The partying begins!

The painful immigration process behind us, we decided that we were going to enjoy our trip regardless. So having checked in to this lovely new hotel, Faisal, Syed and headed for the iMax Cinema with Vickram Crishna, a friend and colleague based in Mumbai. We had decided we were going to watch Avatar.

The iMax Cinema in Mumbai is a beautiful building in the middle of nowhere. I guess more development will happen eventually but at the moment one actually has to plan an expedition (an exaggeration really because it was only 20 minutes by car). There were tickets available because it was the 4.15 show.

Once the tickets were purchased we bought popcorn, nachos, vege-burgers and drinks and went in search of our seats. Much of the food was consumed even before the movie began. Remember we hadn’t had lunch.

Donned with our 3D glasses, we watched trailers  until the movie began. Syed and Faisal had watched the 2D version but were keen to watch the 3D version. I was watching it for the first time and WOW! It was simply amazing. The production, the graphics, the animation, the music, the dash of romance, the sci-fi. It just totally blew me away. I was so glad we had decided to come watch it. The strange thing about the movie is that the movie has done so well at the box office in the US (although about 70% of the revenue is from outside the US) even though the movie’s storyline shows America as the big evil, aggressive megapower who, acting out of greed, totally tries to destroy an entire civilization to get what it wants. I would highly recommend that this movie is best watched in 3D. The experience is totally out of this world.

Having ‘done’ the movie, we decided it was time to have our first South Indian meal. Before we did that, we happened to pass the bookshop “Crossword’ and, as expected, we immediately lost Faisal. The rest of us followed and all three of us ended up buying some books.

The cab ride to the restaurant took us through a large part of the back alleys of Mumbai thanks to Vickram. The traffic is crazy at that time of day and it took us an hour and fifteen minutes to get there. Quite a ride. The meal was sumptuous – dossa, pau bhazi, uppatums, idli/sambar, lassi and anaar ka juice, at the end of which we were totally stuffed and the immigration woes were totally forgotten. A great start to the trip with another 6 days to look forward to.

The journey to Mumbai

On the flight to Mumbai from Karachi were people from all walks of life – across the aisle was Javed Jabbar who was obviously on a mission vis-a-vis Ramchand Pakistani or another film; sitting next to me was a lady who had lost her husband five years ago and had been in denial for all this time, filling her time with work and family obligations. Now she was  off to visit family in Mumbai and then going on to Bangalore to a health farm to detoxify and come to terms with the reality of her position and start living again. There were musicians who were possibly headed for an Aman-ki-Aasha event (which i was told Zia Mohyeddin was also flying up for). There were old people who were flying to India to meet family. There were  some tourists, young honeymooners, and couples with small children who were either just out to discover Bollywood or were heading to Mumbai to catch up with family and friends.

The flight itself was a very short one – one hour and 25 minutes and although take-off was 10 minutes late due to air-traffic control, we landed in Mumbai at 12 noon. We were excited about the conference and happy that the visa had been granted. It had been a real hassle this time with Home Ministry clearance, NoCs from the Ministry of External Affairs and the Maharashtra State Government all being part of the requirements. The President and Vice President of Nasscom and several friends within the Association had put in a lot of effort to ensure that we got our visas at the 11th hour. And we had got single entry, Mumbai-only conference visas for a 10 day period instead of the multiple-entry business visas that we had requested which would have included cities like Bangalore, Delhi and Hyderabad.

I wish that after 60+ years both our governments could get their act together and make it possible for legitimate travelers to get visas easily that would enable them to travel within multiple cities. I think ours must be the only countries that provide city-specific visas instead of country visas. It is so idiotic. What if I meet someone at this Nasscom conference and with whom I want to explore a business relationship with. He or she may be based in Bangalore or Pune or Chennai. I cannot travel to those cities because I had not forseen that I would meet this person and would be traveling to any of these cities so I didn’t have a visa for that city. Can you believe that if I apply for a multiple entry visa, I need to specify which cities I will be visiting on each of these trips, where I will be staying, etc etc. Absolutely absurd! And both Pakistan and India have these requirements for each other’s nationals.

But that is not even the beginning of the absurdity. Listen intently to what happens when we land. The flight took only 1 hour and 25 mins but then because we were Pakistani nationals, we had to form a single file at one counter where our passport particulars were manually noted down by an immigration person. The process was painfully slow. There were old people, people in wheelchairs, infants and business people who just stood there patiently as the queue inched forward. Don’t get me wrong. The officials were all very polite, very friendly and even apologetic at times for the discomfort but this process defined by some very wise people in Delhi and Islamabad had to be adhered to. Once we were registered, we were given resident permits which we had to fill up before we could proceed to the immigration desks.

I thought now things would happen quickly but we were unfortunate. Mumbai airport had just installed new software that day which most officers did not really know how to use so as they strugged with it, the passengers waited. Their supervisors helped them but the process took time so it was only 2 hours after landing that we finally ventured out to grab a cab.

We were met by a very nice young man from Trident Hotel where we were staying who helped up get into an airconditioned cab and half an hour later we finally walked into the beautiful Trident Hotel in Bandra Kurla Complex tired but happy to have that ordeal behind us. Hopefully the rest of the trip would be free of bureaucratic hassles.

Connecting with an old friend on Facebook

I don’t remember exactly when I first met Adrian Batten. I know it was during the 1978 – 1981 timeframe. He was a marketeer who came to sell media space in international trade publications to GESL, a shipping company for which I worked. I remember thinking, even in those days, that Adrian was a born salesman and could possibly talk eskimos into buying bikinis if he wanted to. The company I worked for in Hong Kong was not in a mood to advertise at that point in time so I really didn’t see that much of him. In fact I evaded him as much as I could.

Then I moved to the UAE for about 5 years and when I returned to Hong Kong in 1985 and was looking for a job, I came face-to-face with none other than Adrian Batten. The woman who was his Recruitment Manager/Executive Assistant interviewed me first. I don’t think she liked me very much and would probably have thrown my CV aside if Adrian hadn’t spotted it and insisted on interviewing me himself. As the interview progressed and I asked him more questions than he asked me, I found him looking more and more amused. Before I could puzzle over that for too long, he wound up the interview by saying “Well, if you are as good at marketing as you are at evading marketing people, you will be a brilliant addition to the team”.

I think he sensed my confusion at that point cos he said “You obviously don’t remember me,” and proceeded to tell me of our old connection, so to speak. I was horrified and embarrassed that I had forgotten, but he just laughed. Anyway, he offered me a job instantly. I told him that I needed to look at the material he had given me and make a decision on whether I would be happy doing this kind of work.

I did however end up joining Headway Media and spent 9 happy and interesting years working with Adrian to make it into a very successful regional Far East player. We worked well together. I travelled a lot during that period and after a couple of years, Adrian promoted me, eventually making me a Director in the company and giving me 25% shares. By the time I left Headway, I was running it as Managing Director. Adrian’s interest in it had waned over time and he was spending more and more time away either in the US or in Bali where, alongwith his fiance Nicole, he was planning to set up a Spiritual Healing Center.

In the years we worked together, Adrian and I became friends. We developed a mutual respect for each other and he trusted me implicitly with all things to do with the company. When he gave me sole signing authority on all of the company’s accounts – US$, Deutsch Marks, Pound Sterling, HK$ etc, I questioned him saying “You shouldn’t do that Adrian. How do you know I won’t clean up the accounts and run away with the money?” He just looked at me and said “You wouldn’t do that.” How could I have betrayed that kind of trust?

When I left the company and moved to Pakistan in 1993-1994, because of my mother’s ill health, it was tough. Headway Media had in a sense become my company. I felt a sense of responsibility, a sense of ownership. And Adrian and the team had become like family. We had shared so many ups and downs, so many stressful times, so many successes.

Adrian’s name came up during a conversation I was having with Zak the other day. Zak had spent some time working out of the Headway office in Hong Kong and he and Adrian had developed a good relationship. We wondered what Adrian was up to and where he was, so I searched for him on Facebook. And lo and behold, there he was – still in Bali, still “in a relationship” with Nicole. Hey Adrian, I have heard of long engagements, but come on man, this has gone on long enough, don’t you think?

Adrian Batten recognized my potential and gave me an opportunity to learn a business I knew nothing about. He gave me breathing room to grow into the job, making of it what I would – going all the way to becoming head honcho (well, technically as Group Managing Director, he was still head honcho). He trusted me with a company that he had started, that was his baby. He recognized my sense of values, my integrity and my contribution to the growth of the company,  and treated me with the respect I deserved.

This anecdote is a great example of the kind of person Adrian is.  Adrian had set up a meeting with a very important Publisher from Japan. Unfortunately something came up and so Adrian wasn’t in the office when the Japanese gentleman arrived. Our secretary told him that Mr. Batten had been detained but that he could meet with me. He met with me but would not discuss details of the agreement. When Adrian called him later to ask what the problem was, he said he couldn’t negotiate or sign a deal with a woman. Anyone else would probably have met with the guy and signed the deal which was more or less in the bag but not Adrian. He told the man “Ms Jehan Ara is the Managing Director of Headway Media. If you cannot deal with her, then you can’t deal with Headway.” And that was that! Is it surprising then that I remember him fondly, and am glad to be back in contact with him?

Reba Shahid of Spider Magazine connects with P@SHA Chairman Yusuf Jan

“I think everything about our IT industry is positive. I don’t see anything negative about it and I stand by my claim. I am not saying this because I am biased. I don’t think of flags when it comes to business,” says Yusuf Jan, Chairman of P@SHA and Co-Founder of Mixit Technologies.

Umair Javed of TkXel speaks to me on ITLoW

Umair Javed is a very passionate, talented and focused young man who knows exactly what he wants and has put all his efforts into making it happen. He is the CEO of TkXel, a company based in Lahore with a staff strength of 35. Umair says they are still 10 people short but there is only a certain type of individual that he is prepared to hire and that kind of individual is not that easily available.

In this interview with Umair on ITLoW, I tried to capture the essence of what Umair has been doing in the technology space, where he feels the stumbling blocks are and what he is doing to counter the problems that exist.

TkXel (or Technology Accelerated) works in the Software Development space with a niche in Mobile Application and Rich Internet Application development (mostly for the international market). They have, however, recently started offering their expertise in Social Media Marketing to local companies.

Umair is a graduate of UET Lahore and a Gold Medalist from LUMS with a couple of years experience at Techlogix who then decided to venture into the entrepreneurial space. He also teaches at LUMS and several other institutions because he thinks that if we are to get the kind of individuals we need for our companies, we have to contribute towards developing them.

Although a large component of TkXel’s revenue still comes from services, they have increasingly got into the product space and have developed high value games that have done extremely well on the Apple App store with their Real Deer Hunting game having made it to the Top 100 all paid apps, Top 50 games, Top 5 Simulation, What’s Hot and Best Fishing & Hunting games categories.

The iPhone is the best thing that could have happened for Pakistani developers, says Umair Javed, because it has given us access to end-users in the US and European markets without the need for a marketing team based in those markets. TkXel has had a 100% acceptance rate on the Apple App Store.

The absence of a Payment Gateway came up again and I assured him that we were working on many fronts to make it happen.

But enough said already, I am not going to give the whole interview away in this post. Go hear what this young man had to say. He has a lot of great ideas, some of which are not that hard to implement. Shouldn’t we be listening?

Google workshop in Lahore goes off like a breeze

The success of the P@SHA-Google workshop in Karachi hadn’t quite prepared me for the turnout in Lahore on January 30, 2010. 148 people showed up at The Mall of Lahore for the event even though some, who had committed to be there, were held up at work and weren’t able to put in an appearance.

Fariha Akhtar had accompanied me to Lahore to make a presentation on the Takebackthetech campaign at the VAW & ICT seminar for the legal community, so of course she attended the P@SHA-Google Internet Marketing workshop too, and there was no way that anyone could stop our fantastic live-blogger from live-blogging in Lahore.

I met a number of old friends and colleagues – Zafar Khan of Sofizar who continues to make money while he sleeps, Imran Hussain who sat and listened to the Steve Jobs iPad keynote while waiting for the workshop to begin, Adnan Ali (http://twitter.com/adnanbwp) who has just passed the written test to become Google Certified (all he now has to do is continue to run a 3 month online campaign before he is officially Google Certified), Abdul Aziz of Lumensoft who shared his experience in marketing his technology product online using Google Adsense, Saad and Basit from Five Rivers Technologies, Rafaeel who continues to show the rest of us that he is a young entrepreneur we should continue to watch in the years ahead, bloggers galore – Maryam, Iftekhar, Talal and so many others. The air was full of energy and we didn’t really  need the Red Bull.

Listening to Badar Khushnood’s presentation the second time was just as fun as it had been the first time around. While Fariha blogged, I tweeted and took some photos .

The participants were totally engaged from the get-go and some of them challenged and dug deep into what Badar had to say. Others amongst them – people like Adnan Ali who is a Google certified expert, and Zafar Khan of Sofizar who is a SEO whiz, were able to assist. Several members of Zafar’s team, who are experienced in various SEO and SEM techniques, were also present. So Badar had quite a bit of help fielding the many questions that were raised. Here is a partial visual glimpse of the event. More photos of the event can be viewed here.

It would be remiss of me not to mention Bramerz [http://twitter.com/bramerz],the first Google certified agency in Pakistan, who helped with all the logistical arrangements i.e. venue suggestion & booking, backdrop designing, onsite registrations & fee collection, etc.

And last, but certainly not least, kudos to Iftikhar Hussain for gettingthe backdrop printed & actually delivered & fixed in time even though he was gaven the design at 6 pm the previous evening and it had to be set up before Juma prayer on Friday. His choice of printer and frame-maker was amazingly economical too. Gosh we have quite a community! They all pitch in to make it all happen. Thanks guys. You’re the best.

The networking that followed was very intense. People shared ideas, techniques and experiences. They caught up with each other. I met some old friends and made some new ones. Fariha too met people whom she had so far only known by their names and DPs on Twitter. The Red Bull kept everyone active and energized.

I am glad we were able to attend the workshop in Lahore and now Badar and I are looking at dates for Islamabad.

B4A and P@SHA host VAW & ICT event for legal community

As Policy Advocacy is a key component of P@SHA’s mandate, we have partnered with Bytes for All, a South Asia wide regional ICT network of professionals and practitioners (of which I too am a member), on a two year project entitled “Strengthening Women’s Strategic Use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) to combat Violence against Women (VAW) and girls.

The basic goal of the project is to help create a global community of women from diverse professions and fields of expertise who  will then critically take up ICT tools and use them to combat violence against women which is prevalent in the society.

As part of this project, P@SHA and B4A have already started a series of activities the most significant one being the Take Back the Tech Campaign which was 16 days of activism to combat VAW and ICT.

On January 30, part of the team which included Shahzad Ahmad of B4A, Fariha Akhtar, a strong TBTT Activist and I travelled to Lahore to hold seminar for the legal community. The purpose was to create a awareness about ICT & VAW and the implications of various government policies on women. Spearheading the organizational task of putting this event together in Lahore was Advocate Nighat Dad, who is also part of the project team.

I must admit that I had doubts about the number of lawyers who would show up but our superwoman Advocate Nigi (as Fariha referred to her in her presentation) did a tremendously effective job of getting about 80 lawyers from the Lahore High Court, media and a couple of educationalists to this extremely important session. The Honourable Justice (Retired) Nasira Iqbal who is the President of the Lahore High Court Bar Association was the Guest of Honour. Retired Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court the Honourable Mian Allah Nawaz was the Chief Guest.

The session started with a Welcome address and an overview of the MDG3 Project from Shahzad Ahmad, B4A Pakistan. He explained in very clear and coincise terms why, who and what the project was about. He explained that is was an APC Women’s Networking Supoort Programme which is being financed through a grant from the MDG3 Fund: Investing in Equality and is being implemented in 12 countries including Pakistan. The project, Shahzad explained, included conducting research and analysis on policy issues related to women’s right and ICTs; promoting women’s engagement in ICT policy spaces that impact on women’s right and gender equality, designing and implementing ICT-enabled interventions, localizing the annual Take Back the Tech campaign and administering small grants for women’s ICT development projects.

Then I made a presentation on the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Ordinance (PECO) and its possible impact on women if the Ordinance was not redrafted. I pointed out the problems with the definitions, the excessive powers given to agencies, the lack of protection built in for individuals and businesses and the lack of any chain of custody and judicial oversight. In addition, I also pointed out that there was no way that, in its current form, this legislation would be effective. I also pointed that that some parts of the Ordinance were actually in contravention of Articles 13, Article 19 and 24 of the Constitution. I asked the legal community to get involved, to join hands with civil society, with women’s rights organisations and with business to ensure that any legislation that was drafted protected the citizens as well as the State.

In her presentation, young Fariha Akhtar gave an overview of how technology was a great enabler for women and women’s rights organisations as well as opening up ways and means for criminals and perpetrators to further harrass women and girls thus adding to the violence that already existed. She spoke about the Take Back the Tech campaign which was meant to create an awareness of VAW and ICT. Pakistan this year has been an active part of this global campaign and Fariha explained how we had engaged the media, bloggers, tweeples and women’s organizations to spread the word regarding TBTT. This included producing postcards, writing blog posts, articles in magazines, press conferences, interviews with electronic media, using Facebook, Youtube and Twitter to disseminate information about how to keep yourself safe online.

The Q&A session that followed was very interactive. Many of the young lawyers – mostly women – had lots of questions and suggestions and seemed extremely enthusiastic about collaborating with us on policy.

Former Chief Justice (Retired) Mian Allah Nawaz addressed the gathering and said that  technology while being highly useful and empowering, can be at the same time highly dangerous as well. He said technology can facilitate and distract. Lawyers, he said, must be aware of  the “deviant behaviour of cyber technology”. Laws, he said, cyber or otherwise, should be made through debative, argumentative and counter argumentative procedures.

Justice (Retd) Nasira Iqbal suggested the formation of a Technical Committee at the Lahore High Court Bar Association l which could assist in assessing and offering analysis of cyber laws and laws that affect women. She also requested P@SHA and B4A to organize training sessions at the Judicial Academy.

Some of the lawyers suggested that we should hold TBTT awareness sessions at schools and colleges and they volunteered to collaborate with us as did some of the educational institution representatives who were present.

All is all a great and invigorating event that will lead to the legal community, the IT community and civil society joining hands to help the government to come up with policies that are effective for the country and yet do not infringe on citizen rights.

Here is the link to Fariha’s presentation: TBTT Storytelling session with lawyers in Lahore.

Some of the lawyers who were present at the event.

Nighat and Fariha putting together the collateral and the documents in the TBTT bags.

A picture of the bags and stickers.

Imran Zia takes over as MD PSEB

You will remember Imran Zia as the Immediate Past Chairman of P@SHA and the CEO of Vahzay Inc, Lahore. Well, the man has changed gear and as of today, has taken on the challenging position of Managing Director, Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) – a position that has for some reason been lying vacant for the past two years.

The Secretary, Ministry of IT & Telecom, Mr. Nagibullah Malik, should be congratulated on the selection of such an impressive candidate to fill this post. He must have seen in Imran what many of us who have worked with him, have known for some time -  an honest, committed, hardworking and intelligent person with a passion for making a difference. Those of us who have been involved in policy discussions with him know that he has been very vocal about the policy changes that are needed for Pakistan to become a greater player on the world ICT scene.

Imran strongly believes in the raw talent that exists in this country and has been known to press the case for small and medium sized companies who need extra support from both the government and the private sector in order to overcome the challenges that they face.

Imran is a man of vision. Many of you may remember that as recently as October 14, 2009 at the P@SHA ICT Awards, recognizing the potential of Zayd Enam of MediConnect and Babar Ahmed of Cricket Revolution, he gave the time allocated for the Chairman’s address to these young men so that they could present their innovative ideas and products to the 540 people assembled at the Sheraton in Karachi. His faith in them (as well as the faith of all of us who were inspired by them) was justified when they went on to win the APICTA award and the Runner up award in their respective categories in Melbourne Australia.

Imran is an MBA (Finance and Entrepreneurship) from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. He is also an MS (Computer Engineering) from Cornell University and a B.Sc. (Electrical Engineering) from UET, Lahore. He has over 17 years experience working in senior managerial positions in sales, consulting, product management and product development at Oracle, Altera and other hi-tech companies. At Oracle he was recognized for his contribution to the sales and consulting teams and was nominated to Club Excellence on two separate occasions – an award given only to the top performers in Oracle sales and consulting. Imran has been bit by the entrepreneurial bug and is a serial entrepreneur who has started software companies both in the US and in Pakistan. He has also been teaching  entrepreneurship at FAST-NUCES Lahore for the past couple of years.

When I interviewed him on ITLOW in April last year, he spoke about a variety of issues (I also put up a post on this blog to coincide with the interview). It will be interesting to have him back on the show after he has settled into his new position, just to see what he thinks can be done from within government.

Imran Zia is an amazing chap and his friends and associates, and all of us at P@SHA, believe that his appointment is a good omen for the ICT industry. We all know that Imran will put in 110% into his new role. However, perhaps all of us need to manage our expectations in so far as what, even a person like Imran, will be able to achieve with the limitations of the government framework in which he will find himself. Let us give him a bit of time to settle in, a bit of room to manoeuvre and to understand the lay of the land, before we begin to expect him to perform miracles.

Imran, the industry offers you its full support and cooperation. Let us join hands and work together to ensure that the brilliant minds within the Pakistani ICT sector are able to meet their true potential. Good luck Imran Zia. Our prayers and good wishes are with you as you take on this challenging role.

Jawwad Ahmed Farid wows the HR community

When Azfar Ahsan of Nutshell Forum asked P@SHA to support the Talent Management Conference that he was organizing, we were happy to support the initiative. He is able to bring together Human Resource specialists from a variety of organisations to discuss issues related to the development of people who work within these organisations. They get together to share ideas, exchange best practices and develop strategies.

For the last few years, Azfar has been inviting speakers from the IT industry too because as IT companies have grown, they have started focusing more and more on capacity building, on training and on retention of talent. This year Azfar had included on his panel Al-Karim Hassan, who heads the Global HR development for Etilize, and Badar Khushnood of Google.

When he asked me to identify a dynamic speaker from within our industry, I suggested Jawwad Ahmed Farid who, in my opinion, is an amazing speaker. And after his performance yesterday, I think there are many people in the Human Resource community who will agree with me. I capture the presentation on my flip for those who couldn’t be there.

Some of the people spotted at the Talent Management Conference included Shireen Naqvi from the School of Leadership, Ghalia Naseer from TRG and Hina Mehboob from PixSense. Others from the tech community included Humayun Bashir, Country Manager of IBM Pakistan. Some of the discussions did indeed provide food for thought.

I had to leave early because there was another conference that I had to go to so unfortunately I missed Badar and Al-Karim’s presentations. However, knowing them I am sure they were great.

Jawwad’s presentation showed that the individuals who work in the IT sector are bright individuals who want to make a difference, who dare to dream and who are different from the average Joe or Jill.

Jawwad has kindly shared a copy of his presentation.

Talent, Technology, Management

View more presentations from Jawwad Farid.

Sometimes the Q&A session can also be thought-provoking

Naeem Zafar’s talk on ultrabootstrapping was followed by some interesting sharing of experiences by some people in the audience and questions which Naeem answered in great detail. Here is a recording of the Q&A session:

For a complete report of the workshop click here.

P@SHA & Google take the Online marketing workshop to Lahore on January 29

After the success of the first “Marketing your Software or Technology Workshop Online” in Karachi last week, P@SHA and Google Pakistan are pleased to announce the second workshop  in Lahore on January 29, 2010 from 3: 00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on the 3rd Floor of the Sunset Boulevard Club in the Park Lane Towers, Lahore Cantt.

To register for the workshop, please REGISTER  NOW !

This talk, which will be facilitated by Badar Khushnood, Pakistan Consultant for Google, will help Pakistani technology companies to harness the power of the internet for promoting their products and services to potential local & global customers most economically. This course will also explore various tools and applications that are available online, for marketers.

All P@SHA members, startups and freelancers are invited to register for this event by January 27, 2009. Since there are limited seats you will be receiving a confirmation from the P@SHA Secretariat if you have been registered for the workshop.

The registration fee for this event is a nominal Rs. 300. Please bring cash/cheque with you. It will be collected at the entrance. A limit of 3 people per company has been set to ensure that there is broader participation.

Click P@SHA-Google Workshop Lahore to download the flyer that will provide you with details regarding the workshop. See you on the 29th.

Partial recording of the Ultrabooting Workshop ala Naeem Zafar

This is a partial recording of the workshop. The first part mysteriously disappeared off my flip camera. I will be putting up the Q&A part later today.

Some links that Naeem Zafar shared include:

Social Networks:
LinkedIn
Twitter

Market Research:
Through Free Online Surveys
www.zoomerang.com
www.surveymonkey.com

Free Websites in 5 minutes
sites.google.com

For Advertising
Google Adwords
bluehost.com

Market Identification
Twitter.com
Chopaal.com
DavidMeermanScott.com (Viral Marketing)
Business Associations: http://www.google.com/Top/Business/Associations/By_Industry/
census.gov

Register a legal entity in the US for US$300

http://www.legalzoom.com

Other legal advice
http://www.nolo.com/

Free Video Conferencing

http://www.oovoo.com

Free Conference Call
http://www.conferencecall.com
http://www.skype.com (Skype Business tools)

Affiliate Marketing
http://www.clickbank.com

New Rules of Marketing
www.davidmeermanscott.com

Ultrabootstrapping the ‘Naeem Zafar’ way!

The man had already run two workshops yesterday when he walked into T2F in Karachi to run a session on “Ultrabootstrapping” for P@SHA and TiE Karachi. Sabeen Mahmud and I were grateful that he had so readily accepted our request to speak to technologists and entrepreneurs in Karachi at such short notice. It just shows how ready Naeem Zafar is to share his experience and his knowledge.

Each time I meet Naeem I am awed by his personality. He has accomplished much in his life, through hard work and his ability to grasp hold of opportunities and run with them.

Despite his achievements, he is a very modest, very approachable, very down-to-earth individual who believes in empowering others through sharing and mentoring. He teaches Entrepreneurship at the Haas School of Business, University of Berkeley, he runs Concordia Ventures, he has written 6 books and is the President of the Organisation of Pakistani Entrepreneurs of North America (OPEN). In addition to all this, he finds the time between semesters, to fly to Pakistan and speak at various fora including several universities across the country.

Having announced the workshop only a couple of days earlier, we were not sure how many people would turn up but they all came. The room was full of young entrepreneurs and some older ones who were all there to learn how they could bootstrap a business. And learn they did!

There was nothing complicated in what he suggested. He simply shared how he used various free tools and networks to conduct his business. The Internet, he said, had flattened the world so there was nothing keeping us from starting a business and running it successfully irrespective of which part of the world we were living in. He shared examples of Pakistani youngsters and companies who had done it.

Naeem Zafar showed how he used LinkedIn, Twitter, blogs, websites, Google Adwords and online survey and research tools to run his business, to recruit teams, to collaborate, to expand his network and to market his products online – most of it for free, most of it at zero cost.

The one clear message that came through in his talk was that it was available out there but to benefit from it, you had to put in the time and effort to learn, to research, to create content, to use what was available. Of course you had to know where to look and you needed some initial direction to get you started. Naeem’s talk yesterday did just that. Everyone I polled said they had learned something new, something they could use.

After the workshop Naeem was surrounded. People put specific questions to him. I listened in to some of the queries and the advice he gave. He was honest, he was forthright, he made suggestions, gave advice, cleared up misconceptions and set several of them on the right track. Thank you Naeem – from P@SHA, from TiE Karachi and from all the people whose lives you touched yesterday. Thank you for sharing, thank you for caring enough about entrepreneurship in this country, thank you for taking the time. May God bless you.

The networking continued well beyond the allotted time of the workshop as people ordered coffee and sandwiches and cupcakes and cheese twisties and stuck around chatting and sharing.

Nutshell hosts 2nd Talent Management Forum on 23 Jan

Nutshell Forum, in collaboration with Asian HRM Network, Lahore HR Forum, GEO News, Learning Minds and Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT & ITES (P@SHA), is hosting the 2nd Talent Management Forum on Saturday, January 23, 2010 from 0900 to 1700 hours at Marriott Hotel, Karachi.

The conference will discuss strategies and ideas to ensure a strong talent management process within your organization.

Hear from a panel of CEOs and HR practitioners and experts on the unique challenges facing organizations in 2010-11 and how best to ensure that your biggest resource is creating the strongest impact for your company.

Limited seats are available on first come first served basis.
There are a host of known names who will be speaking at the event including some speakers from the tech sector – Jawwad Ahmed Farid from Alchemy Technologies, Badar Khushnood of Google and Al Karim Hassan from Etilize.
CONFERENCE BOARD:

Javed Jabbar, Global Vice President, IUCN & Former Senator & Federal Minister for Information & Media Development

Prof. Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman, Coordinator General, COMSTECH & Former Federal Minister for Science & Technology & Former Chairman, HEC

Tariq Ikram, President, Textile Institute of Pakistan & Former Minister of State & Chairman, Export Promotion Bureau & Reckitt & Colman Pakistan

Ismail Mapara, Managing Director, 3M Pakistan & Business Head, 3M Middle East, North Africa & Central Europe

Humayun Bashir, Country General Manager, IBM Pakistan

Jawwad Ahmed Farid, CEO, Alchemy Technologies & Author of “Reboot”

Hasan Aziz Bilgrami, President, BankIslami Pakistan Limited & ICMAP

Mazhar Valjee, Managing Director, Areva T&D Pakistan (Formerly Alstom)

*Tauqeer Ahmed, Managing Director, Dupont Pakistan Operations

Badar Khushnood, Country Consultant, Google Inc.

Al-Karim Hassan, Director HR Global Operations, Etilize Inc., USA

Naushad H. Javaid, Director People Excellence, Telenor Pakistan

Muhammad Tahir Mushtaq, EVP Human Resources & Admin., PTCL

Shakeel S. Mapara, Director Human Resources, sanofi-aventis

Khalid Zaman Khan, Director HR, HSBC Middle East Bank Limited

Fariha K. Salahuddin, Director HR, Glaxo Smith Kline Pakistan

Wasif Waseem Ashraf, Director HR, Coca-Cola Beverages Pakistan Limited

Dr. Razi Azmat, Head of HR, Habib Bank Limited

Tahir Jawaid, General Manager HR, Engro Chemical Pakistan Limited

Wali Zahid, CEO, SkillCity UAE & C-Level Coach

Akram Durrani, Director Human Resources, Dawood Group

Syed Zulfeqar Ali, Head of HR, GEO TV

Adeel Anwar, President, Lahore HR Forum & Head of NTI, Netsol Technologies

Uzma Bashir Ghous, CEO, UBG Associates

Sohail Zindai, International Speaker, Trainer & Consultant / CLO, Learning Minds

Sidra Iqbal, Communication Strategist & TV Anchor

Jovaria Khizer, Associate & Consultant, Learning Minds

* Tentative

2nd Talent Management Forum-1

FEE & REGISTRATION:

1-5 nominees PKR 5,500 per participant
5+ nominees PKR 5,000 per participant
(includes lunch, refreshment breaks, conference kit and participation certificate)

PKR 4,900/- per participant
(Only for the members of LHRF, P@SHA, ICAP and ICMAP)

Your participation will be confirmed subject to receipt of payment.
All cheques and drafts to be made in favor of “NUTSHELL FORUM”. Refunds not allowed, however substitute may attend.
Organizers reserve the right to alter the program.

For registration, please contact:

Shahid Aziz Farooqi (0300-2704036) or
Zulfiqar A. Rahim (0333-3027242)

Email: nutshellevents@yahoo.com, nutshellforum@yahoo.com
URL: www.nutshellforum.com

Ultra-Bootstrapping Workshop on Jan 19! Don’t miss it!

P@SHA and TiE Karachi have joined hands to organize a workshop on “Ultra-Bootstrapping: Starting a Business with ALMOST NO MONEY”. This is aimed at young young entrepreneurs, startups, bloggers and freelancers.

The speaker is   the very accomplished Naeem Zafar who is a Faculty Member of the Haas School of Business, University of Berkeley. He teaches Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

The workshop will be held at T2F on Tuesday, January 19, 2010 from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. followed by 30 minutes of Q&A. No registration is required. The charge is a nominal Rs. 100 which can be paid at the venue.

Come and take advantage of this amazing opportunity to listen to an amazing speaker who is so ready to share his knowledge and experience. Please do be on time so as not to miss any part of the talk and interaction. Click here to download the flyer if you wish to circulate it to friends.

For those who want to use GoogleMaps to locate T2F, here is the link.