I've been meaning to write more about some of the interesting food experiences I've had whilst in Saigon. As today is Fun Friday, I thought I'd try to write about something else on my blog to change things up a bit.

As a sidenote: one of the noticeable changes I've seen over the past year is the increasing number of young Vietnamese using Foursquare to check-in at their favorite spots. I don't have the actual numbers but I can tell from the number of check-ins at different venues around town that have been added to Foursquare.

Enough of my rambling.

The place is called: Quán Xá Sài Gòn

Photo credit: Kenh14.vn

Skip here if you want to see the link (in Vietnamese).

This place specializes in: bun mam, bun thai and hu tieu nam vang. I dig all three of these dishes.

So if you've already frequented this place, I'd love to hear your thoughts below. Even better, if you know of other places, please share with other readers.

I'm going to give this place a try sometime this weekend and give my thoughts later.

You can follow me on Twitter here. Foursquare here. LinkedIn here.

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Watching all of you makes me extremely excited about this year. I am amazed at all the truly interesting companies, projects and events going live every day. Now that I’ve had a chance to settle into 2012, I thought I’d share some lessons I’ve learned from the past year.   

I’ve always seen the work that I do as more than retail sales. That is our main job and we need to do it very well. But we also need to make sure the macro environment of our activities remain sustainable and attractive.

Circumstances make things tricky. That’s true regardless of the industry you work in. The biggest competitor in this market is the economy. In a tight market, your most powerful growth engine and your best protection from competitive inroads is putting everything you can into cultivating true customer loyalty. It calls for bringing about a culture of customer service excellence like Zappos. It’s easier said than done and few companies get this right.  

Hindsight offers no guarantees. By looking back on the past year, you can connect the dots but that’s no guarantee that you’re going to pull through tough circumstances that challenge your business to offer a better product or service. Some businesses don’t get this or they make decisions in a vacuum of their own corporate culture. Go Daddy experience huge backlash when they supported SOPA and then quickly rescinded their vote only after public outcry. Whether or not it serves their customers better or not. Hindsight allows for an opportunity to reevaluate prior decisions made over the previous year but there are no guarantees.

I learned from the get-go that I needed to find a way to connect with other people from diverse backgrounds that had information and strategies that proved useful in solving problems.

Not everything I did was a hit. But it was the best experience for me. And I’m still learning that.

Here are some of the lessons:

Ownership is more than just being the big boss that calls all the shots. It’s also in the recruiting of staff, handling the day to day operations, marketing/advertising, as well as, getting things fixed when something breaks.

Let’s face it. It’s Vietnam and that’s going to happen.

Referral Network.

Having a good network of professionals, and local friends certainly help. Not having this can leave you in the dark – such as when the electrical system fails and you’re left scratching your head.  

Operating Budget

A good owner has these experiences in his/her back pocket and sets aside an operating budget to take in account when business is staggering and needs to be changed.

Retail Add-ons. Not every product we carried was a hit. In our case, having a product like men’s accessories that offered enough of a compelling value wasn’t enough to lure shoppers. Increasing brand recognition through traditional advertising and marketing is expensive. It does pay out if you’re patient enough but you’re going be outspent by the incumbents. We expanded our entry-level offerings to attract more shoppers, as well as, found ancillary add-ons. This brought some short-term gains.

Cross Promotion

I like to tie things together. It makes things easier for me. That works in the retail space as well. Say I wanted to promote my brand, I’d focus on working with other non-competing businesses; say a fitness gym, where I know people are conscious of how they look.

Focus

I eliminated some time sponges that had me spread out too thin in 2011. In an increasingly busy world we live in, it is sometimes hard to unplug and step away from the mobile phone (text, IM, email etc).

I’d love to hear some of your success stories and ideas that you’ve applied towards your own journey as an entrepreneur.

You can follow me on Twitter here. Foursquare here. LinkedIn here.

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I got called out recently that an @tweet "was not real work."

Here’s the context of my story and reply.

A few weeks back I sent an @tweet to a friend about an idea I wanted to share and possibly collaborate on. I was busy at the time and realized I didn’t have his contact readily available. So I fired off a quick tweet before I left the house hoping to hear back.

I’m sure he was busy and didn’t catch my @tweet for him and well time passed by. I could’ve looked him up using Google or LinkedIn but the fact was I didn’t. That was my bad.

We know people whom we’ve sent long elaborate emails to tee up a nice referral and they either don’t reply back in time or at all. This drives me nuts.

It happens to some of us at one time or another.

Again, I’m sure there was no mal-intent in him not getting back to me.

I recall bumping into that same person and invited him to sit down for a cup of coffee on a separate occasion. We talked about working in Vietnam, getting clients to pay on-time, not getting screwed by clients wanting to do the work they originally hired you to do.

I asked for his phone number before walking away. He didn’t have one. And well, he didn’t grab my number either. I don’t think there was any bad intentions, both of us figuring we’ll meet again.

I was laying the foundation to work with him directly or passing along a referral at some point in time.

Another friend of mine named Bao has an IT service company selling hardware in town. He’s often busy out finding new customers. My referral resulted in him selling a security camera system directly to the owner. When he went out there to do an installation, the shop owner next door also asked for the same solution.

It was an easy sale based on a personal relationship I had developed over my years living here.

Bao will sell another system later this month at a different site. When that’s done, there will be another referral to a mutual friend to create a customer relationship management software/inventory system to handle the point-of-sale system for a multi-location retail store.

I haven’t been doing enough of this type of work due to my hours. Nor do I tweet enough. But I do enjoy both. It allows me to connect with people in ways my current work doesn’t allow and discover hidden opportunities.

@emporio found me using Twitter. He’d been following my tweets and when he came to visit, he sent me an invitation via a tweet to sit down and have a conversation with him. Fortunately, I do read my Twitter stream. While my time with @emporio has been short, we were able to identify areas of synergy where we could help one another. This is exciting to me.

But it started with a short little tweet of less than 140 characters.

Artists need consumers.

Retail stores need customers to buy their new inventory.

An @tweet? Well, that’s not real work.

But in the context of holding down a retail job working seven days a week, working eight straight months with zero days off and managing two different locations, that is real work.

Add the heat, humidity, rain and traveling back and forth while suited up, I’d say a lot of you reading this out there can relate on what it takes to get shit done.

There's this Bulgarian proverb.  "From walking -- something; from sitting -- nothing, but carpal tunnel and hemorrhoids." 

Eight straight months getting stuff done is no joke.  Soon it will be nine.

You can follow me on Twitter here. Foursquare here. LinkedIn here.

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My former partner gave me some sage advice.

What it boils down to is “small but strong”.

Lean.

Let me explain.

I’ve been tinkering around at Andrew’s Ties using the same approach the past two months and I’m very pleased with the results. When I first took over Andrew’s Ties, we had a staff of 4. Not wanting to rock the boat, I kept the same head count. Shortly thereafter, one staff got married and decided to relocate.

My initial reaction was to find a replacement. I spent time interviewing and recruiting. I allocated time towards evaluating the overall performance of each staff, created a new commission plan, a lunch compensation incentive, as well as, individually recognizing the star performers. To measure how we were doing, I implemented customer service and sales metrics to evaluate our store performance.

Three months into it, another staff abruptly left the company to pursue other interest. I let another go due to poor performance. And so the cycle of having to hire and train began. That’s pretty normal in any retail business.

The second hiring cycle ended up exhausting a lot more of my time than expected.

If your company is highly profitable and has lots of cash to spend, then this whole issue is not as important. However, as we’ve seen companies can go from profit s to losses pretty quickly because of a bad economy, product cycle transition or some other bad fortune. When that happens being lean is always a good idea.

What I learned was during times of uncertainty or when things are moving very fast, it helps to be lean to take advantage of sudden market correction. In a slow retail economy like the one we are experiencing right now, that is an advantage to have.

I hope this helps those of you facing similar situations. If you know of other alternatives, please share them below.

You can follow me on Twitter here. Foursquare here. Linked here. 

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In a recent exchange with Ario Tamat (@barijoe), I was seeking a solution for a friend that needed to wire transfer money from Vietnam to Indonesia fast.

Below is an excerpt of the email that @barijoe replied to my tweet. He does a good job of describing what worked for him. Your situation may be different.

Nevertheless, I think it's useful to share this information, in case, you or someone you know comes across this in the future.

Because of my job, I have a contract, work permit etc and a Vietcombank bank account from the office.

I then brought my work contract etc to Commonwealth Bank, where I opened a VND account. They asked for contract, temporary resident card, passport to open the account.

Any time I want to transfer money to my Commonwealth Bank account in Jakarta, I withdraw the money from Vietcombank (keeping the receipts/ATM slips), and bring it to the teller and fill out a deposit form and a remittance form. The  receipts/ATM slips are to prove that I withdrew money from my Vietcombank account (sometimes they photocopy my ATM card as well), following my work contract of which they have a copy, and I am allowed to transfer as much as my salary every month. I usually use AUD as the remittance currency as USD is a bit tricky in Vietnam... and by the end of the day, the money is received in my Jakarta account.

That's pretty much it. I've researched alternatives through HSBC, ANZ, Citibank etc, and the Commonwealth Bank is the most consumer-friendly (i.e, don't need USD 2000 just to open the account).

For one-off transactions, though, it's a bit tricky. There are several forms you need to sign and basically you can't send over USD 5000 if I'm not mistaken, but services like Western Union usually can help you.

I hope this helps those of you facing similar situations. If you know of other alternatives, please share them below. 

You can follow me on Twitter here. Foursquare here. LinkedIn here. Google+ here. 

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Woot! I just got early access to @rapportive. Strangely I feel like I won the NERD lottery. 

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Go to gplus.to to make short URL for Google+

You can follow me on Twitter here. Foursquare here. LinkedIn here. Google+ here.

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ANDREW’S TIES brand name was established in 1991 from an idea of Cravattificio Zadi S.r.l, a family-run business which, thanks to the combination of ideas, enthusiasm and passion for “Made in Italy” products, revolutionized the tie market with an outstanding quality/price ratio. Andrew’s Ties registered great success in just a few years, becoming the Italian market leader in the production of ties and accessories. The brand soon became popular abroad for its unique style, the ongoing research and competitive prices confirm the leadership of what is known as “Italian Style” in the world.

We're proud to be named to Forbes™ magazine's ‘The Finest Ties’. The accessories found in every Andrew’s Ties shop provide the sartorial details that push a man from forgettable to timeless.

Andrew’s Ties Vietnam, located in Diamond Department Store in Saigon, is a fashion specialty retailer founded on a simple idea: offer each customer the best possible service, quality, value and selection. We're looking for exceptional salespeople to provide outstanding customer service, develop strong customer relationships and build individual sales volume.

From attentive salespeople to meticulous tailors and innovative merchants, our teams are comprised of talented people who work hard to delight the customer. When you join an Andrew’s Ties Store, you are welcomed into a family dedicated to creating memorable and rewarding shopping experiences for our customers.

Andrew’s Ties currently has two sales openings. The ideal candidate is motivated, enjoys working one-on-one with customers and thrives in a commissioned sales environment. If you share our love for the customers we serve, the merchandise we sell and the work we do, this is a place for you to build a rewarding career.

Responsibilities 

• Set and achieve personal sales goals while supporting the goals of the team
• Greet customers in a timely, professional and engaging manner
• Understand and communicate the latest fashion trends in the industry with specific knowledge on new designer and current runway collections
• Provide honest and confident feedback to customers regarding merchandise style and fit
• Build lasting relationships with customers by contacting them to follow up on purchases, suggest new merchandise and invite them to upcoming events
• Consistently seek new fashion and product knowledge to act as an expert for the customer
• Work as a team player to ensure each customer receives the best service possible
• Perform daily department maintenance tasks including stock work, re-merchandising, display, price markdowns, and light cleaning

 Qualifications

• Proven ability to set and achieve sales goals
• Competitive drive and entrepreneurial confidence to succeed in a commission-based environment
• Demonstrated ability to develop relationships with customers and coworkers
• Knowledgeable and enthusiastic about high-end, designer fashion
• Ability to positively and proactively handle customer concerns and prioritize multiple tasks in a fast-paced environment
• Ability to quickly learn new procedures and processes
• Strong organizational and follow-through skills
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• High level of ownership, accountability and initiative 
• Bilingual Vietnamese with English or Korean speakers highly desired.

As an Andrew’s Ties employee, we offer a competitive compensation plan, a generous merchandise discount, and profit sharing plan and much more.

If you’d like to be considered, please contact us via email dylan @ andrewsties dot vn or share your LinkedIn profile here and use the “cover letter” to provide links to your web presence plus a way to reach you. We can’t promise to respond to every inquiry, but you can be sure that if the links you share show off your contributions, we will get in touch.

By the way, we are not prudes. We expect your web presence to represent who you are, not who you think an employer wishes you were, so don’t waste a lot of time sanitizing your web presence before sending us there. It will just confuse your friends.

We are an equal opportunity employer committed to providing a diverse environment.

The above information has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performed by employees within this classification. It is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities and qualifications required of employees assigned to this job. No visa sponsorship is available for this position.

You can follow me on Twitter here. Foursquare here. LinkedIn here. 

Photo Credit:  Max Murta

Photo Credit:  Max Murta

(cc) Creative Commons 

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VN-CA_Wordle_8D.pdf Download this file

I created a wordle from @caligarn’s ‘Vietnam vs. California: 12 Small Differences in Lifestyle’. 

California, Vietnam and People stood out to me.

AND YOU?

What three words stood out to you?

If this is not enough Dylan for you, please feel free to connect with me here.

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(CC) Hugh MacLeod www.gapingvoid.com

“The race is not always to the swift, but to those who keep on running.”    –Anonymous

I love these days before the New Year. It gives me time to not only reflect on the past year but feel inspired to take even more action in 2011. 

There are many things I’m sure we all would like to accomplish or wish we had accomplished already. Looking back on 2010, I made my share of investment mistakes. I’ve learned from prior experience that sometimes the better part of valor in any situation is to move on.

In basketball, you train and position yourself to anticipate where the ball is going to bounce off the rim while blocking your opponent out. Even with the inside position, you are guaranteed the rebound. If you’re on the outside looking in, you fight like hell to grab the board even if it means getting scraped up in the process. You hustle and work your ass off because you want it more. 

In track and field, the last 160-something meters is where you run right through your personal wall. Even when your legs feel like jelly, you keep on. We make that hideous face in order to power ourselves through the finish line; you don’t stop at the line. You lean into it.

No matter what, all we can do is the best we can, and just keep getting out of bed every morning and going about our daily business.

So what's your big plans for 2011?

If you would like to keep in touch, please follow here.

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Secondly, you paced back and forth in your flat trying to remember your old MySpace or Friendster password.

So then your deepest fear starts to settle in. You know that “oh shit” moment when you can no longer get your kicks stalking your ex-whatever or scroll through the Newsfeed for the umpteenth time today.

Then you got serious right? You try accessing through a proxy, like OpenDNS or this one. You gotta get your daily Facebook fix. It’s your guilty pleasure that you do while you’re at work pretending to be working on something more urgent. I’m sure Mark Zuckerberg thanks you a billion for making him filthy rich.

By the way, Friendfeed is also blocked right now. I haven’t heard anyone talk about that yet. Earlier this week, Skype’s service was seriously interrupted.

Here’s an idea. We can use this downtime and put our energies to work collaborating on an country-wide, mobile-SMS-web app that serves as an early warning, emergency-notification system like when a natural disaster occurs here in Vietnam and we really do need something to get the word out about needed medical supplies and clean water. You know, shit that really matters.

Do something good people. It’ll be okay. Rock on. 

If this is not enough Dylan for you, you can connect with me here.

Related Post:

How to bypass Vietnam's Block of Facebook/ Friendfeed

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Saw this posted at a restaurant and I couldn't help it but laugh out loud. 

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Bell Vietnam recently posted on their Facebook Fan Page announcing a Boxing Day celebration this Sunday, December 26 at the Hollywood Dome in Saigon.

Boxing Day is usually celebrated on the following day after Christmas. Traditionally, this was the day to open the Christmas box and share the contents which long included giving money and other gifts to those who were needy and in service positions.

The European tradition traces back to the Middle Ages but the exact origin is unknown. There are several competing theories that it goes back to the late Roman/early Christian era. 

Christmas boxes were used in different ways. During the age of exploration, a Christmas box was used as a good luck device to protect ships. In churches, an alms box was placed on Christmas Day to collect special offerings. Worshipers placed gifts for the poor of the parish. Workers who where required to work on Christmas Day, were rewarded for good and reliable service throughout the year and allowed to take the following day off to spend with their families. These boxes were opened the day after Christmas, which is why that day became known as "Boxing Day."

Boxing Day in Saigon, while not a direct link to the past, is about taking a blended approach of giving back to the community. It is a day of celebration and community-building through visual and performing art and participation a la the four pillars of hip hop culture: DJing, MCing, breaking, and graffiti writing. The event is open to all. 

Hip Hop has become increasingly popular among many Vietnamese youth in recent years. Director Stephane Gauger, who is a big hit on the art house circuit  for "Owl and The Sparrow" wrote the script for "Saigon Electric", a film about Vietnamese boys and girls who are passionate about hip hop culture. Saigon Electric is scheduled to be released this February 2011 in time for the Tet Season. 

As someone who grew up listening to hip hop, I understand how hip hop has influenced me, shaped my understanding of the English language and the history of multiculturalism in America.  

I hope Boxing Day in Saigon infects the modern day Vietnamese youth to expand their horizons, attracting newcomers to this beautiful art form of individual and collective expression.

Happy Boxing Day Saigon!

You can follow me on Twitter here. Foursquare here. LinkedIn here. 

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Note:  Outside the Anne Frank House

I received a newsletter recently from annefrank.org notifying me that the popular destination recorded its highest ever number of visitors this year -- over one million. The previous record, if you're wondering was in 2007 -- with 1,002,902. People who are unable to come to Amsterdam can visit The Secret Annex Online.

The majority of the visitors, mainly young, come from outside of The Netherlands, but the number of Dutch people visiting the Anne Frank House is rising, putting this group behind American visitors. 

I visited Amsterdam in September of 2006. I remember having the best roast beef sandwich shortly after visiting the museum and sitting on the dock watching people go by. 

Below are some of the photos that I took while in Amsterdam. I hope you enjoy them. Please feel free to comment or share your experiences below. 

You can follow me on Twitter here. Foursquare here. LinkedIn here. 

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Simon Christy hosted a Green Drinks event earlier this week on Green/Clean Investment principles held at the RMIT Campus. According to Christy, the Green/Clean sector is often quite attractive for tech/internet entrepreneurs because of the similarities in its growth potential, disruptive nature and level of innovation.

Christy states "The idea is to show people that there is a business in green, you can make money in green, start a business in green, and you can invest in green"

The attendance was impressive with the enthusiasm of its predominantly young participants.

The event was headlined by two leading thinkers in Green & Socially Responsible Investment Strategies, Stewart Davis from Small Giants and Gavin Smith from Dragon Capital. Stewart Davis from Small Giants kicked off the evening and covered early-stage investment in Green/Clean technology. Gavin Smith covered large scale investment areas and discussed making investing in sustainable, low carbon business part of the investment mainstream.

Green Drinks Saigon was founded by Simon Christy with the help of Damien Cupitt and othervolunteers in 2009. Green Drinks is an informal networking event where environmentally minded people meet over drinks. Green Drinks was originally started in London in 1989 and has since spread quickly around the world and currently has over 737 chapters worldwide. More information can be found here on their Green Drinks web page.

You can follow me on Twitter here. Foursquare here. LinkedIn here. 

 

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This is part of a series of posts about BarCampSaigon and SaigonEduCamp 2010.  I'm looking forward to sharing notes from sessions, links to research and findings and pictures from BarCamp. I'll do my best to share my experiences with the people who can't make the roadtwip to Saigon. Please be sure to check back for more information. 

See the full gallery on Posterous

Photos: (CC) Hendrick Beck

BarCampSaigon 2010 has come and gone. I finally had some time to jot down some of my thoughts on the event as a whole. In only the third year, there are signs that BarCampSaigon have continued with a can-do attitude of their predecessors.

The general consensus was that there is an emerging tech community in Vietnam and with more events like these throughout the year; the tech community will continue to get bigger and better. We are a young, ambitious, entrepreneurial community that wants to embrace both socio-economic and technological change.

As we wrap up 2010, we also look forward to what lies ahead. While there is much work to be done, I feel optimistic that these types of events not only bring in the necessary new blood required, but also ignite a new spirit of entrepreneurship focused on solving interesting problems and leading the way.

The challenges of building a vibrant tech community can only be accomplished through continuous, thought provoking dialogue. That is something I hope both new and returning barcampers internalize as they return to their respective communities.

Whether you are a seasoned veteran or a newbie, I think BarCampSaig

on surprised people about the future of where our communities are headed.

Perhaps @prateekdayal said it best when he tweeted:

"Never expected #barcampsaigon to be this big and this awesome. There is a pretty good tech community here. Even more tempted to move here”

We are stewards of this community. We live, work, play and bust our asses everyday to make this place a better place to live. In the short term, we will have to attract top talent elsewhere in order to make Vietnam a viable ground for starting up a business. We can build locally but think globally attracting more top talent.

Where Is This All Going?

That’s the 50,000 dollar question. It all depends on what each one of us took away from BarCampSaigon. If we continue to build alliances, work in co-operation with each other then the future in 2015 and certainly by 2020 seems rather interesting.

If we revert back to our silos, just content to show up every year then we have no right to complain how there is a lack of opportunity here. There are plenty of opportunities and Vietnam is a good place to start building now.

How Do We Improve?

BarCamp is not the be all end all.

·         For every individual that walked away early or disappointed:  Ask yourself if you really reached out and made an effort to connect with someone new, participated during the sessions, outside of the sessions, or tweeted what you were interested in learning more about before arriving at barcamp.

·         There is a need for more peripheral events before, during and after BarCampSaigon.

·         After all this is a tech crowd, so we should have a live streaming of tweets, Q&A that happens on the back channels.

·         BarCamp Ambassadors that roam the conference giving a helping hand to newbies.

@caligarn tweeted:

“I think #barcampsaigon should be held more often so that the community can build faster and we can build more idea momentum.”

What I Love About BarCampSaigon

I am grateful for the opportunity to connect with people. For example, @li11ian11, @eduretweet and I sat in the lobby brainstorming ideas, crowd sourcing for more participants to join in on an impromptu idea of:  Should we do a barcamp for students? @dshupp walked by, sat down and really gave some helpful insight.

We need more exchanges like these both online and offline. Like @caligarn indicated above, we need to keep the idea momentum going.

Did I miss anything? Let me know with your comments below.

You can follow me on Twitter here. Foursquare here. LinkedIn here.

Related Audio Posts From BarCampSaigon 2010 and SaigonEduCamp 2010:

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Photo by: (CC) Khanh Le Ngoc Quoc. http://www.flickr.com/people/step2vn/

This is part of a series of posts about BarCampSaigon and SaigonEduCamp 2010.  I'm looking forward to sharing notes from sessions, links to research and findings and pictures from BarCamp. I'll do my best to share my experiences with the people who can't make the roadtwip to Saigon. Please be sure to check back for more information. 

BarCampSaigon 2010 is less than 24 hours away. Here is a look at the current numbers.

700+   The number of registered attendees through BarCampSaigon site.

215       The number attendees confirmed through Facebook.

35        The number of tweets with the hash tag #BarCampSaigon within the past 7 days.

15         The number of tweets with the hash tag #SaigonEduCamp within the past 7 days.

The numbers suggests how both the participants prefer to engage. It’s not through Twitter or Facebook but through other preferred channels of engagement.  

Earlier this week, I had a long conversation with Noah Couture (@ncouture), an American expat now living in Saigon, about partnering opportunities and establishing relationships with businesses here in Vietnam for BPM (business process management).  I suppose the key thing I took away from the conversation is the opportunities that exist here and the challenges of building a strong team.

So whether you’re an entrepreneur working your ass off to build the next cool app for the mobile space, a journalist who is working out there on the periphery on Ancient Cham civilization like Adam Bray (@fisheggtree), or an educator who wants to share your passion for changing the landscape of education in Vietnam through software like Lillian Forsyth (@li11ian11), these public spaces (both online and offline) and user-generated events such as BarCampSaigon becoming increasingly important for authentic public discourse and knowledge sharing.

Socializing Before & During The Event

I look to more of the peripheral events before and during the main event. Sometimes those are the more interesting conversations that occur outside of the actual sessions. It could be while you’re having your first cup of coffee, grabbing a bite to eat or meeting up around the RMIT campus.

Circling back to the numbers mentioned above, I want to emphasize the effort that it takes to build a participatory community and the culture of participation sometimes requires a nudge. We see in with our co-workers, clients, or students all too often.

So if you’re reading this post, or curious about what is BarCampSaigon, or still sitting on the fence about attending, just do it.  There will be first time attendees who are curious, myself included.

Would you prefer more peripheral events before the un-conference? Let me know in the comments below.

About me:  This past year, I’ve been examining how business, organizations and individuals use social media and social networks to build relationships, communities and deliver value.

You can follow me on Twitter here. Foursquare here. LinkedIn here.

Related Post:

Destination: BarCampSaigon 2010

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This is part of a series of posts about BarCampSaigon and SaigonEduCamp 2010.  I'm looking forward to sharing notes from sessions, links to research and findings and pictures from Saigon. I'll do my best to share my experiences with the people who can't make the roadtwip to Saigon. Please be sure to check back for more information.  

This will be my first year participating in BarCampSaigon. Last year, approximately 300 participants attended and there were lots of sessions going on. Most sessions are in English and most participants were Vietnamese.

For starters, if you want a quick rundown, I recommend checking out this video by Thomas Wanhoff here.

If you want to register for BarCampSaigon, go here.

SAIGONEDUCAMP

This year SaigonEduCamp will be a part of BarCampSaigon and sharing the same venue and facilities as BarCampSaigon.

SaigonEduCamp is a free, open “un-conference” for anyone involved in education to meet and collaborate. At SaigonEduCamp everyone is a participant and no one is a spectator.

If you are a teacher in Saigon you should attend SaigonEduCamp and share your passion for education with others.

BEFORE THE “UN-CONFERENCE”

Put to work the tools and networks you already have before heading to BarCampSaigon. Try to make it a point to see who else will be there. That could be using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or the registration page on BarCampSaigon to find and connect with people who share similar interests, challenges and beliefs.

BARCAMP CULTURE

The BarCamp vibe tends to be more laid-back and casual. So go ahead and say “hi” to everyone.

MOBILE SOCIALIZING

Even a single day event like BarCampSaigon can be a bit overwhelming with so many sessions and agendas going on. Social media apps like Foursquare can help remedy that.

Foursquare players can “check-in” on a session using their iPhone or Android app alerting their network of friends to their current location in case they feel like dropping by to say hello.

What is cool about the Foursquare app is that it alerts you to other people that are in the same location as you, and help you discover new people. 

THE REAL VALUE OF BARCAMPSAIGON

The real value of BarCampSaigon happens when individuals assemble as a collective from diverse communities to engage, share, and collaborate in person. It comes from making new connections and deepening existing ones.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment, or invite your friends to attend this year.

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Interesting statistical visualization about when people break up according to Facebook status updates via David McCandless and Lee Byron (InformationIsBeautiful.net/ LeeBryon.com)

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Way cool. I want one. Rock on

Related Link:

http://lonelysandwich.com/post/1480591963/jambox

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