March 26, 2010

Preparation for the coming TEDxKL 2010

The Energetic and Highly Passionate Youth Ambassadors (volunteers) went over to Microsoft Auditorium office today in order to prepare the venue for the TEDxKL 2010 event tomorrow.

The volunteer is also known as TEDxster, TEDxter or even TEDxer in some places. I will just call it TEDxter since it is shorter :p. 

It was my first time entering the KLCC tower and it is so cool to be working at one of the top floors.
The view from the top is AWESOME and the office is nicely decorated!

I went there during noon to join the rest of the TEDsters.
Below are the photos regarding the preparation and I will post some photos of the view inside and outside office next time.


Everyone is waiting anxiously for the boss (Keng Yew) for briefing.



Khai Sheng: It's difficult to be a TEDxter.
Michelle: hehe...



Everyone is happy after listening to the briefing. It is not complicated afterall. 



Hardworking Moja...



TEDxters needed a break too...



and "camwhore"-ed around...



and pretended to be the future "Bill Gates" & "Prime Minister"...



Michelle is molesting touching Bill's hand while naughty Leonard is pointing... somewhere...



Although we had fun a break for awhile, we continued working to accomplish the tasks.
TEDxters (Michelle, Moja & Leonard) are working hard...



Sham was trying to solve the slide show problem of a speaker.



I left around 8pm while Sham, her friend and her nephew were still working to finish up the backdrop. Kudos to them for working so hard. Everything is in place for the "battle" tomorrow.









See you guys tomorrow at TEDxKL 2010 !

March 24, 2010

What's TED, TEDx, TEDxKL ?

TED
 Ideas worth spreading

What is TED ?

TED is a small and private non profit foundation which is best known for its TED Talks presented in TED Conference.

It is devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading.

TED was started in 1984 as a small group of meeting bringing together people from three worlds:
Technology, Entertainment, Design.

The first conference was organized in 1990. Since then, its scope has become ever broader along with the famous annual TED Conference in Long Beach, California. The event normally sells out a year in advance and the content has expanded to cover almost all aspects of science and culture from science, business, arts to the global issues facing our world. Over four days, 50 speakers each will be given an 18-minute slot to present their speeches.

Those who have given TED talks include Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Gordon Brown, Richard Dawkins, Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Frank Gehry, Sir Richard Branson, Philippe Starck, Bono, the founders of Google, the evangelist Billy Graham and various Nobel Prize winners. $100,000 TED Prizes will be awarded for the winner to realise his/her wish.
TED has its companion conference which is known as TEDGlobal. Last year, TEDGlobal 2009 was held in Oxford, UK with the theme: "The Substance of Things Not Seen".

Popularity of the TED Talks has been widely shared over the Internet [TED.com]. More than 500 TED talks are provided for free viewing online and had been viewed over 100 million times by more than 15 million people around the world [As of April 2009] .


TEDx
 x = independently organized TED event

What is TEDx ?

In the spirit of Ideas Worth Spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx that enables schools,
businesses, libraries or just groups of friends to organize, design and host a similar TED Conference/Event.  Since then, TEDx events have been held in over 60 countries [as in 2010].

Similar to TED, TEDx is a non profit event and it follows the format of the TEDTalks, which is the typical 18-minute talk by a single presenter, with no panels and no break-out sessions. Usually, there will be no podium too.

Participants are expected to have a TED-like experiences with quality speeches from selected or invited speakers. Besides that, TEDx program is a bias-free event where there should be lack of any commercial, political or religious agenda. Speaker are not allow to sell on the stage or talk about his/her company.


TEDxKL
 x = independently organized TED event

What is TEDxKL ?

While the official TED provides general guidance for the TEDx program, TEDxKL or TEDxKualaLumpur is a self-organized and is a fully Malaysian effort to organize TED-like experience in Kuala Lumpur.

The first TEDxKL was organized back in June, 2009. Featured in the first TEDxKL event, the late Yasmin Ahmad spoke of “charisma, removing self importance, and being a nobody, so that you can be a part of something bigger” from her life experiences as a screenplay writer and filmmaker of astounding short clips, TV commercials and movies by learning to unearth hidden talents in many artists today.

The second TEDxKL (TEDxKL 2010)will be held at Microsoft’s Office, Level 29 of Petronas Twin Towers on this coming Saturday, 27th March, from 10am to 3pm with the theme: "What Malaysia Needs".
  
This time it will be featuring speakers such as :

1) Afzal Abdul Rahim, CEO of TIME.com who co-founded Malaysia Internet Exchange.

2) Aloha Lavina, a photographer and a teacher, all the way from Bangkok, who combines English literature with her creative eye to make fresh, expressive images that are embedded in their specific context.

3) Premesh Chandran of Malaysiakini, Malaysia first and only TED Fellow. 

4) Pete Teo, the producer of the very successful 15Malaysia Projects and 'Malaysian Artistes For Unity' Project which he composed the video song, 'Here In My Home'.

5) Yvonne Foong, a Malaysian fighting and living with Neurofibromatosis Type 2 illness who has personally raised USD 58,600 for her treatments.

6) Surech Kuppusamy, a passionate mountain climber, who had climbed major alpine and Himalayan peaks with the lates being Mount Cho Oyu (8201m) in Tibet and Mount Gasherbrum (8034m) in Pakistan.

7) Peter Nicoll, founder and active member of Reach Organization, a Community Action Group based in Kula Lumpur with the aim of helping and address the symptoms of both urban and rural poverty.
  
8) Ezrena Marwan, a graphic designer who initiated the Malaya Design Archive project in 2008.

9) Raj Rdivan Singh, a social entrepreneur and teach who work passionately towards the progress of the socio-economic status of youths that will positively affect the development of the community and nation on a macro-level.

10) Steve McCoy, founder and principal of Counterpoint, to support services on sustainability for the corporate, government and non-profit sectors.

11) Urmilah Dass, a renown clinical psychologist from Malaysia that will talk about the dangerous factor of your mind.


Entry to TEDxKL 2010 is at a minimum contribution of RM50 at http://www.tedxkl.com/.

March 23, 2010

Youth Ambassador, TEDxKL 2010

Since I was quite free recently, I made a last minute decision to apply as a Youth Ambassador for TEDxKL. It is a volunteer job to help in organizing the coming TEDxKL event this Saturday.

I didn't put much hope into getting the job as there will be a selection process to choose the eligible candidates. Moreover, the organizing committee (Michael Teoh) informed :
"We are looking for Energetic, Highly Passionate People who want to be associated with this project and carrying the name 'TEDx' on their shoulders. This will be a highly selective group of volunteers, as they would be representing TEDx and we have a strict rule for ensuring that the quality that represented TEDx is kept alive!"

Out of my expectation, I received an email yesterday and was selected to be part of TEDxKL event !
wo hoo~  ^^

According to Michael Teoh, the selection committee selected 20 TEDxKL ambassadors out of the 130 people who applied.( I must be damn lucky :p )

The selected group of Energetic, Highly Passionate People had a short gathering/meeting with the core committee at Garden's Starbuck @ MidValley just now.

Below are some of the shots taken:


Youth Ambassadors (aka TEDxters) for TEDxKL 2010





Daniel Cerventus & Haravinthan



Khai Sheng, Michael Teoh &  U-Jean



Ching Yen



Mohd. Firdaus & Isaac Chan



Teck Lam



The dedicated core committee for TEDxKL 2010:
Aidan Chew, (sorry, someone knows her name?), Jason Ng, Shyam Priah & Keng Yew.   



More information about what is TED, TEDx and TEDxKL in the next post.

March 16, 2010

First blog post: Starting anew..

I started blogging "dockey years" ago, which was around the year 2004. It was used to keep my traveling journal back in Korea. Then, life stood still just like dark ages, and my blog was "hibernated" ever since.

Today will be a new beginning. I want to start anew in this blog (PhotogMao), a new journey of mine, the journey into the photographer world.


I hope to share the knowledge which I have learned, and to share the photographs which I have captured.

I love photography as I am always delighted to capture the beauty surrounding me, whether it is the strangers I met on the street, the clear blue sky with fluffy clouds, or just a baby smiling happily on his mommy arm. To me, photography is a passion just like fishing, you can never get bored with it even after hours of waiting for a particular moment.

Every day is a new day.



Every moment is a new experience.



The clouds never be the same each time you look up and ponder, at the same old place.


Through photographs,
one can show the beauty of the world that no one sees before, and
one can show the feeling that the photographer feels at that particular moment.

I am not sure how high I could reach.
But I am sure I have a dream for now, to be a better photographer !


Till then, hope you enjoy my humble photography journey of mine....  ^_^


[The photos above are obtained from online free wallpapers organization]

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