However, once I was at the event, I was quite pleased that I got out of bed. Although there were no oversea speakers this year, the sessions were quite interesting. I gathered quite a bit of information and was inspired by a couple of the speakers.

Every hour, two sessions of presentations/ discussions happened concurrently in separate rooms. I had a hard time choosing which ones to sit in. A lot of the speakers are old friends and some are “online acquaintances”. Since I was there to learn, explore and hear from everyone, I chose the ones with speakers whom I have not really had much interactions with in the past. I ended up in the following sessions:-

1) Melvin and Walter’s combined session (phew, no need to choose). As usual, the two never fail to impress.

2) Charlie Pownall from Burson Marsteller on the topic of e-fluentials and shared a survey the agency did in US. Pretty insightful but would be great to have a look at the Asian scenes.

3) Preetam Rai - The guy whose brother works in the same company as me and have been an online acquaintance for a while now. Today’s the first time we met in person. I really enjoyed Preetam’s session. I have been looking for interesting bloggers in Asia and Preetam shared his recommended list.

4) Michael Netzley – Again. Another online friend who I have always wanted to meet. Michael’s session was very inspiring – about wikis and educating the Gen-Y. Earlier this year, I stumbled upon the wiki Michael set up with his students as part of SMU’s social media course. I find the wiki very informative. Definitely a great effort by the students.

5) Finally, Amelia Wong shared her experience as a food blogger. Apparently, the pretty lady can bake some really delicious cupcakes. I can neither bake nor take beautiful pictures, so I am just going to admire her work for now and perhaps try to persuade Jon to copy the recipes and bake me a birthday cake!

For more details on the different sessions:-

Claudia has done a very good job – live-blogged at the different sessions. Robin and his team who put together this year’s podcamp had also written about it if you want more references.

The session that I missed and really wanted to sit in was the one on podcasting in Singapore by the tech65 guys

Overall, I thought the 6 hours at podcamp 2008 today were well-spent! And I kicked myself for forgetting my camera battery – have to wait for Mark to upload his photos as I was using his!

I came across this interesting article in MarketingWeb, mentioning the following stats:-

With an estimated 240 million wireless subscribers in the US, mobile is already a US$350-billion sector. According to Nielsen Mobile:

• 32 million use their phones to go online
• 70% send or receive text messages
• 41% percent use their wireless devices to send photos

The article also wrote:-

…… The old media broadcast model is dying
The idea of a media-consuming public that sits passively in front of a TV set is fast being replaced by a vibrant, active community of shared upstream content providers.

With the mobile phones being very much integrated into our daily lifestyle, it is no wonder that Nokia, the mobile phone maker recently launched its first ever video podcast (titled 14Days to signify the frequency of each episode) for its Nseries phone devices to ensure they stay top of mind amongst the consumers.

Thanks to Brian (from Ogilvy, Singapore) who alerted me to the vodcast

Hosted by “Girl with the number 11 briefcase” in the TV game show, Deal or No Deal (Singapore), Claire Jedrek attempts to show viewers how to take your mobile device (to be more specific – your Nokia Nseries handset) to the next level in each episode of 14Days.

The 14Days vodcast was conceptualised by Ogilvy, created by The Creative Room and produced by Nokia. All viewers have to do is to watch it online, download it to your mobile device or subscribe to it with an RSS feed.

I’ve just downloaded the latest episode into my new video iPod and of course, you can put them into any Nseries devices which I am planning to get one – the N95!! (featured in the pilot episode of the vodcast series).

Bloggers such as DK and Su Yuen who had seen the first episode think that the tips and tricks for the N95 were too “far fetched” and not “particularly interesting” The latest episode titled “VPL” was a let-down for me. After watching the episode, I was wondering “uh, where are the promised nifty ideas to push technology to the next level?” Well, the key message for the N76 is clear though – it’s a chick phone!

I thought the second episode, titled “Heroes” was quite cool, with Claire and a local blogger, teaching viewers how to freeze time and teleport at will with the Nokia N93i.

Brian was sharing with me that one of the main draws about the Nseries phones is that they are multimedia convergent devices, hence having vodcasts such as 14Days pushed the envelope in terms of showcasing the mobile convergence, the connectivity of the phone as well as accessing high quality multimedia while on the go.

This move (the creation of the vodcast) attempts to show the power and potential of the Nseries range, and also hopes to increase adoption and promotion of podcast and vodcast technology.

I am keen to find out what is the pick-up/ download statistics of the vodcast at the end of its series. It will also be interesting (as Su Yuen mentioned in her post) to see some user generated content, spinning off from the vodcast series. As the article in MarketingWeb mentioned, the next big trend is to see how social networking works on mobile.

Anyway, that silly joke came to mind as I was reading one of Jeremy Pepper’s old blog posts on “what does the P in PR stands for?” (I’ve been spending some time going through Jeremy’s blog posts and they are really quite brilliant.). PR can mean many things to many different people.
Jeremy wrote,

…. PR used to stand for public relations. Not press relations, but public relations…

I totally agree. It has been argued about, debated on and the conclusion is that PR needs to focus and put the real “P” (for public) back to the highly misunderstood industry of public relations, (especially in this new Web 2.0 and social media age).

There are alot of definitions of PR, by academics and experts in the industry. Generally, the idea of PR lies in the following:-

Public relations is the management of relationships between an organization and its publics – groups on whom it depends for its success. An organization’s publics may include employees, shareholders, government regulators, customers, financial analysts, pressure groups, and industry associations. Depending on the field in which it operates, there will be others. A school board will have parents, students and taxpayers. A food producer may have farmers, marketing boards, dieticians and consumer associations. A registered charity will have donors and volunteers…

(source: PRCA)

And of course, the mass media is part of the publics that organisations and PR people aim to reach out to, but did you notice the many other “publics” listed in the above? PR has been evolving and I have realised that the definitions can even vary in different countries but it definitely goes beyond “how to get a coverage in XX publication..”

Melvin Yuan, an independent PR and new media consultant commented in one of my earlier post about how many PR folks are thinking press relations rather than public relations.

….Ask any consultant to list his/her top five tags for PR and you’ll know the level of his thinking.

If “media relations” and “pitching stories” are in that list, you’ll know what’s going to rattle his nerves…

I have several thoughts as I was writing this post. One of them was attempting to define the “P” in PR and as I was researching on what had been discussed, I came across this great article, “Media coverage: forget about the quantity- measure the quality,” by Jennifer McClure, summarising what I had in mind.

PR is not meant to be about creating static messages in a vacuum, and it is not synonymous with media relations, but for too long this seems to have been the assumption – not only by clients and management, but even by many in the PR industry.

Public relations is about forming and nurturing relationships with the public. We all need to remind ourselves of this from time to time. If, instead of spending time creating and communicating static messages and trying to make sure that nothing negative is ever said about our organizations, PR can re-focus its efforts on creating relationships…

I start to fear and cringe, whenever I speak with communications/ PR or marketing people who asked me, “oh, so can you get us some coverage in Her World magazine?” Nothing wrong with Her World magazine (a very popular female mag in Singapore) but in today’s Web2.0 world and the age of social media, PR folks should take the opportunities to work towards achieving not a front-page press coverage but to start a real dialogue with the key audiences (which includes the “publics” mentioned above) to alter perceptions, to create awareness, to gather feedbacks (and the list goes on, depending on what you aim to achieve). Such are statements that many have spoken and written about but, honestly, how many PR people are actually practising them? How many actually GET IT or attempt to GET IT?

Two-way dialogue can occur without a front page or any media coverage. Infact, let’s put it another way, two-way dialogue SHOULD occur ON TOP of the front page coverage – that’s the job of PR now and in the near future. Most decent PR folks know all about traditional media pitching, the challenge is to move on and put PR back to the scope it is meant to cover.

Although I am in PR, I am also a blogger – possibly part of the “publics” that some organisations are targeting. I am also the consumer who buy the various media’s publications and many different brand of products. I am also the unhappy customer who had a bad perception of that hotel with such bad service, I am dying to tell the world not to go to that hotel.

I guess, what I am trying to say here is, at the end of the day, we know that PR is evolving, especially in this exciting time where we see shifts in the industry, the key thing is to start practising it, start to put the real “P” (repeat: Public) back in PR and learn to GET IT! We are sick of hearing everyone telling us, “PR just don’t get it”.

More reference articles on elated topic:-

What is PR? by Heather Yaxley (another updated post – 12 Dec 2007 – here )

PR Measurement: Does media coverage alone impact business outcomes?

What is PR? by Public Relations Institute of Australia

(left): we all sat in the little theatre -old school style without air con but very excited
(middle): the crowd flooding the entrance of The Substation, eating, mingling and chatting with the film makers
(right): Jacen Tan and Jon

Jon and I went to support Jacen Tan’s latest film, Zo Hee (Hokkien for making movies), under his hosaywood production. Jacen and Jon were ex-colleagues and I was just there to rekindle my old interest in films and the arts. Not many people know that I actually first graduated in designs, spending a year plus studying films and photography. Some ex design school/classmates included the now renowned film maker, Royston Tan (a year, my senior), the highly talented Victric Thng (my ex-classmate) and Randy Ang (ex-classmate – we recently found each other again on Facebook). Well, I moved on to do other stuff and these guys are obviously doing really well and coming up with great, creative works that make Singapore proud.

Back to Jacen. I was really impressed with his latest two short films (Zo Gang, and its sequel, Zo Hee). Definitely not filmed with a huge production budget but they captured local culture, flavour, lots of humour and clever script. Jon also appeared in a short section as the Ang Moh busker. I asked Jacen, when is the next film coming up and he said, “hmm.. need to take a break!”

So, while we wait for Jacen to take his break, enjoy the film I am attaching below. More of Jacen’s work can be found on YouTube and hosaywood.com

From 7 to 10 December, 5 to 10pm, people who are interested to support or take a look at what some of our local film talents had put together, pop down to The Substation, admission is free! You can also show your support by donating (any amount)!

For more interesting local film stuff, check out this real cool site - www.sinema.com or join the facebook group to be updated with the latest news.

100 PR blog links
Brendan Cooper who was formally a “ghost blogger” has recently changed his blog link and told us his name (but not the company he works in). Brendan puts together a nice list of PR blogs. I have randomly read a few and I am still browsing through the rest. There are some really good PR blogs out there.

How to manage your clients
Spun off from my last post about ridiculous clients, Walter wrote a useful post (from a client’s point of view) on how PR agencies should manage their clients.

Community Managers VS PR Managers
I have been reading about what community managers are doing for their products/ companies. I am interested to find the differences/ similarities between the community managers and the PR/ communications managers, especially now that PR people are expected to be savvy with the communities and the new media etc. Jeremiah Owyang wrote an informative post about The Four Tenets of the Community manager. He also led me to one of his older post for reference.

The new marketplace
Jon just ordered a new book (Now is gone) for me from Amazon. Written by Geoff Livingston & Brian Solis, the book aims to help businesses embrace Social Media intelligently. Check out Geoff’s latest post about The Public Relations Long Tail.

Like Geoff, I am not convinced that social media will replace traditional media completely. As I mentioned in some of my earlier posts, I believe that the two should be working hand in hand, complementing each other in an integrated environment to meet the communications/ marketing objectives.

Finally, an irrelevant and rather funny sign board Jon and I saw outside our hotel (near a construction site) few days ago when we were in Bali.

Here are some images that Jon and I took last couple of weeks:-

It is definitely a really cool, boutique-styled library that I will miss.

I was checking out the talented group – The Novelties that had a gig at the library@orchard two weeks ago. They are a group of friends, currently studying at the Singapore Management University (SMU). Cheryl, the cute lead singer could do a real good rendition of Cranberries and she commented that it is very sad that the library@orchard will be gone. The group was pleasantly surprised at the crowd that gathered to cheer them on during the performance at the library.

I had to include this interesting picture of this group of girls who gathered at the library not to study or read but they sat at a little corner, enjoying the performance and folding little paper cranes. I was intrigued!

When asked what the girls think about the closing of the library, they were all teary … (ok, I am joking). They all thought, “it was unfortunate that such a nice library has to go very soon.”

“It has a great set-up, especially a special center stage for nice and free performances. This library also stocked up great selection of books and has nice librarians!” they added.

Another person I spoke with was a French gentleman who requested not to mention his name or include his photo. He stays near Orchard Road and is a big fan of the library. He has the following comments, “This is a really stylishly designed and 95% of the time, I can find the books I came to look for. It is definitely sad that it’ll be gone. Where & when is the new library opening?”

The library will re-open in 2010 in two re-incarnations – as library@*scape, a youth community space and as library@orchard at a redeveloped site along Orchard Road, according to the official press release.

So, there! I guess, this is Bye bye library@orchard.

Jon and my “final words” — “It is a shame to see you go. We wish we had known you better…”

The client emailed my friend and the boss a note saying along the line of “We need a front page story!”

Unfortunately, the story came out in one of the news pages in The Straits Times, not too small but not the front page.

I rolled my eyes when I heard that. How do you explain to such clients that it is not only a tall order but it is an unreasonable and ridiculous demand?

It is very common for clients to ask PR agencies to perform tasks that are not only unreasonable, most of the times, they are totally ridiculous, especially when all the information the client can offer is not even newsworthy enough for a small column?
I was reading an interesting  The INQ’s article and I find a lot of truths in there:-

Because clients are as unreasonable as most journalists, by and large. They produce little widgets and expect their PRs to get a front page splash on the Financial Times. If the miserable PR manages to get any mention in said paper, the client will see it and rip the coverage to pieces, forgetting in the process that a journo is not a tool of the PR …

I was also reading Peter Shankman’s book that I mentioned in my last post and there is this rather funny paragraph that I just have to include here.

 I remembered a friend once called me, furious that the reporter didn’t mention him in a second story he did on my friend’s industry.

“Why should he have mentioned you?” I asked my friend.

“Because after he didn’t mention my company in the first story, I called him up and ripped him a new one! I told him that he should be ashamed of himself and not even call himself a journalist if he didn’t do his basic homework to realise that my company is in the space he covered!”

I find myself smiling when I read this. It reminded me of an ex-client who was (I used “was” because it seems to have disappeared, probably ceased operations), a very small player in a particular industry but he insisted that we get a story in the main dailies about his company as “the next big thing!”  and when there were stories about the big players in the industry and his company was not mentioned (because it was new, small and had alot of product flaws), he jumped and demanded that we explained why the company was not highlighted in the story.

Ok, the BIG question here is – Why then did PR agencies allow themselves to be stepped on all over by the clients’ unreasonable demands?

Fear! Yes, fear of losing the clients. Some PR professionals and even the bosses/ MDs/ Directors bend over and compromise to the extend of reducing integrity – just so to keep the client “happy”. Some will attempt to explain, offer alternatives, attempt to help the client to see the bigger picture and most of the times, the clients have their ways and some crappy campaigns were produced with unreasonable expectations and the miserable PR people had to annoy the hell out of journalists to try to get that “front page story.”

Andrew B. Smith wrote the following and again, I see alot of truth in there:-

However, to ask the journalist how much coverage the client can expect is clearly a redundant question – aside from the fact that it is up to the publication to decide how much space a story gets, this can’t be predicted or guaranteed in advance – and certainly not without any information on which to make even an educated guess. A bit like being asked to guarantee the outcome of a race when you have no idea who the runners and riders are.

I am trying to find out from my friend what she and her boss did to reply/ explain to the client about NOT GETTING the front page story.

Another PR person told me, “PR is definitely a misunderstood profession.” PR people are constantly under fire and often caught in between many different groups of people. There are many great PR people around, who are highly skilled, trained and have great credential. Perhaps, some “black sheeps” in the industry should be blamed for the bad name of PR. Perhaps there is just very limited understanding of what PR can or cannot do. Without the right understanding, things get misunderstood and resulted in grievance.

I am one of those who had always think of museums and anything that has the word “heritage” as “boring and old”.

So, imagine my surprise when I first met Walter at a new media conference and he was one of the panel speakers. He was sharing a case study about how the NHB makes use of the social/ new media (by setting up a blogsite – Yesterday.sg) to reach out to more Singaporeans (especially the younger and tech savvy people) as well as anyone who’s interested in the heritage of Singapore (like Jon who’s British – he knows more about Singapore’s history than me).

The new campaign is called Explore Singapore! and is ongoing from now until the end of December. There are more than 86 activities to choose from. Some of you (who are Singaporeans) probably would have read or heard about Mark Lee, our local celebrity who is engaged to host the tours at Singapore’s oldest museum.

The interesting part of this is, there will be a Heritage Photoblogging contest where you can win brand new Nikon Cameras including a D40 kit! The idea is not new but when I think about it, it’s a great move for NHB to get the old and the young, the tech savvy or not-so savvy folks to (1) join in the fun by attending those activities, (2) show-off your photography skills and (3) some great content to put up on the blog and of course, most importantly (4) win a new Nikon camera.

If you are interested, here’s what you can do!

To take part in NHB’s first photoblogging contest and participate in Explore Singapore! Simply follow these easy steps:

1) Attend an Explore Singapore! event. Take lots of pictures. 2) Blog about it on your blog (remember to post the pictures!)

3) Visit the Explore Singapore! Heritage In Pictures webpage. Register your blog post URL there.

4) If approved, your blog post will be posted on the contest listings page.

5) Check back regularly to see if your entry is up. If at first you don’t succeed, try try again

6) Get your friends to check out your entry by putting this Brag Badge on your blog.

Celebrity photographer Dominic Khoo of www.whatisthesight.com will select the winners, who will receive an exclusive National Heritage Board winners’ certificate to be placed on their blogs.

Registration is open from 10 November 2007 to 31 December 2007.

Since I have some time in December, I might just bring mummy along to a few of those activities.

In less than two weeks, the library@orchard will ceased operations, the books will be re-distributed to other libraries and the space that the library currently occupies will be rented out to other tenants. Taking a quick look at the other tenants beside and around the library, the space will probably be used for more beauty spas, salons or some fashion boutiques.

My trip to the library yesterday to fulfill my “job” as the citizen reporter turned out to be educational and at the same time, leaving me with some frustration and sadness.

Jillian Lim, the librarian is extremely helpful and I love talking to people who love books. I was told that despite the library’s aim to target the youth and promote a great reading culture amongst this target group (thus the reason why this library was set up in the midst of Orchard Road), the youths did not seem to pop by as expected. Instead, I see more adults (quite a lot of aunties), some foreigners and even tourists walking around.

My question to Jillian was, why on earth is the library tucked remotely on the top floor of Ngee Ann City – a mall that is currently known to house luxury brands such as the Gucci, Chanel and Tiffany? I was then told that several years ago, around the time that the library was set up, that particular location was a big hit with young people and had tenants that sell products targeting the youths. I didn’t get a chance to talk to the mall’s landlord but based on Brennan’s post about the closing of the library, I gathered that the landlord thinks the big space that the library is occupying now is more profitable and makes more sense to SELL to the youths rather than encouraging a reading lifestyle. Kind of sad, isn’t it?

Anyhow, Jon and I walked around the library with our notebooks, camera and recorders to try to capture any interesting things we can pick up. Jon, being a foreigner thinks Singapore really has world-class standard libraries and the library@orchard is definitely very cool and we should all count our blessings. But do Singaporeans really remember to count them? I am afraid, (based on the chats I had with some people), the answer is No.

I grabbed hold of some young people (age between 17 to 23) and asked the same questions at the library yesterday, “Do you know that the library is closing down end of this month? What are your thoughts abt that?”

80% of them went, “REALLY? Don’t know about the closing and ok lor… can go to other places or other libraries wat…”

Further probing from me, “Do you come to this library often? and do you think this space is better off used for other purposes like shopping or food places?”

70% of them said along the line of, “No. I usually come here to wait for my friends/watch some performances if there are, rest my feet after shopping since it’s free here. And oh! quite a good idea to turn it to more happening shops also lah. There is always Kinokuniya upstairs to get books.”

Gggrrrr… the quotes I got didn’t fit what I had planned to write in my original plan to post something, headlined “How sad we are to let you go..”

And now I am sad…

(However, all hope’s not lost. I managed to speak with others who have constructive and some great things to say about our lovely boutique, lifestyle-concept library@orchard. While I download the images and prepare for the next post, people who are reading this, do pay your final visits to the library@orchard, drop the library or this post some of your thoughts. Those who have images/ videos to share, visit http://blogs.nlb.gov.sg/orchard/ for more information.

The library is also holding a closing party on 30 November. Those who are free that evening, do come for the event. Registration details can be found at the library’s blog).

My next blog post of the library will also highlight one of the performances by The Novelties held at the library on 17 November 2007, and a short chat with the performers. I also found a group of young girls gathering near the entrance of the library – not studying, not reading books but folding 1000 paper cranes.

So, watch this space for part 3 of the closing of library@orchard!!

I have not been writing much lately (the last post was written 31st October) although I’ve been replying people who dropped their comments. I’ve been trying to finish up various events in my current company, take a break and start my new job! Thank you all my dear friends and blog readers who sent me emails, IMs, messages on Facebook to check on me. Well, the blog is still here and I am still writing!

In the midst of all the madness at work, I signed up as Citizen Reporter with the National Library Board to write ANYTHING about the library@Orchard that is scheduled to close down end of this month. Ivan Chew , the rambling librarian alerted me to the library’s initiative to encourage bloggers as well as library- goers to contribute our thoughts and document any pictures/ videos as we move into the final weeks of the library.

I love books, I am addicted to buying books (my mum called me the book shopaholic). I love reading and I am about to request for a new room to store just my books in the new house. However, while many of the citizen reporters wrote about how they love the library@orchard and how they would miss it, I have to admit that, given my mad working schedule, I seldom have the luxury of time to browse and spend time at the library.

I used to spend most of my weekends (and even birthdays) at the libraries. Favourite libraries were the ones at Bedok, Marine Parade, Geylang East and the old National Library. The stylishly designed library@orchard is positioned as the first niche public library in Singapore with a lifestyle concept and focused on providing collections and services targeted at young adults between age 18-35.

I am dutifully visiting the library@Orchard this weekend to capture any interesting things I can find there! Jonathan is going with me and I know he’s going to be stuck at the graphic novel/ comics section while I attempt to bug the librarians and whoever I can speak with to find out more.

Watch this space in the next 2 weeks for more updates about the library@Orchard!

Meantime, while waiting for my next post, check out what other bloggers wrote about the library:-

• Kenneth’s really funny post about Five types of People who will miss the library
• Jean is doing a great job as the citizen reporter, check out her interviews with the library-goers
• Joel wrote a long, honest post about the library@orchard

On a side note, I think it’s a nice (Library 2.0) initiative to invite various local bloggers and book lovers to document the last moments of the library@orchard.