A close call or just a scare?

My trip to Singapore was certainly not uneventful. I stayed on an extra day after the team left. There was an APICTA Exco meeting which I had to attend. Checked out of the hotel in the morning before I headed for the meeting which was to start at 9:30 a.m. It was at the Singapore Management University which had become our home away from home during this trip.

The meeting was intense and went on until 3:30 pm. After it concluded I had a few hours to kill since I wasn’t due to leave for the airport until past 11 pm. I decided to take an MRT ride to Orchard Road, browse around the two large bookshops and take in the Christmas lights. I must have walked miles stopping at various places to take a break and rest my aching feet.

Always tempted by Marks & Spencer I walked into the basement store as I emerged from Borders the bookstore. Decided to try on some shirts. It was in the changing room that I heard what sounded like a fire alarm. I quickly gathered the shirts and went out. I asked the salesgirl if there was a fire. She shrugged and replied “Could be laah - that is a fire alarm!” I looked at her quizzically and then rushed out of the store. That is when I saw the smoke. It was so dense that I was already coughing from the effects of it. Looking up, I saw that it was the adjacent building that seemed to be on fire. I stopped only to click a photo for this blog before I rushed off down the block to catch the MRT back to Raffles City. Was it a close call? No but it could have been - and it did cause a panic.

Netsol & PixSense win Awards at APICTA

In our eyes all the participants from Pakistan were winners. Their products and their presentations were appreciated by experts from the region. By taking the time to go to Singapore and benchmarking their products against the best in Asia Pacific, they made Pakistan look good. So thanks to all our stars.

The most difficult part of this entire exercise for the judges is to keep the names of the winners a secret until they are announced on the night of the Awards. We were bound by the Code of Ethics that we were signatories to, to keep our big mouths shut and not to let on who the winners were. So we talked about everything else and stuck to our guns even when faced with the most persuasive of nominees.

It was worth it though. When the Master of Ceremonies announced the Best of Communications Award was a tie between Pixsense and a Malaysian company, the Pakistanis in the audience went wild. If Adnan Agboatwalla doesn’t look too thrilled in this photo, it may be because he would rather not have shared the Award with anyone. Well done Adnan! You did us proud and we are thrilled that PixSense has developed a product that is not only recognized by the likes of Telenor, Vodaphone and China Mobile but also by the toughest judges in the Asia Pacific region.

The Financial Applications Category, like the Communications Category, came up against cutting edge applications developed by the best teams from Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, China, etc but Netsol Technologies’ LeaseSoft application stood out and was declared the overall Winner in the Financial Category. Khalid Iqbal, VP of LeaseSoft Marketing, could simply not believe it! His feet didn’t touch the ground for quite a while. The rest of us jumped out of our seats to congratulate Khalid. The Chief Judge and the Economy Heads came over to us and congratulated us when the PixSense and Netsol Awards were announced. Pakistan is right up there when it comes to producing top quality software and we have proven it!

The teams in Pakistan were not left behind as SMSes and phone calls were put through right away to share the good news. Dawn News had been on standby and was the first to run the news regarding Pakistan’s success at APICTA.

One thing that I wanted to highlight here. The Pakistani companies that went to APICTA went on their own steam. P@SHA is admittedly covering their airfare but other than that, none of them received any kind of support from any other source. Compare this with the likes of Singapore and Malaysia. Each of them brought about 30 companies. They always do. All the costs are covered by their governments. I remember last year the Malaysian Economy head told me that around 30 ICT entrepreneurs were sponsored by the Malaysian government for a week’s entrepreneurship course at MIT - this included the fees, the airfare and the accommodation. Now that is what I call support. That’s not all - both governments actually provide angel funds for young people to try out innovative ideas. They showcase the products all over the world. There is much more talent that exists within the Pakistan ICT sector. More emphasis on education, on R&D and on the recognition, facilitation and growth of a young and energetic sector, might do wonders for this country.

APICTA - the judging continues

The second day of judging was also interesting because I was now judging the Tourism & Hospitality category with three other judges from Thailand, Brunei and Macau. This room was slightly bigger than the one we had been given the day before. Some of the entries were quite interesting but there was one that stood out - and that was the one from Thailand. The two young men knew their market and had developed a product that was not only making money for them but was serving the tourism sector well. The judges had no hesitation in coming to a unanimous decision regarding the winner.

The second day of judging was followed by some meetings to finalize the score sheets and sign off on the winning entries. In some categories there was debate and disagreement - in fact in one category the Chief Judge and Adjudicators had to be called in to facilitate a decision.

The Judges Final Meeting the next day confirmed the results in all categories. In addition, it was discussed that the Economy Coordinators needed to play a more significant role in the selection of nominees. There were problems when certain nominations were placed in more than one category. There were also cases where the nominated product was placed in the wrong category. It was suggested that if the Economy Coordinators would take care of these things prior to the judging, it would save time later.

Anyway, all’s well that ends well. Everyone was congratulated on the hard work they had put in and following the APICTA Exco’s confirmation of the results, everyone dispersed so that they could get ready for the Awards that night.

It wasn’t all work!

Amidst serious work, we can always find time to play! There was no way that I was going to be in Singapore and be confined to the four walls of SMU and The Stamford. So at night, once we had changed into civilian gear, we headed out for Arab Street to try some Iranian food. It started off with only Zia, Jawwad and me venturing out but soon we were joined by Adnan (of Pixsense) - actually we picked him up from his hotel on the way from Arab Street to Boat Quay , Osama (from Green&White) , Nadeem (of Infotech) & Hinnah (Nadeem’s wife), Sultan (of Maison Consulting) and Ali Sabzwari (from Si3).

At first I had grumbled about being dragged to Arab Street. I had thought we were heading for Chinatown or some other exciting part of town. But the Iranian food turned out to be quite good and so I was silenced pretty quickly. However, I insisted that after the meal I was going to take the others to Boat Quay - one of my regular haunts when I visited Singapore in the old days. There was some resistance to this suggestion but I am not easily dissuaded so off we went.

Once we were there, everyone was quite happy that I had suggested this side trip. They loved the atmosphere, the view, the coffee and the cheese cake. We sat by the water and had our coffee and chatted and joked until we were finally told that the coffee shop was closing for the night and we should leave. Nadeem & Hinnah decided to go back to their hotel but Sabzwari and I had heard jazz tunes emanating from the first floor. Turned out to be a Jazz Club with a live band. So naturally the rest of us moved upstairs and there we stayed for the next hour and a half. We sat right up front and were a most appreciative audience. Round about 12:30 or 12:45 pm, we decided that if we were going to make it for the morning meeting, we had better head back to our hotels. And so we bade farewell to the vocalist and the band - having exchanged cards and having promised that we would invite them for our event in Pakistan. We were high on sodas and juices and virgin pina colladas you see

APICTA Awards - The Judging Begins

The Asia Pacific ICT Awards (APICTA) is an international Awards Program, the purpose of which is to increase ICT awareness in the community and assist in bridging the Digital Divide. By providing networking and product benchmarking opportunities to ICT innovators and entrepreneurs in the region, the program is designed to stimulate ICT innovation and creativity, promote economic and trade relations, facilitate technology transfer, and offer business matching opportunities via exposure to venture capitalists and investors. Participants of the Awards Program comprise members of the APICTA Alliance. The Awards are held in a different member economy each year.

This year APICTA was held in Singapore alongwith the ASOCIO ICT Summit and General Assembly. The Asian-Oceanian Computing Industry Organization (ASOCIO) has since 1984 been the bridge for IT companies in the region to expand their network of contacts, conduct business with each together and develop their capabilities. ASOCIO has dedicated itself to promoting, encouraging and fostering relationships, while promoting trade between its 20 member organizations.

The Judging for the APICTA Awards began early on November 28. The judges were asked to be in the lobby of their hotels at 7:15 am (yes, it is a hard life being a judge). We were to have breakfast at the Singapore Management University (SMU) before the judging began at 8:30 a.m. This was a ploy on the part of the Chief Judge because he knew that if he didn’t get the judges there early, the schedule might be affected if any of them were tardy. Good ploy don’t you think?

The Head Judge in the Communications category was Riyanto from Indonesia. Amongst the other judges on my panel were Kenneth Vong from Macau, Alex Lin from Singapore and Osman from Brunei. We were put in Room 4 which was so small that there was hardly any space for us to move around. I had a crick in my neck from watching 13 presentations on the projection screen. The quality of presentations was extremely good. Most of the products were innovative and were commercially accepted products. There were some that were new and had yet to be tested on ‘real’ people. I, for one, felt that some of them would have done better in the R&D Category. They lost mileage because they could not produce actual implementation and customer response statistics. When Adnan Agboatwalla of PixSense presented I felt so proud. He did a superb job of presenting just what was needed and he did it with the right mix of brilliance and professionalism. He fielded the questions like an expert and was able to satisfy most of the judges. As far as I was concerned, he proved himself to be a winner in the 35 minutes that were allotted to him.

As a judge at these events, it is difficult to be totally unbiased but if you are fair in your assessment of the products that are being prsented, the winners are so obvious. The judging guidelines for APICTA have been streamlined every year based on feedback from nominees, judges and Exco members. The Alliance wants to ensure the integrity of these Awards and is working hard to ensure that nothing interferes with that.

In the Communications category there was a lot of competition because of the growth in the mobile market and the expanding services being offered in different parts of the world. The entrepreneurs who came to present all shared one thing - they were passionate and excited about the breakthroughs they had made. They were clear about the gaps they were filling in the market and the growth potential for their products. Most of them had a vision and knew that the goal posts would keep moving and they couldn’t afford to stand still if they were to succeed in this arena.

The caffeine kept flowing to keep us alert and functional. I don’t know about the judges who were in the other categories but I wasn’t bored for a moment even though we started at 8:30 am and the judging went on till about 6:30 pm. It was no doubt tiring but it was mentally stimulating. We exchanged notes as we met in the corridors of SMU during coffee and lunch breaks. Young people from various colleges were dressed in black and asked to be timekeepers and coordinators and data entry operators. They certainly put in a lot of hard work.

Old Chang Kee

Walking around Singapore you will see this sign in lots of places - Old Chang Kee since 1956. After a couple of days of seeing this sign I began to wonder who Old Chang Kee was and whether he had been old since 1956? Was he still around? If so, wouldn’t he be much older? I just had to investigate. Apparently the origins of Old Chang Kee were extremely humble. It started as a small stall in a coffee shop outside a cinema hall in Singapore. The curry puff which was the signature brand of Old Chang Kee was a delicious pastry filled with curried potatoes, chicken and a slice of egg - it captured the hearts (and stomachs) of Singaporeans in no time at all.

Since then the Old Chang Kee brand has grown and flourished. It’s star brands are:

The mission of Old Chang Kee is simple - to deliver the best quality and most delicious hot finger foods and ready meals to residents and tourists alike.

I have yet been unable to find out who founded it. Was Old Chang Kee a person? What I have been able to discover is that the business was bought out in 1986 by Han Kee Juan who left a cushy job with an MNC and decided to turn this popular stall into a flourishing business. Sound familiar all you budding entrepreneurs out there?

Well, it worked. He now has many stalls, provides ready meals to supermarkets and shopping malls. He also has a large factory. But did he stop there? Nope. In 1996 he decided that if he wanted the business to grow he would have to bring in new, young blood with innovative ideas and new marketing ideas to deal with an ever-changing consumer market. So he hired young William Lim, a graduate from Australia, as the Managing Director of Old Chang Kee.

The business has grown under young William’s leadership, the branding has become more impactful and it has started to appeal to all segments of the multi-racial, multi-religious Singapore society. Quite a story eh? But I still don’t know who Old Chang Kee was. Was he even a person? Can anyone enlighten me?

The APICTA Awards - a blow by blow account

I arrived in Singapore on the evening of November 25. After checking into my hotel, I met up with Jawwad Farid of Alchemy Technologies and Zia Imran of Vahzay Inc and together we went to Vivo City to have some dinner. Jawwad had selected a restaurant by the name of Ramen 10, a Japanese place that served very spicy food in addition to the normal sushi and sashimi. Poor Zia (egged on by some sort of machoism, had the spiciest of the meals on offer - but he survived it in the end). Adnan Agboatwalla of Pixsense joined us a little later and we went off for coffee at Starbucks and sticky rice desserts that Jawwad became addicted to over the next few days.

The next morning we had arranged to meet with some of the Pakistani companies at my hotel. The idea was to share our experiences of previous APICTA events and point out what it was that the judges were looking at when they assessed products from the region. Most of the software products that are nominated for these Awards from different economies are top notch. Hence very often it is the approach that you take in presenting your software product, that gives a product more of an edge. And that is what we were trying to relay to the nominees from Pakistan.

Zia, Jawwad and I spent about 3 hours with them after which we ventured out for lunch to the Magic Wok which is a Thai restaurant in the vicinity of Raffles City Convention centre. Delicious food and refreshing young coconuts provided us with the energy to deal with the rest of the day.

In the afternoon there was a Judges’ Briefing and since the three of us were judges from Pakistan, we headed for the Singapore Management University where the briefing was to take place. At SMU we met up with judges from the rest of the Asia Pacific region. Many of them were already known to Jawwad and me since this was not our first time at APICTA.

The head of the Singapore IT Federation, and the Chief Judge Professor Daniel Tan of Singapore presided over the Judges’ Briefing and allotted us our categories and time slots. We were also given folders which contained detailed nomination forms of the products we would be judging. We were supposed to study them overnight in preparation for the judging that started the next morning. Each of us would be judging almost products. Yikes! I was allotted the Communications and the Tourism & Hospitality Categories, Jawwad had the Tertiary Student Project Category, Zia was given the Industrial Applications and Startup Categories and Sultan Hamdani was allotted the Financial Applications Category.

It was emphasized that the Code of Conduct for the judges was very important. In fact if I am not mistaken, we were all asked to sign the Code of Conduct document at least 3 different times - once before we got to Singapore, the second time on the day of the Judges’ Briefing and the third time on the morning of the first Judging day. The roles and responsibilities of the judges, the Head Judges and the Chief Judge and adjudicators was also discussed so that everyone was aware of what they were to do. The folders also contained the scoring sheets. Since some of the judges had not shown up for various reasons, a little bit of juggling took place to ensure that all categories were covered adequately. Our Singaporean hosts were quite thorough with the instructions. We were told that we should conduct ourselves very professionally - no reading email or browsing while nominees are presenting, no taking phone calls or using blackberries, no dropping off to sleep

Briefing over we were put in a bus and taken to the joint ASOCIO/APICTA Welcome Reception. Here we networked with delegates who were there for both events. Whoever we ran into asked with great concern how we were and told us how happy they were that we were able to make it to Singapore despite the serious situation in our country. We told them that yes politically there were problems but day-to-day activities and businesses were not affected directly. We had serious issues that we as a nation had to contend with and we would but that hadn’t resulted in the country coming to a standstill.

There were some speeches from the Chairman of the Singapore IT Federation, the APICTA Chairman Stephen Lau and the ASOCIO President Ashank Desai followed by a welcome address from the Singapore Minister for ICT. We were then finally allowed to attack the food. Since it was a stand-up reception, we were quite tired by this time and ate little but I did attack the Ice Kachang (a Malaysian version of the gola gunda that includes ice shavings, fruits, jellies and various coloured liquids). There was some excitement when the head of the Sri Lankan delegation fainted. Doctors from Hong kong who were on the scene attended to him after which he was taken to hospital and kept overnight for observation. Apparently the humidity, an empty stomach and insufficient sleep over the past couple of days had been responsible for the fainting spell.

There were some cultural performances which followed during dinner i think but I wasn’t too keen - have seen them all too many times before.

(More to follow in another post!)