GeekCamp Singapore – Call for Speakers

GeekCamp Singapore is back, and better than ever!

And this time with multiple tracks, more talks and even a coding contest.

History of GeekCamp Singapore

Like all important things in the world, it all started with a tweet from Kamal saying, “I’m going to run GeekCamp. All technical talks, single track. No offense to marketers, *preneurs, social media experts but you can suck it.”

What started off as a tweet then turned into a huge technology meet-up in KL, after which, Jason Ong brought this event to Singapore in August 2009 — that turned out to be a rip-roaring fun event as well. Attendees of last year’s event will vouch for the great hallway conversations they had during talks which sparked further ideas and projects.

This year’s version of Geekcamp will have multiple-track sessions with pure technical talks ranging from face-recognition algorithms to building a touch-table interface.

Register for GeekCamp Singapore here.

GeekCamp Singapore will be held on 4 Sept at SMU School of Information System.

We are looking for speakers who are willing to share their technical expertise. If you think you’ve worked on a cool hack, (either in your spare time or at work) or have learned something insanely great, we (and fellow geeks in Singapore) would love to hear from you.

So don’t be shy, get away from your computer and spend a great day at GeekCamp. Interested speakers – please email Jason at velvetpd[at]gmail[dot]com

High-tech Buffett, BBM banned, TechCrunch visits SE Asia – News Digest

Buffett’s successor is a high-tech Asian investor: The Wall Street Journal broke the news over the weekend that legendary investor Warren Buffett’s likely successor is a former venture capitalist and seasoned investor in Asian high-tech companies.

The candidate is hedge fund manager Li Lu, a Chinese-American who was a democracy activist in Tiananmen Square. He spotted Chinese battery-maker BYD for Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, netting USD1.2 billion in profits, and ran a venture fund in the late 90s for US tech companies.

Middle East states ban BlackBerry services: Saudi Arabia banned BlackBerry’s Messenger services yesterday, following a United Arab Emirates ban on the device’s messenger, email and web browsing services. Both states cited security concerns about encrypted data transmitted by the devices. The ban affects about 700,000 users in both states, Reuters reported. The ban kicks in in October and it will affect visitors with roaming devices as well, the Associated Press reported.

TechCrunch visits Southeast Asia: TechCrunch’s Asia rep, Dr Serkan Toto, writes up a dense summary of OpenWebAsia, which was held a few weeks ago in Kuala Lumpur. Perhaps more interesting than the event summary are what he sees as the major problems for Southeast Asia’s web and mobile markets: Weak exits, brain drain and fragmented markets.

Singapore marketers don’t like Twitter: ZDNet Asia reports that Twitter is still a “fringe” platform that some marketers in Singapore believe is mainly used by “teens-wannabees [sic]“. The marketers and their clients like Facebook a lot more.

Singapore’s public library launches Facebook app: Singapore’s public library system launched its myLibrary Facebook app last week., The app lets you access your library account, browse books and share your recommendations from within Facebook.

Event – Singapore – Entrepreneurs Corner @ SMU: Entrepreneurs, investors and mentors are invited to this monthly evening networking session. There’s an open mic where you can make a three-minute elevator pitch to the audience.

Photo credit – ‘Barcode Warren Buffett by Scott Blake’ by by scott_bl8ke

Help us find Asia’s Top 50 Apps

Vote and nominate your favourite apps at Asia’s Top 50 Apps poll.

Discover Asia’s best apps

Is there an app from your country that you’re dying to tell the world about? Start by telling us, because we’re launching the search for Asia’s Top 50 Apps right now.

We want to shine the spotlight on the most creative web and mobile apps coming out of Asia. If your app makes it to the Top 10, you will present it at Asia’s largest innovation conference, Accelerate 2010.

You will present your app to an audience of 1,500 tech and mobile industry movers and shakers. That’s CEOs, CTOs, business and marketing people from the leading telcos, vendors, and software and web developers.

Special Accelerate 2010 Early Bird Price – extended due to popular demand – available until Aug 31 at SGD199. Use the promo code E27EARLY. Click here to get your ticket.

The Top 10 will have access to a deal room session to pitch their products directly to the region’s top telcos under the Singtel umbrella. That means your app gets the chance to reach Singtel’s customer base of more than 300 million customers.

There’s more. The Top 10 will also get free access and subsidized travel to Accelerate 2010 and a special demo pit price. The Top 10 will be selected by a panel of experts.

Asia’s Top 50 Apps FAQ

Who’s eligible?
Web and mobile applications developed in Asia or serving Asian markets.

Here are some nomination guidelines:

-Technology Innovation: This includes creating open source technologies, platform specific codes and device-based innovation

-Business Innovation: Simplified processes and services that impact product usage.

-Design Innovation: Ease of use, greater interaction.

How are the top apps selected?
Nominate and vote for the Top 50 at http://www.e27.sg/2010/07/top-50-apps/

Voting closes on 31 Aug 2010. The 50 apps with the most votes in total — not by country — will make the cut.

Top 50 results are announced on Sept 1 2010.

The Top 10 are selected from the top 50 by a panel of experts.

The Top 10 will be revealed publicly at Accelerate 2010 on Sept 22-23 2010 in Singapore.

Top 10 winners will be contacted before the event for travel arrangements.

What do the Top 50 get?
-Get listed in the Asia’s Top 50 Apps Directory which is distributed to 4,000 regional and local business attendees at both Accelerate 2010 and Singtel i.Luminate 2010 which happens Sept 22-23 2010 in Singapore.

-Bask in the glow of extensive regional media coverage of Asia’s Top 50 Apps and Accelerate 2010

What do the Top 10 get?
-Access to a deal room session to pitch their products directly to the region’s top telcos under the Singtel umbrella. That means your app gets the chance to reach Singtel’s customer base of more than 300 million customers.

-Get your app in front of 1,500 tech and mobile industry movers and shakers. That’s CEOs, CTOs, business and marketing people from the leading telcos, vendors, and software and web developers.

-Two passes to Accelerate 2010 worth SGD798

-Subsidized travel for one person to attend Accelerate 2010

-Special price on demo pits

-Three-month stay at Silicon Valley’s Plug and Play Tech Centre as part of the Plug and Play Accelerator program worth US$6,500. This also includes:

a. Plug and Play University (3 day entrepreneur boot-camp)
b. Plug and Play Investment Forum (1 day pitching event)
c. Venture Capital and other investor introductions (upon qualification)
d. Corporate and other strategic introductions (upon qualification)
e. Ongoing Business Relationship Manager support through monthly reviews
f. Strategic advice through bi-monthly reviews with senior management

Vote and nominate your favourite apps at Asia’s Top 50 Apps poll.

About Accelerate 2010

Accelerate 2010 is a two-day conference happening in Singapore.  It will host  the largest gathering of solution providers and developers from around the world on 22 and 23 September 2010 in Singapore.

-Accelerate 2010 is the ONLY conference that gives you the opportunity to access multiple Asia Pacific markets in one go.
-You will receive an unparalleled level of insight into the key trends, market barriers and regulatory frameworks in these markets.
-Get involved in cross-disciplinary workshops that will provide you with skill-sets that enable you to gain new perspectives to help future-proof your business.
-Share knowledge with veteran developers and thought leaders on topics such as open source, cloud computing, social collaboration, social networking and mobile applications.

Special Early Bird Price – extended due to popular demand – available until Aug 31 at SGD199. Use the promo code E27EARLY. Click here to get your ticket.

Vote and nominate your favourite apps at Asia’s Top 50 Apps poll.

[Event] Technologies For Next Generation Media Search

National University of Singapore (NUS) researchers from the School of Computing are pioneering a new generation of media search technologies, spanning from web-scale image/video search to multilingual search, scanned text search and speech-based search.

Join them, as six of their top researchers share their latest work on media search  in a  seminar on ‘Technologies for Next Generation Media Search’ on 12 August at NUS.

Event Details

Meet Hong Kong’s Startups at StartUP Saturday

Singapore’s startup scene is five years ahead of Hong Kong’s?

That’s what Jonathan Buford, co-founder of StartupsHK, wrote in his post-echelon 2010 wrap up.

Buford’s trying to close this gap and rally Hong Kong’s startup community by helping to organize the city’s first StartUP Saturday on August 7.

This nine-hour event (that’s 10AM to 7PM) is held at Cyberport and there are three rounds of startup pitches and panels on funding, product development and market trends on the agenda.

StartUP Saturday looks like a fairly well supported event, with Microsoft and Techcrunch Japan on board as sponsors. More than 10  government agencies and non-profit tech and business groups also have their logos up on the site as event supporters.

Some of the interesting speakers for this event are:

Patrick Lee – CEO, Alivenotdead.com: Online community for artists and their fans

Kevin Huang – CEO, Pixel Media: Online advertising and digital media company

Arthur Chow – Co-founder, 6 Waves: International publisher and developer of social games

The event will be showcasing 10 startups, one of which is Pandaform, which launched at echelon 2010.

Event Details

Date: August 7, 2010

Time: 10 am – 7pm

Venue: Cyberport Core E