Newfoundland 2010
G and I had a great time travelling around the Maritime provinces of Canada in 2007, so when we were given the opportunity to travel to any place in North America for our vacation, we chose Newfoundland for our trip. More to follow!
Merry Christmas!
It’s that time of the year again! This year G and myself decided to reward ourselves with iPhones. It took me less than an hour to setup the phone to update the website remotely and update the site to look great on iPhone. Hopefully this will give me some motivation to update the site more!
Quick Update
It has been yet another 3 months since I last updated the website. Certified ScrumMaster was quite fun, and I believed that Scrum could be the future of project management.
Of course, that belief is somewhat short-lived. I’ve decided to take on another certification programme in Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL v3). Compared to Scrum, ITIL is a giant and hideous set of rules on how to deliver and manage IT services in any organisation. The good folks behind ITIL have put together the bureaucracy that Scrum was developed to forego. Integrating the knowledge became the next step of my pursuit for the Holy Grail of IT management for productivity.
Convocation
After one year of hard work, we are finally here. Looking back, all the work, study, and politics seem so trivial. On the cloudy Saturday morning of October 25, families gathered together to celebrate our graduation from University of Waterloo.
While my parents could not make it to my graduation, my aunt and her family made their way here from San Francisco. After two days of enjoying cuisines that were unique to Toronto, we put on the best clothes and headed to Waterloo.
A last-minute arrangement saw us meeting with some of my classmates and their families for lunch. It was great seeing them, since we practically see each other for 18 hours a day just months before. After the last day of school, all of us went our separate ways. I just wish that one day we will meet again.
After lunch, we headed to school, where the graduates received their gowns. Our convocation time slot was designated for the Engineering, Sciences, and Math departments. All Ph.D, Masters, and Bachelor graduates from those departments were present for the ceremony. Little did I know that the chancellor of University of Waterloo was the CEO of Research in Motion. As I walked across the stage, I shook hand with the legendary Mike Lazaridis and exchanged a few words about entrepreneurship. In retrospect, I really should have asked for a free Blackberry…
After the ceremony, we were invited to CBET’s reception for the graduating class. The Executive Director Howard Armitage gave a speech that really resonated with me. He said that it is important to see the beauty of everyone, because everyone has the potential to surprise you. Howard then went on leave us with the six-word remark, “tell the truth, all the time.” Eight months ago, when I had my peer review meeting with Howard, I had asked him about his thoughts to generate synergy. Howard told me that managing a group and creating synergy is a life-long quest, that no one has the answers to it. Howard then picked out a few words from my peer reviews and said, “your peers see you as a trustworthy and credible person; that is very important.” Thinking back to those words, I all of a sudden realised that Howard had finally answered my question.
The rest of the reception was really a blur. My family and I went to a local German restaurant and enjoyed the pork hock and schnitzels, and headed back to Toronto for my aunt’s flight the next morning. In retrospect, all the work and politics are really trivial. I am truly thankful to my peers and the faculty at CBET, who taught me important lessons through the year. I shall tell the truth, all the time.
Certified Scrum Master
Thanks to a research project, I have fully bought into the Scrum framework for project management. The more I learn about the subject, the more I want to exercise the practice and see how it fares against the general PMI framework.
About two months ago, I came across a certification program, available from Scrum Alliance. The programs available in Toronto are quite steep in pricing, not to mention the lack of acceptance of the certification in the job market. However, I believe that it would really transform team morale as well as the project outcome. Now, the question is, would I be willing to plunge $2,100 for this relatively new concept and get the certification?
Thanks to the recent fluctuation in CAD-US currency exchange rate, I made the tuition on a little transaction the other day. After thinking about it over the weekend, I have finally decided to take the course offered by Berteig Consulting in December. Hopefully this investment will be a worthwhile one!
Post-MBET Days…
It’s been a long while since I last updated the site. I have finally moved everything back to Toronto, travelled to San Francisco, Hong Kong, China, and Macau AGAIN, and enjoyed two weeks of relaxation since my trip. It’s time to reflect!
The MBET Year
Firstly, I’ve never lived on my own before. Even in Toronto, I have G to always take care of me. Thank you Chris for making the year a very easy one to survive.
After what seems like a lifetime and roughly five gigs of pictures later, the year is over. Only a handful of us will get a chance to see each other in the future. It’s saddening, but I am happy knowing that all of us will go on to do great things.
Family Travel
My grandparents raised me until 1994. I would say that most of my values and beliefs are based on what my grandparents have taught me. This time, while I did not get to see my grandma, in my mind she was always with me. Seeing grandpa for the first time in seven years just made me realise that I wish I can spend more time with them. In due time…
Our trip started in San Francisco. G and I visited Napa and Sonoma Valley with Camille and Jo. For the value, I believe that the Niagara wine industry is doing something quite amazing, compared to the “world-class” Napa and Sonoma.
Arriving in Hong Kong made us realise how bad of an idea it is to travel during the summer seasons. The weather was brutal! Thankfully, our friends Maggie, Frankie, and Barb were there to take us around. Thank you guys, we’ll visit again next time in a cooler season!
We visited China and G’s family. The suburbs in China is not nearly as polished as what we see in images of Beijing. Having said that, things seem a little simpler there: your family will be nice to you regardless of what happened. Seeing G’s aunt with tears in her eyes when we left was really touching. We will visit back soon!
Macau is quite an unique place. Casinos everywhere, nice cars flying down the streets, and well-dressed people enter hotel lobbies where their not so nicely dressed counterparts snooze on the sofa. My uncle and aunt, whom I haven’t seen for seven years, showed me around the city. I am very thankful of the Macau experience that my uncle and aunt had prepared for us.
Back to Toronto
With so many things happening in just a few months, I really needed some time to relax. Of course, that’s not likely to happen, with all the things going on around me…
… Maybe I’ll save that for the next posting.
Nicol Competition, Ottawa
Two days after arriving Toronto, we hopped on my car and drove to Ottawa for the Wes Nicol Entrepreneurship Awards. Five hours and one quick stop to McDonald’s later, we arrived at the beautiful Fairmont Chateau Laurier in Ottawa.
The format of this competition was slightly different from the other competitions, so spent yet another few days honing our presentations to cater to the audience. The host of this competition, Wes Nicol, wanted to show case all of the competing team’s business concepts. The television crew from Rogers filmed our elevator pitches and later showed the clips at the dinner gala.
This was our final stop of our road show. We were a little discouraged for not winning. However, I believe that our hard work was not a waste. This experience made me realise that I can be very motivated for the right reasons. The team shared many 18-hour workdays in our little boardroom in CBET in the past three months. I am proud of my team.
On a personal note, I had a chance to meet with a high school friend during the trip to Ottawa. Vanessa, whom I have not seen since 2000, is currently residing in Ottawa. It was great catching up with great friend from the past.
USF Competition, San Francisco
After just over 12 hours of flight, we’re back in San Francisco for the San Francisco University Business Plan Competition. We are at the heart of Silicon Valley and knowing that we’ll be judged against the likes of MIT and Stanford teams, we started working right away.
After HKUST competition, we learned that it is critical to have a great trade show booth. Steve and I went over to Kinko’s and spent a lot of time working on the banners and handouts for the trade show. Meanwhile, the rest of the team prepared for the elevator pitch competition.
We met great people from other teams from around the globe, and learned a lot from the judges at USF.
The hard work paid off at the competition. We were awarded second place in trade show booth, and also received an award for Best International Business. We met great people from other teams from around the globe, and learned a lot from the judges at USF.
After the competitions, we took a few days to enjoy San Francisco. My family at San Francisco helped me book a hotel near their house, and took us to some of the best Chinese cuisine places in San Mateo area. We also had some time to enjoy side trips to Napa and Sonoma Valley, met up with friends from Nvidia, as well as some of the shopping places in San Francisco. This is where I found my Omega Speedmaster Sapphire Sandwich…
After a month of travelling, we were just one competition away from completing our little road show. Ottawa, here we come!
HKUST Competition, Hong Kong
Roughly a week after Boston Symposium and LaunchPad (April 11), Tim, Jasmine and I were on our way to Hong Kong in preparation for HKUST Business Plan Competition. The competing teams at HKUST were some of the most impressive and creative teams in comparison, making this competition extremely challenging.
Joey Yung’s Concert
Maggie, a high school friend of mine, got tickets for Joey Yung’s concert for me. Joey Yung is arguably the most popular female singer in Hong Kong. We were surprised that the tickets were in fact first row tickets and we were literally within arm’s reach from the stage (and occasionally Joey Yung herself). The concert was awesome to say the least, and we were all huge fans of Joey by the end of the night.
Shopping
The concentration of shopping centres in Hong Kong is mind boggling. For every single MTR station, there is at least one shopping centre comparable in size to that of Eaton Centre in Toronto. We were also fortunate to find Nespresso stores in Hong Kong, as shown in the gallery above.
Competition
After spending much of the first week in Hong Kong working in a nearby Starbucks, we met with the rest of the team and moved into HKUST student campus. HKUST has one of the most beautiful campuses we have seen, located near the Clearwater Bay region in Hong Kong. Competing teams from Europe, Asia, and North America met each other in the competition reception. The teams then competed in three events: Elevator Pitch, Tradeshow, and Investor Pitch. SparkMedia came second in our competing bracket and received an Honourable Mention award.
Dining in Hong Kong
After the competition, we spent two more days in Hong Kong in preparation for USF competition. We enjoyed some authentic local cuisine, one especially noteworthy was Hutong. Located on high floors at One Nathan Street, we dined while marvelling the night view of Hong Kong. It was a perfect ending to a wonderful trip in Hong Kong
Boston Symposium, Boston
Immediately after Ivey competition, SparkMedia and WaterGuard teams were on our way to Boston for Boston Research & Entrepreneurship Symposium. Hosted by Jon Karlen of Flybridge Capital Partners, the Boston Symposium is an annual showcase of some of the best business plans outside of MIT.
Led by Professor Paul Doherty, the two teams arrived at Boston with lots of preparation work ahead of us. Paul took us to a great seafood restaurant and we were off to our hotel rooms preparing for the next day’s pitch in front of a room full of VC’s.
During our first lunch with a selected group of VC’s, it became apparent to us that these people are all about business. Most of the VC’s were very specialised in their own fields, with impressive credentials from top consulting companies or their own successful start-ups. Needless to say, I want to become one of them!
After a good day at the symposium, we had a relaxing dinner with just the two teams. Walking around the Quincy Market was a pretty good feeling after the presentations. The SparkMedia team back home, on the other hand, were working hard towards LaunchPad Competition. The work on refining our business plan continued…