I’ve been following up on Social Media Breakfast | Singapore 4 (SMB4) from Canada, and I’m glad that the general sentiment is that everyone had a good time and found the discussion meaningful. I want to just quickly blog about the team and how we evolved to where we are today.
You might remember me mentioning how we literally started out as strangers from SMB1. It was just Derrick posing an idea to me, and Sheylara joining us out of nowhere (neither Derrick and I had any idea who she was at the time. Oh how times have changed).
By the time SMB2 rolled along and with it came our brand new logo, courtesy of our designer Shermeen, the first “unofficial” addition to the “team”.
Claudia came on board with us for SMB3, and as you will know from attending SMB4, has been crucial in getting our website up as well as the forum and really tying together the threads that we missed from SMB3. In many ways the current manifestation of SMB has really been her work, especially with the three founding members essentially MIA at this period of time (I’m in Canada, Derrick is in the army and Sheylara is juggling multiple blogs AND work!).
Finally, Dorothy, was overseas for SMB1-2, but appeared for 3, and we decided to con.. er… convince her to join the team. You can tell what a difference the manpower made from the liveblogging of SMB4 that occured (that, by no means insinuates that all Dorothy will contribute is liveblogging).
When we were at five members, we debated over whether to get anyone new. On one hand five is “just nice”, on the other, six will provide us with additional manpower to cover missing personnel. So with six we went, and I think it’s a comfortable number for the foreseeable future.
Our criteria for taking on new people for the team? We don’t really have any, except that they live in the world of social media and fundamentally understand what it’s about, and what SMB stands for.
Why am I writing this post, you may ask. Am I necessarily revealing anything you don’t already know? Maybe, or maybe not. The key message for everyone is these guys have “day jobs”. It may be conventional like Shermeen and Claudia, unconventional like Sheylara’s, or school for myself and Dorothy, or army for Derrick, but we have them. Yet, every two or three months, somehow the time gets dug up from somewhere to organise Social Media Breakfast | Singapore, and no one gets paid for it.
So If you haven’t yet, do drop by their blogs, or the SMB blog or the SMB forum and drop them a comment, start a discussion, word of encouragement, and do keep supporting us with your enthusiasm, attendance and kind donations.
I think we’re in the middle of a social renaissance both in Singapore and globally, but this is only the start. Only by coming together and building community and forging bonds and relationships can it happen, and I hope you will continue to join us and grow from the sharing that goes on, develop from the networks you form and learn from the mistakes we, and others, make.
Thanks to Dorothy for live-blogging at Social Media Breakfast | Singapore, NTT and Brian for live Twittering and Plurking, and Kevin and Bryan for spreading the word on this side of the globe!
And of course, the rest of the team Claudia, Sherms,Sheylara, Derrick and Dorothy for getting SMB4 up and running. Crazy to think that seven months ago, it was just three people, no, three strangers trying to get SMB1 off the ground, and now we’re a full-fledged team who people believe in enough to volunteer their time to talk at a panel on Saturday morning. Utterly amazing, and it couldn’t be done without all of your support.
Although two members of the team are semi-incapacitated geographically, Social Media Breakfast | Singapore 4 (or SMB4) marches on this Saturday, the 4th of October!
There are two big changes this time around which I think are worth talking about:
1) We have a panel!
Unlike previous events, we have managed to secure five people for our panel. We realise it’s difficult for any spontaneous social media discussions to get off the ground and so have decided to give it a little nudge! The full lineup can be found at our Facebook Event page
2) We’re accepting donations!
Although the “recommended” donation is $2, it would be great if you guys (especially the working folk) can donate more to keep us going, because $2 barely covers the food. We’re running largely on “angel” money right now, and while accepting corporate sponsorship may happen down the road, we’d like to stave that off as long as we can. So please help us! All the finances will be kept on an open ledger at the Social Media Breakfast | Singapore blog.
While obviously I cannot be in attendance because I am in Kingston, I hope everyone will give Claudia, Sheylara, Dorothy and Shermeen your support, and let’s build this community together.
In a month, Social Media Breakfast: Singapore 3 will be happening. The tentative date is Saturday, 16th August at the Asian Civilisations Museum. I finally got to meet up with Walter at Ogilvy’s Verge event, and pitched him with the idea a week later, and it’s worked out pretty well. We’ve got verbal confirmation from ACM about the venue but the date is still tentative.
What’s going to be different this time? Well first of all, we’re going to dedicate maybe 45mins to an hour to focus on discussing about social media. The topic is up in the air right now, so feel free to throw something in. Hopefully it won’t be something covered 73529573 times before (like should we pay bloggers to review products), but something different. Just to manage expectations, don’t expect the names or turnout like you see at other “conferences” because at the end of the day we’re a four man team with no budget!
Speaking of a four man team, another key difference is that Derrick will be taking point on this one, primarily because myself and Sheylara are going to be pretty swamped with work. We’re also welcoming Claudia into the mix, who’ll help with working out what exactly that social media topic should be. Who better than the community manager of Yebber who deals with social media every day to take up this job right? Shermeen, our masterful logo designer is unofficially on board helping us with what ever design stuff/torture we can throw her way as well.
While we’re on design, Sheylara and I have been discussing about getting a full-fledged domain for SMB:Singapore, so stay tuned for that.
And finally, everyone who comes gets free access and a guided tour of the Museum, and we’re in the process of persuading them to relax their photography rules for just one day so that as always, our bloggers can go crazy with their photo-taking.
More updates as they come in! We really want your feedback on how SMB should evolve. It’s not our “baby”, it’s everyone’s. So please comment below!
ps: In case you don’t know what SMB is about, read up on the first and second ones here!
I know you guys secretly laugh at my “logo” that we’ve been using for Social Media Breakfast: Singapore so far (the picture of the airline food bun), so I approached my friend of 11 years, Shermeen, to do up a proper one. And here it is:
Now before you go “that’s just a cup”, check out the writeup from Shermeen:
The logo’s a coffee cup, with the handle and saucer forming the acronym “SMB”. It can also look like a person having a bright idea..with the face/head having 3/4 profile. I’ve opted for sketchy lines, so the logo looks professional enough, yet informal enough to be fun.
Did you see the “SMB” being formed from the handle and saucer? I certainly didn’t! I love that it’s a simple, elegant logo, yet with these intricacies behind it! Awesome.
If you’re interested, Shermeen will be posting her full thought process and inspiration behind the logo on her blog at http://inthespace.wordpress.com, it’s not up yet so the easiest way is to subscribe! Alternatively, you can contact her directly via email at shermeen.t[AT]gmail[DOT]com.
See you guys on Saturday!
Edit: Claudia suggested printing these on the nametags as well, it probably will be tight for this weekend, but you can definitely look forward to seeing that happen for SMB3!
Although two members of the team are semi-incapacitated geographically, 
In a month, Social Media Breakfast: Singapore 3 will be happening. The tentative date is Saturday, 16th August at the Asian Civilisations Museum. I finally got to meet up with 
