Girl's Perspective | Experience | Fun | Criticism

The Platt 101: New York City’s Best Restaurants

2012-01-11T10:19:00.000+07:00

The Platt 101: New York City’s Best Restaurants

Planning is an odd job title

2011-12-22T20:14:00.000+07:00

Fern Miller, head of planning EMEA at LBi, explains why good planners are usually in great demand...

When I took up my new job at LBi, I used a Facebook status announcement to advertise to my social network that I was interested in recruiting new planners. The response rate was gratifyingly strong, but included several pitches from good, highly capable, friends of mine who work in event management, office services and other useful, organisational roles.

Planning, they all said, was exactly what they were good at. This was personally surprising and professionally interesting: as I say, these were people I have known for some time and who must presumably be baffled at my job title, since I am probably the least organisationally skilled person they have ever met. How on earth did they think I'd managed to hold onto a job for so long let alone become a head of it?

And on a more professional note, it was another reminder that what I call planning doesn't have much to do with what anyone outside an advertising agency might call planning. As I told my friends, what we do in planning in the companies I work at is more like strategy, or creative thinking, or consultancy. Few of us could organise our way out of a cardboard box.

Unlike my previous employers, my new company doesn't define itself as an advertising agency. At the last count, LBi's services included social media strategies, website design and build, CRM strategy and delivery, online communications, branded content development, managed services, analytics, user research, SEO and media, technology and several other disciplines I have no doubt missed off the list... it seems that the deeper you engage with your clients' digital futures, the more things there are to think about. The elegant simplicity of the Pollitt/ King agency account team has fractured into a proliferation of specialists and all-rounders, working together in a variety of combinations according to client needs.

Yet at the same time, there have been a series of industry-wide warnings that planners haven't made themselves invaluable or even necessary to clients. Some of these proliferations of specialists have come together without strategists present at all, and appear, to the general consternation of the planning community, to be functioning rather well. Perhaps our strange title hasn't done us many favours in defining what the point of our role is. Perhaps we have too long harboured an assumption that we'd be required, as the 'clever people'. Perhaps we've become a 'brains trust': awfully intelligent, but not awfully useful...
So, how do our 'new-fashioned' planners make themselves most useful? It seems to me there are many useful ways a smart person could help an agency. Providing a simple understanding of how ordinary folk respond to the messages your brand is putting out in all these newly available channels would be a good start.

As Jeremy Bullmore recently pointed out in his speech at the ICA, this would be an extension of the original vision of the planner as a dedicated member of the team whose job was to consider response rather than stimulus in the creation of marketing campaigns. There are useful roles in providing connections between disciplines too: I see my new colleagues in strategy working with teams comprising user-experience creatives, technologists, mobile specialists and media buyers, providing the overall strategic thread for the team.
There are also fantastic opportunities for those who can use their consumer insight to invent new ways for companies to express themselves, or even to invent new products and services altogether. Lastly, given the current economic climate, people who can use the many sources of data now available to define the value and relative effectiveness of any marketing activity should find themselves highly sought after.

The truth is, good planners are usually in great demand, whichever agency you work in. That's what prompted my original advertisement for more of them. And if they're any good, there will be people throughout the business tugging on the sleeves of people like me to send more of them in their direction.
In light of this, the upcoming IPA course, Excellent Account Planning, is going to call upon those people to tell us what they want from planning, so that our bright young things can consider how they can continue to develop the discipline in the future. My hope is that they'll think of new things to do altogether. Or at least a new job title that makes more sense to my friends.

The State of Cosmetics in 2011 With Exclusive Commentary About Becoming a Socially Conscious Spa

2011-10-06T14:41:00.000+07:00

Re-write from : www.skininc.com

With the cosmetics industry earning record revenues, with niche sectors, such as “men’s” and “organics” rapidly gaining market share, and with social media, eco-consciousness and cause-based consumerism greatly impacting product purchasing decisions, the cosmetics industry is an ever-changing behemoth that’s become integral to the national economy. But, what makes this insatiable industry tick, and will it continue to thrive amid consumers' collective quest to remain youthful, attractive and self-confident?

Veteran cosmetics executive Edward Schack, principal of EES Cosmetics Solutions, Inc., offers insight on past and current personal care industry trends and how the beauty industry has become far more than skin deep.

Buoyancy of the ‘beauty bubble.’ Despite an ailing recession, the U.S. cosmetic and toiletries sector generated more than $10 billion in revenue last year from 13,000 beauty-centered stores nationwide, according to Ibis World Reports. How will the industry remain recession-proof?

The burgeoning men’s cosmetics sector. American consumers spent $4.8 billion on men’s grooming products in 2009, according to market data firm Euromonitor International. In 1997, the figure was half that—$2.4 billion. The fastest-growing men’s segment is skin care (nonshaving products such as facial cleansers, moisturizers and exfoliants), with the category growing more than fivefold during the period, to $217 million from $40.9 million. A 2009 report by market research firm Packaged Facts also expressed optimism for the men’s cosmetics sector.

Role of ‘emotional bond’ in consumer loyalty to cosmetic brands. Cosmetic brands scored high on a Brand Keys “Loyalty Leaders” report, which found that, even in a bad economy, consumers stick with their favorite premium cosmetic brands alongside cheaper ones, also noting that the emotional connection forged with cosmetic brands is due to impact on self-image.

Why cosmetics top the list of shoplifted goods. "Health and beauty care items" accounted for 20% of all items stolen from supermarkets in 2008, according to a survey from the Food Marketing Institute, with Oil of Olay skin creams topping the list of swiped items.

Youth and cosmetics. According to The NPD Group Inc., in 2005 the average age a woman began using beauty products was 17; today it is 13.7. Experian Market Research shows that 43% of 6- to 9-year-olds are already using lipstick or lip gloss, 38% use hairstyling products and 12% use other cosmetics (J. Bennett: Newsweek article “Generation Diva”).

Cosmetic buying habits related to perceived health and safety concerns. According to Datamonitor, 28% of consumers currently deliberately avoid certain cosmetics or toiletries because of fears about certain ingredients, and 39% are somewhat or extremely concerned about parabens or petrochemicals used in beauty product formulations. U.S. Food and Drug Administration statistics confirm that cosmetics are one of the safest categories of products used by Americans: With more than 11 billion personal care products sold each year, only 150 adverse experiences (mostly skin rashes or allergies) have been reported.

How being ‘green’ affects consumer spending in the cosmetic category. According to Grail Research, a full 93% of consumers feel that a company being green is important to their purchase decision, with 80% of consumers citing “natural” as the most important green attribute for cosmetic/toiletry products. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2008 Annual Survey, manufacturers of beauty products consumed less than a third of the kilowatt hours of electricity relative to the average of other U.S. manufacturers. However, most are either not aware or cannot recollect companies' green initiatives.

The importance of socially conscious business practices. Consumers also value brands that support causes—85% of Americans have a more positive image of a product or company when it supports a good cause. The cosmetics industry is very involved in philanthropy and contributes twice as much to charitable causes than any other industry. Each year, beauty companies donate more than one million individual products and raise more than $2 million for cancer patients through the Look Good... Feel Better Program.

Schack tells www.SkinInc.com how can a company be socially conscious as well as make their clients aware of its social consciousness? First of all, the spa must genuinely have a heart for social consciousness. You can’t fake caring about the world around you and not just profits. When companies try, it’s usually quite evident and often fail miserably. In the realm of cause-driven commerce, actions speak louder than words and ultimately lead the way. It’s a way of thinking, and all staffers must be on board as social consciousness is a company culture, not a marketing strategy. Whatever the socially-driven mission of the company and no matter the cause being supported, it must be known to staffers at every level of the operation—from the CEO down to the receptionist—and implemented on a daily basis.

A company’s social consciousness often starts quietly, behind the scenes. Spas should be engaged in the community that they are in while maintaining the bigger picture as well. They should be seeking opportunities to give back and looking for areas of need that, in this economic climate, are seemingly endless. The most successful social companies today typically send a portion of their profits to charities of their choice—something consumers are now monitoring closely. Consumers want to feel good about where their money is being spent and are even willing to justify higher expenditures in kind.

Some of the best ways for a company to convey its socially conscious values is to weave information about its efforts into applicable marketing vehicles: websites, brochures, spa menus and the like. Spas can also tactfully use elegant signage highlighting the charities they contribute to and events they have supported, as well as ways they are specifically safeguarding the environment. For example, “We use all natural, organic products.” It’s also effective for spas to teach their staff members to engage this type of discussion in their conversations with the clients. Clients will sense the pride staff members have in being a socially conscious business, and clients will soon share that pride in frequenting a spa with charitable, cause-conscious values.

Ad Agency Trend : Talent / Crowdsourcing

2011-10-06T13:57:00.000+07:00

Re-write from Florrie Cohen on the report titled : Ad Agency Trends and Forecasts

At this year’s 4As Transformation Conference recruiting talent was one of the main points of discussion. Three holding company chiefs – Interpublic’s Michael Roth, WPP’s Martin Sorrell, and Omnicom’s John Wren – agreed that the industry needs to do a better job at recruitment. And, getting young people fired up about advertising is an issue. In fact, WPP’s Martin Sorrell called it “criminal neglect.”

While recruiting talent is a concern, retaining talent is also a challenge. Consider that Alex Bogusky (Crispin Porter + Bogusky), Gerry Graf (Saatchi & Saatchi) and Eric Hirshberg (Deutsch) all left their creative jobs last year. This movement among executives is a trend that is likely to continue as the market recovers.
To further drive home the challenge of employee retention, a survey by Arnold Worldwide and the 4As found that “30% of the collective agency work force will be gone within 12 months.” And, 96% felt they could easily get a job, partly due to the recovering economy.

Since digital is at the forefront, many agencies are turning to students for their digital knowledge. For example, WPP’s direct marketing unit Wunderman has apprenticeship agreements with over a dozen schools globally whereby students work a three-to-six month stint for Wunderman, receiving stipends and sometimes college credit in return. WPP’s JWT last year had a reverse-mentor program where children (aged 9-14) of JWT executives worked on specific client projects, under the assumption that kids have a better understanding of the digital world than much of the workforce. Meanwhile, Publicis’ Leo Burnett has a group called “energy pool,” which consists of 35 US young adults, many right out of ad schools and digitally savvy, who go into different accounts as needed. And, just recently, Campbell Mithun used Twitter to choose six summer interns, a way to interest students in an advertising career.

And, many agencies are ramping up their training programs to train both current staff and new recruits. Training was an area that went by the wayside during economic difficulties. JWT North America’s CEO, David Eastman, says the advertising industry now knows that training is “critical.” Currently, big agencies are said to spend some $750,000 to $1.5 million on training programs – many having formal online and in-house workshops with classes in social media marketing and mobile marketing, and others send executives to take classes at digital ad schools. JWT and Leo Burnett are two agencies that are making digital training mandatory for most employees, and Burnett is rolling-out full day or week-long “digital boot camps” for many executives.
And what about crowdsourcing? It’s here to stay was the conclusion at the 4As Transformation 2011 conference. It’s a way to gather a variety of ideas for a lot less money. In fact, some see the agency of the future as being small but garnering support from many external people.

Future of Agency Relationship

2011-10-06T12:06:00.000+07:00

Marketing Leaders Must Shift Their Expectations Of Their Agencies

Beyond “digitization” of media, the impact of the Internet on the way people communicate, absorb content, and interact continues to evolve.2 Forrester believes that these changes will drive us into the next phase of marketing, which we call the Adaptive Marketing era:
A period in which marketers must become more adaptable as new channels and constructs for interacting with consumers flood the market that must be tied to the overall brand promise.

In the Adaptive Marketing era, marketers’ new reality — and consequently those of marketing partners — is a world in which the ability, desire, and pace of change are constant, supported by a shift in focus:
· From outbound to surround. Consumers tell us that the marketing that they are exposed to is irrelevant to their interests3 And now consumers can opt out of telemarketing, direct mail, and email; they skip TV ads; and they will publicly blow the whistle on unacceptable advertising practices. Marketers recognize this problem: 62% believe that their TV advertising is less effective than two years ago.4 As Larry Flanagan, CMO of MasterCard, points out, his organization is now “moving from decades of push strategy to a more holistic 360-degree consumer strategy” in order to keep consumers engaged.
· From campaigns to experiences. In an Adaptive Marketing era, the old campaign mindset has to be put out to pasture, but most marketers and agencies still organize, sell, and service from a campaign mindset. The advertising ecosystem is ill-equipped to capture, analyze, and use insight about how to engage best with customers to improve their ongoing experience with the firm. As the former CMO at a global car rental company pointed out, “As media fragmented, agencies approached each channel the same way: as a new means of bombarding the consumer with our message. We found the quality of work declined over time while agencies floundered to layer on skills that just weren’t native to them.”
· From segmented “audiences” to individuals. The days of reach and frequency as effective advertising metrics are on their last legs. But most agencies still apply broad segmentation strategies to new channels. Consumers don’t want to be “targeted” as an audience — they want to participate. Yet most marketers and agencies have a long way to go to fully embrace the notion of customer participation. As one senior marketer commented, “We’re keen to embrace social media, but there’s also a part of me that thinks that anyone with a keyboard is dangerous.”

THE THREE I'S : A FRAMEWORK FOR AGENCY SELECTION
FOR ADAPTIVE MARKETING

Most marketers say that they will always need to outsource work for a variety of reasons. But as marketing challenges become ever-faster and more complex, marketers must rethink how, why, and to whom they outsource their marketing needs. In the Adaptive Marketing era, Forrester believes marketers must tap outsiders for (see Figure 3):
· Ideas: emotional connections that can be adapted to all touchpoints. The big ideas behind the “Mad Men”-era campaigns remain relevant because brands must still connect emotionally with their consumers. But digital experiences adapt faster. Consumer control and media fragmentation will require new approaches that help the message hang together wherever they are encountered.

· Interaction: ever-changing dialogue between brand and consumers. As marketing shifts to focus on pulling in customers, marketers need to rethink the interplay between paid, owned, and earned media.6 This requires marketers to find firms that can stay on top of the conversation wherever it is happening.
· Intelligence: real-time insight into customer behavior. The volume and interdependency of data gathered in multiple fragmented channels provide an opportunity for marketers to learn more about their customers than at any time in the past. The challenge is to gather, analyze, and create actions as these insights materialize.

Career Alternatives : Confusion

2011-09-27T11:28:00.000+07:00

I am a final year student, it’s my 7th semester now, but normally undergraduate students in Indonesia will finish their study at their 8th semester. I am studying communication study, with the specialization of advertising, and advertising could be a mix between marketing, literature, and art. This industry is currently kept developing and fast-changing as consumers’ move. This is unique as the shifting of consumers’ trend day by day, influenced by many many factors.

Okay, that’s the introduction of what I am studying and a bit overview about this industry. What intrudes me a lot this time and grabs my attention the whole day (when I’m awake) is that in this semester while I still have few subjects ongoing (including my final year project), there are several job offers and opportunities approaching me. Currently I already agree with the deal came from a global advertising agency, let’s say it MCE (it’s an abbreviation, you can guess it if you’re working or studying in this industry) as their permanent junior planner. Officially I will be start working on October 4^th (because I was asking for some times, and I was supposed to start earlier).

But... actually they already gave this offer to me since two months ago (when my final year hasn’t begun yet), and I was waiting for the fix confirmation (after the planning director told me if I was hired right after the interview) pretty long due to the hiring-freeze as what the managing director told me. Anyway, the managing director was the one who head-hunted me through LinkedIn. Yep, I was lucky, indeed. Since the uncertainty period was pretty long, I who already had three times internship (two in an ad agency, one in client side) was trying to look for another opportunities. Besides my boss at my former internship office (Robert Bosch) asking me to extend my internship period with a very big possibility getting hired as their permanent employee after four months (the position was Marketing Communications), I tried to apply for copywriter position in another two global ad agencies. One was LB, but it was for the internship and... unpaid. Actually I already passed the interview stage of which I met the Creative Group Head that really really fancy me, my work, and my brain. He wished if I could replacing the Creative Director in his team who is female and would resign soon and said that there was a possibility me getting the permanent position even when I’m still studying. But since the office location was far away from my residence and it was unpaid, I didn’t show my big interest, but a great confusion at the interview, while he already asked me when I would start be available!

The other agency initial was D, and I already met the Creative Director of which was really confused either to give me a pass or not, and suggested me to meet the Executive Creative Director (I haven’t been called yet by the ECD until now even he already promised so, though). And I also got an offer as a copywriter in a local agency, but I didn’t manage to send my resume and port folios until now. And... while waiting for the final confirmation from MCE, I put my courage to approach and ask to the Creative Group Head from two global advertising agency, let’s say it S&S and G. They just answered my message after I got final confirmation from MCE, haha, suggested me to send my resume and port folios to their email. But of course, I didn’t manage to submit them again! And again, at that idle moment, I also sent a message asking the founder of an ad agency with the head office in Australia (let’s say it NC) about the internship opportunity, and he replied it suggested me to send him email. But... I haven’t managed it, either.

And this is the most unbelievable one. There was just someone sent me an email stating an interest about my profile and asking if I had the same interest to join with their team. The person was the owner of a small local agency which had run for around 6 years, and previously he had tremendous experiences in a big global ad agency as an Account Director. The unpredictable one was the position of which he offered to me. It was for the BUSINESS MANAGER. It’s a very challenging role and I was thinking if he didn’t really read my profile and didn’t notice if I was a university kid, but actually he does! I knew it after I had a chat with him in Starbucks. At that time he told me lots of thing, start with some questions to me about advertising, strategy, brand, and myself (I managed to answer pretty good, confident, and clear I suppose), and tell me about his agency (the background, the clients, the staff, the works, the process, the condition, etc) pretty long and complete. I also told him if I will soon start working with MCE. It seemed if he really serious about the offer, even though I am still a junior in this industry. He wished me to be a replacement of his business director that will resign due to her maternity. It was clearly portrayed from our conversation if he was confident enough about my talent, my hidden skills, and my great-capability-will-be. He said he was interest about my profile and background and my writings. And honestly I was truly feeling appreciated for that. That meant a lot for me. I mean, how would you feel if the owner of an ad agency offering you a job with high position, roles and responsibilities? And he said you will be someone great in this business?

I really really confused (and impressed, of course). He said if someone with many experiences in this industry (like him) will have the capability to sense a talent in a junior (including a university kid), like me. Okay, and yes, it actually boosted my confidence level up. Besides one of my lecturer just few days ago told me if I was the best student in my batch (there was another one, my friend, well, my competitor actually), this kind of offer seems like assuring if I really have such great potential in this business. Umm... maybe when you see someone really enthusiast, hard working, passionate about something, and of course able to think really logic (in advertising studies case), that talent is there? Or, simply by seeing how someone is writing, and having a chat with him/her, that potential would be reflected and predictable? Since I’m still a junior, I don’t know yet about the answer, but I just believe in myself if advertising is my passion, and I keen to work on it and keep updating about it in every moment. It was funny and annoying and hurt to remember a friend of mine ever told me if one of my colleague in the ad agency of which the first time I took my internship was actually feeling really bored since I really often started a chat with him about advertising. Well, that’s when I was in my 2nd year of study, and at that time I really really had a strong desire to learn and know many! He should have known if that kind of enthusiasm was good. And he was saying, “She was the most enthusiast person I met when it came to talk about advertising, and I dunno why she could be like that. Why didn’t she say about the other things?” Haha. It was a satire remark and seemed like he thought if I was a weirdo. He, as a senior failed to understand my passion, and I supposed if my passion in this industry is much stronger than his (he is three years ahead of me anyway).

But as a person studying advertising, it doesn't mean that I am only interested in advertising. I also love music, K-pop, movies, culture, etc. Even I am a human rights volunteer and before I am studying in advertising, I had a strong passion in film directing and script writing.

Now I’m confused still about those offers (each one of them will lead me into different one with different experiences and skills) , myself, my study, and my career.

Is ad agency ‘star power’ overrated?

2011-08-10T16:53:00.003+07:00

Reblogged from Campaign Asia Blog
Originally written by Mike Fromowitz

Two nights ago, I found myself at a local pub engaged in a rather heated discussion with some agency colleagues. The topic was about whether ad agencies should or should not hire rock-star creative people to build their reputations and their bottom lines. The following are the highlights from that discussion.

The hiring of rock-star creatives can increase an agency’s ability to win new business, perform better in awards shows, raise awareness and enhance the agency’s reputation. On that point, everyone agreed. For some agencies, however, it’s proven to be a rather brief engagement.

Unless the ad agency has developed a culture for creativity that runs through the whole company, star-power can sometimes be a short-term band-aid. When the star performer picks up and leaves and takes his talent to another agency, the recognition, and the awards go down the elevator and out the door. Sometimes staff and clients follow.

Star power does not always guarantee the long-term success of an ad agency. A rock-star creative can drag down an otherwise positive environment. They are talented, no doubt about that, but when they are totally focused on their own interests, their often fragile egos and destructive bad habits can cost the agency a great deal of time, resources and make peoples’ lives miserable.

Primarily because of their past successes, star creatives are also unwilling to fit easily into the new organisation, without wanting to change it. Moreover, they don’t often stay with agencies for very long, despite the astronomical salaries firms pay to lure them away from their rivals. Once stars start changing jobs, they often keep moving to the next highest bidder.

Star power is no guarantee
For these reasons, agencies do not always gain a competitive advantage by hiring rock-stars. Instead, they should focus on growing talent within the organization and do everything possible to retain the stars they do create. Agencies shouldn’t fight the star wars, because winning could be the worst thing that happens to them.

The arrival of a highflier can result in creative coworkers becoming demotivated. Weeks before his arrival, they may worry that their jobs are in jeopardy—should the new star creative not think highly of their work. Stories are rampant of newly hired creative directors cleaning house and hiring on people they’ve worked with before. Coworkers’ suspicions are further fueled by the fact that the star creative will provide more resources to his newly hired staff than to the existing creative stalwarts. Loyal employees become embittered, because without similar resources they cannot perform as well as the new hired guns. Worse yet, they believe the new guy isn’t interested in tapping their potential. That often results in a demoralization within creative groups.

Most of us have, in our minds eye, an image of the rock-star creative. The person has extra-ordinary intelligence, has commitment, is a non-conformist, shows some absent-mindedness, can be stubborn, reveals a bit of volatility bordering upon madness, and above all, exudes an egocentricity so powerful that it often disregards the attitudes and opinions of others. Indeed, the star creative is not quite like the rest of us. Thus it is important for agency management to identify and understand the differences, as mismanagement of the star creative can lead to poor results, and can stifle his creativity rather than induce it. The most common mistake management makes is to “manage” the creative star by using the same standards they apply to their more conventional members of staff.

The cult of the creative personality

What drives creative people is plainly different than what drives others in an agency. Indubitably, they crave and enjoy fame. They don’t, in many cases, care about making money, either for the company or for themselves. Their motives are different. They are prepared to be judged by their output, a very important decision in their life. The work is their focus. It’s proof of their worthiness. They have a great need to be appreciated. Only politicians and sportspeople are equally subject to the cult of the creative personality. The vast majority of workers do their job anonymously, while the names of star creatives glitter around the world at the awards shows.

The fact that the creative star is judged by his/her output, exacerbates and makes them dependent upon egotism. Without an ego, creatives don’t seem to get very far. They are much more influenced by their own, inner standards than they are by those set by their profession. Indeed, this does breed some negative by-products. For example, most creatives are career-driven rather than company-oriented. Their innate rebelliousness inevitably leads them to dislike taking orders, and because creative genius is so rare, agencies have to learn to live with their whims and their tantrums.

The majority of star creatives are driven by the need to create and to achieve perfection, and difficult and painful though it often is, they put their hearts and souls into their work. A simplistic explanation for this would be that creative people enjoy what they do far more than others do.

The best creatives want to work in an agency with a creative reputation

To build their business, agencies often attempt to hire a creative person they can easily plug into their existing culture. Some agencies hire a creative star to increase the agency’s reputation. The smart ones, hire a creative star who has leadership qualities and who understands the importance of building a distinctive, long-term ‘creative’ culture.

It’s always been a bit of a controversial issue for the advertising world, but from my point of view, it’s really important that the agency Creative Director build a strong, award-winning team for the ad agency, rather than build his own reputation first. The ‘star’ model does not always guarantee success, and may be shortsighted and sometimes harmful to the agency and its image.

Without a creative reputation, however, most agencies are unable to recruit top stars, top writers and art directors, top talent of any kind. The talent will be concerned about the effect upon his own reputation for working in an agency with a poor creative image. The best creative people want to work with agencies that already have a creative reputation. That way, they believe they are guaranteed some good work for their portfolios. Some may accept less money and even lousy working conditions to do so. Working alongside top creative stars also helps to burnish their talent and provide them with the opportunity to enhance their own reputations and value for the future.

One of the creative directors in the group opined: “You can’t argue that someone who is exceptional in their role is not just a little better than someone who is pretty good. If you hit it lucky, you may have found someone who is a thousand times better.”

He added: “I think smaller agencies often do not try to hire the best and the brightest, because they are incapable of understanding real, game-changing talent. Usually, when a small agency hires a star, the star rocks the status-quo too much because the small agency just doesn’t understand the brilliance of the creative idea, or the idea just scares the shit out of them. But larger agency brands have to jump on the next shining star, or their competitors will.”

Creative stars keep the agency culture alive

The big agencies groups have jumped on the trend to find star talent, enthusiastically buying up a string of small start-ups, especially digital ad agencies. Neither the acquired nor the acquirers like to talk numbers. But the acquisitions are generally for a lot of money. Agency heads say the deals are worth it because they need creative stars and entrepreneurs who can help them keep their creative culture alive.

There is not a lot of proven creative talent in areas like social networking. Some ad agencies are sure to look back and realize that they overpaid in some cases. But in the heat of the moment, clients have put the pressure on agencies insisting on more creative ideas and engagement. Since they don’t believe they have a lot of options, agency management feels justified in hiring creative rock-stars.

I reflected on the time when, after six years with The Ball Partnership, I was headhunted by the chairman of BSB/Bates out of New York. I was not at all interested in joining the agency because of its lackluster creative image and its “suit” lead management. Word on the street was that the ‘suits’ got in the way of the creative work, and many creative staff were disgruntled and ready to bail. The Ball Partnership, on the other hand was an ad agency where every suit did a great job. They lived and breathed their work; they believed in the creative ideas and in selling them with conviction. Not all suits do that, and unfortunately, Bates had a number of them.

However, Carl Spielvogel, the Chairman and founder of the company, was able to convince me that I could turn this to my advantage. He pointed out that “here was a unique personal opportunity, to improve the quality of the work and build the company’s creative image”. His strategy worked on me, and after our second breakfast together in the Mandarin Oriental Grill, I felt like a hawk inspecting a tasty morsel. Turning around a big lumbering agency is never easy. You have to work hard to make the dream come true. But it can happen if you can get everyone to focus on great creative work.

Talent is everything

No discussion on the topic of “star power” can take place without some great examples of creative star performers. One name kept surfacing in our discussions—David Droga, the young creative star who happily traded his dream of becoming the next great copywriter/art director for a shot at superstardom as a creative director.

No one in the business has won so many awards as David Droga and he’s still on top with his own agency Droga5. David has won more than 40 Cannes Lions, a dozen D&AD awards and 23 One Show pencils. He’s achieved the Global Agency of the Year at the Cannes International Advertising Festival in 2002, 2nd Most Awarded Agency in the World according to the 2002 Gunn Report, was named the World’s Top Creative Director by Ad Age Magazine 2002, and was named one of the 40 most influential people in Europe under the age of 40 by Media Magazine 2001.

David started at Omon in Australia and after winning a few lions, he became creative director and partner at the age of 22. He was then hired as Creative Director of the Saatchi & Saatchi operation in Singapore. The agency rapidly became the best in the world, and Droga was promoted to Executive Creative Director of Saatchi & Saatchi in London. Of course, the agency became the best in the world some years later, promoting him once again as Worldwide Chief Creative Officer of the Publicis group. Naturally, he became bored with it all and wanted to return to his true creative roots, so he escaped and opened his own shop Droga5 in New York and Sidney.

Another brilliant creative man who really doesn’t need an introduction, is Neil French. Neil, who led Ogilvy’s worldwide creative for many years and then moved to oversee the entire WPP network, put O&M’s culture in perspective: “Talent is everything. Don’t look at what people have done: Look at what they could do, given the chance.”

Mr. French, a brilliant writer, wonderful art director and savvy Creative Director said: “I wouldn’t hire recognised creative ’stars’. I’d hire people I admire, who’d quite like to be stars, but wouldn’t lay down their lives for it. Want some names? Al Jackson, Richard Johnson. Edward Ong, Mike Sutcliffe, Tim Crowther, Jack Fund. Never heard of most of them? I’ve got dozens of names in my file, all of whom could be demi-gods, and some of whom will. With these people an agency would become great in no time. Talent is everything. Don’t look at what people have done: Look at what they could do, given the chance.”

It’s hard not to admire what creative people like David Droga, Neil French, Tham Khai Meng, Gerry Graf, David Guerrero, and other creative stars have accomplished. In an economy that relies more heavily now than ever on creativity and innovation, the gap between what a highly creative and productive person can do and what an average creative person can do is getting bigger and bigger.

It must have been close to midnight, yet our discussion group of nine senior ad agency executives remained fully engaged, especially with the following questions being tabled: “If you are building a company, would you prefer one standout person over one hundred pretty good people? If you were launching a new ad agency or a product, would you rather have one great creative mind rather than 100 average creative people?”

Can one star outperform 100 mediocre people?

Perhaps the question of superstar vs 100 good people will continue to be debated for years. Is success tied to individual brilliance or group genius, self-possessed superstars or well-rounded teams? Are we fielding a team, or assembling a small collection of creative people lead by a rock-star? Is one Shakespeare worth more than one hundred Bukowskis, Dostoevskys, Huxleys, Steinbecks. Tolstoys, Faulkners, Joyces, or Hemingways?

In today’s ad industry, the strong may take from the weak, but it’s the smart that take from the strong. As was noted earlier, large agency brands shell out big dollars to acquire a company, not to buy clients any longer, but to hire a few creative superstars and make a huge impact.

Case in point: WPP’s buyout of Batey Ads in Singapore—the ad agency famous for creating the ‘Singapore Girl’. The agency was known for bringing in creative stars from around the globe. Their work was often times nothing short of brilliant. But it was also a swinging door and its creative stars never stayed on too long. However, once it was bought out by WPP, and its long serving management had left the agency, its unique culture was no longer. Today, the agency doesn’t exist, though its reputation still lives on. The same holds true for The Ball Partnership which hired Neil French as its Regional Creative Director. The company was bought out by RSCG, the name was changed, good people moved on, and the culture slipped out the door. The Ball Partnership name no longer exists, yet it’s reputation as one of Asia’s top ranking creative shops far exceeds that of it’s buyer.

Certainly ad agencies like DDB, O&M, BBDO, Leo Burnett, and JWT have stayed in the game for decades because they understand that groups are as important as individuals, that character counts along with credentials. Yes, they have bought their superstars and mavericks, and in many cases they have made their companies more attractive to young hotshots that might otherwise gravitate to companies like Crispin Porter, BBH, Wieden & Kennedy, Goodby Silverstein, Fallon, Mother, and Taxi. Or to digital agencies like Razorfish, R/GA, AKQA, Organic and Sapient. To their credit, they have immersed themselves in a system that emphasizes group cohesion and collaboration over me-first individual achievement.

Some companies continue to believe in star creatives, because they don’t believe in systems. In a way, that’s understandable. Groups don’t write great TV scripts, and committees don’t conceive the next great campaign idea. Ad agencies don’t just create, they also produce their ideas and coordinate the efforts of many different people. The system is the star.

Is their more to long-term performance than the excellence of one individual star player? Are winning teams more than just a collection of talented individuals? Do you think that most creative directors of ad agencies hire people better than themselves?

David Ogilvy once said: “Hire people who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it. Look for people who will aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine.”

This article is certainly not an argument in favour of mediocrity. Nor is it a plea for some ad agencies to give up their superstars. Perhaps it is more a plea for agencies to find a way to navigate a world that goes in and out of endless booms and busts, of bubbles and popped bubbles, battles for talent and extended periods of unemployment for some very talented people.

A few more points were tabled by the discussion group before we broke up at about 1:30 in the morning:

1.The best creative people to get great work out of are the ones that want to please themselves, rather than please you.
2.It can be frustrating to work with some star creatives. The secret is not to deal with them but to deal with their work. Liking them or disliking them need not come into it.
3.You have got to be willing and able to work with star talent you dislike. Otherwise you could cut yourself off from a great deal of good talent.
4.To manage creative people you have to understand their personality traits and idiosyncrasies, and never treat them like weirdos.
5.Smart creative people surround themselves with even smarter people who do the things they can’t or don’t have time for.
Your turn. How do you manage star creatives? Are they worth the trouble?

So, You Want To Work In An Ad Agency?

2011-08-01T23:50:00.001+07:00

Reblogged from The Atlanta Egotist

I sometimes get notes and phone calls from random college students and recently graduated job seekers that heard from someone that I work at an agency they admire. I was on a roll and just wrote this latest kid a novella, since I can't sleep tonight anyway. Thought it might make for a blog post if you're having trouble sleeping too.

WARNING: If this doesn't make you go to sleep then you may need to go into advertising.

On 06/01/11 3:31 PM, XXXXX XXXXXX wrote:
--------------------
Eric,

Thank you for getting back to me so soon. A lot of my questions revolve around two main points. I am new to the whole idea of working at an agency. Until recently it hadn't even hit me as an option. But now that I have been more involved in my advertising and design classes I realized that is where my strengths lie. So I guess my main questions for you are what are the different opportunities/positions available at an agency, and what can I do to prepare for an internship at an agency?

I would also love to hear your story and experience. Xxxx Xxxxxxx told a bit of your background with working for Volkswagen, but it would be great to know more. I'd also love to hear from you what agency life is like. Pros? Cons? Favorite aspects? I am just an ad agency sponge that wants to soak it all in.

Thanks so much for taking your time to help me out with this. I appreciate it.
--------------------

MY REPLY, POOR KID:

Oh dear. So much to learn. It's good you want to learn. But you'll have to become your own student and not rely just on school and formal programs. Be a geek if you enjoy it. If you don't enjoy it, what do you enjoy? Do that. Here's a giant checklist to start so you're never bored.

1. Subscribe to the daily AdAge and AdWeek Emails. Read the articles. Other options are BrandWeek, and a quick updating, kinda gossipy ad trade blog agencyspy.com. Be in the know. Know way more about agencies all over the country (and world) than your young gun peers. If you are the most ad industry savvy of your peers at BYU-I, that doesn't mean much, but it's where you should be anyway. It's a good start.

2. Pick up books by ad veterans, like Paul Arden (i.e. "Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite," and "It's Not how Good you Are, It's How Good You Want To Be." They are super cheap and worth owning and reading about once a year.) Watch movies like "Art & Copy." Read books about culture that interest you. Know what's going on, even if you don't have time to know everything deeply, just know it's there.

3. Get digital. Follow websites like thefwa.com, be a geek on gizmodo.com and understand what flash is, HTML 5 is, different types of web banners, email marketing, CRM schemes, social media trends of the hour, social media marketing campaigns of the hour. How does an agency go about building an entire website to serve a client's goals? Why do the sites do what they do and how do people end up there? Where do they go from there? What's a KPI when it comes to online marketing? This will evolve about as quickly as you learn it, so it's a fun hobby to stay on top of.

4. Become a fan and student of advertising that's not advertising at all. Powerful messaging comes from a powerful product truth. How can the company bring that product truth to life in the consumer's life in a way that changes culture, not just takes advantage of current, already existing trends?

5. Get an internship at a big agency for the exposure. Doesn't have to be giant with offices all over the country/world, but should have national accounts and do really smart, strategic, creative work. If you start there (EVEN FOR FREE), you'll have many more options in your future. You can always settle down for a boring job that isn't as chaotic and demanding later. But you may not always be able to jump into the creative bandwagon. Be willing to move and live in Miami, Minneapolis, LA, NYC, Portland, San Francisco, Austin, Boulder, Richmond and other cities I'm surely leaving out. If you're hesitant to drop your life in one location and go for the gold at a crazy low paying job at a worldly agency in a place you've never been, then you'll be limited to what your options are in the future. If you're flexible and adventurous in college and the first 5-8 years after (and work like a mad man and never stop learning), it'll open up more doors and put you near the top of recruiters lists later. Be willing to work your butt off - nights, weekends, be the guy that will go pick up food at midnight and build binders or proofread copy when what you'd rather be doing is hanging out with your family and friends. It'll get better, promise. Kinda.

6. Be humble and smart. Although you may be intimidated by all the progressive hipsters that seem to fit in so well in this industry, you can be yourself. Be natural and real. But make sure that "yourself" is super smart and nice to have around. Of course, if you're a creative urban type, that's an advantage and will help you fit in on top of your smart humility. But first and foremost surround yourself with people smarter than you and soak in everything you can.

7. The resume and interviews: What makes you stand out? (Not just 'what makes you qualified,' although that's obviously important.) Find it early and make it something worth having, hiring and paying for. Make sure it's clear on your resume and the cliche' stuff isn't getting in the way of seeing why you would be the kind of person that a CEO would want representing him and his company / agency. If you think that person wears pleats and looks like he just got his hair cut with the #3 clippers on the sides and back, then you may be right. But you're probably not interviewing at my agency.

(Exhale)

Good thing I'm a bit of a loner insomniac this week, working out of town. I'm pretty sure I just wrote the skeleton of a presentation I could give at the next BYU-I Communications Day. Know who puts the guest speakers together? Ha.

As far what job you want in the agency, that's something only you'll know. If you don't know what departments are in a typical larger agency and how they tick and roll along, learn that. Here's a really basic agency structure 1.0 resources i just found with one Google search:
http://drypen.in/advertising/agency-structure-of-advertising-agency.html

Scour agency websites about the jobs they have open to see what on earth they are even called at various agencies. i.e. Some places call Account Management "Content Management." Account Planners (or just "planners") can be "Cognitive Anthropologists." Not kidding. But most agencies share the same or similar names for positions.

AGENCY JOBS:

Planners find the cultural and business insights that shape a creative brief and the strategy we sell to clients and build work from. In a good agency, they are the unsung heroes of the best work.

Creatives take that strategy and come up with how to apply it to the media. They are copywriters and art directors, creative directors. There are also studio workers and designers, creative technologists and other specialties, but mostly writers and artists that are supremely creative and hard working.

Traffic Managers (or Project Managers) help guide creative and account Managers toward a deadline. They keep all projects on track, organized and on schedule internally.

Account Management (or Account Services or Content Management) are the liaison between the clients and the agency. They are the central hub of organized, client friendly ad experts that work with every department inside the agency as well as vendors and partners outside the agency, not to mention clients, of course, to guide a campaign or project from before its inception (when the client comes to the agency with a task, i.e. a new product launch, or rebranding) all the way through the brief and concepting and back and forth with clients, and media planning and into production to create the TV or Radio or print or OOH (out-of-home) or online work or all of the above, to the details of pushing that work out into the world through whatever means or partner companies you work with to get it into the real (or digital) world, to the post-launch analytics and post-mordems and continual beta tweaking and optimizing (for digital work, it's rarely "finished," even after launch)....then it all starts over and projects overlap so you're always juggling and managing something. This is what I do. Account people need to be experts of their clients' industry within weeks, whether that's cars or phones or pizzas or credit cards or online services, and they need to be friends and champions of everyone within the agency as well. A good account person remembers that he works for his agency, not his client. That is sometimes easy to forget.

Production: producers are the cool cats that actually create the TV spot or digital marvel the creatives thought up but have no idea how to actually create. They have the resources and knowledge to guide the approved ideas into actual work that consumers end up seeing and interacting with. There are broadcast producers, interactive producers, print producers, etc. Each is pretty specialized.

There are more, i.e. media planners, media buyers, business affairs, art buyers, analytics, interaction designers, and all the overhead positions that keep the employees paychecks coming and building functioning, of course. At least in a big agency. The smaller the agency, the more that stuff may be done by anyone from the owner to the "new kid."
--------------------

That's all I've got in my system tonight. I'd recommend you get out there and get inside some agencies so you can see what they look like on the inside. Talk to more people and see if I'm just full or crap, so you can get a wider perspective.

But above all, do #5 above. The rest will come naturally if you're actually excited and interested in it.

Best,
eric

This piece is cross-posted from Eric Forsyth's blog and The Denver Egotist

Google+ , U Got One Already?

2011-07-24T00:30:00.003+07:00

Google+ is a big hit in the world now, with over 20 million users and it's dominated by male! Although it's not that booming in Indonesia, (there are around 5 millions Google+ users in US, and around 3 millions in India), but some Indonesians who are social media geek and those working in creative field, already signed up for this. So, what's so different about Google+? They have Circle (it's about interest centric interaction, you can split into some, e.g : friends, family, colleague, following, etc) which defines how u'd share your relations to anyone connected to you, Sparks (your interest), Hangouts (group video chat), +1 (for how you can share any articles u read to Google+), and more importantly, PRIVACY! The privacy here let you modify how your connections can view your profile, and you can modify who can see anything you post, either it is a person or one of your Circle.

BUT... most of Indonesians currently not really into it (means using it daily as well as Facebook and Twitter), BECAUSE... most of their connections are on Facebook and Twitter. In reality, most Indonesians are only have less than 50 connections / friends on Google+. So, how can u increase the numbers of your connections? Will you just randomly add anyone on Google+ you saw? It's not like that. U can actually transfer thousands of your Facebook friends into Google+ so you can expand large amounts of connections that you already built.

Just watch this video tutorial

You can also gain more contacts on your Yahoo! Messenger directly imported from ur Facebook contacts' automatically. So you can chat with them whenever you see them online in Yahoo! Messenger (rather than using complicated new Facebook chat features). Let's have a try, and see how many connections can you gain! FYI, I found nearly 100 connections from Facebook in Google+.

How much will you value your friends and your data on social network?

2011-06-05T23:49:00.011+07:00

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The video illustration case of Friends on Facebook

After you saw the video above, you could be surprised when you thought like : "Does Facebook have such an application like that?" Or maybe some of you may thought that the application on the video was the idea of how the video creator thought about the social network or Facebook should be. The correct answer is the second guess. When you have seen the full video, you absolutely will know the reason for that. In the social networks, especially Facebook, some Facebook users have so many friends, exceed 1000, or even close to 5000 friends. The question is : Do they know all of their friends on Facebook or can they remember all of their Facebook friends' name? The answer will be 'definitely no.' The research from GoodMobilePhones surveyed over 1,522 Facebook users and found out that the average Facebook user doesn't know a fifth of their friends!

So, it seems that lots of Facebook users are friending only to have more friend collections and probably so that they will seem more to be popular when they have more friends than others. The next question, do one and other friends on Facebook you have are equally important? Well, Facebook might think so. Even when you can customize your parents, brother, sister, or cousins and give them the right title of who they are to you as the actual condition, what about the rest of "non family friends" you have? Besides, this title only just appear on your profile, not more. Facebook respectably see that all the friends you have on Facebook are equally important to you, your family, your classmates, boyfriend, girlfriend, colleagues, people you met at conference, neighbors, or even people that you never met, both in case when you actually know who they are or you don't. In fact, whether you have 400 or 4000 friends on Facebook, you only communicate with some of them in the real life, and so does on Facebook. For example, when you post some information on people's wall to ask them for support, most of the time, you may only post information to someone's wall that you really know, for the reason that the probability of them supporting you would be bigger. Then, maybe you'd do this to 50 of 600 friends you have. See? Only some friends on Facebook that really "that important" to us, in a way that we can communicate with them a lot in a wide range of topics.

But would you be willing to sacrifice the rest of your 550 friends on Facebook to be removed? Maybe some of you would be, but only few people that you really really don't know. Why not all? The reason might be, because I still want to see the updates from them, their status, photos, videos, and also their birthday, so that I will be able to post birthday greetings on their wall when they're having birthday. Or I can talk to them when I need them someday through their wall or message. Anyway, you must have been noticed that now Facebook is integrating Facebook message and chat in one stream. So, when you want to send a message to a person, and the person is now online at the time you send the message, then you will chat directly with them through the chat window. Personally, I think that the feel and situation between when you chat and send a message to someone is somewhat different. You would be dare to chat with them when you really know them and you think that they will be available at that moment to talk to you. But with the message, it's more free, means you will still be dare to send a message to your killer professor, for example, when you are scared to chat with them directly. But when your killer professor is online and you want to send a message to them, then you will have to wait to see him offline, so you can send "an offline" message.

Well, the little illustrations above may have already explained that the connections you share on Facebook between one friends and another are different. Just like, for most person, they only often (means almost everyday, or at least they do it once in a week) have wall-to-wall conversation with less than 10 friends they have. The situation will be the same with the activity of commenting or liking photos and status of their friends. Even at one time they see many status from 20 of their friends in the news feed, they may only give comment or "like" to the person that pretty close to them (whether in real or cyber world) compared with the other friends that they don't share a close connection, even when those other friends post very interesting photos and status and you see and read it on your news feed.

Talking about news feed, sometimes you might ever be in a situation when you see in your newsfeed that few of your friends (or not few?) post something (status, pictures, etc) that is really irritating, annoying, or make you angry or jealous, don't you? Or are you a kind of person who will post anything about your life on Facebook and somehow you don't want certain of friends to see it? So, maybe you ever wish that you can hide your status from some friends, and vice versa, you may not wish to see someone's status? Well, the good news is that on Facebook you can control it by modifying your privacy setting (under the Account tab), and then click the "customize settings" (the one written in blue color letters). You can change it by changing on "post by me" between Things I share by clicking the customize option and you can hide it from some friends that you desire (to hide your status, photos, etc that you post in order those person will not able to see it on their news feed). And if you don't want to see any annoying updates from some annoying friends that you have on your newsfeed, you can change on "Can see wall post by friends" between the Things others share, and you can select customize then type the name of your friends in "Hide this from These people...."

Was that easy? No, it wasn't, the bad news is, when you want to select many friends (e.g. around 70 from your 800 friends. Those 70 are all your seniors at college). So here, it is important for Facebook users to customize their connections and interactions, so they can classify between their 1500 friends, which one are their classmates, friends at the same school at the same extra activity with them, people they met at conference, family, boyfriend, ex-boyfriend, neighbors, employers, colleagues, high school friends, people thay they never met but they know, or even people that they don't know at all. Aside from that it can make easier for Facebook users to post information, share story, or hide their updates; it will be easier for them to remember their tons Facebook friends, where they meet, what connection they share, etc. Just like in the illustration video from Youtube above, you can classify your Facebook friends that you ever met under the Facebook "I know your name" application. But it should be highlighted that this mechanism is totally different with Facebook group. You can still see all the updates from all of your friends in your news feed no matter what connection you share if you wish to, or you can give a restriction "only for your colleague friends", for example, that will only be able to see your updates in their news feed. It will be much easier than selecting one by one name of your 1500 Facebook friends to check "who are my employers on my friend lists?"

So, maybe you will start thinking about the "interest-centric-interaction" on social networks. Because nowadays most social networks have the same perception that between one and another friends that the users have, all of them the are the same important, so when one shares something, it will worth the same to all of their friends. Yet, the real condition, is that it will have the same value to all of their friends who have the same interest with them or share the same connection, such as under the same company, or else. Now you can check your Facebook newsfeed, and you can make a selection between the recent updates from all of your friends, "which one is relevant to you?" After that, you can go to your friend lists, can you classify in 3 minutes who are your classmates among your 1000 friends? And when you see someone's (or more) name and photo in your friend lists or in a tab of Friends having birthday, have you ever been in a situation when you start thinking who is he/she, and how did you know he/she? That is similar but different with the story in the video above, when someone forget someone's name but actually they know each other. That is, Facebook fails to address that issue. Friends are important, but do all of them share the same connection, have the same interest with you, and equally important to you?

Ok, now let's talk about the data or content you have on Facebook and other social networking sites. Do you think that when you post something and add information on your Facebook wall or profile, those contents will only be yours and only visible to your friends? Ok, maybe my friends will see my cute photos and save it in their laptop memory. No, it's way more dangerous, complicated, and worse than that. It's not only me who have that kind of perception. In 2010, Sophos's "Security Threat Report 2010" polled over 500 firms, 60% of which responded that they believed that Facebook was the social network that posed the biggest threat to security, well ahead of MySpace, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Writers for The Wall Street Journal found in 2010 that Facebook apps were transmitting identifying information to "dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies". The apps used an HTTP referrer which exposed the user's identity and sometimes their friends'. Facebook said, "We have taken immediate action to disable all applications that violate our terms." As Tom Eston, creator of the web site socialmediasecurity.com points out, the very business model Facebook, and other social networking sites like Twitter, stands on is making user information as public as possible in order to generate new ways to make money. What kind of business is it? We reveal it later. Facebook said in one of its privacy setting, "The more info you share, the more social the experience". Ok, so, how social it would be? It would be too surprisingly social, as Facebook also change its settings to Facebook users info.

The changes were introduced on April 18, 2010. Before, the users can hide some information, such as friends list, hometown, and likes and interest. But after those changes, it became publicly available and couldn't be hidden. Even more,"As a result of these material changes, Facebook requires users to designate personal information as publically linkable 'Links,' ‘Pages,' or ‘Connections' or to no longer make such information available,"the complaint states. Many Facebook users previously restricted access to this profile data, which includes users' friends list, music preferences, affiliated organizations, employment information, educational institutions, film preferences, reading preferences, and other information." When the changes went live, Facebook presented users with a pop-up screen compelling them to link their profiles to various pages selected by Facebook based upon content entered manually into the user's profile. The user could either link their profiles to all selected pages, choose pages individually, or click the "ask me later" button.Well, those are the complaints given from Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and Federal Trade Commissions (FTC) demanding that Facebook cancel new features introduced in mid-April that compel users to share more information than before.

EPIC writes in the complaint, "Even if users designate content as private, Facebook will hide the information on the user's profile but disclose it elsewhere, such as on friends' pages, community pages and third-party websites. For example, even if users disable Facebook's new "instant personalization" feature, their information may be disclosed to third party websites if any of their friends have not disabled the service." Talking about third-party, it must be about business and the money always comes from advertising and other business involved in it, such as applications you sometimes use on Facebook. In the latest episode of the gang that couldn't get privacy straight, it was revealed by the Wall Street Journal that many of Facebook's popular applications were unintentionally transmitting the names of the social network's members and, in some cases, their friends' names to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies.

According to Symantec, certain Facebook applications have been inadvertently leaking "access tokens" to third parties such as advertisers and analytic platforms. Symantec estimates that close to 100,000 Facebook apps were enabling this leakage in February 2011.When you install an application on your Facebook account, a little window pops up. This window usually asks you to give the application certain permissions, such as the ability to see your info and publish posts to your wall. When you click "Allow," the application is granted these permissions--which are also known as "access tokens." Most of these access tokens expire after a short period of time, but Facebook also allows applications to request "offline access tokens." Offline access tokens allow the application to access your Facebook account even if you're logged off, and do not expire until you change your Facebook password.

Facebook has been alerted to the situation and has fixed the problem, Symantec is happy to report. However, third parties may still be able to access your information if they were given offline tokens that don't expire until you change your password. So this means you should change your password. So, what kind of our information can they access? Facebook merely said that it will only be the basic information that we set to "everyone". Case in point: A quiz designed by the ACLU that shows Facebook users just how much information they hand over to application developers every time they agree to install a new app. Want to take that quiz to find out who you were in a past life? Each time you do, almost everything on your profile, even if you use privacy settings to limit access, is made available to the creators of that application.Yes, almost everything on your profile. You may check at 'Privacy Settings' under the 'Account Tab' and click on 'Edit your settings' under the 'Apps and Websites' at the bottom of the page. On the 'Apps you use', you may see what applications you currently ever and still use. And when you click on Edit Settings, you will be directed to a page where you will find "You have authorized these apps to interact with your Facebook account" and the names of the apps. Click 'Edit Settings' on the app you desired.

For example, when you use friend.ly, and you click on 'Edit Settings', you will see something like this :

It said that "This app can : access my basic information, access my profile information, access my contact information, access my family & relationship, access my photos and videos, access my friends' information, post to my wall, and access my data any time. At 'post to my wall' and 'access my data any time' on the right side you can find 'remove' tab, means you can remove that function from the app, so that the app friend.ly won't be able to post to your wall and access your data anytime again. But, what about other functions? It said 'required', means you can't change them and the app will still be able to access those information from your profile. It seems that EPIC complaint was right, Facebook still disclose the information to the third party, which in this case the app developers, even when we set it to private. If we don't like it, we can remove the app, but just bear in mind that the app still has our data and information before we remove it. Just like what it stated on Facebook FAQ about the applications on Facebook, "Does deleting an application from my profile mean that the developers no longer have access to my information?"

No. Deleting an application from your profile simply means that an application will no longer have access to any new information that you share. If you would like a developer to permanently delete all of your information, you will need to contact the developer directly by following the directions outlined here.

and another point that Facebook mentions, "Keep in mind that if you'd like the information that you've shared with the application to be permanently deleted from their records, you will need to contact the developer directly."

Just like what EPIC complained to Facebook "... their information may be disclosed to third party websites if any of their friends have not disabled the service." The service means applications on Facebook. So, even we are not using or has removed the application, but our friends are still using it, so the application can still access our information, and vice versa, when we're using the application, but our friends aren't, the app may be able to access the information from our friends. But we can control it just like what it stated under "General Application Support : Application Safety and Security" on Facebook, "You can control which of your information is available to applications and websites when your friends use them by going to the "Info accessible through your friends" section on the Applications, Games, and Websites page. To get to that page, go to the Privacy Settings page from the "Account" drop-down menu located at the top of any page on Facebook and click on the "Edit your settings" link under the Applications and Websites section towards the bottom of the page".

You can unchecked the boxes, if you don't want that information to be accessible by the apps through your friends when they use it.

Has it done already? No. There is another shocking thing. On May 2010, Network World discovered that Facebook apps are added to our profile without our knowledge. "If you visit certain sites while logged in to Facebook, an app for those sites will be quietly added to your Facebook profile. You don't have to have a Facebook window open, you don't need to be signed in to these sites for the apps to appear, there's no notification, and there doesn't appear to be an option to opt-out anywhere in Facebook's byzantine privacy settings. The apps appear to be related to Facebook's latest sharing features and tools. The sites currently leaving this trail all have Facebook integration, and the list includes heavyweights such as the Gawker network of blogs, the Washington Post, TechCrunch, CNET, New York Magazine, and formspring.me.

It isn't entirely clear what information these apps are pulling from user profiles or feeding back to Facebook. They aren't automatically visible to friends viewing your profile page, but if you go to an application's profile page, you can see a list of your friends who also have that app installed, essentially getting a unintentional peek at their browsing habits. On the other side there are sites like the Washington Post's, which has a Facebook Network News box showing a list of your friends who have recently shared a Washington Post article on Facebook".

Too sophiscticated, but too far to cross the users privacy. There are another complained by EPIC to Facebook on April 2010, "Moreover, the act of "liking" pages may reveal personal data "without clearly indicating to users when their personal information is being given to third party websites."

Facebook's privacy settings limit users' ability to browse the Web anonymously because of integration with third party site." "Facebook uses cookies to track its users," the complaint states. "Thus, whenever a user is logged-in to Facebook and surfing the Internet, he is also transmitting information about which websites he's visited to Facebook. A user does not have to click on or interact with a social plugin for his information trail to be transmitted to Facebook." EPIC and the other privacy groups that filed the complaint said Facebook's privacy practices are prohibited by the FTC, and asked the FTC to force Facebook to restore its previous privacy settings, restore a previous requirement that developers retain user data for no more than 24 hours, and make data collection practices easier to understand and give "Facebook users meaningful control over personal information provided by Facebook to advertisers and developers."

Oh my, so Facebook track too much from the information that we give, even when we set it to private. We never know when, how much, to whom, and under what terms would our data will be given. And what about the intellectual property of our data? You must read the "Statement of Rights and Responsibilities" of Faebook point 1) and 2) below.

You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook, and you can control how it is shared through your privacy and application settings. In addition:

For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos ("IP content"), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook ("IP License"). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.
When you delete IP content, it is deleted in a manner similar to emptying the recycle bin on a computer. However, you understand that removed content may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time (but will not be available to others).

For those of you who concern about your contect and its IP, such as the good quality photos and videos that you created and posted on Facebook, don't be too stubborn in the future to claim that those beautiful stuffs are yours and nobody can never use them. Ok, so now and forever, Facebook will have all our stuffs and use them in any purpose that they wish.

Character (based on the actual person)

2011-05-10T21:47:00.000+07:00

Dewi Kusumastuti

oleh : Ethenia Novianty W, 0806346035

Gadis ini berusia 22 tahun, menjelang 23. Karena postur tubuhnya yang mungil dan paras mukanya yang juga awet muda, hampir semua teman-teman kuliahnya tidak menyadari fakta ini. Di tahun ketiga menjelang keempat kuliahnya, ia masih terlihat fokus dengan bidangnya, yaitu Public Relations. Meskipun ia tidak nampak seperti anak-anak PR lainnya yang doyan berdandan dan banyak bicara, ia tetap menyenangi bidang yang ia tekuni saat ini. Tidak peduli apakah ketika tahun pertama ia kuliah ada seorang senior sok tahu yang memberikan kritik bahwa “Masih bisa kok, masih bisa pindah” dari peminatan PR yang hendak ia ambil (waktu itu belum penjurusan). Isu menarik lainnya selain kefokusan dan ketekunan, ia masih saja sama dengan awal mula ia menginjakkan kaki di universitas negeri yang katanya terbaik dan semakin lama semakin terlihat sebagai universitas mewah yang jauh dari kesan kampus rakyat ini. Penampilannya masih terlihat sederhana, meskipun setelah memasuki peminatan PR ia terkadang mengenakan rok ke kampus. Make up dan barang-barang branded tetap bukan menjadi ciri khas nya.

Satu hal yang mengagumkan dari Dewi ialah ia tetap menjadi dirinya sendiri., di tengah pergaulan ibu kota yang modern, dan di antara teman-teman kaya raya yang sering kali memamerkan gadget canggih yang seolah menjadi tolak ukur status sosial utama. Logat bicaranya pun masih belum berubah. Dewi yang datang dari salah satu daerah di Jawa Tengah ini masih terlihat sebagai puteri daerah yang menjunjung tata krama dan sopan santun. Tutur katanya masih lembut, dan sampai sekarang ia masih lebih sering menggunakan kata “aku”, bukan “gue”. Selain itu, Dewi masih menjadi gadis yang tidak banyak omong, apalagi banyak bacot. Orang tua nya pasti bangga memiliki anak seperti dia. Meskipun disekolahkan ke luar kampung dan merantau, gadis ini masih memegang prinsipnya dan tidak terbawa arus ibu kota. Tapi mungkin ada satu hal yang sedikit berubah darinya. Atlet marathon ini mengaku, bahwa larinya sudah tidak secepat dulu lagi ketika ia sering berlatih. Sekarang ia lebih cepat terengah-engah. Tapi apapun itu, hidup ini memang dipenuhi dengan tarikan napas. Tarikan untuk beristirahat, atau tarikan akibat kerasnya hidup yang memaksa untuk “berhenti” sebentar saja. Coba kita bertaruh, apa ketika ia sudah bekerja nanti penampilan dan ciri khas nya masih seperti saat ini? Wahai gadis tangguh yang tidak pernah berhenti tersenyum dan bermimpi, kota ini lebih keras dari arena marathon di mana kau biasa berlari.

Seribu Rupiah Udah Bisa Hosting Domain

2011-02-23T21:14:00.002+07:00

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Aku ingat banget kalo pertengahan tahun lalu aku dapet tugas dari dosen Pemasaran Interaktif untuk bikin website pemasaran sendiri. Astaga. Tugas bikin website ini tugas akhir alias untuk UAS dan udah mulai dinilai dari UTS. Emang sih tugasnya berkelompok, tapi kami yang bukan mahasiswa IT atau Ilmu Komputer ini meskipun canggih di social media tapi kurang canggih untuk masalah beginian. Waktu itu di antara kami yang semua punya blog ini semuanya nggak ada yang pernah punya website dengan akhiran .com, .net, .co.id dan semacamnya.

Kalo kata dosenku, buat bikin website kita harus beli jasa hosting domain dan harganya kami pikir pasti mahal. Dosenku juga bilang kalo untuk memilih jasa penyedia web hosting harus yang availability nya jelas. Maksudnya bukan cuma penyedianya bonafide, tapi di website penyedia domain hosting ini harus ada alamat kantornya jelas, dan nomor telepon yang bisa dihubungi. Karena kita kan belinya lewat online, jadi nggak tau kan, kalo udah bayar tapi hosting nggak jalan alias ketipu gimana?

Untuk masalah hosting dan beli domain, pasti kita pernah denger yang namanya godaddy.com. Itu emang terkenal banget dan kayaknya mungkin aja reliable. Tapi mereka kan pusatnya di US, jadi untuk komplain bisanya cuma via email aja. Intinya susah deh, bayarnya harus pake credit card pula.

Nah, jadi kita harus cari hosting domain yang kantornya di Indonesia. Cari webhosting Indonesia lah intinya. Habis browsing di Google, ketemulah idwebhost.com. Pertama, cek availability, dan alamat dan no telp kantornya JELAS. Bahkan dia udah ada selama 7 tahun lamanya. Aku cek deh harga untuk paketnya. Dan ternyata murah. Waktu itu kebetulan lagi ada promo di idwebhost, jadi untuk beli domain .com cuma Rp 65.000 aja per tahun. Dan untuk hostingnya, murah banget juga. Bahkan dengan cuma bayar 1.000 per bulan aja, udah bisa hosting. Wow! Ini benar-benar kemudahan buat kami yang mahasiswa. Bisa bayar lewat transfer bank lagi (karena kami yang mahasiswa ini nggak punya credit card) Hehe. Pilihan paket hosting Idwebhost bervariasi dan disesuaikan dengan fiturnya.

Idwebhost.com emang hosting terbaik. Jadi waktu itu kami pilih paket yang Rp 50.000,- per bulan dengan space 50MB dan udah ada web email. POP3 email, dan mail forwarding masing-masing 10. Berikut pilihan paket hosting domainnya http://idwebhost.com/Hosting_Web_Hosting. Murah-murah banget kan?

Selain itu, Idwebhost juga bisa blog hosting lho ternyata. Apaan tuh? Jadi bloghosting itu semisal kita punya blog di blogspot.com, wordpress.com, tumblr.com, typepad.com, bahkan page facebook kita sekalipun bisa diubah ke www.namakita.com. Keren kan? Keliatan profesional ntar punya website sendiri. Haha. Harganya murah lagi. Mulai dari Rp 95.000,-/tahun aja. Udah gitu, dari blog hosting ini bisa dimikin email turunannya. Misalnya info@namakita.com. Bisa ada fitur Cpanel nya lagi. Kayak bikin website beneran kan? Tapi ini caranya gampang, nggak usah pake HTML ato macem CSS yang ribet banget itu. Dan ini buat domain nya udah gratis ya, nggak perlu beli lagi, pokoknya udah sepaket sama blog hosting ini. Emang, Idwebhost bener-bener webhosting murah yang top abis.

Kalo gini, semua orang bisa bikin website gampang deh, dengan bantuan Idwebhost. Murah lagi. O ya, dan customer support Idwebhost yang kantornya di Jogja dan Jakarta ini emang siap siaga banget. Mau lewat email, telpon, pokoknya responnya cepet banget deh. Maklum, waktu itu suka banyak tanya-tanya karena pertama kali bikin website.

Nah, ini tampilan website yang kita bikin buat. www.cimilikity.com. Online shop buat fashion cewek gitu deh. Hehe.

Mau web hosting, beli domain, atau bloghosting? Pake Idwebhost.com. Pokoknya Idwebhost.com itu trend hosting Indonesia deh. Udah banyak lho yang membuktikan dan puas akan hasilnya. Termasuk aku. Liat aja testimonialnya.

Singapore Trip : Spikes Asia 2010

2011-02-19T19:15:00.006+07:00

Terlambat banget ceritanya (dan panjang banget). Udah taun kemaren bahkan, bulan September tanggal 19-21 di Singapore. Kejadian ini emang surprising dan memang ini banget yang aku pengen. Jadi begitu tau ada Spikes Asia (festival iklan se-Asia Pacific di Singapore) dan ada acara yang buat student (namanya Spikes Academy, aku langsung menghubungi Festival representative nya di Indonesia, yaitu Femina Group. Dan ini berkali-kali banget. Aku langsung inisiatif bikin CV, portfolio seadanya, application letter, surat rekomendasi dll, dan semua aku kemas dengan unik (untuk menunjukkan kalo aku emang kreatif dan niat). Jadi Spikes Academy ini akan memilih 15 mahasiswa se Asia Pacific untuk dapet pelajaran keren banget dari top level advertising professional di dunia. Sounds very captivating, right? Ini international level dan sebelumnya aku belum pernah ikut kompetisi internasional apalagi menang ato jadi finalis. Dan sebelumnya aku juga belum pernah ke luar negeri. Kasian banget ya? Tapi alhamdulillah, bahasa Inggris ku cukup lancar, dan aku orangnya terlihat sangat internationally minded (mandiri, serba cepat, dan anti telat) plus passion yang sangat tinggi, itu yang paling utama sebenernya.

Alhasil, setelah semua aplikasi itu dikumpulkan, aku berharap banget bisa lolos jadi perwakilan Indonesia. Dan pada sekitar awal September, pagi-pagi di kos Icha (temen kampus), waktu itu aku nginep karena minta tolong Icha bantuin edit video supaya aku bisa menang kontes yang dibikin UN tentang MDG (sayangnya video editingnya error mulu, sampai lewat deadline). Alhasil nggak jadi ke New York deh. Padahal aku yakin konsep videoku keren abis mengalahkan semua peserta. Hahahaha

Tapi ternyata pagi itu aku ditelpon sama Mbak Intan (dari Femina yang contact2 an mulu sama aku tentang Spikes Academy) kalo aku dinyatakan lolos di Spikes Academy mewakili Indonesia (single delegate). Dan aku sumpah kaget banget. Aku memang jujur ngarep banget buat lolos, karena dengan lolos, pasti karier bakal bisa meningkat dan kenal banyak orang penting di industri periklanan. Apalagi denger kalo airline ticket nya di reimburse, dikasih hotel bintang 5 (Pan Pacific yang di samping Marina Square), dan akses ke semua acara di Spikes Asia (termasuk after party yang itu nggak terbuka buat student delegate, tapi buat student dari Spikes Asia dikasih akses). Wow, it's so damn amazing! Aku emang nggak pernah ikut atau menang Citra Pariwara, but I think Spikes Academy sounds better than that. Karena ini levelnya se-Asia dan diseleksi banget. Lebih susah kan mengalahkan kandidat dari negara lain?

Pan Pacific Marina Square

Jadi, karena dibayarin aku ke Singapore (pertama kalinya) naik Singapore Airlines (maskapai no. 1 di dunia yang paling bagus dan paling mahal). Haha, mumpung. Terus untungnya banget, setelah aku mengajak 2 sobat deketku (Bizka dan Bidar) buat ikut jadi student delegate yang bayar 1,5 juta, mereka mau. Kaget juga mereka mau ikut. Jadi kita bisa ketemu di sana en jalan-jalan. Sounds really fun right? Go to Singapore for competition, seminar, and having fun with close friends.

Tanggal 18 aku berangkat ke Singapore pagi-pagi. Jam 9.20 dari Bandara Soekarno Hatta, dan sampe Changi Airport sekitar jam 11.30. Sebenernya perjalanannya sekitar 1,5 jam, tapi ada perbedaan waktu 1 jam antara Indonesia dan Singapore. Jadi di sana lebih siang 1 jam dibanding Jakarta lah, akibatnya waktu sholat juga 1 jam lebih belakangan. Hehe. Waktu di bandara Soekarno Hatta aja udah nervous, apalagi sampe sana, sumpah bener2 kikuk kayak anak ilang karena sendirian. 2 temenku ini baru dateng tanggal 19 siang dengan pesawat berbeda. Anyway, naik Singapore airlines bener2 asik. Dan aku duduk sendirian, kanan kiri gak ada orang. Pesawatnya bener2 bagus, seatnya nyaman banget, bisa nonton film, dan makanannya enak banget, dikasih koran Straits Times sebelum masuk pesawat lagi. Pramugarinya super ramah, dan kita dipinjemin handuk hangat gratis. Bener2 first class deh.

Sampe Changi airport, aduh.. Airportnya keren dan tertata banget, dan gede juga tentunya, sampe mungkin bisa aja aku nyasar kalo nggak tanya petugas. Bener2 muter2 gak jelas, mau ambil koper di mana bingung, cek imigrasi di mana bingung, ke airport bus transfer mana juga gak tau. Tapi akhirnya bisa lah yaa... (udah gede juga). Sebenernya disuruh nyokap pake taksi aja, tapi sayang juga, karena prediksiku sekitar SGD$30, padahal nggak semahal itu ternyata.

at Changi airport

Dan aku naik airport mini bus (namanya apa lupa) yang bayarnya SGD$9 dan bakal dianter ke hotel tujuan di mana pun itu asal di Singapore. Satu mini bus ato van ini penumpangnya kalo gak salah 5/6 orang, semuanya bule, kecuali satu cowok yang tampangnya Indonesia tapi gak yakin juga dia dari mana, dan agak kurang berani buat ngobrol sama dia. Cowok ini turun di Mandarin Oriental deket Orchard, dan aku turun di Pan Pacific Marina Square (terakhir diturunin sama si sopir) nggak tau kenapa.

Liat jalanan Singapore bener2 rapi banget dan kendaraan pribadinya dikit banget dibandingin Jakarta yang penuh di mana-mana. Yang naik motor bisa dihitung dengan jari (gak tau kenapa). Sebenernya nggak jauh beda sama Jakarta kalo dari building bagus2nya (bahkan di sana aku liat ada gedung sekolah ato rumah sakit Muhammadiyah kalo gak salah), tapi Singapore ini tertata banget. Kalo naik taksi sebenernya 15 menit sampe, tapi gara2 muter2 nganter yang lain2 dulu, yaa 40 menit baru nyampe hotel deh. Sampe di depan hotel langsung disambut sama petugas dengan ramah, kopernya dibawain (meskipun sampe kamarnya lama) dan langsung check in. Si petugas pake acara rada nge tes lagi. Untungnya aku tau room mate ku ntar siapa (Jeong Yumi dari Korea) dan dia belum dateng. Tapi ya finally boleh masuk duluan meskipun si Yumi belom dateng (dan kata Yumi lewat facebook, dia flight nya baru sampe malem di Changi). Hikz... sendirian deh.

kamarku di Pan Pacific

Masuk kamar hotel, yaa lumayan (gak bagus2 banget sih sebenernya, tapi kasurnya empuk). Mungkin karena sebelumnya pernah tinggal di kamar beberapa hotel di Jakarta dan Jogja juga sih, jadi ya gak beda jauh2 banget. Cuma kamar di Pan Pacific ini tirainya ada remote control nya dan ada broadband access buat internet (yang aku baru tau cara makenya nanti dari Yumi). Kamar hotelku ini no nya berapa lupa, lantai 7 kalo gak salah dan yang jelas menghadap swimming pool yang oke (sampe cek out pun gak sempet berenang gara2 sibuk parah). O ya, hotel Pan Pacific ini terhubung sama 3 mall, ada Marina Square, Suntec City, dan Suntec Convention Centre yang jadi venue Spikes Asia besok. Terhubungnya ini lewat sky bridge yang di dalam hotel, jadi gak perlu keluar buat kepanasan ato bahkan kehujanan.

Karena terhubung sama mall, niatku dari sebelum sampe Singapore (sebelum berangkat udah print peta dan research tempat parah) akan ke mall itu, Marina Square khususnya. Jadi habis sholat, aku keluar kamar, terus tanya petugas deh kalo ke mall itu lewat mana. Petugas yang tampangnya Chinese ini baik banget, bahkan aku dianterin sampe ke eskalatornya :) Marina Square mall nya lumayan gede, dan yang oke adalah karena dia ada papan petunjuk yang jelas di mana-mana, jadi kemungkinan nyasar kecil. Niatku paling utama adalah beli simcard Singapore, entah itu Singtel ato Starhub. Pertamanya mau Starhub, tapi gak nemu store nya. Dan akhirnya secara nggak sengaja ketemu store Singtel, ya beli aja lah. Harganya berapa bener2 lupa, tapi pulsanya lumayan banyak, sampe aku pake telpon, sms ke mana-mana masih ada saldonya juga sampe hari terakhir di sana. Petugas Singtel ini juga ramah banget. Dia bener2 bantuin registrasi sim card dan lain2. FYI, setiap beli sim card pasti kita diminta nunjukkin paspor. Kalo beli kosmetik di store agak gede di mall, juga diminta nunjukkin juga dan paspor kita akan di scan. Jadi bawalah paspor ke mana-mana.

Di Marina Square aku juga beli kosmetik di Sasha (nama toko kosmetik dan parfum semacam Watsons) dan ternyata harganya gak murah. Aku di sana beli bedak produk Jepang (gak tau mereknya apa, tapi bagus), parfum, lip gloss, sama kuteks. Tadinya mau beli eye liner, tapi mahal boo. Oh ya, di sana ada beberapa merek yang harganya lebih mahal dari di Indonesia lho... Misalnya Maybelline dan Garnier. Compact powder maybelline yang di Indo cuma Rp 35.000 di sana kalo di kurs in bisa Rp 100.000 lebih (dengan produk yang benar2 sama persis). Aku jalan2 di Marina Square cuma sebentar banget, karena katanya kita (delegates, mentor, sama orang dari Cheil worldwide) akan ketemuan di lobby hotel jam 6 dan mungkin akan makan malem bareng. Terus balik ke hotel, aku keliling2 lobby dan ketemu cowok ganteng tampang Melayu (kayak Indonesia sebenernya) dengan 3 cewek lagi duduk2. Karena aku udah googling dan facebook tracking mentorku, kuperkirakan kalo cowok ganteng ini mentorku (Mr.Noor Azhar, dia dosen Singapore Polytechnic dan dia akan meng guide para delegates during Spikes Academy, ke mana2 aja termasuk jalan2 nya). Pas ngeliat ke arahnya, dia juga lagi ngeliat ke arahku, dan terus dia melambaikan tangan. Aku ke sana deh. Dan bahkan dia sudah menduga aku ini siapa dengan bertanya, "Are you Nia?" :)

2 cewek ini namanya Chen Jia (dari RRC) , Nida (dari Pakistan) dan Khusboo (dari India). Udah liat mereka di facebook, dan ternyata kesan di facebook berbeda dengan kenyataan. Kirain Chen Jia itu orangnya kekanak-kanakan, tapi ternyata cukup elegant dan cantik, tinggi langsing berisi gitu deh. Kita di sana ngobrol2 tentang schedule kita dan Azhar cerita kalo banyak anak-anak yang belum nyampe hotel. Tapi besok waktu Spikes Academy nya udah ada semua katanya. (sebenernya aku penasaran banget sama anak yang namanya Marcus dari LaSalle Singapore). Mau tau ni bocah gimana? Baca aja terus dan nanti akan ada ceritanya. Kita di lobby tuker2an nomor HP juga dan nomor kamar hotel, trus Azhar bilang kalo muridnya, Charmaine lagi makan sama delegates dari Hongkong di Lau Pa Sat dan kita berempat disuruh nyusul aja ke sana dengan dikasih nomor Charmaine. Beruntung ada Chen Jia yang udah nyampe Singapore dari pagi dan udah keliling ke mana2 sendirian pake MRT, jadi dia jadi guide kita buat ke La Pau Sat meskipun itu pertama kalinya dia ke Singapore.

Gak tau Lau Pa Sat itu gimana, aku ikut2 aja. Kata Azhar sih itu tempat nongkrong dan makan yang oke banget dengan banyak banget stand makanan. Setelah naik MRT (sekitar SGD$1, tapi aku pake kartu), dan jalan kali ke luar sambil tanya orang2, sampailah kami di Lau Pa Sat. Sampe sana, si Chen Jia langsung telpon Charmaine, dan kita ketemuan sebentar habis itu setelah sepertinya Chen Jia cukup kesulitan ngomong di telpon karena Lau Pa Sat itu tempatnya rame banget (maklum malem minggu). Jadi, Charmaine yang anak Singapore ini juga meleset dari bayangan, kirain anaknya bermuka Chinese, ternyata Charmaine ini manis banget, dengan badan mungil, kulit putih, dan mukanya nggak Chinese meskipun aslinya Chinese. Tentang Lau Pa Sat, emang banyak banget orang jualan macem2, kayak food court super besar dan ini semi out door. Ada live music yang lumayan oke dan stand2 makanannya macem2, ada yang Chinese food, macem2 es, Indian food, Malay food, bahkan masakan macem makanan Indonesia kayak nasi goreng dan sate.

Charmaine dan Nelson di Lau Pa Sat

Kita pun dianter ke mejanya Charmaine, dan di sana udah ada Sammy (cewek) dan Nelson (cowok) dari Hongkong. Si Nelson anaknya lumayan ganteng, meskipun berbadan kecil, dan kita ngobrol dikit. Ternyata, Sammy dan Nelson itu satu kampus satu jurusan satu kelas. OMG, kok bisa ya kepilih dua-duanya? Soal pesen makanan, berhubung Nida dan aku sama-sama muslim, kita harus cari makanan halal. Charmaine yang baik hati pun tanya sama Azhar by phone di mana bisa nemuin makanan halal, dan itu ternyata di luar. Penjualnya langsung pada nawarin menu macem2. Aku pesen Hongkong noodle dengan harga SGD$4, Nida pesen makanan India, dan Charmaine pesen sate. Yang lain pesen apa aku lupa. Hongkong noodle nya enak lho ternyata. Dan tak disangka, at the end dibayarin semua sama Charmaine yang baik hati. (dia bilangnya "later" sih, tapi at the end dia bilang gak usah, hihi).

pintu depan gerbang MRT

Selesai makan sekitar jam 9an, kita balik ke hotel naik MRT lagi. Tapi sekarang udah ada Charmaine yang lebih ngerti jalan, hehe.Sampe hotel, kita masuk kamar masing-masing, dan ternyata aku dan Nelson di satu lantai (bahkan agak sebelahan kayaknya, maaf, agak lupa). Ternyata temen sekamarnya Nelson juga belom dateng, dan temen sekamarnya itu cowok Korea yang datengnya bareng Yumi ntar kayaknya.

Masuk kamar, aku internetan aja, sambil nunggu Yumi dateng (biar bisa saling ngobrol dulu, lagipula kalo dia dateng aku tidur rasanya kurang enak banget). Anyway, beruntung banget temen sekamarku ini orang Korea. Berhubung aku suka K-Pop dan lumayan ngerti artis dan penyanyi2 Korea dan sebelumnya punya beberapa temen Korea yang biasanya gampang banget untung klop sama mereka, jadi klop lah dapet room mate Yumi. Akhirnya sekitar jam 11 kurang dia dateng. Aku bukain pintunya dan dia masuk dengan koper shocking pink. Yumi ini berambut panjang, badannya tinggi langsing, dan ternyata anaknya cheerful banget. (prediksi dari foto Facebook meleset lagi, kirain dia orangnya agak jutek, hehe). Langsung kita ngobrol macem2 lah (sebelumnya udah ngobrol dikit di FB) dari seputar kampus, sampe ngomongin 2PM (boyband Korea yang mantan personilnya Park Jae Bum difavorite in banget sama Yumi). Ternyata beneran lho, kita nyambung banget. Yumi ini dari Korea University (kayak Universitas Indonesia, haha) dan dia pernah magang di Cheil worldwide jadi AE (pantes tau tentang Spikes Asia dan bisa lolos). Asik lah punya temen sekamar dia. Hehe. Karena ngobrol2, kayaknya kita baru tidur jam 12.30 deh, padahal besoknya harus bangun pagi buat sarapan bareng delegasi lainnya di restoran hotel.

19 September

Anyway, ini jadwal Spikes Academy nya (pembicaranya emang top abis, termasuk juri Spikes Asia yang pernah jadi juri Cannes Lions, Vice President Omnicom Group, dll).

Kami ada breakfast di restoran hotel (lupa namanya, di lt.4 kalo gak salah) sekitar jam 8.30. Breakfast nya lumayan enak dan ada banyak pilihan dari roti prata sampe dim sum. Oke banget deh. Aku dan Yumi langsung gabung di meja tempat anak2 delegasi lainnya (semuanya udah dateng kecuali Marcus) yang beberapa baru kita temuin saat itu karena kemaren beberapa belom dateng. (tentang delegasi nya namanya siapa aja udah aku post di blog posting sebelumnya). Dan aku pun berpisah meja dengan Yumi. Aku duduk di meja yang ada cowok bulenya (Alvaro, si cowok Brazil yang kuliah di Taiwan), Sammy, Peter (cowok dari RRC), Mr. Azhar sama Charmaine juga kalo gak salah. Kenalan deh sama anak2 itu, dan ternyata... Di luar dugaan lagi. Kirain si Alvaro dari foto Facebook nya orangnya sombong, padahal dia lumayan kocak dan ramah. Trus ngobrol2 sama Peter, dia nanya, "Are you Chinese?" Heh? Dikiranya aku ini orang Chinese. Emang sih banyak orang Indonesia yang ngirain aku Chinese (padahal bukan dan kulitku gak seputih mereka). Tapi nggak nyangka kalo orang RRC asli mengira begitu juga. Trus aku tanya, "Do I look like Chinese?" Dia bilang iya, dengan aksen dan gaya ngomongku juga katanya kayak Chinese, yang words by words. Aku jawab, "No, I am not Chinese" at the end. Sial! Kok bisa gitu ya? Mana si Sammy yang dari Hongkong ngangguk2 lagi. Huff... Ya sudah lah. Tapi at least dengan menganggap aku Chinese, mereka jadi baik sama aku.

restoran di Pan Pacific

Selesai sarapan, kami semua ke lobby (kalo gak salah) ketemu sama Ms.Irene Lam dan temen Korea nya dari Cheil worldwide (yang jadi sponsor Spikes Academy). Dia orangnya ramah banget (btw, ada temennya dari Cheil yang meskipun udah Om2 tapi ganteng juga, hihi). Habis itu, kami dianter Mr.Azhar ke Suntec Convention tempat Spikes. Kami diajak ke ruang Spikes Academy nya (masih besok sih mulainya) dan ke meja registrasi. Meskipun coffee break baru ada jam 3 nanti, tapi meja registrasi udah stand by dengan rapinya. Kami terus daftar satu2. Dan sistemnya canggih juga. Kita pake difoto segala dan fotonya ditempelin di delegation badge (meskipun item putih hasilnya). Habis itu kita dikasih tas Spikes Asia (model selempangan) dengan banyak banget majalah dan notes dll di dalemnya. Jadi intinya tas Spikes Asia ini berat parah.

Habis selesai registrasi, kami masuk ke ruangan utama Spikes yang banyak banget booth macem2. Ketemu sama petugas yang bisa bahasa Melayu bahkan, dan dia ngobrol2 pake bahasa Melayu sama aku. Tidak lupa kami foto2.

Spikes Academy badge

Setelah selesai ngeliat2 venue (sebenernya kita kepecah jadi 2 rombongan secara gak sengaja), kita rencananya mau makan siang di mall nanti, tapi karena tas Spikes ini berat banget, jadi kami ke kamar dulu naroh tas doang, terus baru deh ketemuan buat lunch bareng. Kami (aku, Yumi, Ji Sung temennya Yumi dari Korea, Abishek dan Nida yang dari India, sama Nida) ketemuan di lobby hotel terus kami jalan deh ke Marina Square. Sumpah, kami bingung mau makan di mana, gara2 Nida dan aku harus cari makanan halal. Dan akhirnya kami makan di KFC. KFC Singapore itu menunya beda sama KFC Indonesia. Lebih enak tepatnya dan lebih mahal (sekitar SGD $ 3-7). Aku inget banget ada semacam puding kentang yang enak banget dengan mini size dan aku pesen itu. FYI, gak ada nasinya di KFC sini.

Habis selesai makan, kami balik lagi ke Suntec Convention karena di jadwal kami ada sesi Student Introduction. Di situ, kita perkenalan satu2, terus ternyata.... Ada pembagian kelompok dengan kocokan lottery buat kelompok student pitching di hari terakhir nanti. Student pitching means ada kompetisi buat tiap tim dengan brief yang diberikan nanti. Sekelompok ada 3 orang, dan aku sekelompok sama Yumi dan Peter. Not bad, I think, dan asik juga sekelompok sama room mate, jadi kalo mau discuss enak. Yang lebih penting lagi... Di sesi Student Introduction itu Marcus anak LaSalle Singapore ini udah dateng. Akkhhh... Aku liat di foto Facebook nya terlihat bad boy dan misterius sih. Tapi di luar kenyataan lagi. Prediksi meleset. Kirain dianya pendek, ternyata jangkung kerempeng. Udah gitu, dia dateng telat lagi, baru dateng jam 3 an gitu. Habis bagi kelompok, ada Emir Shafri dari Y&R Singapore masuk dan cerita2 pengalamannya dikit. Emir ini orang Malaysia yang kuliah di Spore (dan kerja di Spore). Pengalamannya cukup unik, karena background nya marketing, bukan advertising, dan bahkan dia pernah ke Cannes Lions dan ketemu David Droga yang sangat fenomenal itu.

Hmm... very lucky and interesting story. Habis itu, kita ada break sebentar dengan minuman disediakan dalam ruang Spikes Academy. Dan habis break, brief akan dibagikan. Pas lagi break, aku ngobrol deh sama Marcus :p
Anaknya ternyata bener2 sopan banget, meskipun penampilannya agak bad boy dengan anting dan gaya rambutnya yang super nyentrik. He's such a gentlemen. Nada bicaranya enak banget dan dia bahkan cerita kalo dulu dia pernah ke Jakarta pas kecil sama ortunya dan dia inget ada fotonya sama patung Ronald McDonald. Haha. Lucu2. Terus anehnya, tau2 baru kenalan gitu, dia masa nanya, "So, do you want me to take your picture?" Emang sih, aku pegang kamera, tapi kameranya kan buat motret objek dalam ruangan, bukan termasuk diriku sendiri. Haha. Terus aku jawab, "Hmmm... probably later. Because it will be much better to take pictures outside." Terus kayaknya dia agak bingung (kita sama2 bingung). Haha. Kan aku nanya, kenapa dia kemaren nggak nginep di hotel? Jawabannya masa aneh banget. Katanya, dia kira karena dia tinggal di Spore, dia gak dapet kamar hotel, dan dia bilang "Nobody told me". What? Waduh, miss communication ini. Masa sih Ms.Irene Lam nggak ngasih tau Marcus? Ato Marcus yang berspekulasi sendiri? Ya sudahlah. Terus si Marcus ngobrol deh sama Charmaine. Nggak lama, break selesai dan brief dibagi. Briefnya tentang Samsung LED 3D TV yang punye fitur buat meng convert konten 2D jadi 3D dan harus ada yang lewat social media. Cukup pusing juga sih mikirin brief ini, dan tanggal 21 sore atau 48 jam kemudian kita harus udah selesai (dengan eksekusinya kalau bisa) buat dipresentasiin di depan para juri.

Habis brief dibagiin, kita ada sesi Cannes Lions screening dari jam 4 sampe jam 6. Intinya akan ditampilin para winner di Cannes Lions (grand prix ato gold) yang menurut pembicaranya (Bob Greenberg dkk) menarik.

Ini ada beberapa yang aku ingat (karena memorable makanya diinget)

O ya, di ruang hall utama ini aku akhirnya ketemu juga sama temenku, Bidar dan Bizka yang aku khawatirin kalo mereka nyasar, dan aku juga ketemu sama dosen copywriting ku, Mbak Novi, yang ternyata kata Bidar, dia menyangka kalo Bidar adalah Ethenia (what? jadi dia nggak tau mukaku yang mana even kita udah message an via FB dan SMS an?). Ya sudah, akhirnya aku bareng sama Bidar dan Bizka buat nonton Cannes Lions Screening ini.

Habis Cannes Lions screening, ada networking cocktails yang oke banget deh (meskipun cuma ada kue2, tapi ada champagne ato wine yang gratis, tp aku haram buat minum). Nah, di sini banyak banget orang keren2 dari agency se Asia Pacific berkeluyuran di mana-mana (mau kenalan dan ngajak ngobrol gak pede). Mana banyak yang ganteng lagi. Habis rata2 mereka pada nge geng sendiri2. Hahaha. Ada juga bocah yang cute banget (yakin itu mahasiswa) yang mukanya mirip personilnya BEAST boyband Korea (tapi kayaknya dia bocah Singapore). Di networking cocktails ini kita disamperin sama cewek yang pake bahasa Indonesia. Ternyata dia orang Indonesia, namanya Grace, anak London School Public Relations (bahkan dia dateng ke Spikes sendirian, karena ada saudara di Singapore sih). Kita kenalan dan ngobrol2 deh sama Grace. Anaknya ramah banget, cantik, bermanner bagus, dan pede.

suasana di dalem restoran @Clarke Quay

Selesai networking cocktails, kami (para delegates) balik ke hotel dan kita akan makan malam bareng! Yey! Ditraktir sama Cheil worldwide lagi. Sumpah, mereka baik banget. Jadi kami makan di Clarke Quay, naik kapal dulu ke sana. Asik banget deh, pas malem2 lagi. Clarke Quay itu deket sama sungai (namanya apa lupa), dan karena ini minggu malem, sumpah rame parah dan ada banyak banget restoran. Di sini si Marcus ngilang lagi. Tapi katanya Mr.Azhar, Marcus bakal nyusul dan waktu kita udah sampe di restorannya, tau2 dia udah nyampe. Hahaha. Tapi sayang, aku nggak duduk satu meja sama dia. Jadi aku duduk di deket team mates ku (Yumi dan Peter). Restorannya lumayan cozy dan makanannya katanya dijamin halal. Makanannya udah dipesenin sama Ms.Irene dan buat kita rame2. Ada seafood dan pizza. Yummy deh.

di dalam MRT

Selesai makan di Clarke Quay, kami balik ke hotel naik MRT (tadi berangkatnya naik taksi nyambung kapal). Nah, di sini si Yumi sama Peter ngilang nggak tau ke mana. Jadi ya udah lah, padahal kita malem ini mau ngomongin tentang brief student pitching itu. Hadooohh... Tapi ada si Marcus sih, dan malem ini dia katanya nginep di hotel, hehe. (Maksudnya apa?). Kita naik MRT bareng petinggi2 Cheil. Ada Mr.Hong Tack Kim juga (creative director spesialis digital). Dan dia bahkan mau ngajak aku ngobrol duluan. (nggak pake gengsi). Orangnya baik deh.

Sampe hotel, aku sms Peter, dan nggak nyampe ternyata (ternyata nomornya nya nggak bisa aktif di Singapore). Dan Yumi baru balik malemmmmm banget setelah jalan2 ato minum sama temen Korea nya. Oke, jadi gimana ini Samsung LED TV? Kapan mau dibikin? Ya udah, aku tungguin Yumi balik. Habis dia balik, kita ngobrol2 bentar tentang final brief ini, terus tidur deh.

20 September

our table at class

Hari ini sesi lecturing ada banyak banget. Dan kami para delegates lumayan lelah dan ngantuk. Sampe2 ada beberapa yang tidur di kelas. Jadi jadwalnya itu kebagi2, dan karena jadwal Spikes Academy nggak full, kami kadang2 ke bawah, ke hall utama buat ngeliat seminar utamanya. Yang paling oke dari lecturing ini adalah sesi nya Simon Konberg yang nulis dan ngebagiin buku 101 Creativity. Jadi dia melatih kreatifitas kita dengan meminta kita menggambar apa yang dia instruksikan di kertas. Intinya, orang kreatif itu berpikiran berbeda, nggak standar, nggak cari aman, dan berani ambil resiko. Dan skor kreatif ku rendah banget. Kami semua dibagiin bukunya gratis dan di tempatku halaman pertama, selain dia tandatangan, dia juga nulis "Say Yes to Creativity". Haha. Maksudnya apa? Kayaknya gara2 tadi aku ngeyel di kelas.

Mr. Tony Fernandez, Air Asia CEO

O ya, pagi2 banget ada sesi dari CEO Air Asia, Tony Fernandez sama CEO Havas media group, David Jones. Baru tau kalo One Young World itu dibikin sama si David Jones. Keren dan lumayan inspiring.

Mr. Hong Tack Kim, from Cheil worldwide

Di hari ini kami juga dapet lecturing dari Mr.Hong Tack Kim yang ngebahas iklan2 di Korea. Menarik, karena aku tertarik dengan Korea.

Selesai lecturing kira2 jam 17.30, ditutup dengan sesi yang sangat menggemparkan di seminar utama dari Bryce Courtnenay. Dia itu ngasih lecturing kayak macem drama, pake aksi loncat2, lari2, terlentang di panggung, dll. (padahal umurnya udah 76 tahun). Habis selesai, banyak banget yang menghampiri dia ngobrol2 dan minta foto bareng. Sampe2 si Chen Jia habis ngobrol sama dia, nangis, nggak tau terharu ato apa. Aku juga sempet ngobrol sama dia. Aku bilang, "I am Spikes Academy student from Indonesia, and I'm the only one from Indonesia." (maksudnya di Spikes Academy nya). Terus dia menatap wajahku lekat-lekat dan bilang, "Very beautiful." (nggak tau maksudnya mukaku ato Indonesia yang beautiful). Katanya dia dulu sering bantu desa2 di Indonesia dalam bangun sumur, dll. Habis ngobrol sama dia, kita foto bareng deh.

Bizka, Bidar, Om Bryce Courtenay, aku

Sesi Bryce Courtenay yang didatangkan dari DDB Singapore ini yang terakhir di hari ini. Habis itu ada networking after dark di beberapa agency di Singapore, yaitu : Ogilvy, JWT, TBWA, Euro RSCG, dan Starcom MediaVest. Keren2 banget agency2 ini. Mr.Azhar dan delegasi lain nanti pada pergi ke Ogilvy, JWT, dan TBWA kalo gak salah dengan janjian di depan meja registrasi Spikes. Sementara aku ngajak Bizka dan Bidar main ke kamarku, dan mereka girang banget sambil foto2. Setelah keluar kamar, kami ketemu si cantik Kwan dari Thailand di deket lobby hotel dan dia nanyain rombongan lain beserta Mr.Azhar. Kami pun jalan bareng2 dengan Kwan ke arah Suntec, karena aku juga mau pamit sama Mr.Azhar dengan alasan mau ke Starcom Mediavest (gak tau kenapa waktu itu pengen banget ke sana, gara2 nyaris dapet internship di Starcom Jakarta). Setelah ketemu dan pamitan sama Mr. Azhar, kami yang tadinya mau ke Starcom yang deket, nggak jadi masuk, gara2 kita merasa bocah seorang diri. Jadi kita udah muter2 banget nanya ke banyak orang tentang Harry's (venue partynya Starcom). Dan katanya itu bar (ya Allah). Terus akhirnya nemuin, tapi orang2 di sana semuanya pada pake kemeja putih, sudah dewasa, mayoritas cowok, dan semuanya ngeliatin kita sambil megang gelas beer, seolah2 kita bocah yang tersesat. Nggak jadi deh kita masuk. Eh, malah habis itu kita jalan2 ke Orchard. Ke sananya pun pake berantem dulu antara naik bus ato MRT, dan akhirnya naik bus dan ternyata lebih murah dari MRT. Haha. Tadinya aku mau ketemuan sama temen SD ku, Haqy, yang kuliah di Singapore. Tapi gara2 kemaleman, kita nggak jadi ketemu (mungkin dia lagi agak males ato yang lain).

foto di Orchard road

Kami pun nggak jadi ketemu sama sekali di Singapore ini padahal aku udah punya nomor HP nya. Ya sudah lah, kami bertiga ke Orchard, nyari2 Lucky Plaza, dan itu udah kemaleman. Lucky Plaza nya udah mau tutup. Di sana aku beli kosmetik lagi. Aku beli Oxy facial foam yang nggak ada di Indonesia, Lancome Blanc expert lotion moist, sama Biotherm sensitive eye make up remover. Lancome sama Biotherm nya ukuran mini, jadi murah gitu. Cuma sekitar SGD$9 dapet 3 kalo gak salah. Nah, si Bidar nih, beli parfum lama banget, karena sms nyokapnya balesnya lama. Haha. Habis belanja, kami (tepatnya aku doang) makan di McDonald. Aku beli paket burger yang harganya lumayan lah. Terus habis itu Bizka beli kopi ato apa gitu di 7eleven.

Balik dari Orchard ke hotel naik bus, dan sampe kamar Yumi belom dateng. Dateng2 dia bawa balon dari Ogilvy warna merah. Kayaknya seru deh networking after darknya. Iiihh... sial! Terus habis Yumi mandi, kami kumpul bareng di lobby bareng Peter buat brainstorm tugas student pitching ini. Besok harus dikumpulin dan dipresentasiin!!! Dan di lobby bawah juga ada kelompoknya Marcus dkk dan Alvaro dkk (Alvaro baru beli iPad di Singapore bahkan). Mereka lagi brain storm juga. Dan di situ tattoo di pahanya Marcus ketara jelas banget. Gede dan nggak tau gambar apaan. (keren :D). Di situ ada orang Cheil Mr. Seon lewat. Terus masa dia nawarin mau dibeliin apa. Baik banget, gw bilang Kimchi, terus dia bilang Kimchi itu bukan snack. Ya sudah lah. Manut aja. Balik2, dia bawa tas plastik lumayan gede isi snack. Dan itu dikasihin ke Yumi. Hahaha. Asiiikk... Snack gratis waktu brainstorm.

Kami brain storm sampe lamaaa banget, dan Peter tetep aja nggak srek sama ideku dan Yumi. Kita tidur sekitar jam 2 kalo nggak salah. Ngantuk banget :(

21 September

Mr. Toshiya Kono, from Hakuhodo Japan

Sarapan seperti biasa di restoran hotel, dan kayaknya hari itu aku dan Yumi bangun kesiangan, sampe ditelpon dari resepsionis bawah buat cepetan sarapan. Sebenernya aku udah bangun dari pagi buat sholat seperti biasa, tapi Yumi masih molor. Dan alarm nya dari kemaren nggak pernah memberikan efek buat dia. Haha. Aku udah mandi, dan Yumi aku bangunin. Dia mandi kilat, terus kita sarapan. Kayaknya telponnya baru bunyi habis dia mandi. Langsung deh kami ke tempat sarapan, dan beberapa anak-anak kayaknya udah selesai dan akan cabut ke Suntec. Hmm... Aku dan Yumi sarapan kilat, terus nungguin Nida, yang emang biasanya suka paling belakangan dan kita ke Suntec. Yep, sampe ruang Spikes Academy, udah ada Peter. Seperti biasa kami duduknya di meja yang sama dengan team mates masing2. Aduh, hari itu lumayan panik, karena kami belum menemukan ide yang pas (pas di Peter, terutama) buat dipresentasiin jam 5 nanti! Aaaa... Udah tinggal menunggu hitungan jam. Sesi pertama di kelas sama Toshiya Kono, dari Hakuhodo, Japan. Waktu itu masih belum ada ide baru.(apa yang sama dia udah kemaren ya? lupa)

Terus habis itu kita turun ke bawah buat liat session nya Cheil di seminar utama oleh Mr.Jason Choi. Next, ada sesi nya Bob Greenberg tapi kita nggak nonton, kita milih balik ke atas, ke ruang Spikes Academy. Terus, habis itu, sekitar jam 12 sebelum sesi nya Jennifer Morla, dari Morla Design USA, tiba-tiba Peter menemukan ide.

Jennifer Morla

Peter bilang ke aku, aku setuju, aku bilang ke Yumi, Yumi bilang OK. Ya sudah, kita sepakat pake idenya Peter yang lumayan unik menurutku yang baru dateng deadline minus 5 jam. Superb! Kita nggak akan sempet bikin eksekusi kalo gini. Terus waktu sesi nya Jennifer Morla, kita dengerin dengan seksama. Karena sesi ini menurutku yang paling oke, as aku nggak punya basic design.

Habis itu kami lunch dan harusnya ke bawah, ke seminar utama buat ngeliat sesi nya Rei Inamoto yang ganteng. Sayang, kami yang belum bikin apa-apa ini karena nggak punya banyak waktu lagi, memutuskan untuk nggak liat. Kami balik ke kamar masing-masing bentar. Peter ambil Macbook nya, terus aku sholat Dzuhur. Habis itu kami ketemuan di Starbucks Suntec di lower groung dan aku dateng duluan sebelum Yumi dan Peter. Di situ aku bikinin power point buat presentasi dengan tulisan yang detail panjang. Dan kata Peter itu nggak cocok buat dipresentasiin, dan dia bikin versi short nya di Macbook nya. Habis itu Peter nanya, siapa yang bisa desain? OMG, ternyata kata dia sense of design nya jelek (kalo gitu ngapain pake Macbook?). Akhirnya kami nggak pake desain apa2, bener2 super simple, cuma ngandelin ide unik nya Peter. (padahal sebenernya aku dan Yumi bisa desain dikit2). Waktunya mepet, habis ini kami disuruh ke atas buat sesi lecturing selanjutnya.

Yumi, Peter dan aku ngerjain final project

Kami balik ke ruang Spikes Academy, dan aku tetep ngelanjutin ngerapiin power point, sementara Peter dan Yumi keluar bentar buat bikin video demo yang menunjukkan ide kita pake iPhone nya Peter. Ternyata, balik2 video nya gak jadi, katanya jelek. Hikz... Jadinya gak pake video. Terus habis ini adalah sesi lecturing nya Kit Ong, creative director nya Euro RSCG Malaysia yang juga jadi juri di Spikes. (mayoritas lecturer kita di Spikes Academy adalah juri di Spikes Asia). Dia cerita tanpa pake slides apa2 (gak modal banget), cuma sharing bagaimana dia di insustri periklanan, orang2 nya, dan bagaimana dia menemukan insight. Habis sesi nya Kit Ong, sebenernya ada sesi sama Jon Wilkins di seminar hall utama, tapi di antara kami semua tetep stay di ruangan, karena 40 menit lagi akan dimulai student pitching nya. Aaaa.... Mana di meja deketku kan mejanya kelompok Marcus (Marcus, Sammy, dan Khusboo), dan mereka itu pake eksekusi print ad dkk. Terus waktu kami lagi hectic2nya, ada wartawan cewek bule mau wawancara lagi. Terus Ms.Irene nanya apakah aku bersedia di wawancara. Karena aku lagi rebek banget, aku bilang "Sorry". Jadinya wartawan itu wawancara si Marcus sama Charmaine kalo gak salah.

Sesi student pitching udah mau dimulai, dan harusnya kami bertiga sama2 maju dan sama2 ngomong di depan juri nanti. Tapi masa kata Peter dan Yumi, aku aja yang ntar ngomong? Katanya bahasa Inggris ku lebih bagus daripada mereka berdua. Ya sudahlah. Dan ternyata kami maju sesuai urutan undian nama kelompok di awal. (kalo gak salah). Jadi urutan ke-2 untuk kelompok kami yang dikasih nama Kicky Worldwide (wkwkwk). Para juri udah masuk, dan mereka semua dari Cheil. Ada yang dari Cheil Korea, Asia Pacific, dan Singapore. Mr.Hong Tack Kim jadi juri kami juga. Yang maju pertama kelompoknya Marcus. Dan cuma Marcus sendirian aja yang ngomong. Big idea nya "Let Me Out". Marcus presentasi pake celana pendek dan atasannya kemeja. Ngomongnya santai banget, tanpa beban. Dan bahkan dia bikin eksekusi iklan radio. Oh my.. Complete packaging.

siap2 mau presentasi

Urutan kedua akhirnya tiba. Aku maju ditemenin Yumi jadi operator laptop. Waktu ngejelasin cuma 10 menit, dan aku ngomong sambil pegang laptop kecilku ini takut lupa. Aku bahkan ngejelasin sambil demo gerak2 sesuai ide campaign kami, dan audience pada senyum2 ketawa-tiwi kecil (dasarrrr...). Penasaran kayak gimana presentasi kami? Lihatlah slideshare di bawah.... Dan ternyata waktu habis, dan aku belum selesai ngomong. Aduuuhhh.... Sumpah, aku merasa bersalah banget sama Peter dan Yumi.

Urutan ketiga kalo nggak salah kelompoknya Nelson (dengan Chen Jia dan Ji Sung). Urutan keempat Abishek, Alvaro, dan Kwan. Urutan terakhir Charmaine, Nida, dan Sarah. Bahkan 3 kelompok ini idenya mirip, tentang experience semua. Precious moment lah, world experience lah, sama satu lagi experience apa lupa. Selesai semua presentasi, kami keluar sebentar, biar jurinya diskusi. Terus kami masuk lagi dan jurinya ngasih evaluasi satu2. Dan mereka bilang kalo kelompokku presentasi nya interesting dengan demo (maksudnya aku yang gerak ke sana sini), tapi memberikan cara yang negatif, cara yang berlawanan dengan 3D maksudnya, jadi 2D dulu. Terus akhirnya pemenangnya diumumin. Dan juara satu adalah.... kelompoknya Marcus (yang dari awal sebelum ketemu udah aku duga kalo dia emang talented). Dan juara kedua kelompoknya Nelson (aku rasa gara2 juri bilang desain slide nya paling bagus). Desain doang? OMG, oke, Nelson emang art director, tapi kata Mr.Azhar kan yang paling penting ide, bukan desain packaging, dkk. Ya sudahlah... terima saja.

Semua juara 1 dan 2 dapet hadiahnya sama. Yaitu... kamera digital Samsung. Oh, senangnya. Tapi mereka nggak dapet sertifikat kayaknya (haha... untung aja). Terus habis itu ada graduation ceremony. Nama kami dipanggilin satu2 buat nerima sertifikat, dan kami salaman sama Allison (petinggi Spikes Asia). Akhirnya selesai juga. Terus habis ini, kami foto bareng2 rame2 di bawah.

Dimasukin internet ternyata hasil fotonya. Hahaha. Habis itu baru ada awarding night di Esplanade, dan kami balik ke hotel dulu buat ganti baju. Dan ternyata di lobby...Charmaine pamitan. Dia bilang harus segera pulang karena besok pagi2 dia akan ada kompetisi. Terus aku dan Charmaine berpelukan dan kita tukeran kartu nama. Eh, terus nyusul si Marcus juga pamitan nggak ikut awarding night. Katanya besok pagi2 dia harus ngantor dan katanya kantornya jauh. Hmmm... Dan aku pun minta foto berdua sama Marcus setelah Chen Jia foto berdua sama dia. Tapi kok pundaknya Chen Jia dirangkul dan aku nggak? (mungkin Marcus grogi?)

Akhirnya kami bertiga belas plus Mr.Azhar ke Esplanade bareng2 jalan kaki lumayan jauh. Dan sebelum sampe Esplanade, kami mampir McD ato KFC (lupa) buat beli es krim (dibayarin Mr.Azhar). Sampe Esplanade, udah telat. Awarding night bahkan udah setengah jalan. Dan dari tengah jalan itu, nggak ada nama Indonesia disebut menang. Hikz... (ternyata udah disebut awal2 tadi dan dapet award buat 3 kategori kalo gak salah). Kan aku jadi malu sama temen2? Karena di antara mereka semua, asal negaranya disebut menang. Young Spikes nya Indonesia nggak menang lagi. Dan yang juara 3 Young Spikes itu 2 cewek dari Hongkong yang ketemu di Starbucks siang tadi lagi. Intinya,,, awarding night nya lumayan rame dan asik. Di depanku ada gerombolan Pinoy dan mereka ribut kalo negaranya disebut menang (ada yang ganteng satu). Di awarding night itu buat kategori Young Spikes Media, Dentsu Japan menang. Dan cowok yang maju nerima piala itu ganteng banget. Dia copywriter dan namanya Arata Hashimoto, pake kaos sepakbola Jepang, tapi sepatu formal. Ohhh....

Habis awarding night selesai ada after party dan kami Spikes Academy students dapet akses ke sana (tapi Student Spikes biasa nggak). Sayangnya, aku malah nggak ke sana. Aku jadinya jalan-jalan sama Bizka dan Bidar ke Little India buat cari oleh-oleh di Mustafa, minimarket 24 jam. (padahal katanya after party nya rame dan asik banget). Agak nyesel sih... Tapi ya gini, namanya memanfaatkan trip ya harus dibagi2 mau ke mana2 aja. Sumpah, Spikes Asia 2010 bener2 nggak bisa bagi2 antara Spikes Academy dan lecturing dan kompetisi nya, seminar utama Spikes Asia, dan jalan2 di Singapore nya secara ke negara ini pertama kali. Aku ini bener2 pengen ngobrol sama Arata Hashimoto. Gara2 nya waktu tadi siang dia masuk ke ruangan Spikes Academy (sampe aku ngira ada pengajar super ganteng) dan dia beserta rekannya menyapaku, "Morning" (kalo gak salah aku doang yang disapa). Ini Arata udah di depan mata habis awarding night. Tapi gara2 kayaknya Arata orangnya dingin dan aku nervous, aku nggak berani nyamperin dia untuk sekedar minta kartu nama. Bego! Padahal, kapan lagi????? Hikz. Nyesel parah. Dia langsung ngeluyur sama temen2 Dentsu Japan buat ke after party. Ya sudah lah.

menuju MRT ada poster Jay Park, foto bareng aja meskipun gak bisa liat konsernya

Aku, Bidar, dan Bizka terus naik MRT ke Dhobby Gaut buat ke Mustafa. Di sana sebenernya biasa aja. Tapi emang semuanya ada, dari jam, elektronik, makanan, kaos, souvenir, sampe parfum. Dan aku beli parfum + jam tangan. Dan Bidar dan Bizka nggak beli apa-apa kayaknya. Habis itu kami mampir ke restoran daerah Little India buat beli roti Pratha (roti khas India yang ternyata di hotelku ada gratis waktu sarapan). Habis itu udah malem banget. Jam 12 kalo gak salah. MRT udah nggak ada, bus jarang banget. Terus aku jalan kaki sendirian cari2 halte gak ketemu (karena beda tujuan dengan Bizka dan Bidar yang nginep di Beetle Box hostel daerah Rochor Road). Akhirnya aku naik taksi dan itu muter2. Kata sopir taksinya, jalannya pada ditutup gara2 ada F1, dan kami bolak-balik terus sementara argo tetep jalan. (gak tau aku diboongin ato gak). Sampe hotel jam 00.30 kalo gak salah. Dan ternyata Yumi belom dateng. Capek banget.

22 Februari

Pagi2 bangun (dibangunin HP nya Yumi kalo gak salah). Sebelumnya aku udah bangun gara2 sms Bidar ngajak ke Bugis, tapi gara2 aku ngantuk dan capek banget, aku bilang gak bisa. Terus aku dan Yumi sarapan dengan penampilan kucel (aku dan Yumi belom mandi kalo gak salah), setelah kami nyamperin kamarnya Nelson dan Ji Sung di sebelah (kamarnya rapi dan wangi). Pas sarapan, aku cuma ketemu Mr.Azhar, Kwan, Ji Sung, Alvaro, dan Nelson. Sebenernya aku mau bagiin suvenir khas Jogja ke semua temen2. Tapi gara2 cuma ada mereka, ya cuma mereka aja yang aku kasih. Masih sisa deh... Aku ngobrol2 sama Mr.Azhar sebentar, dan waktu dia aku kasih souvenir, dia bilang "You don't have to". Tapi aku bilang aja, "It's tradition". Dan dia menerimanya. Kayaknya hari ini mood nya dia lagi kurang baik karena nggak se-ceria kemaren. Terus mereka semua udah mau selesai sarapan dan balik satu2. Nelson tanya, "Have you finished?" Aku bilang, "Not yet." Karena aku lagi mau menikmati sarapan terakhir di hotel bintang 5. Dan dia senyum2, terus balik ke kamarnya. Aku bener2 muas-muasin sarapan lezat terakhir ini. Habis kenyang, aku balik ke kamar buat mandi, dan Yumi lagi tidur (lagi).

Aku selesai mandi, terus beres2. Yumi masih tidur, terus dia aku bangunin buat ngingetin kalo dia harus check out. Yumi masih males2 an. Dan dia aku minta foto bareng di kamar (kita kemaren2 cuma foto berdua sekali difotoin gratisan sama Mbak2 SPG Yahoo). Kata Yumi dia baru balik ke Korea sekitar 2 hari lagi kalo gak salah, karena dia mau jalan2 di Singapore dulu dengan nginep di hostel bareng Ji Sung. Terus waktu aku minta foto2 di kamera DSLR nya di share, dia bilang nanti bakal dia upload di FB. Tapi belom di upload sampe sekarang. Hmmm... Aku pamitan setelah minta kartu namanya (kartu nama Cheil worlwide ternyata dan dia magang dapet kartu nama resmi!) dan bilang besok kalo aku ke Korea akan contact dia. Yumi bilang, "Yeah, contact me when you're in Korea."

Aku pun cek out dan nitipin koper di resepsionis karena aku mau jalan2 di mall. Habis nitipin koper, aku jalan2 ke Marina Square lagi. Di sini aku ketemu Mr.Matthew Marsh yang jadi MC di Spikes Asia, tapi dia lagi sibuk ngomong sama petugas mall. Terus aku lanjutin jalan-jalan sendirian. Aku beli tas ransel, tas buat nyokap, tights, sama beberapa barang di Guardian. Ternyata di Marina Square lantai LG ada department store lumayan oke namanya John Little, dan harganya lumayan murah, dan aku baru tau! Sial! Bahkan harga parfum nya lebih murah daripada di Sasha. Mana duit tinggal dikit lagi. Yaaaa.... Selesai belanja, aku sempet mampir ke Suntec City buat nukerin rupiah ke dollar Singapore (buat belanja cokelat di Changi). Kata temen Indonesia ku, kalo nuker jangan di Singapore karena kurs nya beda jauh, nyatanya sama aja kayak di Indonesia.

Selesai belanja, aku balik ke hotel lagi buat ambil koper. Dan luckily, aku ketemu Ms.Irene lagi cek out. Aku pamitan dan berpelukan deh sama dia sekalian minta kartu nama. Dia bilang dia baru balik ke Korea beberapa hari lagi, terus dia mau pindah ke hotel lain. Selesai dia pergi, aku ambil koper, terus minta dipesenin taksi buat ke airport sama petugas hotel. Akhirnya aku balik naik taksi karena bawaan banyak. (tambah banyak tepatnya). Ternyata nggak mahal, lho. Cuma sekitar SGD$15, dan nggak pake muter2. Haha. Oh ya, katanya tanggal 22 ini F1 udah mulai, dan lintasannya itu di deket Pan Pacific Marina Square. Tapi aku nggak pengen nonton F1 juga. (maunya nonton Park Jay Bum concert yang kalo gak salah tanggal 25).

Perjalanan menuju Changi cuma sekitar 20 menit. Aku naik Singapore airlines lagi. Dan aku inget kalo pesawat Garuda nya Bizka terbang dengan waktu deket2 sama flight ku. (flight ku jam 15.30). Di bandara aku check in pesawat, terus ketemu sama gerombolan cowok2 keren pake tas Spikes Asia. Karena aku penasaran, siapa tau mereka dari agency keren (gara2 kemaren2 belom kenalan sama peserta Spikes dari negara mana pun kecuali anak2 Spikes Academy), aku kenalan aja dengan nanya "Hello, did you come to Spikes Asia?" Terus cowok itu dengan ramah berkata "Yes." Dan kita pun ngobrol2, ternyata mereka dari University of Asia and the Pacific, Philippines, dan mereka rame2 dateng ke Spikes (sekitar 30an orang, tapi bayar sendiri). Kirain orang agency, ternyata mahasiswa juga. Aku cuma kenalan sama 2 di antara mereka (padahal mereka sekitar ber7). Yang lain udah ngacir di depan duluan. Katanya pesawatnya baru nanti jam 4 lewat bahkan. Tapi mereka udah ada di airport sekitar jam 1 ini. Haha.

Di airport ini, aku masih nyempet2 in belanja. Aku belanja cokelat sama majalah. Terus jalan masuk ruang tunggu deh. Terus masuk pesawat, makan enak, nonton film. Trus tau2 nyampe Jakarta. Akhirnya.... Di sini aku telpon Bizka habis ngelewatin pos macem2 dan setelah tadi sms (dan baca sms balesannya telat). Kita pun ketemuan dan balik bareng ke Depok naik taksi karena bawaanku banyak banget. Si Bidar baru nyampe 2 jam nanti, dan dia pasti dijemput keluarganya. Akhirnya selesai sudah perjalananku ke Singapore. For competition, festival, trip, experience, and friendship.

Tips kalo ke Singapore :

1. Jangan ragu2 dan malu2 buat nanya orang Singapore yang ditemuin even gak kenal tentang jalan, alamat, lokasi, prosedur, dll karena mereka bener2 ramah dan helpful banget. (daripada malu bertanya, dijamin akan sesat di jalan).
2. Bawalah peta ke mana-mana buat memudahkan naik MRT. Naik bus juga nyaman, dan somehow naik bus lebih mudah dan murah. Lebih enak bayar MRT dan bus pake kartu (beli aja kartu yang nanti bisa di reload).
3. Harus bawa SGD, lebih bagus ada pecahan duit kecilnya buat naik bus ato MRT. Tapi kalo pun masih ada sisa rupiah dan duit SGD kurang, bisa exchange money di sini juga kok.
4. Kalo mau belanja fashion, lebih enak baca majalah dulu, misalnya Cleo Singapore (yang harganya cuma sekitar SGD$4), karena kita jadi punya guidance mau ke butik mana dan mall mana. Sering juga Cleo ngasih voucher diskon di dalem majalah.
5. Kalo mau belanja elektronik, bisa liat promosi katalog di The Straits Times.
6. Kalo mau makan murah di mall, paling murah di semacam KFC dkk (dijamin halal juga).
7. Hilangkan mindset kalo harga barang2 di Singapore lebih murah. Yang jelas lebih murah waktu itu adalah iPad yang kalo di kurs in di bawah 5 juta rupiah, baju2 di Bugis, sama parfum. Fashion dan cosmetic items lainnya sama aja kayak di Jakarta ato bahkan lebih mahal.

Where's the Singapore Trip Story?

2010-10-01T00:41:00.002+07:00

O u r G r a n d e s t G r a n d P r i x

IT'S A TRULY EXCITING DAY,

extraordinary, in every way

The Formula One Grand Prix

right outside the window

of today’s TEDxChange event.

Outside, cars are racing fast.

Our world’s racing fast.

After all,

WE ARE THE HUMAN RACE.

Hungry for speed

Hungry to get ahead

Hungry to win!

____

Yes, everywhere too

there's millions and millions

of us hungry

...for just something to eat each day.

....for a cup of clean water to drink.

...for children not to die.

_____

So, let

pause.

Let us think:

"Who are we leaving behind in our human race?"

______

Outside, cars are racing,

F1 drivers changing gears.

Inside our heads, let us remember:

We are drivers of our future.

What gears shall we change?

What change shall we bring?

_____

Outside, cars are racing.

Inside, our hearts are racing,

racing, racing

WITH EXCITEMENT

because there are people

all around us,

all around our planet,

with ideas in their heads

with passion in their hearts

for the future we will make!

It's our grandest Grand Prix.

TRULY EXCITING!

______________

(written by Dave Lim, Curator, TEDxSingapore during global TEDxChange week.)

Well, I didn't come to this TEDxChange week on September 25th, but I've just been there few days before in Spikes Asia advertising festival on September 19th-21st, and after I left that city, the F1 racing was begun. And talking about Grandprix, it reminds me about advertising award super champion. Well, it just the same pronounced and spelled. GRANDPRIX

When my country, Indonesia could win that? So, where's the Singapore trip story from me? Just wait, post it soon. PROMISE

Spikes Academy 2010

2010-09-19T22:36:00.000+07:00

It's so awesome, but sorry for the late notification, since I'm in Singapore already now!

Just want to share with you guys :

CHEIL WORLDWIDE ONCE AGAIN SPONSOR SPIKES ASIA STUDENT ACADEMY

For the second year, Spikes Asia has teamed up with Cheil Worldwide to form a dedicated Academy for 15 students from across Asia Pacific offering a unique educational programme during the regional annual advertising and communications festival.

Guided by their own tutor, Noor Azhar Mohamed, lecturer in Creative Media Design at Singapore Polytechnic, the students will benefit from the various festival activities, which include a world-class seminar programme, engaging workshops, interactive kiosks and screenings of all the competing work and shortlist exhibitions. To further enhance their learning experience, the students will also enjoy their own unique master-classes and tutorials given by top international industry figures. The Academy’s activities will culminate in a graduation ceremony.

Commenting on their Spikes Academy sponsorship, Nack-Hoi Kim, President and CEO of Cheil Worldwide said, “We are very happy to once again be involved in the Spikes Asia Academy. We are committed to the development and nurture of young talent in the region, and as such, Spikes Asia is a great opportunity for the future of our industry to be involved in.”

“Last year’s students all commented on their outstanding learning and inspirational experience after participating in the Spikes Asia Student Academy. We are therefore delighted to work with Cheil Worldwide again to deliver a unique learning platform and insight into the industry to another group of enthusiastic students to further assist in the development of their careers,” said Terry Savage, Cannes Lions Festival Chairman, joint organisers with Haymarket of Spikes Asia.

This year’s group of students in tertiary education studying advertising, marketing and communications who have earned a place on the 2010 Spikes Asia Academy are:

Peter Wang Di, Xiamen University, China
Chen Jia, Communication University of China, China
Nelson Tsui Lap Shing, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Ma Sui Mei, Sammy, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Khushboo Sharma, H.R. College, India
Abhishek Iyer, ICSE Arya Vidya Mandir, India
Ethenia Novianty Windaningrum, University of Indonesia, Indonesia
Ji-Seong Park, Kookmin University, Korea
Jeong Yumi, Korea University, Korea
Nida Shaukat, Royal Holloway University in London, Pakistan
Sarah Faye U. Wu, Grace Christian College, The Philippines
Marcus Lim Kok Hao, La Salles College of Arts, Singapore
Charmaine Ang, Singapore Polytechnic, Singapore
Alvaro Bruch, MCU Taiwan, Taiwan
Naruporn Srisukri, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Thailand

- Ends -

The Spikes Asia Advertising Festival celebrating and inspiring Asia-Pacific creativity in advertising. Suntec City, Singapore, 19-21 September 2010.

Building on 23 years of the illustrious Spikes Awards, the Spikes Asia Advertising Festival is the result of a collaboration between the International Advertising Festival, organisers of Cannes Lions, Dubai Lynx and Eurobest, and Haymarket. The Festival provides the region’s growing creative and advertising industry with a platform to network and exchange ideas, bringing together some of the finest creative thinkers from across the region and around the world.

Spikes Asia offers a challenging programme of seminars and workshops focusing on creativity and learning, exhibitions of creative work from Asia-Pacific, networking events in the evening and the Spikes Asia award show.

The Awards, judged by leading international and regional creatives, honour the best creative work in the categories of TV/Cinema, Print, Outdoor, Radio, Digital, Integrated, Direct, Sales Promotion, Media, Print Craft, TV/Cinema Craft and Design.

Key Dates

Delegate registration open from 22 April 2010
Entries now closed
Festival 19-21 September 2010

taken from : http://www.spikes.asia/press/press_releases.cfm?pressid=47

World Heritage Volunteers , "Borobudur International Workcamp"

2010-08-06T16:44:00.004+07:00

SAYA RELAWAN, "I AM A VOLUNTEER". So, starts from 13th July until 26th, I am officially a volunteer for World Heritage Volunteers UNESCO, and the location was in Borobudur Temple, central Java, Indonesia. And what is World Heritage Volunteers? It's a volunteer project for World Heritage Site UNESCO. You may check this website for details information : www.whc.unesco.org

The name of this project is 'Patrimonito Voluntary Action 2010'. All the 28 projects in 17 countries and 4 continents of the world aims at raising awareness about necessity to protect, preserve, and promote cultural and natural heritage in general and the inscribed or potential world heritage in particular.

The project furthermore aims at demonstrating the value of non-formal education as an approach to disseminate the values and expertise developed at the inter-governmental level to a large public and to young people in particular.

It aims at exploring opportunities for a dynamic dialogue between the heritage and education experts involved in the promotion and protection of the sites and the volunteers and youth developing concrete World Heritage projects.

So, what is Patrimonito?

Patrimonito

The Patrimonito image represents a young World Heritage Guardian and was designed by young people based on the UNESCO World Heritage emblem which symbolizes the interdependence of culture (square) and nature (circle). The emblem is round like the world and at the same time symbol of protection. The World Heritage Volunteers initiative uses the Patrimonito image to sensitize young people about the necessity to protect and promote World Heritage as testimonies and links between the past and the present and as symbols and places capable of contributing to a sustainable future.

These are the 28 projects:

Africa
Kenya, KVDA, WHV - Mijikenda Kaya Forest, 10th – 31st July
Malawi, AYISE, WHV - Lake Malawi National Park, 4th – 17th July
Togo, Les Amis de la Terre, WHV - Aného-Glidji, 4th – 17th September
Togo, FAGAD, WHV - Koutammakou, 16th July – 5th August
Zambia, YAZ, WHV - Victoria Falls, 4th – 17th July

America
Mexico, Nataté Voluntariado Internacional, WHV - Yecapixtla, 18th – 31st July
Mexico, Nataté Voluntariado Internacional, WHV - Tecpatán, 4th – 17th July
Mexico, Nuestra Tierra, WHV - San Sebastian, 16th July – 1st August
Mexico, Vive Mexico, WHV - Morelia, 14th – 30th July
Peru, BVBP, WHV - Chan Chan, 5th – 25th July

Arab States
Palestine, IPYL, WHV- Hebron, 7th – 20th July

Asia
India, FSL, WHV - Hampi, 1st – 11th November
Indonesia, Dejavato, WHV - Prambanan, 17th – 31st July
Indonesia, IIWC, WHV - Borobudur, 13th – 26th July
Japan, NICE, WHV - Ginzan, 11th – 25th September
Republic of Korea, IWO, WHV - Geomunoreum, 27th July – 8th August
Vietnam, SJV, WHV - Halong Bay, 2nd – 13th August

Europe
Albania, Union REMPART, WHV - Berat and Gjiokastra, 12th – 25th July
Armenia, HUJ, WHV - Geghard, 30th June – 15th July / 15th July – 7th August
Armenia, HUJ, WHV –Zvartnots, 30th June – 15th July / 15th July – 7th August
France, SJ, WHV - Fort Liédot, 7th – 28th June
France, Union REMPART, WHV - Saint-Emilion, 2nd – 14th August / 18th – 30th August
Italy, Legambiente, WHV - Matera, 11th – 24th June
Italy, Legambiente, WHV - Paestum, 26th June – 9th July
Italy, Legambiente, WHV - Riomaggiore, 26th August – 6th September
Italy, Legambiente, WHV -Venice, 18th – 31st August
Ukraine, Alternative-V, WHV - L'viv, 1st – 14th August

So, our project was in the red area letters above that was in Borobudur. So, what was this project about? It was the 2nd project of WHV Borobudur supported by IIWC (Indonesia International Work Camp), the first one was.last year. And this follow-up project will be organized in three parts : training of 30 "new young guardians" from selected nearby borobudur temple high schools, workshop with local young people (high school students) for the creation of promotional and educational materials, a 5-day awareness-raising campaign involving 70 local students and visitors of the temple in 5 spots. 2000 target groups were expected to be reached (and I think that we succeeded). It also aims the cooperation between all the WH site managers and project managers for a stronger awareness-raising campaign about WH issues in Indonesia.

As a volunteer, we need to pay the participation fee, but it's not a big deal since we gain a lot of experiences, new friends, and the pride as World Heritage Volunteers. During our camp, we stayed at the Head of Borobudur Village's House, Mr. Maladi, and it was pretty nice, near the rice field with the calm atmosphere, it had

internet connection and we were allowed to use it.

Mr Maladi's house, our camp site

view from the terrace

So, who the volunteers are? And where do we come from? There were 12 volunteers for this project, 4 from Indonesia (camp leader, co-camp leader, and 2 volunteers), 3 from South Korea, 2 from Taiwan, 1 from Japan, 1 from Peru, and 1 from

Estonia

. The volunteers’ name are : Puji, Rahmat, me, and Fika (Indonesia); Coco, Injun, Dongil (South Korea); Julia and Ethan (Taiwan); Midori (Japan); Giuliana (Peru); and Helen (Estonia). We also had additional two volunteers from Indonesia, although they only helped for three beginning days. Their names were Asih and Fitri, and they already became members for IIWC.


Puji, our camp leader, she has so many experiences, and I am her secret friend


Rahmat, our co-camp leader, he's so funny and identical matched with the "banana dance"


Fika, we call her Fika-chu, since she's the cutest one


Coco, she has big courage, the queen of the game, and she can speak French

Injun, he's so damn funny, Mr. Ring Ding Dong, but who knew if he was shy to face the visitors?

Dongil, he's so funny and helpful, but is he really Korean? kkk

Julia, she's so knowledgeable, discipline, and so practical


Ethan, he's 18 years old, but he's 190 cm, and he really likes to say "NO"

Midori, she could teach you some yoga moves and also how to shape your body

Giuliana, Miss Peru who can speak 4 languages and dance salsa

Helen, Estonian high school girl who's always hungry, she shares the same birthday with me

from left : Asih and Fitri; Asih is so talkative and funny, Fitri is the mature one, but also funny

In our work camp (and also in all of the voluntary projects), we were divided into three working groups everyday with the rolling system. Each of us will be in turn for the cooking team, washing team, and cleaning team. The cooking team duty is preparing for the breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But usually we only cooked for dinner, since we had bread for our breakfast, and lunch box at the conservation office. The cooking team also must buy the ingredients of the meal that we are going to cook at the traditional market in the early morning (around 6 AM). For the washing team, our duty is to wash the dishes or the eating and cooking utensils that all the members used for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And the last, cleaning team will be responsible to clean our area in the campsite (living room and the bathroom that we used). Everyday we also played very entertaining games to select the tomorrow daily camp leader and diary writer. (I was selected as daily camp leader twice). The most interesting part was the one who got selected most for writing the diary were Rahmat and Dongil. So, we could say that it was Rahmat and Dongil’s diary, couldn’t we? (just kidding).

Anyway, how is the condition of our camp site? Where do we sleep? We were asked to bring our sleeping bag, then we were sleeping on the floor with the sleeping bag. Although we had two bedrooms with one bed each, but the bedrooms were used as a space to put our luggage (we brought lots of stuff, lol).

If you ask for the schedule, then our schedule from 13-26 July are :

13 July : this is our first day, and we had orintation in the IIWC office and our camp site, and also division of working groups for us

14-15 July : we had workshop with the Borobudur conservation officer in the office and we also went around the Borobudur temple, Sewu, Pawon, Mendut, Pustaka Sala, and some of the other temples around Magelang and Jogja. The theme of the workshop was “Trail Of Civilization” or “Meniti Jejak Peradaban”.

day 2, Mura, the staff from conservation office took us to see around Borobudur temple

16-17 July : workshop with the high school students about Borobudur conservation. The students came from 4 schools nearby Borobudur. The students were so cute, funny, creative, and they had big passion for this project. Actually, the workshop must be conducted in English, but unfortunately the English skill of these high school students was not so fantastic for the conversation, so we had to speak in Indonesian to them. But… the foreigner volunteers couldn’t speak Indonesian, so most of the time I was in charge for being a translator, whether it was Indonesian-English, English-Indonesian, or even Javanese-English and English-Javanese. We also prepared some games for the students, and they showed big enthusiasm about the games (or big enthusiasm of the foreign volunteers?)

The high school students were making posters for the campaign

There was one very interesting and touching moment during the workshop with the high school student. On July 15^th, one of the student from SMAN 2 Magelang named Vidha had her birthday, and our camp leaders prepared cute watermelon with mouth and eyes carving on it for the celebration. After we sang “Happy birthday” song for her, she was asked to give the first slice of the watermelon to anyone there, and it was given to “ME”. Wow! I was really touched and impressed at that moment. And the reason why she gave it to me was because I helped them so much during the workshop to make posters and also help with the translation, lol. Well, Midori (the Japanese volunteers) said that I looked like an elder sister for them, yeah, I love kids and I love teaching.

Vidha, the birthday girl, cutting the watermelon

On 17 July, In the early morning before our activity, we (the volunteers and some of high school students from workshop) went to the hill to watch sunrise, but the view was not so good since it was cloudy, it was pretty tiring to climb the hill, though.

taking pictures together at the hill

18 July : we had free day, and we went to Jogja. They went to Prambanan temple and also Malioboro. But I just went to Malioboro since I went there with our co-camp leader and we had to frame our posters first (it was quite expensive). After we met in Malioboro, we had our lunch together in the Malioboro shopping mall. I forget the name of the restaurant, but the food was delicious and they love it, I think. We also bought some souvenirs in Malioboro.

19-20 July : preparation for the campaign

Coco, and Injun, approached by many high school students, Dongil already escaped successfully

We had an observation in the temple at noon, and something happened. Since we had the Koreans here, and many of Indonesian youngsters are influenced by Korean culture or entertainment, maybe, the Korean volunteers (Dongil, Injun, and Coco) were approached by many high school students to have some picture taken together, especially Dongil since his skin is so pale.

There was also an accident happened to one of the high school students. We, all the volunteers were shocked and sad when we heard the sad news. The high school student, named Tri, was passed away because of the motorbike accident. Hope that his family is okay now.

21-25 July : campaign in Borobudur temple with high school students

We only had campaign until lunch break, and after that we went back to our camp site for having some rest (seriously it was sooo hot and exhausting).

From 21-24 July, we had around 14 students (4 who already joined the workshop + additional 10 students from each school) that helped us to do the campaign, and everyday we had different students from different school.

the stupa sand workshop

We were divided into 4 groups. And every group was in charge for different task and different spot. The 1^st group was in the entrance to distribute the questionnaire. The 2^nd group was in the 1^st level of the temple to give the direction of the best way to enjoy the temple, that is to enter to the left (following clockwise) which means of respecting birth. The 3^rd group was in the top of the level, and it was the hardest thing to do, besides it’s very hot there, it’s so hard to remind the visitors of not sitting, climbing, either touching the stupas and the reliefs. Even there was an accident happened when two of us tried to remind the visitor who actually Indonesian and even a tour guide (the tour guide must be out of his mind,lol). The last one was in charge in the exit gate which on the last day was moved to the front to held a quick sand stupa workshop in order to remind the visitors for not touching either climbing the stupas.

top of the temple, the hardest part, people were in race for touching the finger of Buddha, and surely the climbed

But so far, me, who ever been on top, or entrance, or exit gate never met any obstacles, maybe just some ignorance from the visitors. But most of the time, when I tried to approach the visitors, they were accepting and hearing (especially the young guys, lol). I also met some cute visitors, and one very goodlooking Indonesian guy who was speaking so nice, polite, and filled the questionnaire for me. :D

I think probably I have pretty good communication skill (since my major is communication?) or maybe I have that talent in me XD

our last picture in Borobudur

25 July was the last day of our campaign and we had around 25 or maybe more high school volunteers from around 5 schools. It was the most entertaining day for me, since one of the high school students were soo funny (I laughed every 3 minutes, I think). Thanks for your entertaining drama, Achil^^ Although Helen and Coco couldn’t understand what were we laughing about.

On the last day, we had farewell party in the conservation office with the officers and highschool students. And some of the high school students asked us to have some picture taken with us, and one of them named Farras also sang a song for us. Yeah, Farras was very talented. We had many talks with the highschool students, and we were laughing together a lot.

for the farewell gift, every volunteers signed in Fatikh's t-shirt

In the evening, we must had farewell party at our camp site, but since we hadn’t planned anything yet, so we only had final evaluation (everyone to say her or his impression during the project and work camp), followed with the revelation of secret friend. Shortly, in this work camp, and like in any work camp held by IIWC, there will be secret friend for every one. And what the secret friend must do is to please his or her secret friend (in any kind of way). So, every one must have one secret friend, and first, Puji, our camp leader was guessing who her secret friend was, then she guessed that it was me, and it was correct, lol, although it seemed that I did nothing special for her, but actually I tried to please her by being a good participant and help her task as the camp leader, haha. And who was my secret friend? I really couldn’t tell who he or she was. But he or she was very nice. He or she sometimes sent me a paper with sweet greetings like “Good morning… Here I give you a candy to…”

First, I thought that it must be “her” not “him”, since the greetings paper was put on the girl’s bed (in the girl’s bedroom), so I thought that it must be impossible for boy to come inside and put that paper. So, I just guessed Coco as my secret friend. But it was wrong. And… my secret friend was… Rahmat. OMG, a male and our co-camp leader. Ok, it was nice anyway. Thanks, Rahmat.

After the final evaluation, we ate blackforest cake, since I requested that to Puji, lol. And some of us were playing with the cake by put the cream on other’s face. That was quite funny.

26 July is finally coming. And we had to say goodbye to the camp site also to each other participant. It was so sad cause there were too many moments we shared together, although only for very short 2-week term. I think that we already feel so close with each other, maybe because we stayed at the same house, the same space, and we altogether did the same things. Before we said goodbye, I already took videos for every participants to know what they felt during the work camp. And surely we had picture taken together.

Agung (helen's boyfriend), Coco, and Injun at the terrace before saying goodbye to the camp site

So, at the end of the day after this work camp officially over most of us (me, Ethan, Coco, Injun, Dongil, Giuliana) went to Jogja. My house is in Jogja, Ethan would fly to Jakarta, and Coco, Injun, Dongil, and Giuliana would have a trip to Bali (all their flight was from Jogjakarta airport). Julia also went to Jogja for her vacation, but she didn’t take the same car as ours since her hotel’s car was picked her up at our camp site. Puji, our camp leader went back to IIWC office in Semarang with Asih, while Fika went to her friend’s house before she went back to her hometown, Kudus. Rahmat, our co-camp leader also went to Jogja, but beforehand he had to finish several things around Borobudur. And Helen, she stayed in Borobudur until mid of August since she had middle term voluntary project in Borobudur with the high school students. Midori? Well, she already left first on 21 July, I think, since she was sick, then she went back to Japan after changed her flight schedule.

After we left our camp site with car, I got news that Helen was terribly crying. I knew that it must be hard for her since all of us, including Rahmat were leaving, and she would still stay alone in Borobudur (she had her boyfriend and very kind host family actually), but it would just still hard to let us go, I supposed. So, in Jogja, our plan were : had a lunch, exchange the money, and went to the shopping mall (since their flight was around 8 PM). I took them to Kangen Desa restaurant, a kind of seafood restaurant with natural, village kind of decoration style with several fish ponds in it. I thought that it was pretty nice, but unfortunately, Coco told me that she really hates fish, and I was felt so sorry for that. And there were also some annoying and aggressive big ants (So sorryyyy, guys). But I think that they liked the dishes, hopefully they did.

Coco and Dongil in Ambarukmo Plaza

After we had lunch, we went to exchange the money to the city center, and we went to Ambarukmo Plaza shopping mall. It’s the biggest shopping mall in Jogja. And we also met Rahmat there. I was quite amazed since there were some changes in the mall (now they really have all the exclusive branded store in it). I think that my friends also loved the mall (better than Malioboro mall or any souvenir shops around Borobudur, lol). Some of them bought souvenirs, apparels, and some other stuff there. After we done, we went to Adi Sucipto airport, although me and Rahmat flight was on 28 July, not 26, lol. But we just wanted to take them to the airport, since probably, (but hopefully not for real) it would be the last time we met them. After giving hugs to each one of them and saying goodbye, I rushed to the car and I went straightly to my house. The bad thing was, the driver was tuning in the sad song in the car (Avril Lavigne- “I’m with you”), then I suddenly just cried, I didn’t know why, of course I felt sad and the goodbye pain was in my heart T_T (P.S I love all of you without any exception).

Now I will list several most interesting things I met during the work camp :

1) The first one must be the other participants, they were so friendly, funny, kind, smart, and crazy.

2) The experiences, it was so valuable for me also I found and learned a lot (including the experience to taste the traditional cooking from some other countries, yummy ^^)

3) The high school students, they were so damn funny, cute, and remind me of my high school friends that probably as funny as them, the moment was including with the first cut of watermelon birthday gift from Vidha to me.

4) The local people around Borobudur, including the visitors and high school students again, some of them thought if I were foreigner (maybe from China, Japan, Thailand, or what so ever). Actually one of the volunteers, named Dongil, also thought if I were from Thailand at the first time we met, lol. The funniest thing was when the high school student visitor approached me with English to have a picture taken together, and I just replied with English and acted as if I couldn’t speak Indonesian, and they just believed if I were foreigner, lol.

5) A very good looking Indonesian visitor guy I met and talked to (no, I am just joking). I mean, there were a lot of foreign visitors in Borobudur, and it was quite interesting for me to watch some of the foreign volunteers could speak with them in Japanese, Chinese, Korean, French, and Spanish.

Dongil met two korean women and asked them to fill the questionaire

Now will be the saddest parts:

1) One of the high school students, Tri, passed away because of the accident.

2) Midori was leaving to Japan even before the campaign began.

3) Farewell with the other participants, though I still keep in touch with some of them through facebook (just promise that we will always keep in touch this way and we’ll meet again someday).

4) I lost my slippers since it was fell off and swallowed with the mud in the rice field, but I bought the new ones after that accident.

Brown eyes - Don't Go Don't Go

2010-06-17T19:32:00.000+07:00

This duo is really awesome with the outstanding vocals! I really love this song as well as the MV. And the male model especially (the cute Yoo Seung Ho^^)

2010-06-15T16:00:00.000+07:00

This is the first radio commercial I made, and luckily it brought me to broke the student ad contest in Indonesia. The theme is about "more vocal with local product" and I picked the tourism issue.

Copywriter : Ethenia Novianty W
Farikha Azizia

Tidung Island : Magical Heaven in Little Village part 3

2010-06-11T19:17:00.000+07:00

Cerita di bagian final ini akan sangat panjang. Tapi jangan bosen-bosen buat bacanya ya... Haha.. Kalau kalian mau ke sana, cerita yang sangat lengkap ini akan jadi panduan buat kalian menjelajahi Pulau Tidung. Yeah...

Setelah sampai di Pulau Tidung Kecil, kami terus berjalan dan berjalan tanpa tahu akhirnya di mana. Sebenarnya tujuannya untuk mencari pantai sih. Tapi kok pantainya nggak nongol-nongol ya? Adanya semak-semak aja di sepanjang kanan dan kiri jalan setapak.

Tapi setelah kami bertemu dengan segerombolan remaja cowok yang kayaknya penghuni asli pulau dan bertanya pada mereka pantainya ada ato nggak dan masih jauh ato nggak, ternyata memang ada pantai dan masih agak jauh sih. Ya sudah, kami terus berjalan, sampai bertemu dengan segerombolan orang yang wisatawan juga, kemudian pantainya ketemu deh. Hehe... Pantai yang pertama kami kunjungi yaitu pantai di sebelah utara. Ternyata cukup ramai orang juga. Niatnya kan kami mau berenang, dan kami sudah membawa atau memakai dalaman pakaian renang, jadi kayaknya nggak enak kalau berenang ditonton banyak orang. Hohoho

Jadi kami berjalan lagi sampai menemukan pantai yang sepi dan tidak ada wisatawan lain di sana. Tapi sepanjang kami berjalan sampai tidak ada wisatawan lain, tapi yang ada malah sampah di sepanjang pantai yang meskipun tidak banyak, tapi cukup mengganggu. (Iya kan? Masa berenang sama sampah?)

Akhirnya kami dapat juga pantai sepi yang bebas sampah. Hanya ada kami di sana. Dan kami langsung kegirangan diikuti melucuti pakaian (karena pakai pakaian renang di dalam) terus berjalan ke arah laut. (Kecuali Riry, karena dia merasa kelelahan, jadi tidak ikut ke laut, melainkan menjaga tas kami aja). Tapi oh my... Ternyata banyak sekali karang-karang tajam di laut yang melukai kaki kami. Uh,sakit. Kami harus ekstra hati-hati melangkah untuk menghindari karang-karang tajam ini. Sampai akhirnya ke daerah yang hanya terdapat sedikit karang di bagian dasar. Daerah ini dalamnya hanya kira-kira seatas lutut orang dewasa. Hehe... Kami tidak berani untuk terlalu jauh melangkah karena takut akan ada laut pasang alias ombak, berhubung saat itu sudah sore. Tapi ya, kami sok-sok aja berenang (duduk dan tidur-tiduran di laut sih sebenarnya). Sampai akhirnya aku merasakan ada benda empuk-empuk aneh dan bergerak menyentuh tanganku. Aku pun langsung berteriak. Ketika melihat ke kanan aku melihat benda panjang berwarna coklat dengan diameter kira-kira 4 cm. Karena aku mengira ular laut, aku lebih berteriak lagi dengan volume lebih kencang. Yodsa, Sasha, dan Arif langsung ikutan panik, "Ada apa sih?" Kemudian mereka melihat ke sebelah kananku, dan kata Sasha, itu teripang atau landak laut gitu. Tetep aja aku masih merasa sangat histeris, karena mengingat sensasi empuk dan basah-basah di tanganku.

Pokoknya setelah merasa cukup puas, kami berjalan kembali ke arah pantai. Mengenakan pakaian lagi, dan berjalan lagi untuk melihat pantai di bagian selatan. Sebelum menemukan pantai, kami melewati perkebunan (atau hutan) mangrove, sebenarnya itu kayaknya tempat budidaya mangrove gitu. Lumayan membingungkan sih dengan keberadaan pohon-pohon mangrove itu untuk menemukan celah ke arah pantai. Tapi akhrinya dapet juga. Kami kira di sana hanya ada kami, tapi ternyata ada juga wisatawan lain yang sedang berfoto-foto ria. Tadinya kami kira pantainya bagus (kata Pak Nafi tadi gitu), tapi ternyata sama aja kayak pantai di sebelah utara. Tadinya kami mau berenang di pantai ini juga, tapi kami cuma bisa berjalan-jalan sebentar di laut dengan jarak ke pantai yang tidak jauh berhubung angin agak kencang dan prediksiku mengatakan bahwa akan segera datang air pasang yang disebabkan angin laut. Dan ternyata benar. Ya sudahlah, karena sudah mau maghrib juga dan langit sudah mau gelap, kami memutuskan untuk kembali ke jembatan saja. Mari kita kembali ke Jembatan Cinta. (bahasa Inggrisnya The Gate of Love, wkkwkkwk).

Sebelum sampai ke jembatan, alias masih di jalan setapak dengan kanan kiri semak-semak, kami melihat pemandangan yang sangat indah. Apa itu? Pantai lagi? Bukanlah. Melainkan, pelangi yang terlihat di antara langit merah yang menimbulkan gradasi warna sangat indah. Kami melanjutkan berjalan lagi ke arah jembatan. Dan bagus, langit sudah bertambah gelap lagi. Dan kami foto-foto kembali di sepanjang jembatan dengan latar pemandangan langit merah.

Setelah cukup puas berfoto ria, kami kembali berjalan menyusuri jembatan dan kembali ke tempat penitipan sepeda. Tapi melihat banyak orang berhenti di dekat tempat penitipan sepeda sambil makan siomay, aku pun tergoda. Jadi, sebelum mengambil sepeda, aku mengajak teman-teman untuk menyantap siomay dulu. Baru kemudian kami mengambil sepeda dan menaikinya lagi menuju tempat penginapan kami dengan keadaan pakaian agak basah ditemani langit yang semakin gelap saja.

Sebelum sampai ke penginapan, kami melewati warung makan tempat kami makan siang tadi, namanya Gelora kalo nggak salah. Kami berhenti sebentar untuk menanyakan apakah ikan bakar pesanan kami sudah jadi. Dan ternyata sudah jadi beserta lauk pauk lainnya. Mmm... Yummy! Kami pun meminta dinner dish ini untuk diantar ke penginapan Lima Saudara tempat kami menginap. Setelah makanan diantar dan kami membayar, kami belum langsung menyantapnya meskipun ikan bakar, udang goreng, tahu, tempe, oseng-oseng buncis, sambal kecap dan nasi itu terlihat sangat menggiurkan. (Murah lho, satu porsi komplit kayak gitu dengan ukuran ikan yang besar cuma Rp 15.000,-). Kenapa nggak langsung makan aja? Ya, kami kan mau sholat dan mandi dulu (mandinya antre gara-gara cuma ada 1 kamar mandi, dan aku mandi terakhir. Sial, gara2 aku mandinya paling lama). Jadi, gara2 itu aku mandinya nanti habis makan. Jadi aku deh yang pertama makan. Enak banget deh sumpah... Ikan bakarnya rasanya bener-bener fresh banget. Sambal kecapnya yahud. Pokoknya TOP banget.

Selesai mandi, aku harus interview dengan Pak Mid (pemilik penginapan lima saudara) dan Pak Sanwari (bagian Humas Kantor Kelurahan Pulau Tidung) untuk tugas Komunikasi Stratejik kelompokku. Hasilnya, kami berhasi interview dengan Pak Mid dan mendapatkan fakta kalau ternyata bisnis persewaan sepeda di Pulau Tidung itu pertama dirintis oleh Pak Mid, dan penginapan yang ia miliki juga merupakan jajaran penginapan pertama yang ada di Pulau Tidung. Kalau Pak Sanwari, setelah diantar oleh Pak Mid ke rumah beliau, ternyata orangnya tidak ada di tempat. Mungkin juga karena sudah malam. Dan sepertinya dia pergi untuk melihat pertunjukan lenong di lapangan desa. Malam itu keadaan desa terlihat lengang di sepanjang jalan, karena sangat banyak penduduk yang melihat pertunjukan lenong. (Kayaknya jarang ada hiburan rakyat di Pulau Tidung ini). Jadi, selepas mengembalikan sepeda, kami menonton pertunjukan lenong itu karena penasaran seperti apa. Anyway, sebelumnya aku sama sekali belum pernah melihat lenong secara langsung. (Pernahnya di TV).

Tanpa mengetahui di mana tempat lenongnya, kami terus berjalan mengikuti suara arah musik dan dialog super ramai itu berasal. Dan akhirnya kami sampai juga. Buset! Yang nonton lenong banyak banget, kayaknya ratusan gitu (sekitar 60% penduduk Pulau Tidung mungkin). Terdapat pula para penjual yang menjual makanan dengan gerobak sepeda dan juga beberapa tukang becak dan tukang ojek yang mangkal. Lenongnya cukup lucu dan menarik sih, tapi bagiku tetap kurang lucu. Ternyata setelah bertanya pada warga sekitar, lenong itu diadakan bukan event bulanan, melainkan acara itu diadakan apabila akan ada perusahaan yang akan membanggun suatu proyek di sana. Jadi cara untuk mendapatkan acceptance dari warga ialah dengan mengadakan suatu acara hiburan yang memang dibutuhkan oleh penduduk Pulau. Karena angin malamnya sangat dingin dan cuaca menandakan akan turun hujan, kami pun memutuskan untuk pulang ke penginapan. Besok pagi kami juga harus berkemas untuk pergi ke pulau-pulau kecil di dekat Pulau Tidung untuk snorkeling.

Paginya, sekitar pukul 8 setelah menyewa peralatan snorkeling (harganya Rp 35ribu) dan membelo oleh-oleh (ada dodol rumput laut, kripik sukun, dll yang dijual di tempat persewaan alat snorkeling di dekat gerbang dermaga Pulau Tidung), kami telah siap naik kapal yang kami sewa (harga kapal plus snorkeling guide Rp 400ribu, dan bisa dipakai hingga 8 orang). Untuk menyewa kapal silakan menghubungi Mas Afif. Kami nanti akan snorkeling di sekitar Pulau Payung, Pulau Ayer, dan Pulau Karang Beras. Naik kapal ukuran relatif kecil ini asik banget, karena hanya ada kami berlima ditemani dua orang guide yang sekaligus pengemudi kapal (Mas Afif dan satu bocah remaja cowok). Jadi serasa kapal ini kapal pribadi kami. Beruntung, kami jadi lebih punya privacy untuk mau ber snorkeling berapa lama dan kapan mau pindah tanpa persetujuan anggota rombongan lainnya (Ada kapal lain yang dinaiki sekitar 12 orang termasuk senior kuliahku dan kalo kayak gitu harus minta persetujuan anggota lain kalo mau pindah). Padahal di kapal lain tempat senior kuliahku, Si Tirza ini ada cowok ganteng dan keren banget yang bertelanjang dada super hot. Mukanya mirip2 cowok Chinese Thai yang ganteng, ya perpaduan Mike Lewis dan Daniel Henney lah. Kayaknya cowok ini emang bukan orang Indonesia. Sayang, baru lihat hari Minggu ini dan belum sempat kenalan. Hahahahhahhaha. Di atas kapal sebelum kami mencebur dan basah kami telah berfoto dulu dengan rompi pelampung, haha.

Rute pertama snorkeling kami adalah Pulau Payung. Sebelum kami semua mencoba bersnorkeling maupun menceburkan badan kami ke laut, terlebih dulu guide kami turun dulu ke laut (tanpa alat snorkeling apapaun) untuk memastikan apakah daerah itu aman untuk bersnorkeling atau tidak. Dan setelah Mas Afif berkata oke, baru kami berani mencebur. Yang pertama mencebur di antara kami adalah Sasha, dia sangat antusias dan tidak sabar. Begitu menceburkan badan ke laut (dengan perlengkapan snorkeling lengkap tentunya), aku merasa sangat takjub, kagum, dan gembira luar biasa (karena ini pertama kalinya aku snorkeling, begitu juga dengan teman-temanku yang lain). Teman-temanku juga terlihat sangat bahagia seakan hari itu adalah pengalaman liburan paling menyenangkan dalam hidup mereka. Kita bisa menyebut alam bawah laut itu sebagai surga dunia (karena sangat indah). Ikan-ikan dan terumbu karang yang berwarna-warni dan bergerak itu bahkan lebih indah dari yang biasa aku lihat di akuarium. Serius. (Aku kelihatan norak ya?) Tapi beneran, underwater view nya emang bagus banget. Bahkan aku melihat ada ubur-ubur kecil berwarna kuning (kalau lihat ubur-ubur jangan sampe kena ya... Nanti disengat). O ya, air laut itu rasanya beneran asin parah, jangan sampai airnya masuk ke alat snorkeling yang nempel mulut ya, nanti bisa panik kalau airnya ketelan. Lautnya yang dangkal bahkan bisa membuat kami berdiri di atas karang. Tapi teman-temanku agak aneh, mereka malah snorkeling di bagian yang terlalu dangkal. Awalnya aku belum tahu, tapi setelah merasakan tergesek karang dan agak lecet, aku jadi menghindari snorkeling di daerah super dangkal ini. Di antara temanku sepertinya ada yang lecet tergesek karang juga.

Berpindah ke rute pulau setelahnya, yaitu Pulau Ayer, pemandangannya lebih bagus, kita akan menemukan karang-karang raksasa yang indah ketika kita snorkeling. Karangnya bentuknya sangat bervariasi dan perpaduan warnanya sangat unik. Di sini aku sempat mencoba menangkap ikan dengan jala bertangkai kayu milik guide kapal, tapi susah sekali. Karena aku memakai ban pelampung aku jadi tidak bisa berenang ke bawah menerobos karang-karang tempat ikan-ikan yang kukejar kabur dan bersembunyi. Bahkan guide kapal kami yang masih remaja mencoba menangkap ikan dengan berenang ke bawah tanpa alat snorkeling apapun (karena sudah jago berenang), tapi ia pun tidak berhasil mendapatkan ikan. Ya sudah lah. O ya, di pulau ini lebih banyak ubur-ubur meskipun semuanya berukuran ekstra kecil. Dan temanku, Sasha sempat tersengat di pahanya (jadi bentol-bentol merah kecil-kecil). Pengalaman besok kalau snorkeling harus pakai baju panjang dan legging panjang, intinya pakaian renang panjang dan menutupi kulit lah. Melihat waktu, kami memutuskan untuk naik ke atas kapal dan pindah ke pulau lain, yaitu Pulau Karang Beras. Tidak lupa kami telah berfoto ria di atas kapal maupun ketika kami sedang snorkeling.

Di Pulau Karang Beras, seperti biasa sebelum kami mencebur, guide kami mencebur ke laut dulu untuk memastikan keadaan. Kata asisten Mas Afif, "Ikannya besar-besar." Di bayanganku ikan besar itu ikan hiu, di bayangan Riry ikan besar itu ikan barracuda. Hahaha

Saking penasarannya, aku sangat antusias untuk mencebur. Dan benar, ikannya besar-besar dan semuanya ikan hias (tidak ada hiu maupun barracuda, he he). Pemandangannya sangat bagus. Kalau aku bilang, di sini paling bagus. Sayangnya, waktu kami ke Pulau Karang Beras sudah agak siang (sekitar jam 11) jadi ombaknya agak besar dan sempat gerimis juga. Jadi kami yang snorkeling terombang-ambing oleh ombak hingga sampai agak jauh dari kapal. Kekhawatiranku yaitu : ombak yang mengendalikanku akan membuatku menyenggol hewan-hewan laut berbahaya maupun menggesek karang yang akan menyebabkan lecet-lecet lebih lanjut. Mana di sini kakiku sempat kram lagi. Sial! Ombak besar, kaki kram. Makin khawatir aku akan sengatan dan gesekan itu. Melihat ada Riry di dekatku, aku pun meraih dan menggandeng tangannya. Aku bilang kalau aku kram, dan kami bersama-sama kembali ke kapal. O ya, ngomong-ngomong, dalam keadaan basah setelah snorkeling, untuk naik ke atas kapal terasa sangat berat. Dan sepertinya aku lebih memiliki masalah untuk naik ke atas kapal dibanding temanku yang lain (sampai harus ditarik tangannya dan dibantu oleh 2 orang guide). Yang lain biasanya dibantu satu orang saja sudah cukup. Padahal aku juga nggak gemuk, tapi kenapa ya? Setelah kami semua berada di atas kapal, kapal pun berangkat menuju tujuan terakhir yaitu Pulau Pramuka, letak ibukota kabupaten administratif Kep. Seribu. Di sana kami akan naik kapal yang kira-kira berangkat pukul 1.00 menuju Muara Angke (dengan kapal lebih besar dan kapasitas lebih banyak dibandingkan kapal Muara Angke-Pulau Tidung).

Kapal berangkat menuju Pulau Pramuka. Siang itu cuaca agak hujan alias gerimis, tapi kami berhasil tiba di Pulau Pramuka dengan selamat kira-kira pukul 12 kurang. Di sana kami sempat bertanya kepada orang setempat yang ada di dermaga mengenai kapan kapal menuju Muara Angke berangkat dan di sebelah mana. Kemudian ia mengatakan kalau kira-kira pukul 13.00 sambil ia menunjuk arah di mana kapal akan berangkat. Sampai di sana kami agak bingung ke mana kami akan pergi. Kemudian kami bertanya lagi kepada orang yang ada di dermaga tentang di mana ada kamar mandi untuk bilas dan di mana ada restoran atau warung makan. Setelah ia memberikan petunjuk, kami berjalan mengikuti arah tersebut. Ternyata... warung makannya rame banget, penuh orang, dan nggak ada meja yang kosong. Kami melihat kanan kiri warung itu, ada sih warung makan lain di dekatnya, tapi nggak banget, dan nggak ada tempat untuk bilas. Gyahhh...

Kami pun berjalan lagi nggak jelas (anyway, Pulau Pramuka itu kecil, jauh lebih kecil dari Pulau Tidung, mungkin cuma seukuran stadion). Dan kami menemukan ada Tourist Information Center, dan kebetulan ada Mas-mas yang nongkrong di depannya. Ya sudah, bertanyalah diriku padanya di mana ada letak warung makan. Kemudian ia menjawab, "Yuk, ke sana sama saya. Di sana ada warung nasi padang, nasi goreng, dll. Kebetulan saya juga mau beli makan." Ya udah, kami pun mengikuti dia, sambil bertanya tempat penangkaran penyu ada di mana. Ia pun menunjukkan suatu arah lagi, tapi kami mengejar waktu dengan waktu keberangkatan kapal, jadi kami pikir tidak akan sempat untuk pergi ke sana. Setelah menemukan warung makannya (yang kebetulan ada meja kosong), aku langsung meletakkan tas dan seluruh barang bawaan di atas meja) dilanjutkan dengan memesan makan. Warung makan ini adalah warung nasi padang dan lauknya lumayan enak juga. Harganya kira-kira Rp 10.000,- an lah kalo nggak salah. Di warung ini, aku menjumpai segerombolan anak muda yang berbicara dengan bahasa yang bukan bahasa Indonesia pada umumnya. Setelah kusimak dengan lumayan seksama, kusimpulkan bahwa itu adalah bahasa Melayu dan segerombolan anak muda itu adalah bukan orang Indonesia, kayaknya sih orang Malaysia dengan tipikal wajah Chinese, tapi beda dengan wajah suku Tionghoa di Indonesia.

Setelah makan, aku ke kamar mandi untuk berganti pakaian dan berbilas (dengan air saja, tanpa sabun). Kemudian beberapa dari temanku juga melakukan hal yang sama, tapi tidak tahu apa mereka juga bilas. Setelah kami semua selesai, kami berjalan keluar warung, dan di sana aku menjumpai seseorang cewek yang sepertinya aku kenal wajahnya. Cewek itu melambaikan tangan ke arahku. Setelah aku menghampirinya, dia bertanya, "Nia bukan ya?" Dan aku pun yakin kalau dia adalah Mei, teman lama jaman aku masih aktif debate yang sudah 4 tahun nggak ketemu. Dan kami dipertemukan di Pulau Pramuka ini. Duh duh duh... banyak banget ya yang libur weekend snorkeling di Kep. Seribu? Tapi ternyata Mei ini menginap di Pulau Pramuka, bukan Pulau Tidung dengan tarif rumah Rp 500.000,- yang katanya sudah ada AC nya dan bahkan ada mesin cucinya. Hahaha... Mei juga mau ke dermaga karena ia juga mau ke Muara Angke, ya sudah, kami berjalan bersama-sama ke sana. Ternyata sudah ramai saja di dermaga. Terlihat antrean manusia yang membeli tiket (di sini tiketnya dibeli dan dibayar diawal, berbeda dengan kapal dari Muara Angke ke Pulau Tidung yang dibayar di atas kapal tanpa tiket).

Dan di sana aku bertemu dengan teman lama lagi. Ada kakak kelas SMA yang sudah 5 tahun nggak ketemu. Namanya Mbak Chemist. Wah, surprise banget bisa ketemu dia di sini. Ternyata dia juga liburan weekend buat snorkeling di Kep. Seribu, dan dia menginap di Pulau Pramuka sepertinya. Setelah membeli tiket (yang harganya kalo nggak salah Rp 30.000,-) kami masuk ke dalam kapal. Kapal ini memang jauh lebih besar dari kapal yang kami naiki dari Muara Angke menuju Pulau Tidung, tapi tetap aja banyak banget penumpang di dalamnya (mungkin sekitar 100 orang lebih), dan kayaknya kami telat naik karena kapal udah penuh dan kami jadi dapat tempat duduk yang kurang strategis. Kami duduk di atas kapal yang nggak ada atapnya karena bagian atas yang beratap sudah habis ditempati penumpang lain. Jadi kami harus berpanas-panasan (untung nggak hujan). Lain kali jangan lupa ya, kalau mau naik kapal dari Pulau Pramuka ke Muara Angke harus masuk lebih awal.

Dalam perjalanan kami menuju Muara Angke, banyak penumpang lain yang tidur di atas kapal. Dan kalau aku perhatikan, mereka adalah golongan menengah ke atas dan kebanyakan anak muda usia 22-30 tahun. Di dekat aku duduk ada seorang cowok botak yang masih muda dengan tampang mirip Jae Beom 2 PM. Tapi dia kurus banget, pake kacamata item, dan kalo ketawa giginya.. masya Allah, nggak rapi banget. (nggak penting untuk diceritain). Perjalanan yang kami tempuh kurang lebih sekitar 2 jam dan kami melewati beberapa pulau-pulau kecil di Kep. Seribu yang kayaknya menarik tapi nggak tau namanya apa. O ya, di atas kapal waktu udah hampir sampai akan ada petugas yang menagih tiket yang tadi kita beli. Jadi jangan sampai hilang ya.

Muara Angke sudah kelihatan, dan sebelum sampai (di dekat Muara Angke) kami melihat ada beberapa orang yang memancing di laut, tapi anehnya, kok kakinya bisa sampai ke dasar laut sembari mereka duduk ya? Emangnya lautnya dangkal? Tapi kan bukan di pantai? Lautan yang dekat dengan daratan Jakarta sangat keruh, berbeda dengan lautan di sekitar Pulau Tidung yang super bening, biru atau hijau gradasi yang bersih. Jadi sorry sorry ya, pasti nggak akan ada orang yang mau snorkeling di lautan keruh ini. Hahaha... Bisa-bisa mati karena menelan air laut yang terkontaminasi timbal berbahaya.

Akhirnya setelah nganggur dan berpanas-panas di atas kapal, sampai juga kami di Pelabuhan Muara Angke, Jakarta. Kira-kira jam 3 sore-an lah waktu itu, dan aroma amis khas dermaga benar-benar menyesakkan pernapasan. Yeaahhhh... Kulitku benar-benar keling terbakar matahari selama belibur di Pulau Tidung, jadi jangan lupa bawa dan pakai sun block ya kalau ke sana, kalau bisa yang SPF 50 sekalian biar nggak keling. (aku dan teman-teman semua lupa bawa sun block)

Sampai jumpa Kep. Seribu. See you again next time in the next episode...

THE END

Tidung Island : Magical Heaven in Little Village part 2

2010-04-15T18:57:00.001+07:00

Sesampainya di penginapan Lima Saudara, hal yang lucu adalah terdapat tulisan Ayu yang merupakan nama kecil Sasha, dan juga tulisan pemesan "Kang Arif". Hahaha. Ternyata Ayu ini adalah nama Wisma nya. Kirain...

Dan hal lucu lain adalah ternyata seniorku yang sudah lulus itu menginap persis di penginapan samping penginapan kami. Itu penginapan Lima Saudara milik Pak Mid juga. Jadi, dalam satu halaman terdapat empat rumah kecil milik Pak Mid.

Setelah melepas kepenatan dan menyusun plan akan ke mana saja kita plus berdiskusi dengan tetangga sebelah, kami melanjutkan perjalanan kami kembali. Tujuan pertama : ke Kantor Lurah. Buat apa? Untuk mencari data yang diperlukan untuk riset kami. Ahaha... Sayangnya Pak Lurah atau wakil lurahnya sedang istirahat, dan kata mas penjaga di sana beliau bisa dijumpai setelah Dzuhur. Jadi.... kami pergi untuk mencari sepeda. Termasuk ke tempat Bang Asep yang namanya sangat tenar di blog orang-orang yang berwisata ke Pulau Tidung sebelumnya. Dan ternyata... BINGO! Semua sepeda sudah dibooking atau dengan kata lain kami kehabisan sepeda. Sempat bingung juga, bagaimana caranya untuk nanti ke jembatan yang menghubungkan dengan Pulau Tidung kecil. Atau mau menyewa motor saja? Lebih mahal sih, Rp 50.000,- untuk satu hari. Ada juga becak dengan tarif ke jembatannya Rp 15.000,- , sama dengan tarif sewa sepeda seharian. Sedikit putus asa, kami memutuskan untuk tetap berjalan sambil mencari persewaan sepeda. Sebagai tips, jangan ikut-ikutan kami ya, yang baru mencari sepeda setelah sampai pulau agak lama. Seharusnya kita sudah mencari sepeda begitu turun dari kapal, atau booking dari awal sebelum datang ke Pulau Tidung. Hehehe... Cari aman lah.

Tapi untungnya... ketika sedang berjalan, aku melihat ada sekitar 2 sepeda diparkir di dekat dermaga dan di seberang rumah penduduk. Aku pun kemudian berinisiatif untuk bertanya pada penghuni rumah tersebut apakah sepeda tersebut disewakan atau tidak. Di halaman rumahnya pun terdapat beberapa sepeda diparkir. Sayangnya, sepeda tersebut tidak disewakan. Tapi kabar baiknya... ibu yang baik hati itu membantu kami untuk mencarikan sepeda di rumah-rumah lain. Dia bertanya kami butuh berapa sepeda. Kami pun menjawab kalau ada 5, ya bagus, kalau tidak 3 saja, jadi kami terpaksa berboncengan nanti.
Beberapa menit kemudian Ibu itu kembali dengan membawa 2 sepeda. Saking baiknya, dia bahkan menawarkan satu sepeda miliknya untuk disewakan. Kami tidak menyangka penduduk Pulau Tidung sebaik dan seramah ini. Jadi terharu...

Jadi, aku berboncengan dengan Yodsa, Sasha dengan Arif, dan Riri naik sepeda sendirian.

Setelah mendapat sepeda, kami kembali ke penginapan sebentar untuk sholat dzuhur, kemudian baru ke kantor Lurah untuk bertemu dengan Pak Mashud wakil Lurah untuk wawancara. Tentang apa? Pastinya tentang Pulau Tidung, hehe.

Setelah selesai kami menyempatkan diri untuk berfoto bersama dengan Pak Mashud.

Baru setelah selesai wawancara, kami bisa berjalan-jalan. Hehe... Dengan sepeda, kami mengelilingi pulau Tidung besar menuju jembatan penyeberangan ke Pulau Tidung kecil. Di jalan, kami menjumpai SMK, Puskesmas, dan Kantor Kepolisian.

Tiba-tiba... ada sesosok bapak dengan mengenakan kaos polisi memberhentiksan kami untuk mengajak istirahat dulu. Dia bilang, "Capek kan? Ayo istirahat, duduk-duduk dulu, sambil minum kelapa muda." Kami kira kelapa mudanya gratis, waktu dia tanya mau pesan berapa, kami bilang 3 aja. Tapi dia melanjutkan, 4 aja, biar pas Rp 20.000,-. Oh, ternyata bayar. Dia pun membelah kelapa muda itu dengan tenaganya sendiri. Dengan tangan? Pake pisau lah. Sambil menikmati kelapa muda, kami pun menyempatkan diri untuk berfoto dengan beliau.

Kelapa muda habis, bayar, lanjut lagi sepedaan. Kami mampir ke pantai dulu untuk melepas kelelahan, dan tentu saja berfoto ria.

Akhirnya kami menemukan tempat penitipan sepeda yang cukup ramai. Terdapat meja di mana karcis dibagikan dan nama penitip dicatat di dalam buku. Aku tulis saja nama Arif, hehe. Kemudian karcisnya aku berikan ke dia.

Jembatan Pulau Tidung berada di hadapan kami. Ketika berjalan menyusuri jembatan, kami melihat pemandangan yang sangatttt indah. Tentu saja kami berfoto ria di sini.

hati-hati ada beberapa bagian jembatan yang rusak

BERSAMBUNG KE PART 3 (FINAL)

Tidung Island : Magical Heaven in Little Village part 1

2010-04-14T17:58:00.000+07:00

Jika kamu menginginkan tempat yang jauh dari keramaian ibukota, tenang, segar, ramah, dan dikelilingi nuansa keindahan yang luar biasa, Pulau Tidung di Kepulauan Seribu adalah jawabannya. Dengan menempuh 3 jam perjalanan kapal dari Muara Angke, kita akan tiba di Little Village of Heaven ini.

beautiful sea in Pulau Tidung

Pulau Tidung dengan keindahan pantai dan pemandangan bawah lautnya ini sebenarnya adalah suatu Kelurahan yang masih terbagi lagi ke dalam 6 pulau, yaitu : Pulau Tidung Besar, Pulau Tidung Kecil, Pulau Payung Besar, Pulau Payung Kecil, Pulau Laki, dan Pulau Karang Beras. Total luas dari semua pulau adalah 106 Ha, dan total jumlah penduduknya adalah 4258 jiwa. Hmm... sudah cukup banyak juga. Awalnya, aku berpikir kalau pulau ini masih sepi penduduk, tapi ternyata setelah kami datang kami telah disambut dengan keramahan penduduk lokal yang ternyata jumlahnya sudah cukup banyak. Anda mungkin berpikiran jika dalam pulau ini penduduknya agak primitif, tapi hal itu sangat tidak benar, karena rata-rata tiap rumah di sini memiliki televisi, dan semua anak di Pulau ini bersekolah. Yeah... di Pulau Tidung Besar di mana terdapat kantor kelurahan terdapat pula sekolah-sekolah, dari SD, SMP, hingga SMK. Lengkap juga dengan Puskesmas dan kantor Kepolisian.

Pemandangan sunrise dari dekat Muara Angke saat kapal berlabuh

Singkatnya, aku dan keempat temanku (Riri, Sasha, Arif, dan Yodsa) pada hari Sabtu tanggal 10 April 2010 berangkat ke Pulau Tidung dengan tujuan OBSERVASI alias riset. Tapi, ada niatan sekalian jalan-jalan sih. Haha... Kami berangkat dari Muara Angke pukul 06.20 pagi. Sebagai informasi, keberangkatan ke Pulau Tidung dan pulau lain di kepulauan Seribu sekarang hanya bisa dari Muara Angke. (jalur dari Ancol sudah tidak ada lagi, kecuali untuk pejabat dan mencarter speedboat khusus dengan harga jutaan rupiah). Nah, untuk ke Pulau Tidung kapal yang menuju ke sana dari Muara Angke hanya beroperasi sekali saja, yaitu sekitar pukul 6.00. Jika dari Pulau Tidung-Muara Angke 2x sehari yaitu pada pukul 6.00 dan 13.00.(rute siang ini baru dibuka bulan April 2010 ini). Sebagai tips aja, kita harus sudah berada di Muara Angke pagi-pagi sebelum itu, karena berebut tempat di kapal. Kapalnya tidak terlalu besar dan satu hari hanya beroperasi maksimal 3 kapal. Jadi, kalau datangnya mepet, bisa-bisa tidak bisa naik ke kapal lagi karena kapal penuh (aku pun tidak menyangka jika banyak orang yang naik ke kapal jurusan Pulau Tidung, termasuk di atas kapal aku bertemu dengan seniorku satu jurusan yang kebetulan sudah lulus). Lucunya lagi, di atas kapal ada juga sepeda-sepeda dan motor yang ikut diangkut. Hehe, mungkin untuk diperjualbelikan di Pulau Tidung sana. Di tengah perjalanan di atas kapal, kami ditarik ongkos kapal sebesar Rp 33.000,- oleh kondektur kapal. Ya, lumayan lah, nggak mahal-mahal banget.

(dari kiri ke kanan : aku, Sasha, Riri, dan Arif di atas kapal)

Setelah kurang lebih 3 jam perjalanan, akhirnya kami tiba di pelabuhan Pulau Tidung pukul 9.40. Kami langsung disambut dengan beberapa anak pantai yang sedang berenang di laut tepi dermaga. Melihat kami datang, bocah-bocah yang kira-kira berusia 11 tahun ini terlihat "show off" dengan menyebur penuh gaya ke dalam laut.

hampir sampai Pulau Tidung

Ternyata, setelah sampai di pelabuhan kecil itu, kok jadi banyak orang ya? Baik yang mendarat dari kapal, maupun penduduk asli yang pada "nongkrong" di dermaga, termasuk orang yang menyewakan sepeda, abang becak, dll. Sebagai informasi, salah satu atraksi yang menarik dari Pulau Tidung dibandingkan pulau-pulau lainnya di Kepulauan Seribu adalah adanya persewaan sepeda yang disewakan oleh penduduk untuk berkeliling pulau. Tarifnya biasanya sekitar Rp 15.000,- per hari (capek juga kalau harus berjalan kaki ke jembatan yang menghubungkan dengan Pulau Tidung kecil).

suasana saat mendarat di Pulau Tidung

Sebelum datang, kami telah memesan penginapan. Penginapan ini bernama Lima Saudara yang dimiliki oleh Pak Haji Abdul Hamid (biasa dipanggil Pak Mid). Tarifnya Rp 250.000,- per malam dan maksimal dapat ditempati hingga 6 orang. Pak Mid bilang, sesampainya di dermaga, untuk mencapai penginapan kami harus berjalan kaki dulu sekitar 300 meter ke arah barat atau kiri. Tapi, aku masih agak bingung, jadi aku bertanya pada penduduk setempat di dermaga. Bapak yang aku tanya pun memberi gambaran tentang arah menuju penginapan itu. Katanya agak jauh kalau berjalan kaki, sampai aku sempat kepikiran untuk naik becak. Tapi, teman-teman yang lain berkata untuk jalan kaki saja sekalian melihat-lihat kondisi sekitar. Dan ternyata memang tidak jauh (dasar si Bapak, mungkin biar becaknya laku kali ya, haha). Kondisi jalanan di Pulau Tidung sudah di konblok. Ya, sudah lumayan lah, dan ada beberapa sepeda dan motor berlalu lalang. Penduduk setempat juga cukup sering terlihat berada di depan rumah mereka, dan jarak antara satu rumah dengan rumah lainnya cukup berdekatan. Sumpah, aku tidak menyangka kalau Pulau Tidung sudah seramai ini dan jauh dari image desa terpencil (suasana jalannya mengingatkanku pada suasana jalan di Kutek, di dalam UI, hoho).

jalan di Pulau Tidung

Kami juga sempat melihat adanya spanduk promosi yang menyewakan perlengkapan snorkelling, kapal dan lain-lain serta kami juga menjumpai kantor kelurahan sepanjang kami berjalan.

Setelah berjalan kaki dengan jarak lumayan, kami pun menjumpai sesosok lelaki tua yang mengenakan peci. Kami pun menduga bahwa dia adalah Pak Mid. Dan ternyata benar, dia langsung menyapa kami (tepatnya Arif, karena Arif lah yang selama ini ber contact dengan Pak Mid untuk memesan penginapan). Beliau langsung membawa kami menuju penginapannya.

BERSAMBUNG ke part 2

First Shot, First Shock

2010-04-12T21:56:00.000+07:00

Senangnya...

Bercampur kaget, bercampur tak percaya

Berakhir ketagihan dan kemantaban berkarya

1 April 2010, adalah hari pengumuman pemenang Creadtive Award, kompetisi iklan mahasiswa se-Pulau Jawa yang diadakan oleh Himpunan Mahasiswa Ilmu Komunikasi Universitas

Indonesia

, kampusku sendiri, hehe (tapi aku bukan panitia dan pengurus di Himpunan, lho).

Kita flash back dulu, jadi tahun ini seperti biasa diadakan Pekan Komunikasi dan kompetisi iklan menjadi salah satu bagiannya. Yang luar biasa adalah tahun ini entry tim / peserta yang masuk lebih dari 130 (hanya untuk peserta, bukan karya, karena satu tim peserta bisa mengirim 2,3 karya, atau bahkan lebih). Jumlah ini hampir menyamai entry kompetisi iklan Caraka tahun lalu (kompetisi iklan yang diadakan PPPI Jawa Tengah dengan skala dan reputasi yang lebih besar). Tema lomba untuk babak penyisihan adalah “Lebih Vokal dengan Produk Lokal”. Peserta dapat mengirimkan karya berupa print ad, ambience media, maupun radio. Di antara lebih dari 130 tim tersebut, alhamdulillah, timku yang terdiri dari aku sendiri dan partnerku, Fika berhasil masuk ke dalam finalis (6 besar) karena iklan radio yang kami buat. Jadi enam finalis tersebut terdiri dari 3 iklan ambience, 2 iklan radio, dan hanya 1 print ad (padahal entry print ad paling banyak). Masing-masing finalis berasal dari Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang, Universitas Diponegoro, Universitas Atma Jaya Yogyakarta, Universitas Sebelas Maret Solo, Institut Teknologi Bandung, dan Universitas Indonesia.

script radio Indalove, tim saya dan Fika

Kami, enam finalis, telah dikarantina selama 4 hari, dari tanggal 29 Maret. Dan kami harus menginap di penginapan yang disediakan panitia untuk memudahkan koordinasi antara panitia dengan peserta (penginapan ada di komplek Departemen Peternakan, di dekat RS hewan juga). Sebenarnya tidak wajib sih, terutama untuk kami yang anak UI dengan domisili Depok yang sangat dekat dengan kampus tempat acara diselenggarakan, tapi berhubung lebih baiknya kita berinteraksi dan mengenal finalis lainnya, maka kami memutuskan untuk menginap di penginapan tersebut. Padahal, aku dan Fika masih memiliki tugas kuliah yang belum diselesaikan dan berpacu dengan deadline pengumpulan tugas (terutama Fika yang belum mengerjakan tugas take home UTS copywriting). Singkatnya, penginapan ini disiapkan panitia sebagai akomodasi mereka yang datang dari luar Jakarta.

suasana di penginapan

Namun, dengan menginap di wisma itu, meskipun kasurnya sangat tidak nyaman, kamar panas, kamar mandi agak kotor, dan listrik yang sering mati, kami senang dapat berkenalan dengan finalis lain yang datang dari berbagai daerah dengan berbagai karakter yang pada dasarnya semua kocak dan nyentrik (maklum, beginilah karakter anak-anak kreatif, hehe). Keseluruhan finalis ada 12 orang dari 6 tim, tapi jumlah finalis wanitanya cuma 3! Karena 9 lainnya laki-laki. Sebenarnya, aku dan Fika sudah sangat minder dengan kenyataan di lapangan seperti ini, karena biasanya laki-laki berpikir lebih gila yang artinya lebih kreatif. Lagipula di antara 6 finalis tersebut hanya aku dan Fika yang sama sekali belum memiliki pengalaman sama sekali dalam kompetisi iklan, alias belum pernah ikut lomba iklan sebelumnya. (ya, kami kan anak 2008, baru dapat kuliah copywriting semester ini). Sementara finalis lainnya, minimal dalam satu tim sudah ada yang pernah ikut kompetisi iklan, bahkan menjadi finalis di Citra Pariwara! Gimana aku sama Fika nggak minder?

Selama karantina, kami mendapatkan seminar, workshop special dari Ayah Djito Kasilo yang sumpah, keren banget! Aku belum pernah dapat materi begitu dari kuliah, dan aku merasa sangat beruntung bisa mendapat materi di mana teman-teman kuliahku yang lain tidak mendapatkannya (selain Fika, partnerku, dan Bella, yang jadi panitia dan berjaga di ruang workshop). Aku juga sangat senang jadi bisa berkenalan dengan Ayah, yang merupakan tokoh di dunia periklanan

Indonesia

, yang pastinya sangat berpengalaman dan dihormati.

workshop bersama Ayah Djito Kasilo

Yang pasti, kami mendapatkan final brief, yaitu tugas untuk final yang artinya kami harus membuat iklan lagi! Dengan format lebih lengkap dan lebih komplit, karena program yang harus dieksekusi di final brief ini berformat IMC alias Integrated Marketing Communication. Tadinya, aku dan Fika mengira tidak ada tugas lagi di final, tinggal menunggu diskusi dari para juri tentang siapa yang menjadi pemenang di antara 6 tim berdasarkan karya yang telah dibuat pada tahap penyisihan. Ternyata…. Oh, tidak….

Final brief ini didapatkan dari Kementerian Perhubungan dengan objective ‘Menyadarkan masyarakat akan pentingnya menggunakan peralatan keselamatan selama berkendara di jalur darat’. Dan kami benar-benar bingung setengah mati harus membuat apa. Brief yang diberikan tanggal 30 Maret siang ini harus sudah jadi dalam bentuk powerpoint dan dikumpulkan ke panitia tanggal 31 Maret pukul 18.00 WIB, dan kami baru mendapat idenya yang bener-bener ide tanggal 31 Maret juga, siang hari sekitar pukul 12.30. Ini baru ide, belum eksekusi yang diharuskan membuat media promosinya. Aku dan Fika benar-benar stress tak terkira, panik, dan tetap ada rasa jiper alias minder dengan anggapan tim lain akan membuat program yang luar biasa bagus.

foto di Gang Sawo bareng finalis

Setelah tugas final kami kumpulkan, kami masih harus menunggu pengumuman keesokan harinya pada saat Comm Weekend di mana terdapat Awarding Night. Setelah tugas final ini selesai, aku dan Fika bisa sedikit lega, meskipun banyak rasa tidak puas, karena presentasi kami di depan juri benar-benar tidak detail karena keterbatasan waktu bercampur nervous luar biasa. Hari Kamis, tanggal 1, kami bisa masuk ke kelas Copywriting untuk mengumpulkan UTS sekaligus kemudian kuliah. Setelah itu, kami kembali lagi ke penginapan untuk mengambil barang yang tertinggal, sekaligus menjemput finalis lainnya untuk ke UI. Kembali ke UI, sambil menunggu Comm Weekend aku dan peserta lainnya, bisa sarapan dan makan siang bersama, kemudian jalan-jalan di sekitar kampus, yaitu ke Gang Sawo untuk membeli souvenir UI (dengan ditemani seorang panitia bernama Eel alias Melly), kemudian ke Jembatan Teksas (meskipun matahari luar biasa teriknya). Haha… mereka semua bener-bener lucu alias sedikit freak. Selalu saja ada hal yang membuatku tertawa. Kami beberapa kali foto bersama.

Tinggal menunggu waktu Awarding Night yang kira-kira jam 7 PM, aku dan Fika kembali ke kost yang tinggal berjalan kaki dari kampus untuk beristrahat dan mandi sore (hehe, kebetulan aku dan partnerku ini tinggal satu kost). Sebelum ke kampus, bahkan kami sempat ke warnet untuk mengirimkan tugas Pemasaran Interaktif yang setiap minggu selalu ada. Tiba-tiba, saat berada di warnet, salah seorang panitia yang bernama Sabrina, menelponku dan memaksa untuk segera berlari ke kampus ke acara Comm Weekend (tentunya karena Awarding Night segera dimulai). Kami pun langsung beranjak dari kursi, dan berjalan cepat ke FISIP. Dalam hati, aku menerka-nerka, “Memangnya semua finalis harus datang ke Awarding Night meski tidak dapat juara? Atau aku dan Fika dapet ya?” Bodo lah. Yang penting, kami datang dulu ke venue.

the bronze Gals

Dan tidak lama kemudian setelah kami datang, (sekitar 3 menit), para pemenang Creadtive pun diumumkan dari juara 3. Sang MC yang terdiri dari teman kami sendiri, Frangky dan Garti, kemudian menyebutkan nama Universitas

Indonesia

. Hah? Nggak salah nich? Tim kami, Indalove berhasil menjadi juara 3. Buset, aku dan Fika sangat kaget bercampur senang karena ini adalah pengalaman pertama kami. Kami pun maju ke depan panggung untuk diberikan hadiah yang terdiri dari piala, uang Rp 1 juta (yang baru besoknya ditransfer), sertifikat, topi pemenang, dan beberapa souvenir dari sponsor. Kami masih shock, dan kami diminta mengucapkan sepatah 2 patah kata, dengan kondisi kami saat itu yang masih kaget. Fika, yang lebih shock berkata “Jangan gw, please”. Ya sudah, aku membuka pidato singkat dengan mengucapkan terima kasih kepada semua pihak yang mendukung ditambah curhatan tentang perasaanku saat itu yang kaget karena ini adalah kompetisi pertama kami, baru kemudian Fika menambahkan. Aku benar-benar senang, karena banyak teman-temanku yang datang di acara itu untuk menyaksikan kami sekaligus memberikan dukungan dan ucapan selamat (semoga kemenangan itu bukanlah kejutan April Mop, haha).

the silver team

the winner

Setelah Ayah pulang, kami para finalis kembali untuk menyaksikan performance keren yaitu dari The Remedy dan juga The Trees and The Wild. Hehe, vokalis The Trees and The Wild yang namanya Remedy bener-bener ganteng, bersuara merdu, keren, dengan aura bintang yang kuat. Backing vocalnya juga cantik, sampai beberapa finalis cowok naksir (terutama si Leo dan Aim, ck ck).

The Trees and The Wild, with the goodlooking vocalist

Well, it was amazing night, then we head back to the lodge. Keesokan paginya, tanggal 2 April, semua finalis pulang ke daerah masing-masing. Hikz… I miss them, cause they are so funny and we had share great moments together. Hmm… wonderful moments with wonderful people. Hope to meet them again in the next competition. ^^ Amien.

Japan Carnival 2010

2010-04-08T19:28:00.001+07:00

Yeeeeeeahhh.... Japan Carnival is coming... again, in Margo City, Depok, Indonesia. It's the biggest mall in Depok, though. Last year they also held this kind of event, but not with "Carnival" title. Because the name of the event last year was "Japan Matsuri". So, when they entitle this event with "Carnival", it means that this event would be bigger than last year.

Not that much different, but maybe it was bigger, yeah, a bit. They had origami contest, yukata fashion show, and as usual Taiko performance, Bon Odori, Cosplay Competition, and Hanabi or fireworks party. Of course plus the Japan apparel, souvenir, and food booth. So, what's new this year? Maybe, this year they invited the "B-boys" to perform on the stage. Well, their performance was not surprising and remarkably that much. I would say that it was so standard when I have to compare with the Korean B-Boys I saw named River Cruise on the Korean Culture Festival.

So, I went there with my colleagues and also the two Japanese guy. Those guys name Kenta and Kei. Shortly, those kawaii guys are my friend. I dressed up "a little" look like Harajuku Style. As you know, this is Japan Carnival. After saw me with this outfit, the gals (my friends) laughed. They said that I supposed to join the Cosplay. But, do u think so?

me with Kenta

The interesting part beside the Cosplay participant was the judges with the Lollita costume that look like a transvertite, haha. You should see how "he" dressed up. I know that it was the part of professionalism as the ultimate figure in this event.

Isn't he kirei? LOL. I couldn't stand to laugh when I saw how "he" posed with his lollita dress and the doll. And the shocking part was after saw him come back to his destiny as a real man. Unfortunately, I don't have the pic, but to be honest he was quite handsome, haha.

After the cosplay winner announcement, there were some shows go on. When Bon Odori would begin, we got out to the mall ground (outside). The committee said that we would break MURI record because this was Bon Odori with the biggest number of participant. Sorry, I can't remember how much it was. So, the important thing was the quantity, not the quality of Bon Odori. (Bon Odori is a kind of dance with Japanese music that done by lots of people). Then you can guess, that the situation was uncontrollable because too many people, and so few dance trainer in front. Even I don't really know how to do Bon Odori without any trainer in front of me. I just moved my body to the right and to the left. Hahaha.

Bon Odori ends, the show was immediately continued with Hanabi or fireworks party. But the Hanabi was just small, only every one there held one firework in our hand, so there were many "small fireworks".

I look kinda hot here :D

24 Rekor Dunia Yang Sampai Saat Ini masih Dipegang Indonesia

2010-03-20T22:01:00.000+07:00

Di samping beberapa kekurangan yang sering melekat di tanah air kita Indonesia, namun ada puluhan rekor dunia yang patut kita banggakan sebagai warga negara Indonesia karena sampai saat ini blom ada yang mampu memecahkan rekor tersebut dari Indonesia. Berikut daftar 24 rekor dunia yang dimiliki Indonesia.

Republik Indonesia merupakan Negara kepulauan terbesar di dunia yang terdiri dari 17.504 pulau (termasuk 9.634 pulau yang belum diberi nama dan 6.000 pulau yang tidak berpenghuni).

Disini ada 3 dari 6 pulau terbesar didunia, yaitu : Kalimantan (pulau terbesar ketiga di dunia dgn luas 539.460 km2), Sumatera (473.606 km2) dan Papua (421.981 km2).

Indonesia adalah Negara maritim terbesar di dunia dengan perairan seluas 93 ribu km2 dan panjang pantai sekitar 81 ribu km2 atau hampir 25% panjang pantai di dunia.

Pulau Jawa adalah pulau terpadat di dunia dimana sekitar 60% hampir penduduk Indonesia (sekitar 130 jt jiwa) tinggal di pulau yang luasnya hanya 7% dari seluruh wilayah RI.

Indonesia merupakan Negara dengan suku bangsa yang terbanyak di dunia. Terdapat lebih dari 740 suku bangsa/etnis, dimana di Papua saja terdapat 270 suku.

Negara dengan bahasa daerah yang terbanyak, yaitu, 583 bahasa dan dialek dari 67 bahasa induk yang digunakan berbagai suku bangsa di Indonesia . Bahasa nasional adalah bahasa Indonesia walaupun bahasa daerah dengan jumlah pemakai terbanyak di Indonesia adalah bahasa Jawa.

Indonesia adalah negara muslim terbesar di dunia. Jumlah pemeluk agama Islam di Indonesia sekitar 216 juta jiwa atau 88% dari penduduk Indonesia . Juga memiliki jumlah masjid terbanyak dan Negara asal jamaah haji terbesar di dunia.

Monumen Budha (candi) terbesar di dunia adalah Candi Borobudur di Jawa Tengah dengan tinggi 42 meter (10 tingkat) dan panjang relief lebih dari 1 km. Diperkirakan dibuat selama 40 tahun oleh Dinasti Syailendra pada masa kerajaan Mataram Kuno (750-850).

Tempat ditemukannya manusia purba tertua di dunia, yaitu : Pithecanthropus Erectusâ€™Â¬ yang diperkirakan berasal dari 1,8 juta tahun yang lalu.

Republik Indonesia adalah Negara pertama yang lahir sesudah berakhirnya Perang Dunia II pada tahun 1945. RI merupakan Negara ke 70 tertua di dunia.

Indonesia adalah Negara pertama (hingga kini satu-satunya) yang pernah keluar dari Perserikatan Bangsa Bangsa (PBB) pada tgl 7 Januari 1965. RI bergabung kembali ke dalam PBB pada tahun 1966.

Tim bulutangkis Indonesia adalah yang terbanyak merebut lambang supremasi bulutangkis pria, Thomas Cup, yaitu sebanyak 13 x (pertama kali th 1958 & terakhir 2002).

Indonesia adalah penghasil gas alam cair (LNG) terbesar di dunia (20% dari suplai seluruh dunia) juga produsen timah terbesar kedua.

Indonesia menempati peringkat 1 dalam produk pertanian, yaitu : cengkeh (cloves) & pala (nutmeg), serta no.2 dalam karet alam (Natural Rubber) dan minyak sawit mentah (Crude Palm Oil).

Indonesia adalah pengekspor terbesar kayu lapis (plywood), yaitu sekitar 80% di pasar dunia.

Terumbu Karang (Coral Reef) Indonesia adalah yang terkaya (18% dari total dunia).

Indonesia memiliki species ikan hiu terbanyak didunia yaitu 150 species.

Biodiversity Anggrek terbeser didunia : 6 ribu jenis anggrek, mulai dari yang terbesar (Anggrek Macan atau Grammatophyllum Speciosum) sampai yang terkecil (Taeniophyllum, yang tidak berdaun), termasuk Anggrek Hitam yang langka dan hanya terdapat di Papua.

Memiliki hutan bakau terbesar di dunia. Tanaman ini bermanfaat ntuk mencegah pengikisan air laut/abrasi.

Binatang purba yang masih hidup : Komodo yang hanya terdapat di pulau Komodo, NTT adalah kadal terbesar di dunia. Panjangnya bias mencapai 3 meter dan beratnya 90 kg.

Rafflesia Arnoldi yang tumbuh di Sumatera adalah bunga terbesar di dunia. Ketika bunganya mekar, diameternya mencapai 1 meter.

Memiliki primata terkecil di dunia , yaitu Tarsier Pygmy (Tarsius Pumilus) atau disebut juga Tarsier Gunung yang panjangnya hanya 10 cm. Hewan yang mirip monyet dan hidupnya diatas pohon ini terdapat di Sulawesi.

Tempat ditemukannya ular terpanjang di dunia yaitu, Python Reticulates sepanjang 10 meter di Sulawesi.

Ikan terkecil di dunia yang ditemukan baru-baru ini di rawa-rawa berlumpur Sumatera. Panjang 7,9 mm ketika dewasa atau kurang lebih sebesar nyamuk. Tubuh ikan ini transparan dan tidak mempunyai tulang kepala.

credited from : www.doktertomi.com

my application letter

2010-03-13T16:45:00.001+07:00

Hey, this is the first print ad that I made. How do you think? So, it has 3 continued version :

part 1

part 2

part 3 - the answer

One of a kind of discrimination in US

2010-02-13T02:04:00.003+07:00

2.11.2010
asian americans and college application discrimination

Here's an interesting op-ed piece from the Boston Globe on the possible discrimination (an "Asian ceiling") Asian Americans face in the college admissions process -- a topic that isn't new, but continues to persist as access to higher education gets even more competitive, and the numbers reveal some questionable disparities: Do colleges redline Asian-Americans?

Princeton sociologist Thomas Espenshade, who reviewed data from 10 elite colleges, writes in "No Longer Separate, Not Yet Equal" that Asian applicants typically need an extra 140 points to compete with white students. In fact, according to Princeton lecturer Russell Nieli, there may be an "Asian ceiling" at Princeton, a number above which the admissions office refuses to venture.

Emily Aronson, a Princeton spokeswoman, insists "the university does not admit students in categories. In the admission process, no particular factor is assigned a fixed weight and there is no formula for weighing the various aspects of the application."

A few years ago, however, when I worked as a reader for Yale's Office of Undergraduate Admissions, it became immediately clear to me that Asians - who constitute 5 percent of the US population - faced an uphill slog. They tended to get excellent scores, take advantage of AP offerings, and shine in extracurricular activities. Frequently, they also had hard-knock stories: families that had immigrated to America under difficult circumstances, parents working as kitchen assistants and store clerks, and households in which no English was spoken.

But would Yale be willing to make 50 percent of its freshman class Asian? Probably not.

Indeed. Probably not. I find it hard to imagine any elite university busting open ts admissions to let all the qualified Asians applicant in. Is it possible for a school to be "too Asian?" Somebody out there certainly thinks so, and to prevent that from happening, it essentially means maintaining that ceiling -- and a white student majority. What's a college-bound Asian kid to do?

taken from:

http://www.angryasianman.com/2010/02/asian-americans-and-college-application.html

Hang Out With Rita

2010-01-15T20:09:00.006+07:00

Iyey, mari menulis dengan bahasa Indonesia!

Jadi, hari ini aku pergi nonton sama salah satu besty jaman SMA, namanya Rita, dia kuliah di Teknik Kimia Universitas Gajah Mada (keren ya?). Kita nonton Sherlock Holmes di XXI Jogja, tempatnya ada di Jalan Urip Sumohardjo. Bioskopnya masih baru, belum ada 1 tahun lah. Sampe sana, suasana parkiran sepiiii.... Mungkin karena hari Jumat dan kebanyakan mahasiswa Jogja masih belum selesai ujian. (Guess what? Bahkan beberapa dari mereka menyempatkan diri untuk baca catatan dan buku sambil nungguin film main) Weee... Filmnya keren banget. Aku suka bagaimana sang penulis novel membuat penonton penasaran sekaligus mengecohnya. Pertanyaannya adalah : apakah resep formula kimia yang ajaib itu dan teori tentang tubuh manusia itu bener-bener merupakan suatu kenyataan? Kalo iya, tau dari mana ya si penulis novel? Hebat banget. Jadi pengen baca novelnya ah...

Selanjutnya, kami pergi makan di Plaza UGM (tempat ini semacam foodcourt gitu). Yang unik di sini adalah (selain banyak counter makanan dan banyak yang jual es durian) yaitu tukang parkirnya cewek ber make up yang usianya sekitar 28 tahun dan cukup seksi. Sayang, aku nggak sempat mengambil foto Mbak itu. Di sana yang makan tentu saja mayoritas mahasiswa, tapi ada juga anak SMA yang makan di sana.

Di sana aku pesan es campur dengan durian di dalamnya. Harganya Rp 7.000,- Lumayan enak juga... Aku juga pesan tahu ketupat yang harganya Rp 5.000,- tapi tahunya dan ketupatnya dikit banget, yang banyak malah taogenya, udah gitu nggak pedes lagi... (padahal pesennya pedes)

Satu hal yang menarik tentang mahasiswa UGM adalah... pakaian mereka sopan banget! Pada pake kemeja ke kampus dengan sepatu dan jeans ato celana panjang. Cewek-ceweknya juga sopan, bajunya rapi, dan nggak ada yang pake baju seksi ke kampus.
Beda banget sama di UI, kampusku (khususnya Fakultas FISIP, di mana aku berada).
Mahasiswa boleh pakai sandal ke kampus (yang pake sandal swallow pun ada), boleh pake kaos, dan cewek-ceweknya beberapa memakai pakaian agak seksi (rok agak mini, tapi yang bener-bener mini juga ada pun tidak dirazia). Dan sayangnya aku kadang-kadang juga berpakaian sedikit seksi ke kampus (sekali dua kali lah), dan outfit ku bener-bener mencolok saking cintanya dengan dunia fashion (sampai kayaknya semua orang notice sama aku). Kalau di FISIP UI aja aku udah sering diperhatiin dari atas sampe bawah, gimana kalau kuliah di UGM? Dengan outfit seperti itu, aku pasti kena razia dan langsung famous mendadak se-antero kampus. Hahaha... Kalau aku kuliah di UGM, pasti bisa stress karena tidak bisa meng ekspreksikan my fashion style.

Kemudian, aku pergi sholat di masjid kampus UGM, sayangnya aku nggak ambil interior dalam masjidnya, tapi sedikit mirip dengan masjid UI, bahkan mungkin sedikit lebih bagus.
Cuaca waktu itu sedang mendung, jadi habis aku sholat, Rita langsung mengantarku pulang.

Aku baru balik ke Jakarta tanggal 22 Januari nanti, dan Rita bilang, masih ada waktu main bareng lagi. Huhu... Senangnya bermain dengan teman masa SMA..

My pancake

2010-01-14T18:16:00.003+07:00

Yeah, so yesterday I made pancake like the one above, I filled the pancake with melting dark chocolate and I gave slices of pear, white soft sugar, and ice cream as the topping. So yummy...

Meet my best friend again!!

2009-12-26T16:01:00.004+07:00

I was so glad and surprised yesterday when I went to Seaworld Indonesia with my sister, there was something unpredictable happened. When I was looking around in the main tank, suddenly my sister yelled at me, "Nia, that's Norah!"

and then, I looked at the direction where my sister pointed at. And that's right, there's Norah, my Chinese friend. OMG, I was so surprised and I just can't explain how happy I was. Spontaneously, we hugged each other. I really missed her, and I know that she did so. So, Norah is my best friend when she studied Bahasa Indonesia in University of Indonesia, my campus. She rented a room next to me, and that's why we were so close. We didn't meet each other for around 5 months!!! Right after she finished the Bahasa Indonesia course, she went for a vacation to Bali, and she head back to China. She said that she would turn back to Indonesia to work, but I don't know when. And suddenly, I saw her there yesterday!!! I was so happy, even many friends of mine are gone to their origin country (like Korea, Japan, USA, and Netherlands), but my closest foreign friend is coming back here.

After we hugged to share our missing feeling, we talked each other. And she introduced me to some of her working partners, which are also Chinese. And I also met Tao, her Chinese friend, who brought her to my boarding house 8 months ago for the first time. Tao said (as Norah said), that I was getting prettier. LOL. (Well, actually what Norah said was that I always looked pretty). Unfortunately, Norah had to leave the place with her friends, but before that, we share our phone number since both of us lost it! And also we took some pictures together. My friends will be surprised to see this pictures because they also missed Norah as I did. Later, we will hang out together and I hoped that we can have another great times again. Yeah, we will, for sure.

Cute Hat

2009-12-26T15:32:00.006+07:00

When I just browsing on modcloth.com around two months ago, I found a very cute hat and I really want it, but the price is quite expensive for me (around $40). But now, this hat is no longer available on the website, I suppose (after I re-check open the site).

But around 2 days ago, when I went to the shopping mall, I found a cute hat that finally I bought. It only cost $7 and it looked similar with the one in the Modcloth website.

So, how do you think about my new hat?

Heels

2009-11-23T20:46:00.008+07:00

I swear that I really want some heels. I am so craving for them. And yeah, I just found a cool fashion site (a kind of online shop) that provides very cool and stylish item. The name of the online shop is www.modcloth.com One of the cool item is the Forget-me Knot Heels as the picture above. It is $159.99. And so yeah, for Indonesian like me, it must be expensive. The first time I browsed this site, I was kind of surprised and excited by seeing so many good stuff. Maybe I could say that all the things that they sell are great, especially the shoes (and its not a promotion). He he XD

And there is another cool fashion blog I recommend for you guys. www.leblogdebetty.com is a great one. And in October posting, I found another heels that I really want. Here is the picture

She said that the label is Sigerson Morrison shoes. Is anyone of you guys know?

Noticeable and Apathism

2009-11-18T17:48:00.004+07:00

Aku benar-benar tidak tahu harus bagaimana. Di saat pakaian yang aku pakai ke kampus 'lebih' dibanding yang lain (lebih terlihat menonjol atau kalo bahasa narsis dariku stylish) semua orang komentar heboh, nah ketika pakaian yang aku pakai ke kampus biasa-biasa dan casual saja, orang-orang komentar juga. Ada yang komentar, "Tumben casual.." , ada juga yang, "Hari ini nggak keren ah, nggak kayak kemaren", ada juga yang komentar, "Kok lo kayak gini sih, gw nggak suka ah lo yang begini, bukan lo banget". Terus maunya gimana?

Tapi memang sih, karena pakaian yang biasa aku pakai sehari-hari ke kampus, banyak mata yang tertuju padaku memperhatikan dari ujung rambut hingga ujung kaki. Kayaknya anak-anak di Fakultas udah pada "ngeh" deh sama aku. Meskipun mungkin nggak tau aku namanya siapa atau anak jurusan apa angkatan berapa, tapi sepertinya mereka mengenali wajahku karena gaya pakaian yang biasa aku pakai yang mereka sebut "Harajuku style" itu.

Dengan hal ini kadang-kadang suka ngerasa agak tersanjung juga kalo habis kenalan sama orang, terus mereka bilang, "Baju yang lo pake sehari-hari lucu deh, gaya Korea2 gitu". Nah, berarti dia memperhatikan aku sebelum kita berkenalan. Atau kayak gini, "Pantesan, gw sering ngeliat lo". Eh, padahal gw kagak pernah memperhatikan keberadaan lo (kataku dalam hati). PARAH!!!

Tapi ada sisi yang tidak menyenangkan juga dengan hal ini. Dengan mereka tahu aku atau mengenal wajahku, akan ada hal yang membuat tidak nyaman, seperti jadi dibicarakan di belakang. Hari ini ada kejadian di mana aku merasa takut. Ceritanya begini, sore tadi aku dan temanku yang bernama Bizka pergi ke stadion UI untuk menonton pertandingan futsal final antara fakultasku melawan fakultas tetangga.
Lalu, ketika kami memasuki gerbang kemudian berjalan menuju bangku penonton, banyak wajah lelaki fakultas tetangga yang melihat ke arah kami berdua. Bahkan sampai 5 menit setelah kami duduk di bangku, masih saja beberapa dari mereka matanya tertuju ke kami.

Sialnya, hari itu fakultas kami kalah dengan skor 4-1. Kemudian begitu peluit panjang wasit dibunyikan, kami langsung bergegas pergi karena takut pulang alias keluar gerbang bersama dengan para lelaki fakultas tetangga yang terlihat garang itu, apalagi aku dan temanku hanya berdua saja dan sama-sama perempuan. Nah, ketika kami berjalan melewati mereka, mata mereka tertuju ke arah kami. Kemudian satu atau dua di antara mereka melontarkan komentar yang mengarah ke kami, "Kok tadi diem aja sih?" Aduh, itu maksudnya apa? Udah deh, karena merasa seram juga, aku hanya diam tanpa berani menoleh, kemudian melangkah lebih cepat. Bahkan kata temanku si Bizka,ketika dia menoleh ke belakang untuk mencari keberadaanku, beberapa dari lelaki tersebut masih saja memperhatikan kami.

Nah, yang membuat aku bingung dan resah adalah, apakah mereka juga sudah mengenali wajahku karena gaya berpakaianku yang lain daripada yang lain? Apalagi aku sering makan di kantin fakultas tetangga itu. Dan kalau iya, sepertinya dalam seminggu ini aku tidak akan makan di sana, karena takut mereka akan mengenali aku, kemudian melakukan perbuatan yang tidak menyenangkan padaku, apalagi ditambah mereka sudah tahu kalau aku bukanlah warga fakultas mereka. Aigo!!

Jadi sekarang gaya pakaianku harus bagaimana? Sebenarnya akhir-akhir ini aku ingin berpenampilan biasa saja, toh dengan berpakaian biasa saja badanku tetap terlihat tinggi dan ramping. Hohoho... bercanda. Tapi... Ya sudahlah.

Nah, sekarang kita bicara mengenai apatis dan anti sosial. Terus terang di satu semester belakangan ini aku benar-benar sangat anti sosial sehingga apatis terhadap apa yang terjadi di Fakultas ku. Aku tidak ikut kepanitiaan apa pun. Dan aku sudah menolak sekitar 4 tawaran kepanitiaan, padahal mereka menjanjikan posisi yang baik untukku (bukan cuma sekedar staff). Kok aku nyebelin banget ya? Bukannya tidak mau turut membantu dan berpartisipasi, tapi, aku benar-benar sedang fokus pada hal lain, yaitu bekerja! Ya, aku bekerja demi menabung untuk exchange ataupun vacation out of country. Jadi setiap hari Selasa dan Kamis aku pulang malam dan badanku rasanya benar-benar rapuh. Tapi sejauh ini, tugas-tugas kuliahku masih bisa aku kerjakan dengan cukup baik. Ya intinya, kuliahku masih dapat dikendalikan lah. Tapi ya itu, dengan keapatisanku itu, aku jadi tidak kenal siapa-siapa, karena aku tidak pernah ikut kegiatan apapun di Fakultas ku.

Tadi, waktu menonton futsal aku tidak mengenal para suporter lain dari fakultasku yang duduk berdekatan atau satu blok denganku. Memang mereka anak jurusan lain sih, tapi aku jadi merasa agak asing berada di sana. Jika seandainya aku sering nongkrong di kantin fakultasku, mungkin rasanya akan sedikit berbeda. Masalahnya, kantin fakultasku itu pilihan menunya tidak banyak dan ramai sekali. Bukannya kantin fakultas tetangga yang biasa aku kunjungi tidak ramai, tapi tidak tahu mengapa dengan berada di kantin fakultasku aku jadi merasa sangat pusing. Berisik, dan mereka hanya duduk untuk mengobrol tidak penting dan mempercepat kerusakan paru-paru mereka. (tebak saja apa yang mereka lakukan). Jadi ya... aku malas untuk ke sana. Intinya mereka yang sukanya nongkrong di sana adalah mereka yang sangat menganggur dan tidak ada kerjaan lain yang lebih penting serta sangat senang membicarakan orang lain alias bergosip ria.

Keapatisanku juga terasa ketika tadi menonton debat calon ketua dan wakil ketua BEM fakultasku. Terus terang di antara 4 orang (ketua dan wakil ketua dari dua kubu), aku hanya mengenal satu orang, yang lain aku tidak tahu menahu mengenai siapa mereka. PARAH!! Mereka pun juga tentunya tidak tahu aku ini siapa. Hahaha

Mungkin seterusnya aku akan berusaha untuk lebih up to date dengan apa yang terjadi di fakultasku dan harus ikut kepanitiaan fakultas. HARUS!!! Terserah mau acara apa dan posisi apa! (bercanda). Aku juga harus menonton berita setiap hari dan membaca koran. Karena jujur, aku tidak tahu apa yang terjadi di KPK saat ini dan kasus Bank Century itu tentang apa sih? Apa lagi issue internasional, aku semakin tidak tahu lagi. Hmmmphhh... aku juga harus berusaha untuk aktif di organisasi English Debating yang aku ikuti sekarang, karena bahasa Inggris ku jadi tidak sebagus dulu lagi, dan kemampuan public speaking dan argumentasi ku jadi tidak terasah. Aduh... lots of expectation!! Harus mulai dari mana????

The One Lyrics

2009-11-14T16:01:00.003+07:00

"I DO"

Huhwehaji aneul su itnayo?

Amugotdo eomneun uri dul

Sigani jinaseo da eopseojin dadeo naneun

Huhwehaji aneulkopnida, I do.

Oretdongan gyondil su itgetjo

Mani apeun nae geudaeyeo

Amuri mworaedo, mwora handaedo naneun

Huhwehaji aneulkeopnida, I do.

Oh yes I do.

Nan gidohalkeyo, naye sarangeul, I motnan naega tekhan nae sarangeul

O yongwonhagireul, to yongwonhagireul

Sigani jinaseo icheojin daedo nan

Jeoldae huhwehaji aneul keopnida ~

Saranghaeyo, saranghapnida, I do.