A few weeks ago, i was invited to speak on a panel discussion at an HP event
and to my utter delight,
the date happened to be scheduled perfectly during the time i was to be back in KL for the MINDstyle LIFEstyle event!

Talk about the Universe lining up things for me  

Landing in KL at 3:10pm on Wednesday,
I was supposed to be at Rootz at 5:30pm for briefing,
and had a horrible feeling there’s no way i can make it at stipulated time,
so i emailed Nuffnang to tell them i would most probably be late.

And i was.

By the time i got through immigration and customs it was 4:30pm.
By the time i got through the 50-minute taxi ride home not including traffic, it was 5:45pm.

BigDavid (from Nuffnang): Can you come straight?
Me: Are you kidding me… i look like utter shit right now! And i have this allergic reaction on my face so i really MUST put on make up!
BigDavid: No la, you always look good!
Me: David. I look like a peeling monster. It’s unacceptable.
BigDavid: Ok ok, just get here as fast as you can…

Poor fellow smsing me on my constant whereabouts and ETA.

It was jammed all the way from Jalan Duta to Jalan Bukit Bintang,
and i managed to reach the venue at 7pm sharp (time event starts).

Rushing in, i was quite relieved to see that no one was as kancheong as David and i -_-‘
and i wasn’t the last to arrive.
Mr I’m-More-Fashionably-Late-Than-You-Joyce-Wong aka Kenny Sia‘s flight landed later than mine,
and he had to rush straight from the airport.

If you haven’t already heard of this event, you must be wondering what IS THIS
that even Kenny Sia was being flown in for it.

Called Future Is, HP partners with Microsoft to bring together young influencers
to discuss the future of anything from technology to design, and fashion to environment.

The 5 influencers they invited were:
– Jojo Struys – TV host/celeb
– RedMummy – parenting
– ThatGirlCynthia – student
– Kenny Sia – because he’s just so femes technology
– KinkyBlueFairy (ME  ) – fashion + design

Even though they categorized us to show we’re from different lifestyles,
it didn’t really matter cos we all ended up answering questions for all of them anyway!

DoraemonKenny, me, SpiritualJo, RedMummy, ThatGirlCynthia

Will Quah emceed the event,
whom i must say was entertainingly cheeky (esp. to Kenny!)

This is Danny Lee.
He be the Country GM of Personal Systems Group, HP Malaysia.
He also be the person who made me drink more, and found my car (i couldn’t find it after the event -_-).
And saw me trip on my high heels and fall. Super -_-

This be me looking like a cartoon.
I think i must have been a cartoon character in my past life.
Every time i look at event pictures, i wonder why i look… like an animated character.

To be honest, at first i wasn’t sure how the discussion would go,
whether it would be boring,
whether we would run out of things to say, etc.

It went as well as i could have wished for!
I actually had so much fun yakking with them 4 on stage that i didn’t even *think* about how much time we had left.
I even raised my hand to answer some questions i wasn’t delegated, just because i wanted to speak up!  
Such a teacher’s pet wahaha

Because my memory is horrible and i’ll prollie mix everyone else’s answers up,
i’m just gonna note down some things i said.

Q: How would your notebook function, look, and feel – five years from now?

Seeing we were asked to go all out and be creative,
i said that seeing we now use two hands to type on notebooks that are getting lighter and smaller,
who knows, maybe in 5 years time we’ll have a laptop that can be affixed to one hand so we can walk around while doing other stuff.
Because time is money yo. (I didn’t say the ‘yo’ obviously :p)

Q: What do you think is the single most amazing technology innovation ever introduced to mankind?

At first i was thinking the obvious answer is the internet. Then they told us we couldn’t say that 0_o
Macam social exam okay, thinking what to say so you won’t sound stupid in public.

I came up with two answers i liked but told Will i’d only say one.
“You can say both!”
“Nah, it’s okay, i don’t think everyone would be interested in my second answer… so i’ll just say one.”
“Okay, what is it.”

I said teleportation.
Will then urged me to also state my second answer and i spoke about the new telescope that’s invented, how much more we would know about ourselves, other planets and life.
After babbling a bit too fast and excitedly for a while (i’m NOT sorry i LOVE THE UNIVERSE OK!), i realised the room had gone rather quiet, not knowing how to react to my statements >.<
So i laughed it off going, “See! I told you people wouldn’t be interested..!”

I can’t remember anything else i said worth mentioning here except for how a scientist invented a machine (although a bit slow for now) that lets him Tweet by thinking.

All in all, i had a lot of fun hearing everyone else’s answers,
pitching in my own,
and judging from the crowd,
they didn’t look bored at all either!

Besides the panel discussion that was held,
the event also launched Blog A Trend – an online initiative that’s taking place across four countries (China, Korea, Singapore + Malaysia).
This contest challenges the online community of bloggers, thinkers and budding futurists to predict a trend;
and they’ll all be competing to be the winner of Blog A Trend in their country!

Grand prize – HP TouchSmart600 All-in-One Desktop PC worth RM4,988
Second prize – HP Mini by Studio Tord Boontje worth RM1,599
Third prize – HP Mini by Studio Tord Boontje worth RM1,599

Just write a blogpost (at least 300 words), a photo story, or create a video about a compelling vision of the future.
Then email your post + link to cheryl.yab@hillandknowlton.com.my by January 17th 2010

It’s so easy cos you can blog about anything that’s a trend!
Blog about what people like, what they don’t like,
what you think they’re going to want in the future.
It can be an opinion about something.
Or something that is not part of everyday life just yet,
but you think will be very soon!

Here are some Blog A Trend topics in case you don’t know where to start:
– 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

I can think of  something for each category that i’d like to shout out,
so i’m sure you can too  

Blog A Trend is the catalyst to a vibrant online conversation about what the Future Is, through a vision of trends across every aspect of our lives.
For more on Blog A Trend, check out www.futureishp.com

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