Mommy Attended the "HP Future is..." Event

The Rootz Club at Rooftop of Lot 10, Kuala Lumpur.

Yesterday, Mommy attended a forum on "HP Future is..." held at a club called Rootz (at the rooftop of Lot 10, Kuala Lumpur). This forum was jointly presented by Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Microsoft. How did Mommy come to know about the existence of this event? Well, it all started when Mommy surfed Nuffnang's website whereby there was a small contest going on that won 25 Nuffnangers exclusive invites to this event. All the participants had to do to win the invitation was to leave a comment on "My HP Future is....." and no word number limit was imposed. So Mommy left a comment saying that Mommy's HP Future is one when Mommy no longer needs to go out to work full-time, instead Mommy can merely rely on passive income coming in from advertisements in Mommy's blog and some more active forms of income as in kickstarting an online baby products shop and starting a blog donation-cum-advertising network. And thankfully, Mommy's comment captured the attention of Nuffnang judge(s) such that Mommy was among the 25 people selected among 115 commentators. You can read all the comments here.

OK, back to the event again. So, just a day before the event, Mommy received the exclusive invitation via email and the invitation mentioned it starting at 7.00pm, ending at 10.00pm at the Rootz Club in Lot 10. So first thing in Mommy's mind was if Mommy attends this event and will only be back late at night, how well can Juan Or accept Mommy's absence? Next thing in Mommy's mind is this event starts at 7.00pm, so the journey to Lot 10, which is in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, coincides with rush hour when office people will be rushing home, thus jamming the roads. And what's more, Mommy had a meeting to attend which may end late, so Mommy was wondering whether Mommy can make it in time or not in the first place. Another thing is where exactly is Lot 10 and how do you drive to Lot 10 (by the way, Papa cannot accompany Mommy because Papa was not invited, so Mommy has to drive alone!)? All the while, if Mommy goes to the heart of KL, Papa does all the driving, so Mommy's navigation mind takes a back seat altogether! Anyway, yes, the meeting ended late (it was supposed to end at 4.30pm, but it got dragged on to 5.15pm) and after some ding-donging here and there, Mommy only got to start the journey at 6.00pm. From Taman Connought Cheras to KL city centre, luckily most of the roads that Mommy went through was not jammed. Mommy used Jalan Tun Razak, went into Jalan Bukit Bintang, then turned in to Jalan Imbi and then to Jalan Sultan Sultan Ismail. It was only from Jalan Imbi onwards that Mommy was caught in the traffic-jam. Because of the jam and not wanting to end up turning round and round to find parking, Mommy parked at where Papa would usually park: at the roadside of some apartments near Havana. So Mommy walked to Lot 10, armed with a big umbrella (for protection purpose!).

Once Mommy reached Lot 10, Mommy took the lift near Dome to reach the rooftop where Rootz Club is located. By the way, this was Mommy's first time going to a club (yes, Mommy has never been to a night club nor karaoke nor disco!), so Mommy felt anxious about it. Upon reaching Rootz, Mommy went to the registration table to confirm attendance and guess what, Mommy was pleasantly surprised to be given a HP goodie bag! The goodie bag contains a HP-Microsoft netbook bag, a car fragrance hanging ornament, a HP polo shirt (size L), and a colourful HP folder containing assignment instructions and brochures of HP products featured in this event. Then there was another surprise for Mommy. Mommy was greeted by Mommy's ex-student, Jonathan Kuek, who took Mommy's Introductory Medical Science course in January to April 2007! By 7.30pm, all the participants were ushered into the club.

This is the HP goodie Mommy received upon confirmation of attendance: netbook bag, a car fragrance hanging ornament, a HP polo shirt (size L), and a colourful HP folder containing assignment instructions and brochures of HP products featured in this event





Upon entering Rootz, Mommy was greeted by this tunnel-like passageway which has mirror wall decorated with electrifyingly-arranged white lights which soon changes into......

......electrifying red!

As the participants were settling down, cocktails and drinks (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic) were served. Mommy was busy taking photos and looking around the HP products displayed. Finally at 7.45 pm, Will Quah, the emcee took on the stage announcing the programme and the post-event blogpost contest whereby the 3 best written blogpost will win a HP Mini by Studio Tord Boontje worth RM1599 each!

Will Quah, the emcee for the event.

Next came the welcoming speech by Mr. Danny Lee, HP's Country General Manager of the Personal Systems Group. In his welcoming speech, Mr. Danny Lee particularly mentioned about how HP is constantly on the lookout for current trends and changing trends of computers for the future. Mommy personally thinks this is true of HP because Mommy constantly sees new themes such as "The Computer is Going Personal" and "HP's eco-friendly campaign" in HP's website and that these themes are in line with what the people are going for nowadays.

Mr. Danny Lee, HP's Country General Manager of the Personal Systems Group doing his welcoming speech.

After the welcoming speech, came the forum session whereby the top 5 bloggers of Malaysia (Kenny Sia, Jojo Struys, Meera the RedMummy, Cynthia and Joyce Wong) gave their ideas and opinions on how and what the future is for anything to do with computers, internet and technology. Will Quah posed these interesting questions and Mommy has included the gist of some responses by the top 5 bloggers:

The top 5 bloggers of Malaysia: from left is Kenny Sia, Jojo Struys, RedMummy, Cynthia and Joyce Wong.

• What will life be without technology?
  Life will be boring, inconvenient and as good as the stone-age days!
  

• How has technology changed your life?

Technology has allowed things to be done fast and conveniently. Previous internet technology was dialed-up networking which was slow and noisy (Kenny Sia actually mimicked the dial-up noisy dialling tone!), but now is taken over by the broadband, so internet surfers get to surt more things for less time. Technology has also allowed resources from all over the world to be within your finger tips and at your perusal which is especially an important thing for people in education. Technology is also changing the way how people find their romantic partner.

• What feature about the computer would you hope to see in the future?
  RedMummy particularly mentioned how she hopes that one day, she doesn't even need to type the computer keyboard in order to blog. The computer can merely read what's in our mind to come out with the sentence that we want to type! Wow, Mommy thinks this idea is awesome - yes, a good breakthrough, yet scary at the same time! And another top blogger, Jojo Struys feels that it's scary for computers to be able to read our thoughts and translate them out in words and sentences and she swears she wouldn't want that to hapen!

• What is another breakthrough innovation in our lives besides computer, handphone and internet?

Aviation, television, camera, GPRS and telescope.

• How long do you spend time on the internet per day?

Answers ranges from as little as 10 hours per day to all the time!

After the top 5 bloggers have answered Will Quah's questions, finally the Q&A session was opened to the floor. Someone from the audience asked,"So many good things have been talked about computers, internet and technology, what about the bad side?" To this question, most of the top 5 bloggers agree that privacy and identity theft is a big problem. RedMummy particularly mentioned about her encounter with an SMS stalker and Cynthia about how her photo and profile appeared in a social networking site that she never registered for in the first place!

Both Mr. Danny Lee and Mr. Low Sin Yip launching the 'Blog-A-Trend" Contest.

As time was running out, Will Quah closed the Q&A session, but reminded the audience that should they have some more questions, they can always catch up with the top bloggers later on. Then came the closing speech by Mr. Low Sin Yip, the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) Director of Microsoft Malaysia and finally, both Mr. Danny Lee and Mr. Low Sin Yip launched the 'Blog-A-Trend' contest. Want to know more about the HP "Blog-A-Trend" contest? This is a competition held in four countries across Asia (China, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore) to identify trends already impacting or about to impact our future. Interested participants can blog about any of the following topics:

• Future of "Thin & Light"


• Future of "Touch"


• Future of Personalization


• Future of Design


• Future of Environment


• Future of Entertainment


• Future of Music


• Future of Fashion


• Future of Social Media


• Future of Content


• Future of Education

So aspiring bloggers who blog about this (of at least 300 words) and is able to spark the most conversations online about the trends blogged will stand a chance to win either HP TouchSmart 600 All-in-One Desktop PC worth RM4988 (Grand Prize) and HP Minis by Studio Tord Bontje worth RM1599 (both 2nd and 3rd Prize). The blog link should be send to cheryl.yab@hillandknowlton.com.my latest by 17th January 2010.

Besides this, Will Quah also announced that a live chat session (you will have to log in with your MSN ID to do that) will be held on 16th December 2009 at 9.30pm to 10.30pm for people to come together to discuss about future trends in the online community.

The many models of HP notebooks, netbooks and touch screen desktops on display during the event.

After all the announcements by Will Quah, the party ends with a networking session among bloggers alike and HP personnels. During this time, Mommy saw the top bloggers and other bloggers mingle among themselves and with HP personnels. On a personal note, Mommy must commend HP personnels for being very professional, appproachable and ready to assist you without you asking. Mommy was looking at a particular HP notebook on display and was approached by a HP personnel. It's not like Mommy had to approach a HP personnel to know more about a HP model, instead the HP personnel approached Mommy just at the right time! Mommy also had the chance to have a short chat with Meera the RedMummy because Mommy has a common ground with her - we are mothers and we blog about our children! By the way, during our chat, RedMommy mentioned that she noticed Mommy from the stage. In Mommy's heart, Mommy wondered was is because Mommy looked the most Aunty-like person there? Hehehehe....

Anyway, Mommy had an enjoyable time at the event, the forum was a good avenue for exchange of ideas, thoughts and opinions from people not in the education industry, the cocktail served at Rootz was tasty, the ambience at Rootz was a pleasant first-time experience for Mommy (hey, Mommy is a club virgin!) and even the landscape just outside Rootz was full of lush greenary in the midst of concrete buildings and landmarks, in line with HP's eco-friendly drive. And one more thing - the HP organizer is very thoughtful. When guests left Rootz, each was presented with a free limited edition umbrella to protect from rain , just in case (and perhaps perpetrators!), knowing that most guests probably had to walk quite a distance (in the night) from Lot 10 to their whatever means of transport. Thank you HP for the enjoyable and meaningful experience and freebies!

This is the limited edition HP umbrella given to each guest just before they leave the event.

Thank you to HP for the enjoyable and meaningful experience (and the free goodies too!)

The lush greenary of Rootz's landscape amidst the concrete jungle which is in line with HP's drive for being eco-friendly despite going for technology sophistication.

The networking session

Cynthia Wong networking with a blogger.

Kenny Sia and Jojo Struys seen talking to each other.

RedMummy was seen networking with other bloggers.

By the way, Mommy reached home at 10.45pm. Once home, Mommy could see Grandpa rocking Juan Or to sleep. Mommy peered over to see Juan Or. Juan Or was obviously not asleep yet, though he appeared to have settled down already. So Mommy asked Grandpa whether Juan Or had been good the whole night even though Mommy's not around? "Oh, yes" was Grandpa's answer.