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21.11 20082

SMART Seminar: Singapore: Post-Seminar

By: Lee Collins Categories:Hybrid Marketing, Where is Lee Collins?

Man oh man - the SMART Seminar crowd in Singapore was awesome! Great content, great speakers, great crowd. Personally I can't wait until SMART Seminar #2!  I will definitely make it back to this beautiful country again. The networking alone was well worth the trip.

And I know that you have heard this over and over, but if you're not attending live events - your business IS SUFFERING.  Period.  End of story. We had 3 incredibly well filled days at the Expo Center in Singapore. And as a huge bonus, all of the speakers enjoyed each other to such an extent that we shared most of our after hours meals together.  <<Hint - hint:  great time to further friendships and create new business!>> At the conclusion of day 2 of the SMART Seminar, we decided to congregate once again for a group dinner.  Tonight it was sea food at the restaurant, Long Beach. It was a short taxi ride to this beach front dining option.  We arrived as the sun was deeply set and the sky reflected several different shades and layers of royal blue. Stars were a shining and the low hanging moon beconned to us. Nice.

As we enter the establishment I was first struck with the food display - because the food was still moving! You know how when you go to a 5 star restaurant in the states, how you can often pick out your lobster from a single tank thoughtfully provided near the entrance? Imagine a dozen of these tanks stacked and filled with live fish, prawn, squirming lobster and much more. I will admit that I didn't take more than a fleeting glance at these water filled, glass death row cells. Probably as a result of my early days on the family farms, I am not a huge fan of looking my food in the eyes before I eat it. So, I hurried to our table and took the seat next to my loving hubby. I find it so interesting that most dining options in both Malaysia and Singapore are served in big bowls, family style. What a great way to easily sample the many dishes served were served in these great countries! Tonight we had chili crab, sea bass, large boiled prawn and several vege and rice dishes. Let's start with the prawn.  This dish arrived at the table in a large mound of whole cooked prawn drizzled with a light sweet sauce.

Now, when I say whole, I mean with their little heads attached and little legs reaching out from their little bodies. I bravely took one and began to peel away its shell and other unedible (staring) parts. I bit down into the firm, white flesh. YUMMY!  No strong fishy taste here.  Only thick, textured shrimpy goodness. Next up for me was the chili crab.  Now, this arrived on the table as a whole crab covered in a pink / orange crab meat infused gravy.  We also received a plate of sweet bread rolls to dip into the gravy. I took a chunk of crab and began working on getting to the meat. Personal note here...I LOVE crab.  But I am also typically too lazy to work so hard for just a few tastes.  Tonight I made an exception and dug right in. I held the slimey crab carcass and, using the provided shell crackers, I gained access to the sweet reward. First bite - awesome. Second bite - even more awesome. Third bite - I cut the hell out of my thumb on the crab shell. And remember, I already told you that this was a chili crab dish.  So my thumb immediately was set on fire along the fresh slit in my skin. But no worries - I rinsed my thumb off in my Tiger beer and move onto the rest of the meal. We slowly worked our way through 5 dishes and a couple of hours of awesome conversation - to find that is was time to re-group at the taxi's and take off back to the hotel to get rested for last and final day of SMART Seminar. Day 3 of any seminar often seems to take so much out of - well, everyone. The excited crowd prodding for more answers and insights - the speakers leaving everything that they have out there to try to infuse as much knowledge as possible. The speakers were nearing exhaustion.  The attendees were anxious to get started on their new lives.  And the event hosts could barely think any more.

It was time to celebrate the huge success and enjoy some well earned decompression time. Once again the speakers decided to go out as a group for dinner, but tonight we stayed near the hotel. We found a beer garden that offered American fare.  Beer and recognizable food - enough said. The only highlight worth mentioning (besides the always entertaining conversation) was my trip to the public toilet. I know, not the normal evening highlight - but I feel like I must share. Obviously dining at a beer garden, I found that I had to equal my output from my beer input.  I had to break down and use the public toilet. I ventured to this unwelcoming room alone, as Lee was deep in talks with several other speakers. No details needed here...gross...dirty....good hovering skills were required. The event that I want to share occurred AFTER exiting the icky room. I quickly began my journey back to the group, with my head down and with purpose in my step.  See, the toilet was WAY away from the group and I didn't want to invite interaction from the crowd while I was alone. Next thing I know...a half naked, homeless looking man sitting at a table outside of the toilet room slams his fist on the table, screams what had to have been vulgarity at me and began to chase me. Adrenaline rush...quick decision...fight or flight?

I easily chose flight and ran around the corner of the building and back within site of the group. Out of breathe I shared my experience.  The most informative Mike Koenigs educated me that of course the man chased me because I neglected to pay him his dime for keeping the toilet clean. First - the toilet rooms were DISGUSTING.  Second...well - no second, see First :-) Apparently there is a sign that I missed while not making eye contact on my solo trip. On a later trip, Lee did indeed verify that there was a huge sign indicating this obligation and he paid the man double for his deposit, to make up for my neglect.  Oh well, lessons learned. The evening started to wind down and some of the speakers began to wander back to the hotel. Only, the rest of us were all so jacked up from the incredible speaking engagement, great food and even better conversation - not to mention being chased down by half naked toilet room cleaners - that we weren't ready to call it a night just yet.

There was mention of a Karaoke bar.  That was all we needed. Two full taxi's later, we met back up at Party World KMA on Orchard street. After another small adventure of equaling our output to beer input and viewing some of the local "sites" (let's just say that prostitution is very acceptable here in Singapore) - we found ourselves at Party World. Most awesome establishment...there were about half a dozen private lounges that could house up to 10 people.  Leather couches lined the room, a single table in the middle and a private Karaoke set up in each. Not to reveal too much of the revelry, but I'll share that we went through lots of drinks, sang many songs in several languages (including a most entertaining version of Barbie Girl) and made it back to the hotel almost 8 hours later.

Too much fun!  And if you want more details, I'll never tell. You'll have to come to the next event in Singapore to find out first hand! As I wrap up the speaker adventures of the very first SMART Seminar, I want to take a quick moment to thank our gracious hosts: Simon Leung and Stuart Tan.  You both made this event a huge success and have given us the most precious memories that we will cherish for our lifetime. And to the other speakers:  Mike Koenigs, Stephen Peirce, Donna Fox, Mark Widawer, Mike Morgan, Anik Singul, Robert Puddy and Ewan Chia... You guys rock!  I am so happy to call you all my friends and I very much look forward to our mutually profitable futures and good times (especially the ones not shared in the public forums :-) Well, and the rest - you'all come and see us in Singapore next time!  Maybe we'll hit the karaoke bars together :-)

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20.11 20081

SMART Seminar: Singapore: Pre-Seminar Vol 2

By: Lee Collins Categories:Hybrid Marketing, Where is Lee Collins?

We awoke the next morning to the predictable sounds of the room phone.  The speaker group was energetically attempting to figure out what we were all going to do on our first day in Singapore.

After all, we would be speaking at the Singapore SMART Seminar crowd in just two days and there was a desire to sneak in some tourist stops before the work began. Surprisingly not a lot of activity appeared to be planned. One speaker opted to get a well earned massage at the hotel spa.  Others decided to take a day to catch up on neglected customer support or other business overhead tasks.

Lee and I decided to head down to the breakfast buffet and see what the day would bring us.

It brought us Mark Widawer - one of our fellow speakers.  He was enjoying a quiet morning meal when we invited ourselves to sit with him. Mark expressed his desire to do SOMETHING - after all how many times do you get a chance to hang out in Singapore? We shared his longing and commenced to figuring out what our options were. A couple of the other speakers were headed to the beach and the Singapore Aquarium.  Although this sounded like a fine use of time, I was looking for a more authentic (local) taste of Singapore. Our waitress had the perfect recommendation:  an open air market on Bugis Street. Now this sounded more like it!  I had so enjoyed the open air markets of South Korea and was thrilled at the possibility of reliving those memories here in Singapore.

With our mission in hand, we finished our meal and hailed a taxi to whisk us off to our shopping adventure.

We arrived on Bugis Street and I was at first a little disappointed.  The cabby dropped us off outside of what appeared to be a traditional western style mall.  Not my idea of an adventure, by any means.

Then we turned to face the other street and there it was. Stone carved pillars held high a clay topped roof that housed an antique looking Asian sign declaring that this was indeed Bugis Street.  The two typically carved stone characters on either side appeared to glare their agreement to this statement down to the street.

It looked like we would be entering the realm of "Big Trouble in Little China".

Now this was exactly what I had been waiting for! We entered the arches to find halls and halls of little stores.  Many appeared to be smaller than my closet back home and were stuffed with oodles of items. One store was brimming with watches. Another with silk robes and dresses. One near the entrance had titanium and steel jewelry.  The variety of stores just went on and on and on! My favorite depots were what Mark called "junk stores".  These were filled with all kinds of touristy trinkets such as pocket sized budha dolls and chop sticks, elephant statues, shot glasses, drums right out of Karate Kid, cheesy cartoon dragons - red, gold and green oriental designs screamed at us as we entered. What fun! Then there was the snack and drink shops.

One such drink shop in particular caught our eye.  They displayed a dozen different freshly made fruit juices on their counter - along with a sample of the fruit so you were sure to understand that this was REALLY fresh juice.

We eached grabbed one...I had mango (played it a little safe), Lee chose watermelon and Mark decided that he wanted something different.  He chose the Drazon Fruit.

This fruit was so beautiful.  It was about the size of a softball and had flexible spikes adorning it's entire surface.  Image a green and purple Fraggle Rock character and you would have a pretty good idea what this fruit looked like.

It was very cool - and as Mark was kind enough to allow us to sample it - quite good! Soon we found ourselves at the other end of the first great hallway.  ourside of the great market were other less formal stands encased in tent-like structures.  Here we found clothing and other more common wears. Lee & I both found a couple of hand made Indian shirts that we had to snatch up.  Rough cotton textures and hand sewn stitching made these casual items very unique, indeed. After the row of tents, we found ourselves entering a mini-little china. Carts with red and white round umbrellas cluttered the wide street.  Less and less people in this area spoke English and the signs hanging from the carts no longer had words that we could recognize. There were many different traditional Chinese food options (not American Chinese - by the way).

I tried an egg tart treat that could have been snatched right out of the "Alice in Wonderland" story and Mark had some puffy pastry filled with bean custard. Lee didn't like either :-)

Then we found ourselves deep in the middle of what must have been a religious ceremony.

There was a life size Buddha statue that people were rubbing and praying near.  The carts were now filled with fresh flowers and incense which appeared to be used in the streets and in the surrounding buildings during what must have been a scheduled religious time. Not wanting to intrude upon a local ceremony, we quietly began to make our way back to the great market halls. As we approached the entrance to the open air market, the skies open up and we were surrounded by a pouring tropical rainfall. Quite nice, especially since we had just made it under cover. At this particular entance was a stand selling Durian.  This is a very recognizable fruit that looks like a crescent roll, but definitely does not smell like one!

Let's just say that they provide you with plastic gloves to handle the fruit when you eat it. Not exactly a great visualization to have for those who may be brave enough to taste this delicacy.

Mark, being the constant food adventurer, decided to sample the fruit.  After the first bite, it appeared that Mark was having a hard time holding his poker face as he attempted to talk me into tasting it as well.

It took one look at his face to know that I could live forever without sampling this local treat! After the rain let up, we headed back to the front of the market to find a taxi to take us to our next stop:  rejoining the group for dinner and local entertainment. The night's entertainment portion was so much fun, that I want to skip any dinner details and head right into the later parts of the evening. Most of the speakers decided to take in some of the local nightlife and hit a very popular club, Attica.  Plus it was ladies night, so I was definitely in. We enter the venue to the pulse of an incredibly loud trance like dance beat.  People were jumping and swaying in sync with each other to the music.

My mind immediately took me to a cool scene in a great vampire flick, where the sprinkler system opens up to drench the crowd in fresh blood.

This did not happen at this club :-)

We arranged for a VIP section and settled in with a couple bottles of rum.  As the rest of the group wandered on and off of the dance floor, Lee and I enjoyed our drinks from behind our velvet rope and "people watched' for most of the evening. Not to say that we didn't hit the dance floor...we did. Lee and I cut a rug or two through out the night.  But I found the people watching way more enjoyable.  Plus I was in heels and that just sucks at a dance club - right ladies? After like 6 hours of dancing and general shenanigans, it was time to head back towards the hotel. Sometime during the evening, Lee became the "wing man" for one of the speakers and had enjoyed the fun of helping others pick up hot chicks. Many techniques were used on the unsuspecting ladies all night, which left very few lines to try out in our last moments of socializing. Keep that in mind.... As we walk through the now mostly empty streets at 5 AM to the nearest taxi stand, Wingman Lee spies a group of pretty ladies and points this out to the other speakers.

Apparently it was decided that Wingman Lee had used up all of his material previously in the evening and so he was forced to resort to the simplest of tactics.

He very loudly and confidently hollars "hey" to the group of girls.

Now, this may have been the result of the very late (or early) hour or a response to the very simple technique - but one of the girls starts to head over.  She even waves for one of her support friends to join here.

This, of course, leads Wingman Lee and the others in our group to stop in utter amazement at the results of this very clever technique and to instantly burst into laughter at the fact that it was actually working! Which, of course, lead to both girls deciding to immediately return to their group of friends. And in this, is a very good marketing lesson - if not THE BEST marketing lesson. Simple still works. Just don't burst into laughter and scare off your prospects :-) And with that, I will call it a night.  More adventures in the next post.

Until next time...

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