I’ve finally gotten a chance to sit down and blog about my incredible trip to Kuala Lumpur last week. I went to speak on a panel at Malayasia Social Media Week 2013, on how celebrities use social media and it was so much fun! It was particularly phenomenal to be surrounded by bloggers and social media enthusiasts from all around the world and so I’ve decided to relive the magic via Instagram and other pictures just for your viewing pleasure, enjoy 🙂
1. Meet Misalini! First up would you believe Malaysia Airlines flight attendent’s name was Misalini?! Come on, that has GOT to be a sign!
2. An NGO dedicated to Social Media? #Awesome. For this we owe the founder of MSMW Shahul Rauther Kecil a standing ovation. Malaysia Social Media Week (MSMW) is a national event that connects people, content and conversations around emerging trends in social and mobile media. Join the movement! socialmediaweek.com.my.
3. #WorldBloggersUnite! – It blew my mind how many fabulous bloggers exist around the world and how enthusiastic and friendly they all are. I’d like to take a moment and introduce you to a few that I met and fell in love with almost immediately!
Kounila Keo is a super friendly 24-year-old blogger and journalist from Cambodia. She writes at blueladyblog on the topics of education, politics, lifestyle, freedom of press, culture, and social issues in her country.
Windy Ariestanty is an awesome young blogger from Jakarta, Indonesia. Her travel blogs are all about telling a story. She has a particularly charming one about trying to buy a towel in Korea. I wanted to ask her if she had read The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and knew just how critical a towel is in a traveler’s life, but it totally slipped my mind 🙂
Remember I said I’d do this ladies? 🙂
Rebecca Saw aka thenomadgormand is from Malaysia and blogs about her gluttony and travel adventures and has like, the cutest accent I have ever heard 🙂
Shane Dallas aka The Travel Camel is a travel blogger from Australia and he’s already clocked 60 countries (and counting) under his very Indiana Jones-esque hat. I was particularly moved by how passionately he spoke about his trip to the Kurdish Region of Iraq.
Blogie Robillo. I mean the dude’s name is Blogie! Plus he’s a fantastic champion for the Philippines. He calls himself a “Web Warrior” and his favorite quote is, “we are in a social-media revolution that’s holding governments accountable the world over.” Nice.
Vince Golangco I must confess was my favorite. We had the same sense of humor and how can you not love a fellow blogger/DJ host? 🙂 He is the Founder of WhenInManila, a lifestyle, travel, Philippine news and trend blog aggregate and my new blogger BFF!
You’re SO saveable my dear, anytime 🙂 PS. must do #BlogRockProject xoxo @vincegolangco @msmw_2013 #MSMW2013
— MissMalini (@MissMalini) March 1, 2013
(#RockPaperScissors for the next rescue mission Captain G?)
HAHAHA I had the EXACT same thought about my room btw!
4. Cody, Brown and James. Presented by Kang Hyun Bin from Korea. Just one of the creative innovations by the global messaging service called LINE. They just took emoticon love to a whole new “stickier” level and got it to dance, Gangam Style.
PS. I downloaded LINE the minute I got back to my hotel room and told all my friends about it. See? It worked, you got me.
5. Bloggers & Beyond. Even beyond the bloggers I was super impressed to meet entrepreneurs, social media experts, online marketing professionals and even politicians who just get it. And know how to have fun with it. To me it felt like I had just beamed into a classroom from the future and obviously even they were doing the Harlem Shake 🙂 Nicely done Kiruba Shankar you are my new hero.
6. Members of Parliament YB Khairy Jamaluddin. I was completely blown away with how forward-thinking the Malaysian government is as a whole. Not only did Khairy have an extremely astute understanding of the use and impact of social media, but the Malaysian Prime Minister YAB Najib Razak even put on a MSMW t-shirt and posed with all of us in a show of support! AND he’s on Twitter! @NajibRazak, now THAT is baller.
7. And seriously so many more! Lauren Papworth, Mahesh Murthy, Jason Cruz, Jeremy Wallenberg, Rafiq Razali, Magic Zhang, Pradeep Chopra, Zubair Timol, Murtaza Adenwala, Christopher Tock, Rachna Julka, Jason Lo, Syafique Shuib, Cherish Leow, Tonyo Cruz and the adorable Jojo Struys I learned so much from all of you! Chris Wie I literally started my internal office Facebook group during your session and Kiruba I am totally stealing some of your wake-the-crowd-up games for the next time I’m hosting an event!
PS. Althea Lim, GushCloud is genius.
If you’re interested download Mahesh Murthy‘s very informative deck here.
8. And of course major love to the illustrious celebrity panel I got to be a part of and who were all so nice to shy little MissMalini from India 🙂 Including Masterchef Celebrity & Musician Fazley Yaakob, Masterchef Celebrity Nik Michael Imran (and boy was HE cute!), actress Sazzy Falak and TV presenter Aishah Sinclair.
9. Terrence Dass This blog would be incomplete without a shout out to our host and emcee, Terrence the fabulous! His brand of infectious energy is exactly what awesome events are made.
10. #GeekChic without Judgement. If you’re a geek at heart you will understand the true joy of sitting around a dinner table and tweeting your conversations LIVE without judgement!
Oh and say hello to Malaysia’s best Celebrity Blogger!
Congratulations Mr. Umbrella, I feel like playing you the Rihanna song 🙂
And that’s a wrap so see you next year!
#Bonus!
11. Unrelated to the conference, on my last day I popped out to Sunway Resort Hotel for an amazing blissed-out massage at Mandara Spa. OMG, so good and SO going back there!
More pictures from MSMW on my Facebook Page!