Warisan Global & Partners to ROCK ENTREPRENEURSHIP throughout Malaysia

Standing From Left: Sabrina Low (Asiaxcess), Rani Wemel (LTT Global), Peter Tam (Microsoft), Nas Sobri (ICT Penang/KUMUDA), Karyn Mak (Senedi)
Sitting From Left: Vimal Kumar (Gorgeous Geeks), Tun Azela (MDEC/MSC Malaysia), Dato' Saifuddin Abdullah (Deputy Minister of Higher Education), Dash Balakrishnan (Warisan Global) and Marc Nager (Startup Weekend)

KUALA LUMPUR: The Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW), which will be held from Nov 8 to 21, is going to be bigger than ever with more entrepreneurial treats for budding and existing entrepreneurs.

This year was about turning dreams into reality, said Dhakshinamoorthy Balakrishnan or Dash, chief executive officer of Warisan Global Sdn Bhd (country host of GEW in Malaysia).

"Last year, we inspired many young entrepreneurs. This year, we would like to show them ways to build their dream businesses.

"GEW Malaysia is emphasising its role as a catalyst to bring forth the start-up culture among youths -- a culture that is rooted in innovative, sound business models and practices that has global reach."

Dash added that Warisan Global together with its supporters and catalyst partners aimed to connect young people through local, national and global activities designed to help them explore their potential as self-starters and innovators.

Among the many key events during GEW are Sembang-Sembang, a monthly networking event for women entrepreneurs and women entrepreneurs-to-be, Clean Tech Open, a global ideas challenge to find the best green technology ideas from around the world and Startup Weekend, a workshop to convert ideas into actual ventures.

The campaign, invented by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and Enterprise UK is best described as a global movement with massive ambition. It has encouraged and empowered youth and energised businesses around the world.

For more information on GEW, visit www.gewmalaysia.org or www.unleashingideas.org

GEW catalyst partners are DiGi, ICT Penang, Microsoft Bizspark, KREAM, LTT Global Communications, Yayasan Inovasi Malaysia, Youth Entrepreneur Malaysia and Gorgeousgeeks.

SOURCE: New Straits Times (Thu, 21 OCT 2010) - Making dream businesses grow by Halimatul Hamid

What a Week!

It's been a busy month for me since early October, and a packful week just the most recent one (the 1st Global Entrepreneurship Week/Malaysia - 17th until 23rd of November 2008, which I co-hosted especially in Penang, Malaysia) that I could barely write much about anything. But they say "pictures are worth a thousand words each" (or so), so, here are my 300,000+ words (enough?):-



Though, I have always been microblogging on twitter, facebook, topix etc. including for "The Week" itself, so, this blog had never really been dried of feeds.

Plus, I did put up so posts on blogs that I co-produce: ICT Penang and Kelab Usahawan Sosial Balik Pulau (KUSbp)

More past photos (flickr stream):

All red here on 1 Syawal 1429H

The favorite colours here were RED (shown above by the beauties who visited my house yesterday - the one in pinkish dress if my niece, and the rest are part-time model wife of my cousin and her offsprings) and green here in Balik Pulau, Penang (CLICK FOR OUR GREETING CARD!), when we celebrated the 1st of Syawal month of Islamic calender. It's the celebration of Eidul Fitri al-Mubarak for over a Billion Muslims around the world including some nearly 20-million in Malaysian and over 200-million more in neighboring countries of Indonesia, Thailand, Brunei and Singapore.

Happy Syawal to all, and my best wishes to all who celebrate this joyous season of strong brotherhood, friendship, unity and forgiveness. World Peace! (me being a beauty queen/Miss World contestant).

Jamuan Iftar (Berbuka Puasa) Ramadan 1429H ICT Penang 2008 (16sep08)

Bersempena dengan Hari Malaysia 2008 dan malam Nuzul al-Quran 1429H, pihak Persatuan Usahawan ICT Pulau Pinang akan mengadakan jamuan berbuka (iftar) seperti yang diwartakan di bawah... (CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW LARGER SIZE)

CO-ORGANIZERS/SUPPORTERS:-

1. Dewan Perniagaan Melayu Malaysia Pulau Pinang (DPMMPP)
2. EventBrite.com
3. Gabungan Pusat e-Komuniti Pulau Pinang (GPeK)
4. Invest-in-Penang Bhd
5. NWC.com Sdn Bhd
6. Penang Development Corporation (PDC)
7. Smart Lab Sdn Bhd
8. TechBiz Penang
9. TechPenang.com
   
10. Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM)
11. WebPod DotCom / 1oasis.net
12. Whiz Technology Sdn Bhd
13. Hamba-hamba Allah...

Jemput hadir!

Bracing for Wi-Po...

Not the intellectual property thing, but what I've been telling everyone as possibly the ultimate technology in this millennium, if scientists/technologists can really come up with it: long distance wireless power....

In recent years, there have been splashpod, splashpad, ecoupled (from Splashpower, Fulton Innovation LLC and PowerCast Corp etc) or whatever they'd call those special surfaces that can power up wireless mice (without batteries), or even charge mobile gadgets placed on top of or near them -- ability to transmit power up to several inches away, but when Marin Soljačić, assistant professor at MIT came up with a setup to power up a light bulb some wirelessly some two meters away, I'd say, let there be light! Read more at Technology Review...

Anyone knows where can I see/buy some of these "wi-po" devices in Malaysia? Until then, I'd just settle with my a4Tech BatteryFREE Wireless Optical Mouse I've been using for over three years now....

BTW, I noticed a lot of traffic coming from Kuwait to ecoupled.com website. Could there be a surge of interest and possibly big investment soon from that region? ;)

Orang kita tak banyak membaca?

Fakta dalam nombor:-

• RM1.5B - nilai industri buku di Malaysia (lebih kecil daripada pasaran ayam pedaging)
• RM27 - purata perbelanjaan untuk membeli bahan bacaan sebulan (kurang daripada kos harian akhbar)
• 1.98 juta - jumlah pembaca Harian Metro (akhbar tabloid), mengatasi pesaing akhbar arus perdana termasuk Berita Harian (1.22 juta), Berita Minggu (1.45 J), Mingguan Malaysia (1.85 J)
• 6,500 - judul bukul diterbitkan setahun (kurang daripada 20 sehari) - kurang separuh daripada jumlah yang sewajarnya.
• 3,000 - jumlah cetakan bulanan untuk majalah Jurnal Pemikir
  
• 1,000 - jumlah cetakan untuk buku ilmu.
• 70% - peratus buku diterbitkan dalam bidang pendidikan (bandingkan dengan 70% buku bacaan awam di Korea Selatan)
• 7% - peratus buku yang dibeli dibaca sepenuhnya. Lebih 40% langsung tak baca buku-buku tersebut.
• 6 - bilangan pembaca untuk setiap edaran akhbar berbahasa Melayu, sekurang-kurangnya dua kali lebih banyak untuk akhbar berbahasa Cina atau Inggeris.
• 3 - bilangan tahun untuk menjual 2,000 cetakan novel serius.
• 1.5 - bilangan mukasurat buku dibaca oleh rakyat Malaysia setahun secara purata!!
• 1% - sasaran jualan untuk majalah kepada remaja berumur 15 tahun ke bawah (7.6 juta orang).

Apa sudah jadi? Datuk Johan Jaafar menggesa cadangan untuk penambahbaikan nasib penerbitan berbahasa Melayu...

Hmm..., kalau tabiat membaca kurang, kerajinan menulis pula macam mana?

Ada sesiapa tahu kajian untuk budaya penulisan dikalangan rakyat Malaysia? Untuk yang kurang berminat menulis kerana gusar kurang hasil pendapatan, ketahuilah ramai penulis-penulis di Malaysia hari ini boleh menjanakan pendapatan melebihi RM10,000 sebulan hanya dengan menulis di laman blog atau memasarkan buku digital (ebook) mereka.

Tak reti menulis dengan bahasa yang elok? Penulis blog berbahasa Inggeris yang saya temui di pertemuan Webmasters Malaysia di Pulau Pinang baru-baru ini mendedahkan pendapatan melebihi RM7,000 dalam masa dua minggu dengan penulisan yang caca marba tatahabasanya - kata orang kita ("Manglish").

Takut tak cukup pasaran untuk penulisan berbahasa Melayu? Banyak terbitan buku digital dan laman blog begitu laris dan popular tampaknya, walaupun berbahasa Melayu sepenuhnya. Sekurang-kurang, orang kita rajin membeli walaupun tak rajin membaca... ;) -- lihat nombor 7% di atas.