SPMCC 2012 Opening Ceremony

February 13th 2012 marked the Opening Ceremony of the Singapore Polytechnic Media and Communication Conference.

This year, three excellent speakers were invited to share about issues relating to the conference theme: Click to Connect. At the end, a panel discussion was held.

The event was kicked off with high energy by our student emcees, Charmian and Joel.
Their lively introduction had the audience revving for more.

The conference was led by an opening address by Mr Lee Yew Leong from Starcom MediaVest Group. The topic he spoke about was "Future Media. Future Proof." His views on how there is no better time to be a consumer had us nodding in agreement. Interestingly, he also questioned whether digital technology is a master or a slave. Mr Lee also mentioned with the growing number of marketers, content is the key currency.

Mr Lee Yew Leong, Executive Director of Starcomm MediaVest Group

 The following speaker was Mr Gerald Ang, Head of Digital Marketing at Blackberry. His topic was "Connecting to Consumers: Telling the Blackberry Story". Mr Ang told us about the importance of engaging your community and utilising what you have at hand. He then showed us how Blackberry had involved their homegrown community in Indonesia in their marketing efforts, allowing them to cut costs while creating a personal touch. He also revealed that the best engagement strategy was to find the points that connect to your audience and tell a relatable story

Mr Gerald Ang, Head of Digital Marketing at Blackberry

 The last speaker of the day was Mr Shalabh Pandey from Nokia. His speech was about "Social Media at Nokia: What Goes into Creating a Holistic and Ground Breaking Social Media Strategy". Mr Pandey introduced to many of us the fascinating concept of the social megaphone. While conventional marketing is targeted at the person holding the megaphone, Mr Pandey stressed that is was more beneficial to target those at the receiving end of the megaphone. In other words, instead of merely considering your target audience, you should also bear in mind their followers. This is known as a propagation strategy. Mr Pandey's speech opened our eyes to many new concepts we had not heard of before.

Head of Earned Media and Marketing, Southeast Asia and Pacific Consumer Engagement, Nokia

 The conference ended on a high note with a panel discussion moderated by Mr Geoff Tan who is the Vice President and Head of Strategic Marketing at SPH Limited. The discussion involved Mr Geoff Tan himself and the three prior speakers. Members of the audience enthusiastically shot questions at the panel who answered them with truthful insights. The energetic discussion brought to light issues such as evolving technology, reaching one's consumers with passion points and how to better handle industry competitors.

Day 1 of SPMCC was indeed a success. With the efforts of the year two DMC students, the lecturers and the invited speakers, the Opening Ceremony of SPMCC will be a day to remember.

Written by,
Nicole Loh

Photographer:
Victor Seow