Wow! I just gottasaythatagain. WOW!

After blogging about Farzad’s session in a whole new style, I’ve received tonnes of feedback – mostly great and encouraging ones:

Great! Fresh outlook! Cute! (for the Domo-kun banner, woo!) Well done! Looking good! Direct to the point! Great style! Good humor!

Even from friends who are not from the NUSEA/NOC network! Thanks Alastair and Ah Buang!

And of course from our most lovely dear program manager Jupe!

THANKS!

It feels AWESOME to receive fan-mail! I can attest to the ego trip!

But of course there were a few thoughtful people who gave useful and interesting pointers to improve upon:

Too much self advertisement

Several links to alvinlai.com – my personal blog. An introductory post for readers to check me out, a couple of posts to illustrate my writing styles. Too much? You tell me

I think this blog is an excellent avenue for NUSEA members to be heard, why not let our readers get a good glimpse (or ogle) at who we really are, how much fun we are having while reaping a full, wholesome, and rich experience in leapfrogging hurdles and relishing the Silicon Valley entrepreneurship process?

Really? Why not?

That is why I encourage the concept of guest blogging! Everyone should take this opportunity to let our readers know you better! Where better place can you portray yourself personally along with a YOUNG VIBRANT PROFESSIONAL STUDENT ENTREPRENEURIAL organization in the world’s most renowned tech hub of innovate SILICON VALLEY CALIFORNIA!? I’m so psyched up as I’m typing this! XD

So what are you waiting for! Guest blog!

My dear friend Derek Du Wenyu has made a great headstart over everybody by submitting his thoughts on Farzad’s mentorship session! I’ve updated the post! Check it out on Mentorship Session with Farzad Naimi!

Come on guys! Don’t lose out!

An informal blogging style

An informal blogging style might not represent NUSEA in a manner that everybody would like – some prefer a more professional corporate style.

After someone told me that it would look weird to have Domo-kun splashing across the front page on the NUSEA blog, I chickened out and removed the banner. But after some good consideration, I got it back up.

WHY?

Because I believe that it doesn’t do harm. I feel that a blog is supposed to be personal, fun and interesting to read. Pictures that catches your eye definitely do well to attract readers.

What’s more the Domo-kun image serves as a striking bold introduction to a new start and a new blogger contributer – me!

That is exactly what guest blogging is about!

Who’s our target audience?

Fellow bloggers? Professionals? Entrepreneurs? NOC alumni? NUS? Singapore? California? So many! As we fondly recall our favorite person saying we are AMBASSADORS! You must always bear some AIR (Attitude Integrity Responsibility) in your head! We will never never forget that!

Is the blog nicely geared toward our target audiences? Remember that means YOU TOO!

Thoughts to keep in mind

There were also some good pointers that were floating around too, I might as well just post them here as a good reference point to fall back on should we return to them in the future:

Great motivations for blogging (I didn’t edit to preserve the full meaning the author/commenter had intended):
1. archive of lessons learnt in each session
2. new mentees will not feel unprepared when joining
3. avoid asking the same questions each time over and over again (it should be continous and progressive. not walking on the same spot each time)
4. act as resources (sounds like a rails plugin!) that we can always have a common place to share our lessons learnt.
5. this is community driven. it is collaborative efforts and we could see different perspective on that.

Interesting, personal guest blogging style or formal corporate risking readership?

Monitored content – permission from mentors to avoid potential liability issues.

Recommendations

There were a couple of recommendations on how to move this forward too:

Podcasts

So that peeps who missed the mentorship sessions don’t miss out when they read the exciting notes!

Link Exchange!

Like link up with local NOC bloggers (e27, TheDigitalMovement), of course! Always welcome!

Separate/another blog for mentorship

Someone suggested having a separate blog for mentorship, apart from the main NUSEA blog bringing total to 2 NUSEA blogs. (I’m not so sure about this, tell me!)

Did I miss out on anymore points?

Tell the world who you are and what say you!

For obvious reasons I have not identified who commented on what, but if you’d like, I think it would be excellent if you can let others know what you think for more vibrant discussions! Those with great positive constructive feedback need not shy away, in fact you should let the world know how awesome of a person you are! I can edit this post to identify you if you wish!

REMEMBER! It’s all about you!
This blog is for you! YOU YOU and only YOU! This is an excellent avenue to share your thoughts, your passions, your dreams (SO cliche, but I like XD).

The world’s your oyster.

Fire away comments!

PS: You might wonder why I chose that bowl of something for a blog post image and what’s that. Easy. I love nice food, and images of nice food attraction attract (thanks Vincent for point pointing (walao double smack in the forehead – can u guess how psyched up I was typing that?) that out!) attention and curiosity. Now can you guess what’s that?

The 10th committee has been sourcing for a way to manage the people we know in NUSEA. Apparently, handing over spreadsheets of contacts from one batch to the other is not very effective in building up our network. What we wanted was a solution that enables us to share our NUSEA network.

And as a result of all this, we’ve created a NUSEA LinkedIn Group for our networks! You can join in our group over here:

NUSEA LinkedIn Group

Wee Li’s in the process of fixing an appointment with Vipul Gupta, a Distinguished Engineer in Sun Microsystem. It’s another chance for NUSEA members to go over to Sun after our last visit. Looking forward to meeting Vipul soon!

SABA - the Singaporean American Business Association is holding its Vietnam Investment Seminar at the end of this month:26 April (Thurs), 5:30 -10pm

Hyatt Regency Santa Clara

Vietnam is fast becoming the most promising and exciting economy in Asia. It’s ability to attract investors is attributed to its inherent qualities of youth, tenacity, resource abundance and it government’s pro-business policies.

The influx of investors from Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Europe and U.S. into Vietnam over the recent years have driven its GDP growth rate to over 7% per annum, making Vietnam the fatest growing economy in Asia.

Join SABA at this seminar to learn more about the business opportunities in Vietnam and how you & your business can benefit from this Emerging Market!

The next NUSEA Elections for the 11th batch is scheduled on 11 May 2007 at 7pm PDT. Stay tuned to the blog to keep track of the new and upcoming committee members!

The resumes of the new batch of NUSEA members are finally ready! This could be the largest intake of Silicon Valley trainees in the history of NUSEA.

It’s so exciting how the new batch are coming in, and it also signals that it’s our (the 10th batchers) turn to return home. Welcome to the 12th batch! We pray all of you get placed, and good luck to the 11th batches if that happens!

To the 12th Batch >> Set your goals, know what you want to achieve, and find out what your life mission is. The experience in the Valley is one that you can never live again, even if you were to work there after graduation. Being part of NUSEA distinguishes us from the people in the Valley.

Welcome!!

SG Entrepreneurs will play the role of a virtual business incubator, establishing Singapore at the forefront of the interactive and digital media (IDM) revolution worldwide, especially in the Asia-Pacific region. We will help young entrepreneurs and individuals turn their ideas and prototypes into seed funding stage startups. By having an experienced team screen proposals and identify promising IDM ideas and prototypes, and thereafter providing mentorship to translate these ideas and prototypes into reality, SG Entrepreneurs aims to nurture the future of new media.

We will also aim to make Singapore one of the main centers of new media as follows:

1. We are not just current but are ahead in understanding new emerging IDM technologies.
2. We aim to utilize multiple and diverse channels to attract people with promising IDM ideas and prototypes to submit proposals.
3. We aim to undertake the necessary research and due diligence to understand each idea and prototype and its specific field.
4. We will fund up to $55K per start-up. The funds can be used to develop your prototype, finance a patent or even to secure manpower. There is almost no red tape and it is really not too difficult to secure funding from us. All you need is a great idea and be passionate about it. Send in your ideas through email for any inquiries on funding.

We will leverage on the depth of experience, network and growing diversity of the individuals in SG Entrepreneurs to provide a multidisciplinary environment where wide and unique perspectives come together to create creative yet practical solutions.

We will focus on the following IDM areas:

* - Internet and Web 2.0 technologies
* - Interactive and digital media
* - Technological gadgets

We welcome enterprising and passionate individuals or teams with IDM-related ideas or prototypes to email us for possible funding opportunities.

Issued by SG Entrepreneurs.

For further information kindly contact:

SG Entrepreneurs
Gwendolyn TAN
funding@sgentrepreneurs.com

About SG Entrepreneurs: SG Entrepreneurs was established in 2005 and started off as a web portal for Singaporean entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs in Singapore. It strives to be the organization that helps translate mere ideas and prototypes in the fields of interactive digital media into commercial entities. With a strong core team and experienced board of directors, SG Entrepreneurs has the necessary relevant resources to attain its goals.

What happens next?

Our president Mohan told a story which ended with him asking our ex-president Chin San this question. What will happen next then to the 9^th batch after they return home? It is a difficult yet simple question to answer. Difficult because everyone has their unique path in life and simple because the answer is simply that they are all about to embark on a new life journey – one that has been shaped and molded by the NCSV experience.

The dinner was held at the Mediterranean Ballroom at the Crowne Plaza Cabana in Palo Alto which sits nicely at the end of a stretch of hotels which probably sprung up to serve visitors to Stanford. The partitioned ballroom was small yet cozy and just enough for the friends of NUSEA who kindly turned up and all NUSEA members.

The event was as much a farewell dinner for the 9^th batch as it is for our manager Yu Ling who is leaving to take over as the manager at Bio Valley, our sister program over at Philadelphia. It was a night of mixed feelings – sad to see our beloved seniors and manager go and yet happy for them as they take on new directions in life. The dinner ended in true Singaporean style with 3 ‘Yam Sengs’ not to the newlyweds but to the people who have impacted everyone present in a very special way.

To the 9^th batch and Yu Ling, here’s to leaving on a jet plane with well wishes and inner butterflies from the 10^th batch. We will miss you all!

Weijin just introduced me to the AIESEC community in San Jose State University - How exciting! After some email correspondence, they’ve invited me to join in their gathering tonight (after the 9th farewell dinner) at Christmas in the Park (over at San Jose).

Apparently only Sharan was interested in meeting them, and the 2 of us set off while the rest of the NUSEA members were busy taking pictures. We had some difficulty finding our way there, but when we did - The journey was well worth it!

One common trait among AIESECers worldwide is that they are really a bunch of crazy, friendly people at heart. And this group of AIESECers were also pretty friendly. Their examinations end next week, and this is really the crunch time period where everybody should be mugging. Despite that, a group of them still continued to meet the San Jose High School students for mentorship sessions - which was really admirable.

I’ve learnt of a new sport from Cody (one of the AIESEC members) - It’s called Fris-Golf. Basically it is like a game of golf and played on a golf course - Just that instead of using a golf club/balls - you use a frisbee instead. Pretty cool~~

There are lots of cops at downtown San Jose though - Pretty scary when you are in a car cos you don’t know for what reason they can pull you over even though you are minding your own business. But San Jose is a beautiful place, and so was Christmas in the Park.

Looking forward to having more meetups with the AIESECers around here! I heard there’s still AIESEC at Berkeley, and AIESEC at San Francisco State University - Can’t wait to see them!!

“I opened my eyes this morning and I was just stunned for a moment..”

“when i opened my eyes this morning, i still felt like going back to bed!!”

“I didn’t have to rush to my laptop to check out my business plan..”

“I didn’t have to pour over pages and pages of finance and still have no idea what all those numbers meant..”

“I didn’t have to sit and worry about unfair advantages, business models and a whole lot of other crap..”

“anyways, somehow i still feel nostalgic. i was still thinking about it on my drive to work…i guess it’s how it works when u feel really passionate about something..”

Quotes from some of our email threads. I believe that best describe what some of us are feeling right now. The past 3 weeks has been gruelling. For me personally, it’s like completing the 24km route march or running the 21km Army Half Marathon (21km). NVC + GEL is officially over, and we will be having our farewell dinner + “after-course” celebration on Thursday (tomorrow). Looking forward to it!!