As many of you probably know by now, the inaugural Nuffnang Asia Pacific Blog Awards 09, or NAPBAS in short was a major success.
My vision for the project encompassed the equivalent of an Oscars for Bloggers, and we set out trying to make it as grand an affair as possible.I cannot be happier with the results, and I have my team to thank for that.
The countless number of hours, blood, sweat and tears that went ino this project, is mind boggling, and it certainly forged strong bonds within the team.
Since there have been countless posts about the going ons of the evening itself, I thought it would be useful to write about the blog awards from where I was standing. As “minister mentor” of the event and project (Execution was headed by my able team).
So I’m going to start right at the beginning.
This project, started in earnest, about a year before the actual event. As the largest blog advertising community, we come across thousands of blogs on a daily basis, and were itching to do a blog awards. For 3 main reasons.
1) We wanted to honour the best, and in doing so, hopefully encourage the great bloggers to continue blogging and supplying great content to the open web.
2) To encourage other bloggers to emulate these great content producers.
3) We knew with our database and knowledge of the blogosphere, we had the ability to pull this bigger and better than any of its predecessors.
To be honest, the event was supposed to happen somewhere in March or April 2009, in conjunction with our 2nd annivesary, but circumstances kept pushing the date further forward. One thing we knew, is that regardless of how far the date was pushed, we would not compromise on the quality or vision of the awards. And so we waited.
Finally, after securing our wonderful sponsors, Pringles (who had been engaged with us from the start), our host destination, Uniquely Singapore, we were all systems go. I think this was somewhere in August, and once we set the event date at October 23rd, we found we had alot of ground to cover, and very little time to do it!
For the NAPBAS, we worked closely with our sister company Ripplewerkz Pte Ltd to develop all the interactive elements of the blog awards. This included as planned earlier, a website, the online home of the NAPBAS, which would cover three phases, (Nomination, Voting and Post event-not completed), nomination videos showcasing the various finalists, banner ads to publicize our event, the napbas booklet, the stage, and more.
The guys at Ripplewerkz are great when it comes to fulfilling their clients expectations, and I wanted a site that would portray the grandness of the event, but not be too cluttered and difficult to navigate around. Note that having sponsors also meant their brand assets needed to be protected, and so they were consulted on almost every aspect of the awards, down to the microsite. There was therefore a neccessary delay and buffer for every decision we needed to have made.
I really like the website, and the permanant home of the napbas, has been set at www.napbas.com, although the site has not been completed yet (Expect it 1st Q 10)
Once the site was up, it was a matter of waiting the three weeks, but also collating data and nominations to assess them. So whilst we were receiving the nominations at a breakneck pace, we had to assess them otherwise we’d be in for a rough time.
Over 10,000 nominations were received from all over Asia Pacific. The bias was definitely in countries where Nuffnang had a strong presence in, but we had nominations come in from Indonesia, Vietnam, China, India, amongst other places. Ultimately though, tough decisions had to be made, and I guess from the sheer numbers from Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and Australia, the quality was too strong to deny.
Once nomination closed, we had a frantic time actually consolidating and finalizing selections for our panelists.
We had to narrow it down to 25 (Or thereabout depending on the nominations) for every category, as most of the panelists are busy people and, with 12 categories, you’re looking at 300 blogs in itself!
To help them, we came out with powerpoint slides that did several things.
Firstly to give them a broad definition of the category.
and secondly to highlight key reasons or elements we felt were interesting and relevant to the category.
Of course nothing replaces going to the blog itself, so after they are presented these elements, they go into the blog itself, and have a few quick minutes to browse through the site, and get a feel of it.
Finally we end the timing and let them score the blogs.
In dossiers that we prepared for each panelist.
For our foreign panelists, we got them to do it remotely.
To maintain fairness, judges with confilcts of interests with bloggers were excluded from judging ENTIRE categories. So Lionel from Ripplewerkz was excluded from judging for Best Original Blog Design, while Nuffnang panelists did not judge Best Fashion Blog as Candice was working with Nuffnang Australia as our community manager.
Each scoring sheet is easy to mark, simply with a tick or a circle, and there are generic judging points and judging points specific to the category.
With nominations closing on a Friday, and needing the panelists to get together over monday to wednesday in the next week, it was a mad dash getting hundreds of powerpoint slides, and individual scoring sheets ready. That was one of the first weekends that the nuffies would stay in. As in literally, get their jammies together (like so), and work overnight in the office.
1 person could sleep at the nuffie corner, and we got really thin mats for other people too. They were a temporary solution.
Until I got 2 tatami beds, which really are very comfortable, and supposed to be great for your back.
Alot of hard work was put in that first MAJOR weekend.
It paid off when at least 4 of the independent panelists commented that the judging process was world class and excellent in quality. Win no 1 for the organising team!
To ben yeow: Here is that 2nd post as requested! Hope you are doing well in Shanghai!
Day 2 of our Hong Kong Disneyland experience.
Everybody knows I’m an early riser. When I’m on holiday, I don’t really like to waste time in the hotel, sleeping most of the day away.
Lucky for our group then, that the park only opens at 10AM.
So we scheduled to meet for our breakfast in the hotel a much more decent time (to audrey), 0930AM.
A buffet breakfast was included with our stay at the Disneyland hotel in a wonderfully decorated restaurant called “The Enchanted Garden”
You could only get away with fantastic names like that in Disneyland.
These are some pictures of how it looks.
Pretty big buffet spread, which included everything from Japanese to Chinese to American.
The gazebo in the middle. Following a victorian setting once again.
I figure I would have enjoyed living as an aristocrat in the victorian age.
My brekkie! Complete with mickey mouse shaped pancakes!
If you come to Disneyland, it is my opinion, you need to stay at a Disneyland hotel.
And breakfast with the Disney characters is one big reason why.
I remember in Anaheim, how my sisters used to get their autographs.
At disneyland, no matter how old you are, just let go! Be a kid again! Take photos with mickey and minnie. Soak it in.
Like my partner Tim!
OFFICIALLY the BIGGEST FAN of Disney I know. He keeps on going on about how Disneyland is such a happy place.
TOTALLY CANDID shot! LOOK AT THE GUY’S FACE! Better not show audrey, cause I’ve never seen him as happy with her! *CHOPE!*
Me and Estee with Mickey, my hero!
Leaving the Enchanted garden, full, happy and feeling like a child again!
One of my favourite things about Disneyland is THE MERCHANDISE!
Ok, so I’m a shopaholic, but honestly, nobody does merchandise better than disney.
Everything is so damn cute and thoughtful, and when you’re in that happy mood, you go crazy. Every item you buy represents a memory, and I’m all into retaining memories.
Another reason then, why you should stay at a Disney resort hotel, is that there is a shop in every hotel!
NO LONG QUEUES AND CRAZED CHINESE PEOPLE SNATCHING MY MICKEY! IT’S MINE! SLAPPP PUNCHHH!!!
This is how the store looks.
The girls decided to get into character before we hit the park itself.
A short shuttle bus ride later, and we were in the park itself.
Our first stop!
Tomorrrowland!
Estee trying to lift mercury, and failing miserably.
This is her seconds before she gets crushed by impeding doom.
I spent 30 bucks on those mittens because she was cold! Not because she trying to act cute.
We went onto the space mountain ride, which was really quite terrifying.
I used to love rollercoasters and extreme rides like that, but I don’t anymore.
My picture after the ride, had my look of pure terror.
When I go to themeparks, like sixflags in LA, me and another friend stanley, take all the kiddy rides.
Just imagine 2 twenty plus year olds jostling with little kids on the bumper cars, and mini ferris wheels, and the like. We always win them of course! mwahahah.
The 2nd ride we went to was the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters.
More my type of ride, 2 people sit in a vehicle, and use laser guns to score points.
I totally whooped estee’s ass here. She will claim otherwise, but don’t listen to her! She’s deranged.
We also went for this really cool and interactive attraction called Stitch Encounter.
Basically, you interact with Stitch on screen, and he interacts back.
There is obviously somebody behind the screen, but they do a great job meshing the animation (his actions) and his words.
Really fun! Trust me, it is not lame at all. And only disney could pull it off so well.
Although the room was full of kids, I found myself answering his questions! hahahahaah. I am competitive by nature. What can i say.
Next stop! FANTASY LAND!
And the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.
One of thsoe rides, where you sit in a vehicle and go through a story animated by wax figurines, and light and sound effects.
Nice and relaxing ride.
Next up: Mickey’s Philarmagic.
Look at the posters outside.
Super cute lah.
This was a 4D experience, that basically brings you through some of the best music from Disney cartoons.
Being a huge fan of disney music (I smashed my car because I was singing to Little Mermaid’s “Under the Sea”), this was definitely a personal favourite.
I like how all three lands in Disneyland HK are so distinct.
From the picture perfect fantasy land, we moved on to the raw and steamy jungles of Adventureland.
This guy, with nothing more than a broom and some water, was drawing disney characters on the floor.
We all stood there fascinated for a while.
A short raft ride, across a wild river, and we reached Tarzan’s treehouse.
A simulation of how tarzan’s treehouse would have looked like.
Anybody who says Disneyland Hong Kong is small does not know what they’re talking about.
We got in at 10AM and by 4PM i was pooped and headed back.
By which time we happened to catch the daily parade in main street.
I’ll let you soak in some of the colourful images.
Babes!
Bye bye disneyland! Filled with happiness, but leaving with some sadness.
Thank god then that we return to this!
We’ve still got happy music piping through. And a live band playing christmas songs. Their music filling the atrium.
*WARM FUZZY FEELING*
With Disney cartoons in the lobby to moot!
There are actually 2 hotels in Disneyland Hong Kong resort.
We were staying at the victorian, and i think posher Disneyland Hotel.
This one is the more mainstream one, called Hollywood hotel.
The architecture is of the Art Deco style. Really retro. One of the houses I build in the future will have art deco elements throughout.
The lobby.
And Club Mickey, where the kind folks at Disneyland HK had booked us all in for a sumptous christmas buffet.
The international spread is INSANE. There is so much variety. From chinese to japanese to indian, to american.
You want it? You’ve got it!
And the best part is the quality of food was excellent! Not your typical buffet! If you’re going to be in Disneyland, its worthwhile going for this buffet.
Alaskan King Crab leg, lamb chops, carved roast beef. Excellente!
An excellent way to cap our HKDL experience.
Overall, it was a refreshing weekend away, which at first I had been dreading (Having just returned from a 3 week european holiday), but I ended up loving so much!
I’ve told tim, that next year’s company retreat, should be helf in Disneyland, so guys work harder!
Back in the comfort of my home, I laid out the loot! Check it!
Haha, I couldnt help myself, i even splurged on a 5G gold bar with mickey on it!
Thank you Hong Kong Disneyland for this wonderful experience! From myself and all the bloggers!
Just 5 days after getting back from my big European escapade (which I will blog about soon), I was off to Hong Kong Disneyland, together with Estee, Timothy, Audrey, Wendy, Mike, Redmummy, and cheesie.
To be honest, I was quite tired of travelling, but nonetheless, it was Disneyland that was calling, so this was different, no?
Getting up at 6Am for our flight did not help the situation, but I called us a cab, and got a mercedes! Wooohooo! One up already! Alwayss a good sign.
I never really realised how short a distance Hong Kong is from Singapore.
The flight only takes 3 hours.
Taking the morning flight meant I slept through most of it, skipping the yucky plane food (I NEVER eat plane food! Its totally gross), and waking up to the splendid Hong Kong International Airport, which by air travel goes is really one of the best (Next to our own Changi of course!) :-p
A 15 minute cab ride costing just $20 SGD later, and we were in the beautiful and elegant Disneyland Hotel HK.
Door to door it took us just 6 hours, which is comparable to my trips up to KL (By coach of course).
This is the main lobby area of the hotel. The hotel takes on a victorian theme throughout, and it exudes feelings of nostalgia and of course aristocracy!
The malaysian group got in before us (having caught a 6Am flight, *snigger*) so we caught up with them at the lobby restaurant, and had a quick lunch too.
There is my other “half”, Timothy (Ignore the girl beside him, thats just audrey). hehe :-p
Wendy and mike.
Me and estee. I need a haircut. Haha!
After lunch, the malaysians got checked in, and also enjoyed the famed machine gun kiss (For the 20th time by now).
That is the gross “multiple” barrage of simultaneous kisses tim gives audrey. Disneyland is probably the only place on earth, I find it mildly acceptable. Having said that, the memory of it still gives me the shivers. BRRrrrrr shiver me timbers!
Mickey and minnie looking on too. All smiles of course.
Our rooms were pretty big. 2 double beds!
I found out that the Hotel rate is approximately $300SGD per night, and as you can see, can sleep 4, so thats just $75SGD per person, which honestly is a steal!
It had all the usual luxuries of a 5 star hotel, including plasma TV, cable, free local phone calls, etc.
But as they say, “The devil is in the details!”
And boy are the details fantastic!
Our bed headboards, had an image of the sleeping beauty castle.
Comforters were themed Alice in wonderland.
A general view of the bathroom (in my opinion, the MOST important part of a hotel room).
And the details continue.
7 dwarves toiletries set, which I took home as a souvenir. so cute! How to use!?
Even the tissue box has “sneezy” on it!
The full sized mirror continues the theme.
As do the courtesy signs.
All these tiny details add up to make you feel like you’re in Disneyland even before you even step onto the hallowed ground itself!
I was feeling happy already, and could have just spent the whole day lazing in my room, but Tea at 4PM called, so hai ho hai ho and off to tea we go!
Dum dum dee dum dum, dum dum dee dum dum, hai ho, hai ho, hai ho, hai ho!
The blogger contingent with their tea trays. There are 3 layers, and each one of us had one of those! I kid you not!
Tea is served at the sorcerers lounge, which is a cosy lounge just next to the lobby.
Mickey is everywhereeee!!!
Even the butter!
Multiple scones, cakes, sandwiches, tea and a shuttle bus ride later, we were in Disneyland!
I swear, as soon as you walk in, and start hearing the piped music (dummm deee dumm deeee dumm deee dumm- hum to tune of “when you wish upon a star), you come alive! And boy was I alive!
Gone was all the lethargy. Joy filled my heart (No honestly), and you remember.
It was really windy, but our contingent still looked pretty good!
At night, they give out these really cool “visors” that when you put on, amazingly, turns the flare of any light, into various shapes.
For example: Hearts!
Look carefully at this picture, I put the lens behind the visor, you can see all the heart shapes!
Christmas is the most important time of the year for me. I always feel warm and fuzzy around this time of year, and love taking drives down orchard roof, with my sunroof open to soak in the lights.
It is soooooooooo beautiful in Disneyland this time of the year. With a massive tree on Main Street (Where all the Disney shops are- jewellry, souvenirs, crystal, bakeries, photo shops- all disney themed!).
They call it winter wonderland, and it really is. A light show ensues along with a parade, and as you watch with the visors, a christmas tree light show of hearts follows. It is so beautiful.
Would I a poet or a writer, I would wax lyric about the feelings I had to explain it to you. Unfortunately, I can’t, and you really have to experience it yourself.
The climax of the christmas parade is a flurry of snow that seemingly appears out of nowhere. It is simulated very realistically, and I’m telling you from experience.
Dudes: There is no better date place than disneyland in Christmas Babes: Just sit back and enjoy it.
After the christmas parade, it was off to the rides!
And the first one, “It’s a small world”.
It is a really cute ride. To jog your memory (I’m sure you’ve been on it!), its a “water” ride, that takes you through recreations of all the cities and places in the world.
Like london.
And africa. And all the while, with “Its a small world afterall, its a small world afterall, its a small world afterall, its a small small world”.
I promise you, after you leave the ride, you’ll be humming the tune the whole night.
The 2nd ride we went on was the Mad Hatter Tea Cup ride. MY FAVOURITE.
This is estee and me.
Estee was all gung ho before the ride, saying, “I’m going to spin you so hard you are going to puke”
I ended up doing the turning, she ended up saying “Stop stop stop”, which simple encouraged me to spin even more.
Super fun. Dodo bird.
We capped the evening with the nightly fireworks display.
Again, pictures don’t do it justice.
With the “visor”, what you see is a flurry of hearts and snowflakes. Its pretty darn cool.
With the “ooooohhsss” and “ahhhhhs” of the crowd and friends around me, we left the park, just ….
The weekend thus far has been nothing short of magical here at Hong Kong Disneyland.
I have enjoyed myself immensely. More than I remember.
That I realise, is the thing about Disneyland.
If you havn’t come in a long time, you forget what it’s all about. But the moment you enter those magical gates, you remember.
And in that instant your heart, mind and soul dance in harmony with the loved ones around you.
I will be writing a full blog post about my wonderful weekend here with Estee, Timothy, Audrey, Wendy, Mike, Redmummy, and Cheesie soon. Keep your eyes peeled!
In my defence though, I was supppaaaaa busy with the blog awards for the whole month of October. And I am happy to report it was a big success, as most of you will know by now I’m sure.
I will need to set aside some time to write about that, and you’ll get a behind the scenes look at it. I promise it’ll be relatively soon. By my standards of course
Immediately after the blog awards, I set off on a 3 week holiday with some good friends to Europe. Went to London (my favourite city, outside of Singapore), and a western mediterranean cruise to Spain, France and Italy. Was a real blast, and I took over 3,000 photos. That’ll take a while, but I will put it up for sure!
And the travelling aint over yet!
I’m off to HONG KONG DISNEYLAND this weekend!!!! WOHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! You see HKDL has been so kind as to sponsor some of our bloggers to a Disney experience this weekend.
I was quietly hoping/wishing/praying that they would invite me too.
And in true disney fashion, mickey has opened the doors to his magical kingdom!
There is something about Disneyland, that sets it apart from all the other themeparks in the world.
I’ve been to the ocean parks, I’ve been to the knotsberry farms, I’ve been to the sixflags.
They’re all great, don’t get me wrong. But, NONE of them make you feel like a child again.
None of them make you want to just let go of your worldly cares and forget about what the world thinks, whilst flailing your arms like an overgrown maniac.
Disneyland comes close, and I’m looking forward to sitting on my alice in wonderland teacup ride, and all those other “ming-safe” rides (In case you didnt know, I am super terrified of roller coasters!)
Just 2 days to go! Mickey mouse I lurpeee you. Can I have your autograph?
Recently, I’ve caught several END OF THE WORLD/ARMAGEDDON type movies. Like “The Knowing”, and “The Day the Earth Stood Still”.
The vein of these movies always seem to be the same or have similar traits at least.
The end of the world, arrives because of man’s excesses of greed, avarice, and general badness. Entire cities topple, our defences are all futile, and well, good riddance to bad rubbish (In particular New York, which always seems to get blown away first).
And then somewhere, somehow, the goodness of human kind surfaces. A mother’s love for a child, a protagonists’s selfless sacrifice, and either we are saved, or the world ends anyway, but we ain’t that bad.
These kinds of movies make me think. They make me think, firstly, that hey, we are pretty excessive, we take what we want, being at the top of the food chain without thinking or caring, and yeah, perhaps, one day that in itself will bite us in the ass.
The second thing it makes me think about however is, is the part about our reedeeming factors also true? Are we worth redeeming? Is mankind AS A WHOLE good? When you net it off, is our goodness greater than our badness?
To me of course, the question is merely rhetorical. I am a firm believer in the good of people. Yes, we may have our weaknesses, but when push comes to shove, we also witness defining moments of courage, selflessness, and generousity that inspire faith.
Recently my faith in the goodness of human kind has been strengthened.
It must have been about 2 months ago now, that a friend of mine darren, IM-d me, and sent me a link. He asked me if I knew about this blog, as he had seen a Nuffnang Ad on it.
I had a look at it, and this was my introduction to Charmaine.
I found out that Charmaine’s blog was in fact being maintained by her mother’s (Cynthia), friend Jolene.
The crux of this story is that Charmaine is a 4 year old girl, but is having to contend with a battle against cancer, specifically, a condition known as Neuroblastoma.
In Charmaine’s case, with local treatment, her chances of survival are just 10-20 percent. There is a treatment in the US however, at one specific hospital in New York, that ups her chances to 40-50%.
I read through other little details, about the family’s life, which I will leave you to discover for yourself, was sincerely touched, and decided to see how I could help her.
The first thing I needed to do of course was visit Cynthia and Charmaine. I needed to do some basic due diligence to ensure the story’s accuracy. I owed this much at least to the people I was going to seek help from.
We entered Cynthia and Charmaine’s home, and whilst modest, I could see from the toys strewn around that the kids make up a big part of this family’s life.
Elaine, myself and huiwen met Cynthia and Charmaine herself. I asked Cynthia, how much money she needed? She answered $500K USD as an initial deposit. I then asked her how much money she had collected up to that point. It was then I saw Cynthia’s brave front collapse. It was almost as if hope deserted her, as she told me, she had collected 60,000 SGD up till then. She started crying.
I wasn’t sure what to do. Honestly I kinda felt like crying myself. I dismissed that thought immediately though, steeled myself, and looked cynthia in the eye. I said this to her, believing every word. “Cynthia, I know it is very difficult for you. But god always has a way. This I know. And I know something else, I know that there are many good people out there, and they will help you.”
I knew the first part was true, and I believed the second, but as we drove back that day, it was as if Cynthia’s heavy load, had been cast on our shoulders too.
What happened after that meeting with Cynthia was nothing short of extraordinary. Her story got immense coverage on many forms of media, and so many fundraising initiatives took place, on so many levels, that within a month, they had raised the funds needed for the initial deposit.
Score 1 for the goodness of people. But thats not the crux of this blog post.
The Nuffnang community in Singapore is an immense one. We have 40,000 bloggers and these blogs reach out to an additional 700,000 readers on a daily basis! I’ve said often and Tim shares my belief, that as a community, besides the ability to have fun and enjoy great parties/movie screenings together, we must also be a force for good, and help those less fortunate than ourselves. Only then can we truly call ourselves a community.
Therefore it was with this belief, that we launched Nuffnang’s drive to raise funds for Charmaine. By the time we had launched, in July, Charmaine had already hit 500,000 USD and was preparing to go to the USA. But knowing that this is just the start of the battle, we decided to plough on. Medical costs do not stop at a deposit, I’ve myself witnessed how medical costs and bills can rack up quickly, and there are many other considerations to take account of, including what happens after recovery? In any case, we are trying to create a situation in which money is the least of their worries during this difficult time.
Our stated aim was 80,000. An ambitious aim for sure, but I thought to myself, just 2 dollars from every single blogger, and we would have hit that. Personally I donated $2,000 and Nuffnang Pte Ltd, put in $3,000. To kick start the fundraising. So how are we doing now?
Well honestly, we are a LONG LONG way off from our stated target. In fact, we have only raised $6000 + so far, which is a little dissapointing. But then again, and this is the best part. Raine used to collect all our mail, but nowadays, I pip her to it. The reason why is that we’ve been receiving little packets of generousity in the mailbox daily now.
They look like these.
And inside?
One thing I’ve noticed is that even though we have a policy of transparency, and will list every single donor, the large majority of these letters than come in actually request anonymity.
You would think that most people would want to claim credit for a good deed. If you think this way, you would be wrong.
What is nice as well, is that very often, these packages also come with little notes …. ….
Or full blown letters like this!
My favourite though? Was a letter from CHIJ Katong Convent. When I got that envelope, I really wondered what it was.
I opened it to find this letter.
“Dear Sir,
We are a group of pupils from Secondary 202, CHIJ Katong Secondary, who did a bake sale of raisin scones, cakes and sandwiches last week in support of Charmaine’s medical treatment.
One of our literature stories mentions these food items and we thought that it would be a good idea for us to not only research and test the recipes, but also sell them to our schoolmates at recess for a worthwhile cause. Please accept our humble donation of $74.
Yours Faitfully,
Noor Azlynawati bte Jasmani (Ms)
Literature Representative
Secondary 202″
This letter and the many other notes I have read, have shown me the goodness and kindness of people.
It has renewed my faith. I hope it does the same for Cynthia and Charmaine. FIGHT ON, AND DO NOT GIVE UP, because there are sooo many people behind you.
Including one particular group of secondary 2 students in CHIJ Katong Convent!
And to all the doomsayers, and aliens who want to take this world down, read this blog post! Strangers caring for strangers, this in itself is worth letting mankind prevail. I guess there is a reason why they call it MAN-KIND.
p.s. ALL, please give what you can for Charmaine. Every little helps! Click here for details!
