Considering a Career as a Full Time Conference Attendee

I think I am contemplating a career change as a Full Time Conference Attendee.

Today, I somehow gate crashed and ended up attending the Global CyberSecurity Summit (IMPACT) at the Shangri-La Hotel organised by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) after having mistakenly mixed up the dates of a talk by Google VP & "father of internet" Vinton Cerf at the same location.

Seems ironic that I was able to breach the physical security of the conference by attending the IMPACT event which was happening just across the hall in the hotel ballroom. Anyway, I spent the day learning a great deal about IMPACT and the world of cyber security. In true "Malaysia Boleh" spirit, Malaysia is once again taking the lead to create a global initiative to deal with cyber security and terrorism threat. At the conference were representatives from over 30 countries, telcomm ISP regulators and telco Ministers.

So it got me thinking... maybe there is a career in being a Full Time Conference Attendee.
Each day, especially in Kuala Lumpur... there are numerous conferences and seminars being held in the 4 and 5 star hotels. They range from corporate events, exhibitions, government seminars and meetings on almost every topic. Most are usually free events and they will let you into the event if you produce a business card.

Here are the benefits of attending such events :

1. Firstly, they usually have great learning... even product demos. Within any industry, spending 2-3 days in such seminars you would get to learn a lot about the company or industry or topic covered in a short period of time
2. They are usually very informative and the presenters are best in their field or industry
3. The attendees are usually executives, experts and therefore great networking opportunities
4. They serve great coffee breaks and snacks. Those that provide lunches are usually buffet spread with good service.
5. There is usually free WiFi, (if not, you can "complain" to the registration desk) therefore you can still surf the net, update your Facebook or blog if the sessions get boring.
6. Some events even have free gifts and goodies bag or reward for filling up their evaluation forms.
7. Best of all, some events like IMPACT are fully sponsored by companies or government agencies and some of the best minds are present in the conference to share their knowledge.


If you were to attend 2-3 of such seminars a week, one can really become any expert in almost any field or industry. Of course, getting through the registration desk would be your first hurdle. But most event managers attendee lists are never accurate anyway, and chances are high they will let you in if you produce a valid business card. Of course, dressing the part as the industry norm (eg shirt and tie, or jacket) would surely get you in.

So next time, instead of taking time off from work for vacation or wasting the day away, why not attend some free conference happening in town to learn. Okay, it won't be much of a career... but it will make a great learning hobby!! So at your next conference or seminar, you see one guy in the corner of the conference hall absorb with his laptop, chances are that's me... gate crashing another free conference or seminar. Happy learning!

Wireless@KL

As with other cities around the world, Kuala Lumpur has joined the leagues of cities with blanket cover WiFi hotspots with their Wireless@KL project. The Kuala Lumpur cityhall (or DBKL) has contracted ISP PacketOne to roll out the service in stages. Rather than build a WiFi mesh network, PacketOne which is also one of the WiMAX 2.3GHz spectrum licensees has used their spectrum to provide WiMAX as the backbone network for the Wireless@KL wireless network. This is a rather good approach has the stronger secure WiMAX network would provide a robust network to interconnect all the WiFi hotspots.

In contrast, the Wireless@SG Singapore wireless network has been given to multiple ISPs contractors therefore each of the providers have to seek their own backhaul or build their own wireless backhaul network to support their own WiFi hotspots.

This will be a boon to road warriors who previously have to hang out in Starbucks for their internet connectivity fix. With the Wireless@KL project, we may be able to connect in more unlikely places such as parks, government buildings, etc.  Perhaps, now Starbucks might have to reduce the price of their coffee to attract WiFi hungry users back to their stores... only time will tell. It will be interesting to see how the other hotspot providers such as TM, Time, Maxis and the independent ISPs such as Airzed and eB react to this new Wireless@KL initiative.

Good to be back Blogging!

I have taken a long break since my last blog entry last year. It has been an exciting and interesting year. I have since sold all my interests in one of my companies and finally got some time to catch up with the many many things that I have neglected while in the heat of my own entrepreneurial journey.

With God's grace, I have had the opportunity to enjoy my break from work and get back to blogging. It is also appropriate time for me to read the book, Half Time by Bob Buford. 

My wife picked up the book for me and she has been has been buying a whole bunch of the Half Time book at greatly reduced prices from Book for Life, in Bangsar Baru Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where apparently some organisation has greatly subsidized the price of the book to RM10 (USD3) each  for all to read.

The book is about Bob Buford, an entrepreneur who built a very successful family business into one of the largest TV and radio station business in the US. At the peak of his business, he sufferred a personal loss of his college going son, and it was that dramatic period that he paused to reflect upon his life. The book highlights the need for everyone to take "half time", to pause and take stock of our working life. His message is simply for everyone to spend half time to figure out what they would like to do, in their second half and to make a difference. Today, he is a speaker and a Christain ministry motivation speaker sharing the same message. The is also half time organisations dedicated to making a difference in half time activities. 

I encourage every entrepreneur to pick up this inspiring book.