Microsoft BizSpark to award Founder Institute scholarships to Windows Developers in Singapore

Joyce is the Program Manager for Microsoft BizSpark in Singapore.

Microsoft BizSpark is awarding scholarships for the upcoming semester of Founder Institute to the top three winners of the BizSpark Launch Academy competition.

BizSpark Launch Academy is a competition for startups and individual developers based in Singapore who are building applications for the Windows Store, Windows Phone 8 or on Windows Azure. Winners can receive expert training and feedback to launch startup companies with Founder Institute beginning April 2013. Read more

ERIIN is bringing Asia Pacific designers to the rest of the world

ERIIN.com actively promotes and seeks budding artists to introduce them to the international fashion scene.

Being a struggling fashion designer is hard. A lot of work goes into producing that single piece of garment. From conceptualizing a unique design, to sourcing for the perfect fabrics, to actual production, then photographing your artwork with the right model and getting distributors to put it on their store racks. You get the point.

You’ve spent a lot of time and money by the time you’re done, all you can do is hope and pray that someone hears about your designs and that you’re suddenly featured on Fashion Week. Okay, so I’m not sure if that’s how it happens, but unless there’s a local version of Project Runway in Singapore and the region, I’m sure it’s pretty rare that you hear about Singapore designers breaking into the international market and become successful, like local fashion label alldressedup.

Cue ERIIN.com, a Singapore-based e-commerce site that is bringing Asian Pacific designers to the rest of the world. The spirited duo behind ERIIN.com, Maisha Miranda and Kate Tan, started with a bang by organizing fashion show, Street Candy, with Lenovo Singapore. It was held just five months into ERIIN.com’s  launch, showcasing fresh new fashion design labels from the region. Read more

Learn Halfbrick’s Growth Strategy and Game Development Techniques at Fruit Ninja Developer Dojo – 14 and 15 Sept

SGE readers get a special discount code 'KIWI'

Microsoft and E27 are organizing Fruit Ninja Developer Dojo, an exclusive event catered to game developers and those interested in game development.

Halfbrick, one of the world’s most successful indie game studios with more than 100 million downloads for acclaimed game Fruit Ninja, will be sharing about their game development strategies, best practices, marketing tactics and much more in this 2 day event.

Meet Halfbrick’s CEO Shainiel Deo, CMO Phil Larsen and CTO Richard Mckinny on 14 and 15 September at Fruit Ninja #DevDojo.

Ninja Gathering

Friday, 14 September, 6PM to 9PM

Halfbrick’s story – Journey to global success

• What it takes to be a  successful indie game developer
• Gaming Industry Trends and how Halfbrick is leveraging it

Ninja Development Workshop

Saturday, 15 September, 12noon to 4PM

Marketing the HalfBrick Way by Phil Larsen, Chief Marketing Officer of Halfbrick

• Reaching Critical Mass: How Halfbrick reached 100M with Fruit Ninja
•  Halfbrick’s growth strategy; cross-platform success stories
• Opportunities for game developers on Windows 8
  Game Development Techniques and Trends by Richard Mckinny, Chief Technical Officer of Halfbrick
• Building a game like Fruit Ninja- best practices, challenges, frameworks/game engines used
• Leveraging on the Windows 8 platform for game development
• Opportunities for game developers on Windows 8

Fruit Ninja Developer Dojo details:

Dates, Time & Venue:

Day 1: 14 September 2012, 6pm-10pm

Sauce, 8 Raffles Avenue, Esplanade Mall, #01-10/12

Day 2:15 September 2012, 12pm-4pm

Auditorium @ Microsoft Singapore, One Marina Boulevard

Cost:

$50 for both days(*$40 early bird special, starts now until announced)

Ticket Price includes food and drinks.

Register here.

*SGE Readers get a special ticket price of $40 from the original $50 with code ‘KIWI’.*

GeekcampSG draws 400 geeks and younglings this year

Joyce is part of the organizing team at GeekcampSG.

It was 9am in the morning and already a hundred geeks are queuing at the lobby of the Microsoft office, anxiously waiting for the doors to open. Yup, it’s GeekcampSG, a technology focused conference run by the local geek community in Singapore on 18 August.

The first wave of geeks entering the Microsoft lobby at 915am.

Read more

Geek Squad Drills: HTML and CSS introductory workshops for girls

Singapore Geek Girls is local initiative that serves as a platform for females to connect, share, contribute, mentor and learn from each other. We want to empower the next generation of women in technology through fun, informal and interactive activities!

Always wanted to dabble in some web design but never really got started? Wanna build a basic working website with a bunch of fun and like-minded girls? Join us the Singapore Geek Girls as we bring you our new study group, Geek Squad Drills: Introduction to HTML & CSS!

With just 10 minutes a day, you will have a working and running website by the end of 4 Saturdays!

So how does this study group work? Read more

Web design for beginners: a crash course in appealing to the brain, eyes and heart

For online businesses, good web design helps you to stand out from a sea of competitors and adds great value to users.

Achieving good web design though, can be deceptively difficult.

It involves creating a design that is both usable and pleasing, delivers information and builds brand, is technically sound and visually coherent. All of which are key elements for founders’ to keep in mind when you are building your next website.

At our recent Design Series workshops, we were lucky enough to have Ester, a web and interaction design lecturer from Nanyang Polytechnic, share about the principles of good web design.

Here are some of the basic principles we’ve distilled from her talk. Read more

What would you tell the richest woman in the world? Be a role model for other women

It’s official — mining heiress and businesswoman Gina Rinehart is the richest woman in the world and the richest person in Australia.

So what would you tell her to do with all that wealth, fame and status? That was the final question posed to panelists for The X Factor in Tech track at Echelon 2012.

Featuring tech entrepreneurs like Carmen Benitez, president of Fetch Plus, Roshni Mahtani, founder and CEO of Tickled Media, Kristine Lauria, Digital Media Consultant at Mission Street Media and Girls in Tech CEO and Founder Adriana Gascoigne, the session was peppered with debate about gender stereotypes and women bringing the X-Factor to startups. Read more

Lessons about Indonesia from Startup Asia Jakarta 2012

Indonesia is starting to steal the limelight away from traditional Asian tech superstars like India and China.

According to the Jakarta Globe, the country’s US$813 billion economy expanded by 6.5 percent last year and has been getting more attention with talks of its large market size, growing middle class and early adoption of technology.

Like every market, Indonesia has its own distinct quirks and issues that entrepreneurs need to pay attention to when starting a business there.

Here are five key trends that every startup founder should look out for based on the talks and interactions at the recent Startup Asia Jakarta. Read more

Video interviews with the who’s who of Startup Asia Jakarta 2012

I’m having a great time here at Startup Asia Jakarta 2012, chatting with industry experts, community leaders and startups based here.

Here are some quick videos to show what’s happening at the event.

Andrew Darwis, CTO of Kaskus

Kaskus is Indonesian largest online community. Andrew talks about the challenges of e-payments in Indonesia and how Kaskus is building it’s own payment gateway, KasPay to solve this problem. Read more

Startup Asia Jakarta – Demystifying Indonesia

Indonesia is a big market with huge potential – but it is also a tough one to crack.

Startup Asia Jakarta is to be held in the heart of Jakarta's CBD area.

With a population close to 240 million, entrepreneurs across the rest of South East Asia and the world flock here to seek for  opportunities for growth. What they often encounter though, is a market with distinctly different consumer behaviors and market trends. For these reasons, Indonesia has earned its’ reputation for being “the Wild West of tech entrepreneurship”.

(Read: Four things you must know about Indonesia, the Wild West of tech entrepreneurship) Read more