Inaugural BuzzCity-NUS Digital Media Forum 2007

BuzzCity and NUS Enterprise have collaborated to present a series of unique Technology Forums that offer insight into the Interactive Digital Media industry and provide excellent networking opportunities to industry players. In its latest initiative, NUS Enterprise has teamed up with BuzzCity, a developer of global wireless communities and consumer services such as ‘myGamma’ – an international wireless networking community, to line up a series of bi-monthly Digital Media Forums as well as offer Awards to promising start-ups.

Details of the event:

• Date: 17 August 2007 (Friday)
• Time: 1.30pm to 6.00pm
• Venue: NUS Engineering Auditorium

For more information, please refer to the main website and the programme for the day.

Overview: The inaugural BuzzCity-NUS Digital Media Forum will be held on 17th August 2007 at the NUS Engineering Auditorium and has been scheduled as a half-day event. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) will be signed by the CEO of BuzzCity, Dr Lai Kok Fung, as well as by the Director of the NUS Entrepreneurship Centre (NEC), Prof Wong Poh Kam at the event.

The Digital Media Forums will feature emerging technologies and leading research expertise in info-communications technology that could benefit companies from various industries.

In addition to these researchers, CEOs of established companies such as BuzzCity and Tencube will also share their experience on how they have capitalised on similar opportunities in the past. The series of Digital Media Forums will also be followed by Awards ceremonies where promising start-ups or project teams within the Interactive Digital Media (IDM) industry will be selected to receive up to S$5,000 each, sponsored by BuzzCity. The recipients will also be assisted in marketing and given coaching to enable them to reach out to the intended market for their products.

For the inaugural event, there will be an interesting Technology Showcase on Infocomm Technologies presented by the Industry Liaison Office (ILO) of NUS Enterprise. This is an excellent platform to gain first-hand knowledge about the research environment and the nascent technologies under development in NUS.

Target Audience

This Digital Medium Forum targets senior management, R&D managers, engineers, researchers, hi-tech entrepreneurs, business angels, venture capitalists, investors and academic staff who may be interested in seeking research collaboration opportunities, potential investments and technology commercialisation within the Interactive Digital Media industry.

This forum is a fantastic opportunity for finding collaborative opportunities, forging strategic alliances, and matching promising technologies with companies, investors, and entrepreneurs.

With the limited spaces available for the inaugural event, interested parties are and encouraged to make early reservations to avoid disappointment.

About the Speaker

Dr Lai Kok Fung is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of BuzzCity, a developer of global wireless communities and consumer services. BuzzCity’s primary offering is myGamma, an international wireless networking community with paid membership. myGamma also provides a unified platform for content owners, service providers and other merchants to sell their online merchandise. Established in 1999 in Singapore, BuzzCity now offers myGamma in 52 countries around the world. Before founding BuzzCity, Kok Fung conducted research in Singapore’s Information Technology Institute (now known as Institute of Infocomm Research), specializing in pattern recognition and text retrieval. He graduated with First Class Honours in Electrical Engineering from the National University of Singapore and obtained his Doctorate in Electrical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Synopsis of Dr Lai’s speech

Mobile phone uptake has exploded in recent years, growing twice as fast in developing countries as in developed countries. Across these countries, mobile phones have changed the way people work, making communications much easier and far less time-consuming. New research among low-income groups in Asia shows that these users are already accessing telecommunications, and form a large untapped market with significant unmet demand.

In this talk, we will share BuzzCity’s experience of challenging the conventional wisdom that mobile Internet are adopted only among high-income groups or juvenile tech-junkies. We will share our lessons in “Connecting the Unwired”, and how this strategy has created large and profitable markets in developing countries such as South Africa, Thailand, India, and among the blue-collars in developed countries such as US and UK. These lessons should offer fresh perspectives to researchers, developers and policy makers in Singapore’s digital media industry who have long laboured in a small market with monopolistic practices.

This event is jointly organized by BuzzCity and NUS Enterprise.