Standing Among Giants At The ZICO ASEAN 40 Under 40 Program

It has been said that “if you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.”

Well, recently, I was definitely in the right room – where I was left awestruck being amidst some truly incredible, talented and smart individuals doing amazing things all over Southeast Asia!

We were part of the inaugural cohort of the ZICO ASEAN 40 Under 40 – a flagship program by ASEAN Advisory, the consulting arm of ZICO. The program paid tribute to 40 trailblazers under the age of 40 in, or from, Southeast Asia who are driving positive change and creating impact in this region. Each honoree is addressing a trend or challenge in the ASEAN countries through our work.

L-R: Richard Yim, Winston Toh, Ada Chirapaisarnkul, Danial Hakim, and I. Photo credit: ZICO

You know that feeling you get where you meet someone and start asking yourself, “What am I doing with my life?” Yeah, that’s how I felt when I met some of these truly exemplary people (picture above, L-R):

• Richard Yim – who co-founded Demine Robotics to develop better robots that more effectively remove land mines; starting in Cambodia where he was born, which unfortunately also holds the distinction of being one of the most heavily land-mined countries in the world with an estimated 4 to 6 million land mines in the country.
• Winston Toh – a bright young man who helped bring to life the ASEAN Advisory 40 Under 40 Program; with whom I’ve also enjoyed scintillating conversations on economies of the future and its impact to modern society.
• Ada Chirapaisarnkul – who, among many other achievements, is the founder of the Thai Young Philanthropist Network (TYPN), which today sees 2,700 young leaders working to strengthen civil society in Thailand through youth entrepreneurship training for students and teachers as well as business consultation and capacity building support for to over 100 social-purpose organisations.
• Danial Hakim – a young grassroots leader who balances his time between his full-time job and championing the issues and concerns of his community.

Pictured in the middle here and highly deserving of a shout out is Van Ngoc Ta, chief lawyer of the Hanoi-based Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation, which is involved in anti-trafficking work. Van has personally helped hundreds of victims of forced labor and sex trafficking, working closely with authorities. He’s a real-life superhero: when I met him for dinner the evening before the awards event, he was on the phone in the midst of coordinating a case. I can’t speak highly enough of the great work that he is doing.

I also met many other amazing fellow honorees – including a dear colleague Warren Tseng, formerly the General Manager for Uber in Singapore.

Making a point to a compatriot about the new government in Malaysia. Photo credit: ZICO

It was inspiring to meet them all to hear their stories as well as perspectives. It truly augurs well for ASEAN’s future potential as a political, economic, and sociocultural bloc. I am truly humbled and very grateful to have been included as one of these great luminaries.

Looking at the other names and their achievements – I am truly humbled to be included.

Double Win At The Malaysia PR Awards 2013, Second Year In A Row!

I’m very delighted that, for the second consecutive year, my team and I have been honored and recognized with a double win at the Malaysia PR Awards (MPRA), held by the PR Consultants Association (PRCA) of Malaysia. The MPRA is the Malaysia PR industry’s highest recognition for consultancies, campaigns and individuals behind cutting-edge communications programs and campaigns in the PR arena.

Image credit: Chip Magazine

The first award was in the Product Brand Development category, which recognized the work we did for the Microsoft Surface range of devices. The entry of Microsoft’s Surface range of devices into the Malaysian market was one of the most highly anticipated consumer tech events of the year. The launch of Surface was an eagerly awaited event among local fans and the tech community in Malaysia. However, we certainly faced our own unique challenges with the Surface campaign. For example, at the launch of Surface RT in Malaysia in April 2013, the Surface Pro had already debuted in other markets worldwide. With consumers and media anticipating the “bigger and better” Surface Pro to arrive locally before long, we needed to build a campaign that brought forth the strengths of each model without diminishing the unique capabilities of the other; while maintaining the position that Surface are the most productive tablets on the planet. This challenge was replicated for the launch of Surface 2 in March 2014, where Surface Pro 2 – the successor to Surface Pro – was already announced to the world in September 2013.

Image credit: SC Cyberworld

The second award was in the Technology Award category, which honored the work we did in our year-long campaign on Transforming Education in Malaysia. This particular award is especially dear to me because of the great impact we landed for the business as well as for the great stories we landed in telling about how many great teachers and students are leveraging technology for the betterment of the country. In fact, I was recognized with a global award at the Microsoft Worldwide Summit earlier this year for this campaign!

I’m certainly very proud of the team! My heartfelt appreciation goes to our team at Priority Communications – without whom I definitely could not have won these awards!  We’ve continued the great momentum from enjoying a double-win last year and I’m looking forward to the great work that we will do in the future as well.

I also want to thank my friends in the media: *SO MANY* of you have been very kind and supportive, always being open to our story pitches and engaging with me regularly. I’m blessed to count many of you as friends today!

Onwards and upwards!

Winning Gold At The Microsoft Worldwide Communications Summit 2014!

Thrilling news – I recently got back from Seattle, Washington from the company’s Worldwide Communications Summit 2014 with a Gold Newshound Award – my second one in a row! I am truly touched and flattered by this recognition, which builds on the momentum of having won a Gold Newshound Award the previous year as well as being a multiple-award winner at last year’s Malaysia PR Awards.

Just me and my hound dog!

Every year, the global community of Communications professionals at Microsoft gather from around the world for our annual Worldwide Communications Summit. This year’s summit was held in Seattle, Washington. This year, we were also joined by the highly-talented team of consumer/devices Communications experts from Nokia (now known as Microsoft Devices), which provided a great opportunity for us to welcome them to the Microsoft family.

At the Summit, we also take the opportunity to showcase and celebrate best-practices, via our annual Microsoft Newshound Awards (held at the very lovely Chiluly Garden and Glass in Seattle), which recognize excellence in Communications from our global community of passionate and committed PR & Communications professionals. Each Newshound Award category recognizes three winners: Gold, Silver and Bronze.

With Microsoft’s top Communications Leadership (L-R): Frank Shaw, Corporate Vice President of Corporate Communications, Microsoft Corp.; Yunsun Wee, Director, Worldwide Field Communications, Microsoft Corp.; and Doug Dawson, Vice President of Media Relations for Nokia (now Microsoft Devices).  

My award recognized a year-long effort throughout the fiscal year where we competed aggressively in the education sector. I partnered with my leadership team, along with our education, legal and area headquarters communication teams, in a year-long campaign that communicated our local value-proposition in Education. The campaign showcased Microsoft’s long history of contribution to education in Malaysia, as well as independent research, 3^rd-party op-ed pieces, executive media engagements.

Here’s what was said about the work that I did:

This is a best practice of good programmatic execution with business impact. The team did an excellent job with this year-long integrated PR campaign that includes activities that supports and aligns to the National Plan.  Congratulations on delivering a strategic, matrixed campaign that began with the end in mind – showcasing Microsoft as a trusted advisor and partner to Government, and a thought leader for educators and students.

With friends and colleagues from across Asia!

Needless to say I couldn’t have done this alone. I’d like to specifically call out and thank:

• My team from Priority Communications: Elaine, Ashley, Kenny, Calvin, Atiqah and Sylvia for all their hardwork and partnership throughout the year.
• My media friends: There are *SO MANY* of you have been very kind and supportive, always being open to our story pitches and engaging with me regularly. I’m blessed to count many of you as friends today.
• My colleagues in Microsoft Malaysia: Much of what has been achieved is a result of intense partnership and collaboration – building upon each other’s initiatives and achievements towards a larger goal of success in this area!
• My colleagues in the Microsoft Asia Communications team: Especially Andy, Verdayne, Jesse and Darryn. Your support and partnership throughout the year has also been invaluable, leveraging upon the greater network of expertise and investment for us to drive truly impactful initiatives to competitively position us in the education space.
• My family: Without their support, I would not be free to do great things at work.

A huge congratulations also to the rest of the Gold, Silver and Bronze Newshound winners from Asia! In fact, the Asia Pacific region won the most Gold Newshound awards of any worldwide area (tied with our Central & Eastern Europe area. This is a tremendously creative, professional, committed team – and I’m proud to be a part of it. Go team Asia!

The Asia Communications Team, with our four Gold Newshound Winners – two from the area headquarters, another one from Australia… and me.

Winning At The Malaysia PR Awards 2012

I’m very honored to be recognized with two awards at this year’s Malaysia PR Awards, held by the PR Consultants Association (PRCA) of Malaysia.

The first award was given for #OfficeOutside, for the launch of Microsoft’s new version of Office in Malaysia earlier this year. To do this, we figured there was no better way to showcase the flexible-working scenarios enabled by this new version of Office than to shut down the subsidiary and have our employees work from the shopping centre underneath the Petronas Towers, where our office is located. Then simply invite along the media (with their cameras) and tell our simple, but compelling story, which is that with Office you can be productive virtually  anywhere using tools you know, love and rely on every day.

This was hailed as an innovative campaign, which has since been replicated in several regional subsidiaries, and is now being adopted as a worldwide best practice by the Office team at Corporate HQ (also nabbing me several more awards and recognition globally as well as regionally along the way).

 

The second award was in recognition for the work we did in launching Windows 8 here in Malaysia – which was certainly a really fun launch to pull off! We were recognized for the high-impact and creativity that our team drove – orchestrating a fully-integrated, high-profile communications campaign to bring the ground-breaking capabilities of Windows 8 to a waiting Malaysian public. This included reviewers workshops, product reviews, partnering with OEMs, launch PR programs/activities and post-launch sustaining momentum.

My heartfelt appreciation goes to our PR team – without whom I definitely could not have won these awards!  “No man is an island” and I am certainly no exception! Thank you so much to the awesome team at Priority Communications!!!

I also dedicate the awards especially to my manager Danny Ong as well as my tech media friends who treated the newbie from banking & finance very graciously when I first showed up on the scene.

Onwards and upwards!

Winning At The Microsoft Worldwide Communications Summit 2013!

Wining Gold, with Microsoft’s top Communications Leadership (L-R): Frank Shaw, Corporate Vice President of Corporate Communications, Microsoft Corp. and Yunsun Wee, Director, Worldwide Field Communications, Microsoft Corp

I’m presently in London for Microsoft’s Worldwide Communications Summit 2013, the annual global gathering of Communications professionals at Microsoft.

At the Summit, we also take the opportunity to showcase and celebrate best-practices, via our annual Microsoft Newshound Awards which recognize excellence in Communications worldwide. Each Newshound Award category recognizes three winners: Gold, Silver and Bronze. This year’s award was held on The Silver Sturgeon, a 21st century, luxury river yacht cruising down the Thames River in London!

This fiscal year, I’m thrilled to have walked away with one Gold Newshound and three Bronze Newshounds for my work!

I won the Gold Newshound for my work leveraging Microsoft’s cyberbullying survey findings, which showed how 1-in-3 Malaysian children say they have been subjected to a range of online activities that some may consider to be online bullying. The findings and the story we landed touched a raw nerve in Malaysian society because of the rising trend of online abuse. I managed to land highly positive and extensive coverage – with additional third-party endorsements coming from additional NGOs and Cybersecurity Malaysia. The highlight was a cover story in the lifestyle features section of The Star – Malaysia’s most widely read English newspaper.