hostels and dinky budget hotels. However, we didn’t want the typical cookie-cutter chains and we couldn’t always afford the exclusive boutique hotels either. We were always looking for options that were not only value-for-money, but that would also offer a local flavour.

At the same time, we were renting out our own place to travellers while we were away, and making good money doing so. We realised that this was a gap in the market that needed to be filled of matching travellers looking for alternatives to hotels with the owners/providers of such accommodation,” said Jia En Teo, the Co-founder of Roomorama.

There is more to travel with Roomorama

With Roomorama, New Yorkers can rent out their apartments for a few weeks – or even a few days – to visiting tourists, students, or small-business travelers. Hosts can upload photos, manage inquiries and reservations, and collect payment through the site. It is the perfect way to make back some rent money while you are on vacation yourself.

Roomorama is a leader in short-term rentals, with listings in over 500 destinations around the world. With a secure and streamlined transaction process, Roomorama makes it easy for travelers to find and book affordable accommodation from locals.

Roomorama has 35,000 properties worldwide. In an interview with New Straits Time, he said, “We are pioneers in a new market and have given people confidence to rent from or to a stranger. We have enabled travellers to live like locals wherever they go.”

Federico Folcia (CEO & Co-founder of Roomorama.com) Speaker at Echelon 2012

Federico Folcia (CEO & Co-founder of Roomorama.com) is one of the awesome speakers at Echelon 2012. This tech conference is a two-day, double-track event on 11 and 12 June 2012 with over 1,100 delegates, a demo pit of up to 50 regional startups per day and various workshops. Get your tickets now!

Patrick Grove (Founder of Catcha Group) Speaker at Echelon 2012

Named as Asia’s Best Young Entrepreneurs 2008 by Business Week, Patrick Grove is a successful media entrepreneur and CEO of Catcha Group. With his company once facing bankruptcy after the 2001 dot com crash, Grove is the perfect person to speak about topics such as “From Startup to IPO.” Catch him live at Echelon 2012 this 11 and 12 June at University Cultural Centre in National University of Singapore.

Patrick graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce in Finance from University of Sydney, Australia and he is also a chartered accountant and member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Australia. During his uni years, he started JDI, a night club promotions business and Vibecom, a chain of mobile phone shops.

Patrick began his very first career with Arthur Andersen, Sydney, Australia in the corporate finance division, specialising in mergers and acquisitions and extraction of investment value in high growth, media, new media and technology environments.

The Birth of Catcha.com

He resigned from Arthur Andersen in 1999 and co-founded Catcha.com Limited. But the burst of the Y2K dot-com bubble left his first company a debt of $2 million in debt. Patrick changed Catcha.com’s business model and expanded aggressively. In 2001, Catcha launched a publishing arm which has since become one of the largest Magazine publishers in South East Asia that publishes and distributes JUICE, Stuff, K-Zone, Evo, MiNT, Fairways, Clive and Prestige in Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

Catcha Media’s businesses span online media, publishing and e-commerce with all of them contributing to a combined reach of approximately 10 million people per month. Last year in July,  Catcha Media Berhad was on the Malaysian Stock Exchange.

iProperty.com.my became the Largest Network of Online Property Portals in Asia

When he noticed the renewed success of online companies in Australia in 2007, he returned to the digital space by acquiring iProperty.com.my. A radical revamp and a steady business growth later, iProperty.com.my became the largest network of online property portals in Asia. His group reported $15 million in revenues. It was also successfully listed  on the Australian Stock Exchange in September 2007.

Besides the two listed companies, IPGA and Catcha Media, this serial entrepreneur also controls several private companies including CDA (www.catchadigital.asia), Dealmates.com, and Catcha Ventures. He is also the co-founder and Deputy Chairman of iProperty Group (IPGA). He was also ranked as one of Asia’s best young entrepreneurs by the World Economic Forum.

A Judge at Angel’s Gate, Asia’s Latest Reality Business TV Series

Given his expertise and impressive portfolio, he is part of the judges at Angel’s Gate, Asia’s latest reality business TV series where Entrepreneurs pitch their Business ideas to some of Asia’s most successful investors. Backed by Asia’s leading venture funds, Angel’s Gate is a 360-degree platform spanning TV, Web and Mobile.

The platform gives entrepreneurs the opportunity of a lifetime to pitch their dream business ideas to some of Asia’s most successful investors.

Patrick Grove (Founder of Catcha Group) Speaker at Echelon 2012

Patrick Grove (Founder of Catcha Group) is one of the awesome speakers at Echelon 2012. This tech conference is a two-day, double-track event on 11 and 12 June 2012 with over 1,100 delegates, a demo pit of up to 50 regional startups per day and various workshops. Get your tickets now!

BeLaunch: Connecting South Korean Startups With the Global Startup Ecosystem

South Korea is a leading player in the global tech industry with Korean brands leaving their mark in various sectors. While we hear a lot about South Korean firms innovating and pushing the envelope, there is hardly any platform to showcase the thriving software and tech startup scene in South Korea.

BeLaunch hopes to do just that by giving a platform for Korean startups and at the same time enable people and organizations outside Korea to tap into the exciting world of Korean entrepreneurship. BeLaunch is a flagship initiative of BeSuccess which is South Korea’s leading media platform focused on startups and technology. BeLaunch will be hosted at aT Center Yangjae, Seoul on June 13, 14 2012.

“With 1000+ attendees, 142 startups from Korea participating in the startup battle, international investors and media, we can claim to be the biggest such event in South Korea. Our sponsors and partners include Samsung, Amazon Web Services, Qualcomm Q Prize, Google and more. We want to showcase some of the best Korean startups during BeLaunch and facilitate connections between Korean startups and the global startup community” says James Jung, Founder and CEO of BeSuccess.

BeLaunch: Connecting South Korean Startups With the Global Startup Ecosystem

BeLaunch Startup Battle:

If you are a tech startup looking for global opportunities of growth then you cannot ignore Asia’s 4th biggest economy and tech-savvy South Korea. With a population of 50 million, highly developed telecommunication and technology infrastructure, South Korea offers numerous opportunities to startups and companies across sectors.

BeLaunch is a platform that is designed to act as a launch pad for startups from Korea and other countries. If you are tech startup looking for global recognition, entry into the South Korean market and attention from investors and corporates then do check out BeLaunch startup battle.

If you are a startup based out of anywhere in the world and would like to present your startup at BeLaunch then register for the ‘BeLaunch Startup Battle’. Click here to apply to present at the ‘BeLaunch Startup Battle’. 20 shortlisted startups will present their innovative products during BeLaunch on June 13th and 14th 2012.

Why be part of the Startup Battle?

• Opportunity to present your startup to the who’s who of the Korean tech and investment scene
• A great launch pad to enter the booming Korean tech market
• Investment Opportunity from leading investors and tech conglomerates
• Prizes from YouNoodle, Plug and Play and Demo
• Exposure to mainstream and startup media from around the world

Click here to apply for the startup battle or write to info@besuccess.com find out more.

Clint Nelsen (Co-founder & Director of Startup Weekend) Speaker at Echelon 2012

No stranger to the startup world, Clint Nelsen is the Co-founder and Director of Startup Weekend. He was listed in Forbes as a “Name You Need to Know In 2011″ and was featured on the cover of Entrepreneur Magazine.

Passionate about startups and technology, Clint Nelsen is a regular entrepreneurship lecturer at Stanford University and University of California, Berkeley. On 11th and 12th June, he will be part of the panel that will be discussing Startup Growth and Scaling at Echelon 2012 in Singapore.

Startup Weekend was initially created as an event where a group of individuals would brainstorm a single business idea and work to bring that business to fruition over the course of the weekend.

Today, Startup Weekend has grown into an organization with a global presence, having organized at least 207 events spanning 120 cities and 35 countries. It has also has built a network of more than 25,000 alumni, 150 volunteer organizers and 60 trained facilitators spread across more than 175 cities in 500 countries.

In March last year, Startup Weekend became an affiliate of the Kauffman Foundation, the largest foundation for entrepreneurship in the world.

Clint Nelsen is also the co-author of Startup Weekend: How to Take a Company from Concept to Creation in 54 Hours, alongside Marc Nager and Franck Nouyrigat.

The book contains best practices, lessons learnt and empowering examples derived from Startup Weekend’s experiences for individuals and startups to follow as they launch new businesses. Each of the key beliefs have been tried, tested and proven to yield positive results and will give any business idea a greater chance for success.

Brian Wong, Founder and CEO of Kiip, and fellow speaker at Echelon 2012 commented about the book, “Startup Weekend is the most current account of how the modern tech entrepreneur will operate and succeed. Sure, the person, the hustle, the persistence, and the environment all account toward success—but to hit your key fundamentals, this book will be the best.”

Clint Nelsen has been featured in many publications around the world including the New York Times, Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Entrepreneur Magazine, Glamour Magazine.

Clint Nelsen (Co-founder & Director of Startup Weekend) Speaker at Echelon 2012

Clint Nelsen recently founded Startup Labs. Startup Labs is a global seed stage investment fund aiming to disrupt the startup scene by reinventing the traditional incubation process and helping companies launch in various countries. It operates a three week program in cities around the world investing seed capital into 5 teams in each city.

Working with local investment partners and shares the local investment in the startups, Startup Labs will host 15 events in 15 countries for 2012 with the goal of 100+ cities happening soon. Startup Labs is open to all investors and all team may apply. The best way to think of the program is 500 startups meets Startup Weekend with teams building startups in countries around the globe.

When he is not busy with startups and events, Clint is a pilot, enjoys mountain biking, snowboarding, camping and photography.

He also loves traveling.

Clint Nelsen (Co-founder & Director of Startup Weekend) is one of the awesome speakers at Echelon 2012. This tech conference is a two-day, double-track event on 11 and 12 June 2012 with over 1,100 delegates, a demo pit of up to 50 regional startups per day and various workshops. Get your tickets now!

Are you are confused geek? (Photo: Scot Duke)

Are you…..

An entrepreneur or entrepreneur-to-be?

Developer, designer, hacker or a startup-enthusiast?

New to Singapore?

Check out some of this cool events that happens monthly/ annually in Singapore!

Barcamp Singapore:

Barcamps are events where people come together to learn from each other in an informal setting. Barcamps feature discussions on various topics – from technology to travel, from science fiction to life-hacks. Barcamps are run all over the world by local volunteers. Usually, these meetups are run at shoe-string budgets at local universities, libraries or organizations. The main aim is to discover the creativity and talent in the community and learn from each other.

Event frequency: annually

BarcampSG8 will be held on 12 May at Tembusu College, University Town, NUS from 10am- 5.30pm. (more info)

Echelon:

Echelon is an annual tech conference organized by e27, a media organization focused on the Asian technology startup community. It is a two-day, double-track event with over 1,100 delegates, a demo pit of up to 50 regional startups per day and various workshops.

Echelon aims to be the frontier of the Internet and web technology landscape, where the main focus is to bring together the top brass of the web technology industry from various parts of the startup eco-system to facilitate discussion on the hot topics in the web startup scene.

Event frequency: annually, usually in the month of June.

Echelon 2012 is happening from 11 to 12 June 2012. (more info)

Founders Drinks:

Founder Drinks is a monthly evening event held in Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines. Each month, a new speaker is invited to speak of a relevant  topic in the the tech and startup scene.

Event frequency: monthly.

Gamification Singapore:

Gamification Singapore is a newly setup community group that seeks to explore and share about the usage and application of game design or mechanics in non-game context. More importantly, we hope to approach this topic from a local perspective.

Event frequency: -

Geekcamp Singapore:

Geekcamp Singapore is a tech conference for technical people. The event features technical talks by people in the industry.

Event frequency: annually

Global Game Jam Singapore:

The Global Game Jam (GGJ) is the world’s largest game jam event. A project of the International Game Developers Association(IGDA), it occurs annually in late January, and brings together thousands of game enthusiasts, participating in hundreds of local jamsaround the world. The structure of a jam is usually that everyone gathers on Friday afternoon, watches a short video keynote with advice from leading game developers, and then a secret theme is announced. All sites worldwide are then challenged to make games based on that same theme, with games to be completed by Sunday afternoon.

Event frequency: annually in late January.

IXD Sessions:

IXD Sessions are a series of talks in Singapore with a focus on Interaction Design. These are curated by Navjot Pawera, for people who are eager to learn more about designing and creating better web, mobile & computer products.

Event frequency: bi-monthly, usually held at 9am, midweek at Pivotal Labs (new context) office

Mobile Monday:

MobileMonday Singapore is a local community of mobile industry visionaries, developers and influential individuals. The mobile community fosters cooperation and cross-border business development through virtual and live networking events to share ideas, best practices and trends from global markets. With one of the highest mobile phone penetration rates in Asia, the mobile industry in Singapore has managed to deepen its mobile intellectual property creation capabilities to create a vibrant mobile R&D and technology innovation hub, stimulating new market demands and connections with the rest of the world.

Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/momosingapore/

Event frequency: monthly

Open Coffee Club:

Open Coffee Club is a place for people who love startups to hang out and meet. The community was started to encourage entrepreneurs, developers and investors to organise real-world informal meetups to chat, network and grow a better ecosystem.

Event frequency: Every last Thursday of the month between 10AM-12PM at the Pigeonhole.

SataySocial:

#SataySocial is a monthly gathering in Singapore where people with an interest in all things social and digital can meet up, get to know others who share similar interests, swap stories, and of course, have some delicious satay.

Event frequency: every fourth Thursday of the month

SoLoMo Thursday:

Event frequency: every last Thursday of the month.

Startup Weekend Singapore:

Startup Weekends are 54-hour events where developers, designers, marketers, product managers and startup enthusiasts come together to share ideas, form teams, build products, and launch startups. Entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs can find out if their startup ideas are viable.  On average, half of Startup Weekend’s attendees have technical backgrounds, the other half have business backgrounds.

Event frequency: annually

Web Wednesday:

Web Wednesday is an industry led, offline, social networking group for the Digital Media Industry in Singapore.  Our focus is to stimulate conversations on trends in our industry and to get everyone together physically in an informal setting once a month. Event sessions consist of a speaker who will share their insights (no sales pitch) on a relevant industry topic for about 10-15 minutes.

Event frequency: monthly. Usually on the 3rd or 4th Wednesday of each month from 6:30-9:00pm.

If you’re an organiser of tech and startup community events, do contact me at joanna[at]e27.sg or leave a comment below to be featured here.

Talk show at the Fimelashop soft launch

Retail, fashion and digital media collide at the newly launched online retail store, Fimelashop.com.

Following the launch of the Indonesian lifestyle site Fimela.com in late 2010, the team at Fimela have quickly expanded into launching its new online fashion store, Fimelashop.com

Fimelashop, a joint partnership between Fimela and Octovate was launched on April 27, and offers branded fashion and lifestyle products at competitive prices ranging from 30-70% discounts off market selling prices.

“It is a unique collaboration between the retail, fashion, and the digital media industry,” commented Bernhard Subiakto, CEO of Fimela and Octovate. He adds that Indonesia has more than 55 million internet users with numbers still growing. Thus, e-commerce ecosystem should begin looking into supporting local designers and retailers to market and sell their products online.

Lila Cokronagaroo and Dian Muljadi, a prominent figure in lifestyle magazines, such as Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire, Bravacase and Elle Decoration, also run Fimelashop.

Unlike typical online retail stores, Fimelashop not only offers weekly sales of branded goods, it provides additional services such as style guides and even a shopping assistant. Those looking for children and other home and lifestyle goods can also shop at Fimelashop.

Fimelashop aims to combine online retail with media, a growing trend in the US and the UK. Even though, the trend has not started in Indonesia, the team at Fimela hopes to be the driver of change. Each week, the team researches on products to market as advertorial content on both Fimelashop.com and Fimela.com. Regular readers on Fimela can then be conveneinetly connected to Fimelashop if they wish to purchase any apparels features on Fimela.

After a mere 3-month partnership, more than 170 brands have already jumped onto the Fimelashop bandwagon. Some big names include, Metro Departmental Store, Missoni, Herve Leger, Robert Rodriguez, Yongki Komaladi, Adidas, Disney and Looney Tunes.

Eight designers from the Indonesia Association of Fashion Designers (IPMI) concluded the Fimelashop’s soft launch event with a fashion show that exhibited their collections. All outfits showcased were then sold at a special discount online – Fimelashop style.

Danny Wirianto (Co-founder at Mindtalk) Speaker at Echelon 2012

So Danny, what is the biggest killer for Indonesian startups and how can they avoid this pitfall?

Danny Wirianto (Co-founder at Mindtalk) Speaker at Echelon 2012

“I think the biggest killer is having the wrong expectations that lead them to setting the wrong fundamentals when they first enter the market. Many startups build their companies in the expectations to get acquired and make a lot of money. I believe a great startup has to be focused on how to create a great product/tools/service for their users instead of profit orientation in the beginning. The second thing is choosing the right partner to collaborate with. Third, choosing the right investor or venture capital. Lastly, not understanding the market clearly and building the product for themselves instead of for the audience.”

His new project, Mindtalk, is about social interest where members can share and speak their mind openly with others. Danny sees the rise and opportunities in the e-commerce, travel industry, lifestyle service and community industries in Indonesia in the next three years.

While most of Indonesia’s startups are still focusing on local market, Mindtalk is his very first regional social media platform that focuses on Southeast Asia. Danny feels that most local startups are not seizing international opportunities “mostly because there is a lack of market knowledge and fundings for global competition.”

Danny feels that as an entrepreneur and investor in Indonesia, “Japan, South Korea and Singapore investors can help and benefit Indonesia’s ecosystems. These countries has a better system. However they will need to make some adjustments to mold perfectly into Indonesia’s ecosystem. I see so many players from Singapore and South Korea that tried to copy and paste strategies. In the end, it did not go well because they were unable to adopt and adapt to the local culture.”

Danny Wirianto (Co-founder at Mindtalk) Speaker at Echelon 2012

Danny Wirianto (Co-founder at Mindtalk) is one of the awesome speakers at Echelon 2012. This tech conference is a two-day, double-track event on 11 and 12 June 2012 with over 1,100 delegates, a demo pit of up to 50 regional startups per day and various workshops. Get your tickets now!

Learn more about HTML5 to build on Windows 8 applications with Giorgio Sardo.

HTML5 is here, and with it, web applications take on power, ease, scalability, and responsiveness like never before. HTML5 on Metro lets developers learn how to use the latest cutting-edge HTML5 to build  Windows 8 applications with unparalleled functionality, speed, and responsiveness.

Giorgio Sardo is a popular speaker worldwide and in the last five years he has presented at many conferences about HTML5, the Web and Mobile Platform.

He is the mind behind many beautiful HTML5 applications and games at beautyoftheweb.com and Cut the Rope for IE.

Event Details:

Date: 10th May, 2012 (Thursday)

Time: 9.30AM – 4.30PM

Venue: Level 7, NTUC Auditorium, One Marina Boulevard, Singapore 018989

Agenda:

9.30 AM  Registration and Breakfast

10.00 AM    Behind the Scenes of Cut The Rope

11.00 AM    Getting started with Window 8 Metro Apps

12.00 PM    Lunch

1.00 PM      Metro for HTML/JS Developers

2.00 PM      Responsive App Design with CSS3

3.00 PM      Break

3.30 PM  Client + Cloud integration with Azure

For those interested to check out the event you can register here.

With more and more startup incubators sprouting up in the region, startups are left with more options and often do not know which one to go to. From a startup point of view, if there are a list of 100 incubators to choose from, one may not even know where to start from. Slowly but surely, incubators will need to court the best startup to join them, and we are seeing this happening.

TNF Ventures, one of the NRF Funded incubators in Singapore, just launched the video interview contest for startups who wish to participate for their fun mini-poker tournament during the launch. Startups can submit their video applications at bit.ly/tnfpoker to stand a chance of being selected to pit their pokerface-reading skills against each other!

According to their website: “TNF Ventures (TNFV) is founded by a few of us who started this as a passion project to help local startups succeed. We feel that there are many talents locally but few had succeeded because they did not have the right connections to help them to go-to-market, they did not have people whom they can discuss their business challenges with and they did not have guidance in business model development. And most of the time, they were not having fun because the challenges totally overwhelmed them.”

To me, what sounds like the team behind TNF Ventures can provide the right connections, and you can definitely rely on seeking valuable advise from them when you need it, and perhaps most importantly, it definitely sounds like a fun team to work with them. So if you are interested in finding out more, visit their website and check out the solid team behind it, and do sign up for their poker contest.

For startups interested for the poker game during the launch:

Video Contest link: bit.ly/tnfpoker
RSVP: bit.ly/TNF_RSVP

Bjorn Lee (Co-founder & CEO of Stickery) Speaker at Echelon 2012

Bjorn Lee, our very own Co-founder and ex-Director of e27, has made another startup journey, but this time, to the world of gamification. He fancies fixing broken business practices in industries challenged by the digital era, especially in the areas of advertising, music and education.

Passionate about the startup ecosystem, Bjorn Lee will be speaking at Echelon 2012 on the “Anatomy of a 10-week Silicon Valley Incubation Program – The AngelPad Edition.”

Bjorn Lee is currently the co-founder and CEO of Stickery, that makes mobile games and apps to make learning awesomer for preschool children and parents.

Prior to Stickery, Bjorn spent five years in various capacities to understand the startup ecosystem as a venture capitalist (DFJ), corporate slave (OgilvyOne), community organizer (e27), startup executive and starving entrepreneur.

He has led teams to develop games and virtual world experiences for brands such as Sony, Samsung, P&G and Intel.

That journey took him from drunken TechCrunch boozefests in Michael Arrington’s Atherton home to sobering coffee breaks in Vietnamese roadside cafes and even the polluted air of pre-Olympic Beijing’s Zhongguancun startup district.

Bjorn is a graduate of National University of Singapore and was part of the Overseas College program (Stanford University). Albeit as a a game producer and customer developer, this ace prefers the fast-paced thrills of startups to corporate life.

Stickery is funded by notable investors such as Google Ventures, 500Startups and Singapore-based angels. It is also an AngelPad alumni (Winter 2011).

Stickery is a story-based suite of apps built by two ex-Stanford entrepreneurs & an award-winning kids’ media producer. All the game content is based on preschool curriculum standards & approved by educators. The apps collect usage data to generate progress reports for parents. These reports help them track the learning value of playtime on the iPhone.

As a serial entrepreneur, it is no surprise that he is a fan of Lego, since he loves building things from scratch.

During Echelon 2012, he will share his experiences at Silicon Valley. His speech is titled “Anatomy of a 10-week Silicon Valley Incubation Program – The AngelPad Edition.”

Bjorn Lee (Co-founder & CEO of Stickery) Speaker at Echelon 2012

Bjorn Lee (Co-founder & CEO of Stickery) is one of the awesome speakers at Echelon 2012. This tech conference is a two-day, double-track event on 11 and 12 June 2012 with over 1,100 delegates, a demo pit of up to 50 regional startups per day and various workshops. Get your tickets now!