So what the heck is an unconference?
Wikipedia defines it as a “facilitated, face-to-face, and participant-driven conference centered around a theme or purpose.” It further adds: “The term ‘unconference’ has been applied, or self-applied, to a wide range of gatherings that try to avoid one or more aspects of a conventional conference, such as high fees and sponsored presentations.”
Armed with nothing else besides that bit of knowledge, I really didn’t know what to expect when I went to attend my first Unconference event organized by E27 this past weekend.
The conference fees certainly were low ($10), but it did have a sponsored presentation by Microsoft, which was unsurprising to me. Oh well, I guess you need the latter if you want the former. 
But most importantly, I was pleasantly surprised at the vibrancy, content, and the level of interaction that was offered at the event.
The event has already been covered quite well in the blogosphere by a bunch of folks already, including Singapore Entrepreneurs, Claudia, Daniel Goh, Chin Yong and Hisham. However, as a blogger, we always have more opinions to pile on, so here are some of my takeaways from the event:
- For the longest time, I used to be quite pessimistic about the vibrancy of Singapore’s consumer web sector and Singaporean’s passion for entrepreneurship. However, after this past weekend, I am both encouraged and cautiously optimistic that we can achieve a sustainable ecosystem here to support technology start ups, as well as getting them the funding they need to scale. The passion is apparent from the attendees, and an event like the Unconference serves as excellent positive reinforcement to let people know that there are other like-minded individuals out there. However, Singapore needs more events like this. Two or three events a year won’t be nearly enough if we want to create the perpetual “aura of optimism and invincibility” that surrounds everyone in Silicon Valley, including developers, VCs and founders.
- For a Microsoft-sponsored event, I was quite surprised that they got slammed quite bad during the Q&A session of the keynote presentation. Does this happen at every Microsoft-sponsored event? Anyway, the keynote was pretty interesting, and kudos to Microsoft for sneakily showcasing their Silverlight and SSDS technology within the pitch.
- Half a day was way too short for this kind of event. There was easily enough content and enthusiasm floating around to make this a full day event. How about increasing the fees to $20 next year, and catering some simple lunch?
- I attended two breakout sessions (Enterprise 2.0 and Social Media), and both were fascinating in their own right. I contributed more in the former, and learned a lot from the latter. The conversations in both sessions were vibrant and fast-paced… once folks were able to overcome the initial inertia. Again, the sessions could have gone on much longer, but we were constrained by time and had to cut short. Oh, and for those of you who were wondering, I was the guy in the white shirt from IBM.
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and I had the wonderful opportunity to meet with and network with a bunch of nice folks, including James Ong from Origami-Frontiers and Leon and Wayne from Techsailor. They are all cool dudes who know their stuff.
I will definitely attend Unconference again next year. Great job, E27! 
Startup Pitches
You didn’t think I would finish this post without mentioning the 10 startup pitches, did you? 
Anyway, here are my capsule reviews of all 10 startups that gave their pitch after the keynote. I know there were many other startups that attended the event but did not do a pitch (like Yum.sg and Eteract), but I will restrict my comments only to the 10 startups which did speak.
For each startup, I will also offer my opinion on how I feel their future prospects are (either promising, on the fence, or challenging). Like my ex-boss and mentor Thomas Choong told me: always ask yourself when evaluating a startup - who is going to pay for all of this?
Anyway, these are only my opinions, and should be taken as such. All of the founders are probably all much smarter than me, and I’m just an armchair theorist spewing drivel.
So here it goes, in order…
- GoThere - A Google Maps street directory mashup with a mind-boggling simple, yet functional UI. A worthy successor to Streetdirectory.com as well as direct competitor to local sites such as ShowNearby. Fulfills my three main criteria for mapping sites very well, although the user-generated content index is still quite small. My Take - ON THE FENCE. My guess is that GoThere will have to sell advertising, but can they do so in a way that doesn’t compromise their simple UI? Look at what a mess the Streetdirectory.com UI evolved into over time! And location-based advertising is still trying to prove itself as a viable business model, unlike other forms of established online advertising. Also, I’m always a bit weary of startups that are too overly dependent on a particular service for their core functionality, like Google Maps in this case.
- Scratone - Cool technology which can create random hip-hop ring tones based on your voice recording and a backing track. Business model is to let users create and buy the ringtones online. Unfortunately only supports hip-hop music at the moment, and restricted to royalty free backing tracks. My Take - PROMISING, but only as a niche web service that you just leave there to generate a modest revenue. Not optimistic about potential for growth. Will have to try and support other genres of music besides just hip-hop. I think Scratone may be better off as a potential aquisition target by a telco or traditional media company.
- HomeSpace - Next generation real estate site primarily designed for home buyers. Slickest and most functional UI of all the Singapore real estate sites on the market today, although still got a few kinks to work out. Like GoThere, also heavily dependent on Google Maps. HomeValue is an absolute killer feature. My Take - PROMISING. Two possible revenue streams that it needs to implement in the future: 1) sell premium listings to real estate agents or sellers. 2) Implement the broker model and take a small cut for all transactions happening via HomeSpace.
- Widgeo.us - “Universal cross-channel communications platform” as described by the founders. Killer feature is the support of third party applications, which makes it more of a universal multi-channel “command prompt” more than anything else. CTO U-Zyn Chua (of Ping.sg fame) told me that the business model is to sell tagline ads and their technology to companies. My Take - ON THE FENCE. This is essentially a platform play, and Widgeo.us will live or die based on how many third party applications it has. And as a multi-endpoint messaging platform, I sincerly hope that it can scale under load and does not suffer the teething performance problems that Twitter is going through now.
- Phlook - Hey! Our first ASP.NET startup today! Basically a Flickr clone but uses a multi-function flash-based viewer and a concept of organizing photos based on storyboards. My Take - CHALLENGING. With established players such as Flickr, Picasa Web Albums, and SmugMug, online photo sharing is a very difficult market to challenge in. Because of the Flash-based viewer, I couldn’t find a way to download photos as JPG or PNG within Phlook, which is a very serious oversight if it’s true. The Flash viewer also stamps the photos with a Phlook watermark when zooming, which is annoying, and the storyboard concept is also replicable in other photo sharing services. I don’t see the unique value proposition that Phlook brings to the table.
- Podfire - Production company which produces and hosts videocasts online. Currently running five shows on its blog-like website, including one of my favorites, The Geek Goddess Show. My Take - PROMISING, but just like traditional media, revenue will have to come from product placement, sponsorships, tie-ins, and good ‘ol advertising.
- Zopim - Provides a live chat widget for online business sites. UI is solid, analysis and profiling capabilities comparable to Google Analytics, and everything works through the web browser. Business model will be to share sales commissions with online businesses, although I’m not sure how are they going to keep track of this. My Take - ON THE FENCE. This doesn’t seem like something new, and the barrier to entry for new competitors seems quite low to me. It’s also easy for customers to switch to other providers quite easily.
- Qweki - Search mashup that aggregates search results for text, video, images and everything together on one screen. Allows users to chat with other searchers in realtime and allows users to customize search results by voting up/down results, removing results, and flagging results as inappropriate adult content. UI is a bit messy, and seems a bit unfinished to me right now. Potentially suffering from kitchen sink syndrome. My Take - CHALLENGING. Essentially a metasearch engine, which is so 2001. What’s the business model? I also have some concerns whether it will be able to scale or not, since their search results are not their own, but based on external indexes. But yet for every personalized search they have to apply personalization to each search result set. All in all - every search operation will be a very expensive task for the server.
- PatSnap - Intellectual Property (IP) solutions provider which basically created an annotated database of patents in the US and Europe which describes them in plain English instead of patent mumbo-jumbo legalese. Over 200,000 product descriptions in their human-edited patent database. My Take - ON THE FENCE. Is it cheaper to spend the time to do your own patent research using PatSnap or hire a patent lawyer to do it for you? And is there really a big market in patent research tools? Most of the companies who need to research and file patents regularly are huge companies like IBM and Microsoft which no doubt has their own patent team doing this stuff.
- Hibernator - Interesting technology which in a nutshell allows you to “hibernate” and restore your desktop across different PCs by uploading application state to Hibernator’s servers via the Internet. My Take - CHALLENGING. In this mobile world today where most people work on laptops they bring everywhere anyway, how many of you will be willing to pay for such a service? I know I won’t. So what market segment or user base are they targeting anyway? Are there really still folks who regularly need to work at home and at the office who aren’t issued a work laptop?
The last word: If I were a VC and I absolutely must invest in one of the 10 startups above and nothing else, I will have to say I will choose… HomeSpace.
Update: Be Like Doerr also penned down some thoughts on the potential of these startups.
See Also:
- Four Fundamental Monetization Strategies for Internet Companies
- Veoh’s Short-Sighted Strategy: Alienate 83% of World
- Thoughts on code::XtremeApps:: 2008
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great coverage of the event. One thing that i observe is that despite the various iteration of the Internet be it web 1.0 or whatever, most business model still focus mainly on advertising as a business model.
Those trying to earn from services is definitely going to face more challenges to build up a paying customer base since most services are available for free in other sites.
I agree with you that HomeSpace definitely seem like one with lots of potential from a business perspective.
Hi Jon,
First and foremost, nothing is free in life.
Microsoft is kind enough to sponsor quite a lot of grassroots events as part of its many corporate citizenship initiatives. Beside money, Microsoft provides time and effort to organize such events for the benefit of all.
All = Everyone including people who likes to hate/slam Microsoft for the sake of hating/slamming…
Unless you are saying that Microsoft’s presentation or demos of cool technology is bad for the audience…
Come on Jon, if IBM is so gracious, IBM can compete with Microsoft to sponsor such events. And more of such events will be available to all. And you may get your decent lunch.
Just in case you are wondering why the conference fees are so low. It is all thanks to sponsorships.
It also serves as a deterent to professional freeloaders.
Glad you “thoroughly enjoyed” the “vibrancy, content, and the level of interaction that was offered at the event.”
@weekee - Thanks! No matter how we spin in, the Internet is for the most part essentially still media. Yes, definitely much more interactive media, but still media nevertheless.
So it’s really not surprising that just like traditional media, the main ways startups make money is either a) charge for access to premium content or services (like magazine subscriptions or cable TV), or b) give free access but sell advertising.
The most promising Internet companies are those who can diversify their revenue stream and incorporate both (if not more) business models.
@Fat Guppy - If I ever lose your email and I need to get in touch with you, all I need to do is to just mention Microsoft in my blog and I know you will leave me a comment.
Guppy, not everything in life is about Microsoft vs. IBM you know.
Of course I realize that nothing in life is free, and I never said it was a bad thing to have Microsoft sponsor an event like this. In fact, if you remember I even blogged before that I thought this was a shrewd move on Microsoft’s part for driving community goodwill and trying to reverse its “evil empire” image from the past.
And let’s be real - we know that there is an agenda for Microsoft as well. Microsoft is not a charity organization. They are involved with Unconference because a) it wants the community goodwill, b) it wants to showcase and drive adoption in MS technologies like Silverlight, and c) it wants to cross-sell other products (e.g. Xbox).
Positioning them as gracious and charitable goodwill ambassadors or corporate citizens with no hidden agenda is just being downright silly.
I did enjoy the event, and I did enjoy Daniel’s keynote. The only reason that I mentioned Microsoft in my post was that I found it amusing (and somewhat ironic) that they got slammed hard in an event that they sponsored.
Yes, you do get tough questions at IBM events sometimes, but never to the extent of like basically being asked, “why are you being hypocritical by promoting innovation on one hand, but yet ruthlessly stifling innovation via questionable business practices on the other.” FYI, that was basically the essence of what was asked during the keynote Q&A at the Unconference, just in case you weren’t there.
Looks like Microsoft still has a lot more goodwill to earn from the tech startup community here.
Nope. You just need to highlight some information with some injustice in it, I will comment on it.
Like I said, nothing is free.
If someone gives you a present for your birthday, would you just stand there and do nothing? How about a word of thanks or that you may do something good back to the person? Nothing is free, remember? You can also choose to reject the gift and do nothing in return.
Similarly, when a company sponsors any event, the organizer is gives something back to the sponsor. Since the audience paid for the event or spends time in the event, the organizer gives something back to the audience in various terms (lunch, gifts, presentation/demo/showcase, etc…)
If the audience (which includes you) finds it amusing that the sponsors got slammed, then it shows nothing bad about the sponsors but rather the audience are not grateful.
It does happens… I was at an NUS (http://www.nus.edu.sg/corporate/about/vision.htm) sporting event once and a China shoe company sponsored the event. Unfortunately, the company had an odd name (which sounds like “retarded” in Chinese) and when the event organizers announced it, a whole bunch of undergraduates laugh out loud. I was shocked, ashamed and sadden by the fact that my esteemed Alma Mater had such ungrateful participants.
There’s no hidden agenda in sponsorships. The audience/participants are not forced to do anything good or bad for the sponsors. If they really hate the sponsors so much, they can avoid the sponsored booths, the sponsored presentations (you don’t have to applause), sponsored showcases (you don’t have to play Guitar Hero), don’t eat the sponsored food, don’t buy anything from the sponsors, walk away from the sponsored freebies, etc… and yet enjoy the rest of the event.
Simple human dignity, principles and graciousness.
I’m not sure where the injustice is, or where you are trying to bring this conversation to, but I’ll play.
You brought up a bunch of analogies and examples to defend your beloved Microsoft. But ultimately, your love and loyalty to everything Microsoft (plus your constant eagerness to slam anything IBM) blinded you to what I was trying to say in my blog entry.
I think I was being pretty objective in my article. Please tell me if I wasn’t. Yes, I do work for IBM, but this is my personal blog and I pride myself in being objective in what I write. You also know very well that I have praised Microsoft many times before within this blog, don’t you?
I never said it was Microsoft’s fault or Microsoft is “bad” for being slammed at the Unconference. I even said that I thought the event was very well run (at least partially due to Microsoft, I would think), and I enjoyed the keynote.
And yes I found it amusing that Microsoft got asked embarrassingly tough questions during their keynote, and there is absolutely no shame in that.
Why should the audience feel grateful or compelled to do anything for the sponsors? It’s a two-way street, my friend. I give you my time and my ears, and you pay for stuff. Simple. No party owes anyone anything else.
Microsoft knows the market perception of its brand, and Microsoft certainly knows what they are getting into when they stick their head out and sponsor events. And while I applaud them in trying to earn back community goodwill, even Microsoft knows that it will take time and much more than a couple goodie bags and Guitar Hero to do so.
And seriously, let’s stop kidding ourselves about the agenda thing. Yes, it may not be a “hidden” agenda, but it certainly is a wide open agenda that anyone can figure out. Microsoft simply does not sponsor tech events like this for charity without any purpose whatsoever. I doubt you actually disagree with me.
Human dignity, principles, and graciousness? You mean like boasting and talking smack with your competitors anonymously over Twitter?
Sometimes I think that the audience got it too easy.
Ever tried organizing a seminar or conference ? Even with 3rd party companies who can help out the logistics, there are still very tough decisions to make. Sponsorship is one.
Is it easy to get sponsorship or that sponsors are queuing up to sponsor your event ? Hidden agenda or not, the decision is not made by the audience.
Even with the best organizers and sponsors, such things happen because no one can control the audience. There are just many real examples, from throwing eggs in Budapest to disrupting speeches in China’s top university.
You are correct, there is no shame for the sponsors in such situations. We live and learn.
No party owes anyone anything else ? I doubt so. There is a choice the audience can make.
On another note…
“plus your constant eagerness to slam anything IBM” - Interesting conclusion. Thanks for giving credit where credit is not due. IBM is far to complex for a busy grunt like me to slam *anything IBM* constantly.
“boasting and talking smack with your competitors anonymously over Twitter” - I am surprised that such a Senior IBMer like Ed Brill could fall for some amateur Twitter flame bait.
“Finally, we believe that the comments on Ed Brill’s blog represent his own personal opinion and that of his friends, and do not reflect the opinion of IBM Lotus’ management.” -
http://www.radicati.com/response.html
Same same. Cheers !
Thanks for the nod. Will do something abt the “blog-like” look of the website - our roots and main support base are from the blogosphere.
Hey Jon, Vin from HomeSpace here. Thanks so much for the encouraging words… It really means alot to us!
@Fat Guppy - Same same as you? Haha, I seriously don’t think so.
Again, trying to be objective here - at least Ed Brill posts on Twitter and his blog as himself, and not some conjured-up, anonymous alter-ego fanatic persona. Because he is accountable for what he says online, he is more credible.
And I don’t understand the purpose of your Radicati link. Of course we know his blog is his opinion, and not IBM Lotus. What are you really trying to say? Is it that Radicati published an incredibly poorly written and researched paper about IBM in 2004, and Ed Brill responded to it on his blog? Did I mention that the paper was “a headline grabbing publication lacking analytical rigor, logic and appropriate follow-through”? Not IBM’s words, BTW, but from an objective independent source:
http://sharedspaces.typepad.com/blog/2004/07/response_to_the.html
And Guppy, don’t be shy. You should give yourself more credit. Since you started blogging in January 2008, 20 out of your 56 posts (36%) slams IBM in some way, shape or form, including such gems like your pointless dissection of a WCM blog and the IBM laptop-hand patent.
And just a cursory inspection of your Twitter stream will see IBM vitriol scattered all over. I would say for some reason, you *definitely* have some unhealthy obsession with slamming IBM.
At least you are correct in characterizing your Twitter stunt as “amateur” flame bait. It’s amateurish for sure, and totally unacceptable professionally. Thank goodness you don’t actually represent Microsoft or work for them. Huh… wait, I thought you mentioned something about 2 major MNC wins for Exchange or something about DB2 and Oracle in Korea? Now you made me confused…
Going back to the conference - Since you never refuted my assertions, I assume that you agree with me that Microsoft is not an angel sponsoring Unconference without an agenda, and that this arrangement was a mutually beneficial arrangement between E27 and Microsoft. Both parties got what they wanted.
And BTW, you misunderstood me. I meant to say that there was no shame for the *audience* in asking the sponsor tough questions. Whether Microsoft has any shame or not is irrelevant. And I still stand by my opinion that it’s absolutely the audience’s right to give Microsoft a tough time, because they jolly well knew what they were getting into when sponsoring such events.
C’mon, it ain’t rocket science - only one out of the 10 featured startups there was using .NET as their development platform. What did Microsoft expect? Suddenly everyone becoming Microsoft technology fan boys just because they paid for your drinks?
Just a thought, but perhaps Microsoft would be more loved by the tech community if there was less irreverent smack originating from Microsoft’s own tech community?
@Miccheng - No problem! Keep up the good work and the high quality vodcasts!
BTW, I just said that the website was “blog-like”, but I never said that was a bad thing.
It’s fine the way it is. The video content is more important anyways.
@Vin - You guys rock. Keep it up.
Coincidentally, I may be looking around to buy a new place soon, so the timing of HomeSpace’s launch couldn’t be any better for me.
No more visiting Singapore Expats and URA to do research. Woo Hoo!
best roundup of the event i hv seen so far.. ok, so i take sides n am biased, do rather seem to fit with this comment thread so far, ain’t it?
ur comment on a longer event is well-noted, we do hope the unconference is a primer for more vocal sharing of useful ideas, products and opinions from the singapore tech community.. will look forward to hearing n learning from more people like you..
Thanks, bjorn!
Would love to participate in any other future activities that E27 organizes and to further get in touch with the local tech community.
Sometimes when you work too long in the enterprise side, you sort of neglect all of the cool and innovative stuff that the one and two-man startups are creating.
And everyone is biased in their own way - nothing bad with that. It’s just that different folks have different ways of showing their bias and imposing it on others.
OMG!! This coverage is AMAZING!! and the comments are simply WOW!! You guys are awesome man.. Great discussions here!!
Okay I so wish I could comment on everyone’s comments but I guess I will just comment on Jon’s post
1. I am glad you’re less pessimistic about SG startups. YES we need more of such events and we need more attendees like you guys to be part of them and contribute to them
2. Glad you found the keynote interesting!
3. Haha!! We will try our best to make the location longer but you know how difficult it is to get a good location
Maybe we will make the next one a 3 day event!!! 
By the way, we had buffet lunch for this event.. Did you miss it??
4. Thanks for participating in the breakouts. Glad you shared your insights. It would really defeat the purpose of organizing breakout sessions if people just keep to themselves and listen
See you around at the next one!
Thanks Mohan, for the kind words. I was just glad that I could contribute to the conversation.
Damn… didn’t know that there was a buffet lunch provided. I knew our $10 entrance fees were paid for something…
Oh man… Sponsors got smacked when audience overlooked the buffet spread ?
Ok ! Kidding. I don’t remember having our sponsored events with no food. Unlike Adobe Acrobat 9 launch. 
Too bad it is on a Saturday. Else I would have crashed in to join in the fun and debate.
Come to think of it, I asked some tough questions to NCB/IDA, DNS@SG, SingCERT, etc… when I was an undergrad and when we brought in Internet for the first time in Singapore. Ah… I must be getting old and forgot that it is part of me in the past and slammed others when I stop doing it myself. *smack* myself on the head. My apologies to all ! To Ed Brill too.
Next time then !
Glad you can see the light, Guppy.
BTW, sponsors getting smacked + whether there was food or not + whether the audience overlooked the food or not = 3 totally unrelated things.
Just sayin’…
Hey Jon,
That was one hell of an extensive kick ass summary of the E27 Unconference.
I was one of the two Ogilvy guys who tried contributing as much feedback we have on Social Media in APAC. Glad you managed to learn some stuff on social media
Likewise,I wished the conversation could have gone longer in the room because the momentum was just building up! But I guess there’s a limit to everything.
Anyhows, keep up the good stuff you’re posting on your blog! If you’re interested in knowing more on social media, you can go to http://www.the-open-room.
Brian Koh (the other ogilvy guy at the discussion), myself and some others from Ogilvy blog on social media stuff there. Go check it out
Thanks, Nick.
You guys definitely know your stuff, and I was just glad that I was there to soak up what I can that day.
And I will definitely be checking out The Open Room.
FYI… more substance less conjuncture.
F|R Crib Sheet: 15 Sites to Cut Your Startup Operating Costs
http://gigaom.com/2008/07/19/15-sites-to-cut-your-startup-operating-costs/
Four Reasons Most Startups Fail (And How Yours Can Succeed)
http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/taylor/2008/07/four_reasons_most_startups_fai.html
This is good too…
10 questions to ask after getting a startup job offer
http://valleywag.com/5028370/10-questions-to-ask-after-getting-a-startup-job-offer
Amusing questions, to say the least.
I especially like the first one - “Give me the offer in writing”. As if anyone sane will start any amount of significant work on a new job without an offer letter in black and white…