After all the political drama in the office, I finally got a place to attend Global Brand Forum last Thurs for 2 days at Palace of Golden Horses.
Stood behind the tagline "When was the last time you were inspired?", I wonder if the currect and future sponsors still feel inspired.
1st day was not so bad. Although I wished that in the future, they would come up with a better way for registeration cos lining up for half an hour is just ridiculous!
Among the 4 speakers, at least 1 inspired me. And we made the conclusion that Malaysians r better speakers compared to foreigners from the forum, thanks to Datuk Tony Fernandez. Truely was inspired by him..esp the way he laughs! "haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...." that's how he laughed everytime he made jokes on MAS. hahahhaa. Truely amazing on how he thinks about his business. Truely a people-centric company. Well done. but even then, after his very entertaining speech which I'm sure converted some MAS loyalist towards AirAsia, I stay put for MAS. Cos i believe he was speaking and praising AirAsia from a CEO point of view. To Tony, my strongest suggestion would be for you to go on diguise and pretend to be someone else and fly on your flights. You will see a whole different view on you overrated-friendly-staffs stewardess, REALLY. Then again, he deserved the award la as a brand icon. He proved that dreams to come true and you have gotta take risks to be successful.
2nd day was very dissappointing as a whole. Lets go straight to the biggest drama of the event,
Ivanka Trump not showing up! Instead, she was on the screen. Worst, none of us were informed that she will not be around, and the whole act was like as if they've decided and assumed we will be OKAY with her on the screen while we sit back and watch the pre-recorded-vid of her. Where's the popcorn then?? Rhiz Khan, the mc was even talking to the screen between cuts as if he was literally talking to her LIVE, just before the technical team screwed it up (or in malay we say
kantoi) the whole thing with "RESUME" on the screen when they playback her vid. No Q&A was done except the pre-given questions the organizer had given her earlier on. Gosh...... seriously??? I think extra 200 participants (+-) were there during the 2nd day, and I'm sure partly because they and everyone else wanted to meet Ivanka Trump LIVE! It was bad lah.
Thats not the worst! Apparently
Mallika Sherawat, some controvesial Bollywood actress was to fill up half of Ivanka's time, to make up for her absentee. Being the typical dramatic-Bollywood actress who claims "my brand is rebellious!", she didnt come on time. With excuse 'tired' whilst the rest waited for her in the ballroom, and she in her grand hotel room. SERIOUSLY??
Hence Rhiz thought it's best to open the floor for Q&A and feedback while they drag her down. BIG MISTAKE. literally everyone who got up screw the organizer. One guy got up 3 times on Ivanka issue. I understand why.
But the worst part was when a UOB rep stood up to correct Global Brand Forum Chairman's statement in speech about UOB's move in Singapore to retrench 200 employees 2 days before Christmas and yet stand behind "United behind people" tagline. Karthik got the wrong brand!! It wasn't UOB. It was someone else with the same brand colour as UOB. How embarassing is that???
The chairman of GBF got the WRONG BRAND?? My my.....
The day got worst with Oliver Stone who stood up and said "I don't know why I'm here. I shouldn;'t be here..................
I'm anti-brand". Then what the hell r u doing in a GLOBAL BRAND forum?? "I happened to be in HK and going to Singapore, and the money is good". Nice.....wasted our money with ur babling on war and politics.
Owh Mallika showed up after that. I really have no idea y cos there's nthing that we could learn from her presence! One participant actually stood up and made a pretty rude remark about Rhiz saying sthing about Mallika and Oliver as great ppl, and said that is degrading to put her the same level as Oliver. WHAT??? all the dramaaaaaaaaaa.....goshhh
But as promised, the day ended the best way possible.
Martin Lindstrom totally captured us all. The forum turned into his personal workshop. I think nearly everyone was with eyes wide open during his presentation (except for Afdlin Shauki..). It totally blew us away. And the reality of advertising and brand was presented in the most transparent way possible. Amazing really. Unfortunate that none of my big shots were there. The guys with 'C' in their positions should have been there. Maybe then there will be good impacts on TM.
Anyways, despite the whole drama and lousy arrangement from the organizers, Im still very interested to attend next year's. Just to see what else can this ppl do to INSPIRE us. A lot of improvements need to be done, and I'm sure Media Prima can do that if they put "money money money" issue aside for a while and concentrate on the forum as a whole.
p.s- No article or news on the TRUTH about Global Brand Forum 08 in Malaysia out there. The news on TV and newspapers only report the 'good' part and didnt even mention anything about Ivanka not being there or what not. Everything twisted to as if ..wow...new techonology..hologram..n Ivanka participating ..crap. One thing i learn, not everything u watch in the news and read are the whole truth.
