This event was organised by the Centre of Innovation for Electronics (COIE) on 22 June 2009 at Nanyang Polytechnic with the objective of creating a platform for informal sharing and networking between local SMEs. Altogether 30 participants from 16 companies signed up for this event.

Two speakers from the industry were invited to share. The first speaker was by Mr Desmond Hsu, General Manager of Fast and Safe Technology Pte Ltd (www.fastnsafe.com). The company was founded in 2001 with mission to “transform niche information security technology from a high-cost complex platform into simple affordable consumer products so that they will become available to every individual PC user, allowing them to protect their own private data” (quoted from their website). They currently have successfully expanded and established distribution channels in 27 countries spanning the Asia Pacific, America, Europe, Middle East and Africa. Mr Hsu shared many useful insights from personal experience, especially in breaking into and doing business in different countries.

The second speaker was Mr Erwin Seah, Social Media Executive from Brandtology (www.brandtology.com). The company provides Business and Brand Intelligence to enable their clients to gain important information to enable them to “make timely informed strategic decisions to win in the marketplace” (quoted from their website). He shared on how social media and networking impacts businesses in today’s connected world, and gave an interesting demonstration of how Brandtology’s innovative on-line tool works to gather competitive and market intelligence from forums and other social media channels that provide valuable insights into market sentiments to enable companies to make better decisions.

The participants gave very positive feedback and all found the insights and personal experiences shared valuable and look forward to more of such sessions.