Lia Golledge's Blog, page 7

Beijing International Book Fair 2014

I’m thrilled to be able to visit my first International Book Fair, Beijing International Book Fair 2014 (BIBF 2014) to represent NulisBuku.com with the winners of Tulis Nusantara 2014 writing competition (Ruwi from Ponorogo, Gege from Makassar & Rijal from Aceh) and Officials from the Ministry of Travel and Creative Economy of the Republic of Indonesia. Surely, China, a country that published nearly 8 billion books and 255,000 new titles a year, is an important region to watch.

We skipped the Great Wall of China and went directly to New China International Exhibition Center (NCIEC) around an hour from city center. BIBF 2014 was consist of 2 huge blocks of China publishers and International publishers exhibitors.

Because I don’t speak Chinese and I didn’t want to risk getting lost, I asked Ruwi to come with me and together we explored places that excite us the most.

We started it at the China publishers and digital publishing center. My first impression was, this event is as grand as any electronic exhibition in Indonesia. They’ve been all out in creating their huge stands in creative ways. And the people are equally excited with the event! Even when not a single one of the exhibitors selling their books. They create activities like book talkshow, book launch, children drawing, even singing. There are also free calligraphy making in Saudi Arabia stand, they gathered some crowd in there!

People are also enthusiastically using other forms of technology to read. Speaking of technology, I can’t access Facebook, Twitter and Google services when I was in Beijing. And when you took those 3, I have nothing left to do on the internet, seriously. All the apps I’ve installed mean absolutely nothing LOL.

 Anyway, at BIBF 2014, we can see Line Webtoon and Kindle stands. Also many publishers from China and the world doing specific books, from books about Oil, Medical books to books about Library management. I honestly didn’t know the vast and ever growing global book market shown by the various stands of book fair around the world from Sharjah International Book Fair, Tehran International Book Fair to London Book Fair. And there’s Turkey as guest of honor!

Unfortunately, Indonesia has no representative in BIBF 2014. Surely not because we’re lack of people, but we’re lack of enthusiasm in literature world. Every year, our own National Book Fair not showing progress in terms of excitement from either book lovers or people in general. Even with 24,000 new book titles a year, my friends already said there are too many books at the bookstore. Well, we barely there yet.

Of course I’m optimistic that we will grow the number of book lovers and the excitement to read and write from the people in our own country. The young people’s idols now are writing books or even writer themselves. We need more role models to infuse the reading and writing habit in their every day life without disrupting their current rooting for social media.

How? We all can answer it, it’s our job to help our nation become a better place to live.

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Hector Alvarado and The Consolation of the Sculpture

Hector Alvarado must be the first ‘modern’ sculptor I met in person (we met at @Komunitas1111  meetup). And he doesn’t look like a sculptor at all. In fact, when I visited his house and see how beautiful he decorates his house, I didn’t believe it was his work. I thought it was his girlfriend’s or some professional interior designer’s job.

There are masculinity of sculpting and femininity of arts in Hector. When I told him that, Hector said: “That’s exactly like sculptures.” From such a masculine material like marble stone, can come a true beauty of feminine art.

He put some of his works at his house. The sculpture of the ripples captured my eyes. It creates an immediate serenity and peace to my soul.

Hector is a soulful and spiritual sculptor indeed. At the age of 25, he made an important decision. Previously taking Master of Design at University of Technology, Sydney, he decided to stop doing design and move into sculpture, a form of art that has slower pace, needs more patience turning a block of marble into a piece of art and when it’s done, it’s become priceless: it moves people’s heart. This way, he believes that he can contribute in a better way to the current world.

Watch Hector in action

One of his works of passion is the Energy Vortex sculpture, capturing the meaningful rotation of earth and the sun that can move you to entirely different time and space.

Hector asked me what’s ‘Salsabeela’ mean? It means stream from heaven, I said.

Shocked, Hector then showing me one of his sculptures of the flowing ‘stream from heaven’ that is now exhibited at a library in Mexico. A Salsabeela in a library. Coincidence? I would agree with C.G. Jung; it’s synchronicity at its best.

Hector is now living in Jakarta. If you’re interested in his work, you can email him haescultor at gmail.com. For the first time ever I even considering to have a piece of art in my house

As Hector said, stones need time to reveal themselves, you can not rush, they’re also very fragile, it will break if you don’t carve it right. After all, things that matter, take time.

When you act with respect to stones, it doesn’t make you a sculptor. It makes you human. Thank you Hector for showing me beauty and kindness that is much needed now in the world.

 

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Bulan Narasi 2014

Can you write a novel in 30 days?

800 writers try to prove that they can, and at the end of the month, 150 writers finally succeeded writing their novels in 30 days! That’s the premise of Bulan Narasi (Nulis Rame-Rame Nasional) that was inspired from NaNoWriMo (National Writing Month), a global annual event to invite writers to write their 50,000 words novel in a month. NulisBuku.com and Plot Point teamed up to organize this event.

To be able to finished writing a novel in 30 days, you need focus, clarity, commitment and burning desire for your novel! I participated as one of the writers to finished my spiritual romantic novel, but I failed to finished it on time. Now I’m still on page 50, but there’s a progress! I’m not alone. Eventhough the other 650 writers didn’t finish their novel on time, but they have made progress and track it on Bulan-Narasi blog.

Together on #BulanNarasi hashtag on twitter, they support each other and hopefully it will be a starting point for their success as a writer

The awarding event has exceeded our expectations with 111 audiences coming and we’re grateful to have aspiring writers and share the joy of writing with them. New writers were born from Bulan Narasi 2014 and we can’t wait to do this again in bigger scale, next year!

Congratulations to all winners of Bulan Narasi 2014! First winner’s novel will be published by Plot Point and the rest of the novels are available on NulisBuku.com!

Thanks to Microsoft, Acer and Uber that has been supporting and trusting us.

Quoting Robin Willian, ”No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.”

Let’s change the world, one word at a time!

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Speaking on Innovation at rAsia Forum Moscow 2014

The only thing I remember about Russian is usually they’re on Hollywood movies in furry coat, being a secret agent, lots of snow and cold face. So when I’m invited by the Embassy of The Republic Indonesia for The Russian Federation to speak at rAsia Forum in Moscow, I met Russian who speak and joke in Bahasa Indonesia, like Dr Ludmila Demedyuk, plus beautiful sunny weather. It’s nothing like I ever imagine before.

Indonesia is the partner of rAsia Forum 2014. rAsia Forum is an international event held in Moscow, inviting speakers from all around the world including Indonesia, USA, UK, Hong Kong, Germany, and many more, to share knowledge and insights on innovation. I speak at 5 different panel and talks on the second day of the conference.

The first panel is to talk about doing business in ASEAN. Indonesian Ambassador Djauhari Oratmangun explaining the economic situation and potential in ASEAN. And I speak more about doing business in Indonesia. I explained the demographic profiles of Indonesia, we’re a very young country with median age of 28 years old and 114 million people in productive age. We’re the biggest economy in SouthEast Asia and our middle class is rising expected to be 140 million people by the year 2020. There are ample of opportunities in mobile and ecommerce, since mobile phone penetration is 115% but online shopper is only 6% at this point. I have uploaded my slide in here for your reference.

Other powerful speakers in the ‘Doing Business in ASEAN’ panel: H.E. Dato’ Zainol Abidin Oma, Ambassador of Malaysia. Rizal A. Djaafara, Chief Representative of Bank Indonesia Representative Office for Europe and Africa in London. Maxim Romanov, Head of Division for Innovation Infrastructure, Department of Innovation Development, Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation. J.S. Meyer Siburian, Director of Indonesian Investment Promotion Center (BKPM) in London. Moderator: Victor Tarusin, Executive Director, Russia – ASEAN Business Council (RF)

I also speak in TELL Forum answering the question of ‘What tomorrow will bring?’ and my answer is: the crowd will lead the future, but there are ways to empower them to do that. It’s based on my experience with NulisBuku.com and its passionate Nulis Buku Club community. I speak about it on 15 minutes in TED format, broadcast live for bigger audience around the world.

Of course my favorite panel was talking about Women in Innovation. Mirko Whitfield, European and International Business Development manager of SXSW, lead the panel with intriguing questions. One of his questions is, if women can make any apps to use for men, what would you make?

My answer is to create an app to translate what’s on woman’s head to text and notify man directly. For example, he forgot the anniversary date, his wife’s frowning and push the emotional translator app, the app will recognize the facial expression and checking the calendar, then notify the husband via text, “Hey, you forgot your anniversary. Surprised her and take her to dinner tonight!” – how’s that sound, ladies? :))

Special about Women in Innovation topic, Sabine from Germany mentioned she hated the topic because there was never a topic about Men in Innovation. I say, we still need to talk about the topic because there are still gender disparity especially on women in technology. I took IT in university where only 20% in the class were women, and after we graduate only 20% from the 20% finally pursue IT career. The number says everything.

After the forum I got the time to explore Moscow with Indonesian students in Moscow, Kania and Adek. Without them, I certainly will be lost because most people don’t speak English and most signs on the street were in Russian cyrillic.

It was a nice surprise to see the grand, elegant and beautiful Metro Stations in Moscow. I must say they have the best Metro stations in the world.

And another nice surprise: Moscow is a very romantic city! More than Paris! Everywhere I go I can see kissing and cuddling couple. In every corner, I met tall handsome Russian men holding big bouquet of flowers, walking in a hurry to meet the lucky woman. Russian men adore Russian women and I can’t blame them. Russian women are among the most beautiful women in the world. Can’t take my eyes off them myself :))

Being a hijabi is pretty easy in Moscow. Their Orthodox Churches have dome like Mosques and some older women wear headscarfs too. So, it’s pretty common situation for them to see religious women wearing what they want to wear according to their faith. Even at Metro Station a Russian man gave me a thumb up and smile for no reason. Thanks! Read my funny experience praying in a Mosque in Moscow and about my first day of Ramadan with 19 hours of fasting here at PinkMosques’s blog. 

I visit art and literary places like Pushkin’s, Leo Tolstoy’s and Literary Museum. Bought their books and amazed by their creative process of writing. I was so inspired by my museum trip that I bought this wonderful blue tea cup that has been one of the secret of Russian writers creativity.

Talking about Innovation, I just created an article in Selasar.com about how to create a space for innovation in Indonesia. Above all, from my conversations with Ambassador Djauhari, it’s all about mindset. If we can change our mindset, we can win the future.

Thanks to the whole family of Indonesian Embassy in Moscow, especially to Ambassador Djauhari Oratmangun, tante Wiwik Oratmangun with her beautiful paintings exhibit on rAsia, Karina, Mbak Ella, Pak Yul, Felix, Kania, Adek, and more friends that I can’t mention one by one. You have made my trip to Moscow unforgettable, such a priviledge to meet successful business people and ambassadors of ASEAN in Moscow.

I will definitely be back to enjoy the beauty of Russia. Hope there are more things we can do together between Indonesia and Russia, just like the days before.

Have a powerful and productive Monday!

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From Tech Forum Central Asia 3 In Almaty, Kazakhstan

I came to Almaty, Kazakhstan, as a trainer at Tech Forum Central Asia 3, but the truth is, I’m the one learning so much from this trip.

First, I’ve learned that Almaty is one beautiful and unique city. The city has a magical background of the snow-capped mountains that reminds me of Narnia. I told my friends that nobody can ever be depressed in Almaty. When you feeling down, all you have to do is to held your head up, watch the mountains and you’ll be okay in no time.

A mix of ethnic groups in Almaty also the reason why there are a lot of beautiful people with strong  cheekbones, fair skin, blonde hair, high nose (look European) but have small eyes (like Asian). It was a confusing experience for me.

I’ve talked to some Tech Forum participants from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan. I think the boys from Afghanistan were the most active in class room and networking sessions. They asked a lot of questions, which I like, and I also asked a lot of questions to them. I taught about Blogging at the Tech Forum and they asked me what should they write in their blog.

For me, it’s obvious that they should write about the latest situation in Afghanistan. The Afghanistan that I remember was the one that was on a war. They have moving on, with some explosions here and there, but they’re continue living their life. Afghans just had a general election and people are excited. It  is a very important moment for Afghanistan. And the Afghan boys should definitely blog about it.

The main topic of this year’s Tech Forum is about Women & Tech. A subject that is very dear to my heart. I’m so happy to meet some girls in technology at the event. Both from trainers side and from the participants. I learned a lot from them. I learned about data analysis from Michelle Wu, about visual storytelling from the lovely Keri Goff of DoSomething.org, inspired to make more video content thanks to Benjamin Zand & Samantha Barry, and finally learned some security tips on creating effective passwords from my travel buddy Fariha Aktar

About women issues, South and Central Asia relatively have the same issues with SouthEast Asia. Only some differences like honor killings and forced marriage that is so unfortunate and still happening to this date. That’s why we were there at the conference, trying to figure out the problems, try to collaborate and to inspire each other on what type of technology we should use to solve the problems.

People in Almaty mostly speak in Russian, but I met Asqat, a guy who has concerns in preserving Kazakhs language while eager to have a solid understanding of English to get the balanced perspective about the world. Together with Ainura and Khadija, they run English and language classes for journalists.

From them I get to know one brilliant Kazakhs Poet and Philosopher called ‘Abai’. The only English book I found in the bookstore!

They were introduced to me by my friend Kevin. It was such a pleasant surprise to know that Kevin was in Almaty. I requested to visit some Mosques in Almaty and we went to Nur Mubarak Mosques & Almaty Central Mosque.

One thing that is so beautiful about Almaty is the big roses that effortlessly spread around the several parks inside the city. I just have to stop every 5 minutes to take picture!

This is so funny because everytime we went to a restaurant, they usually didn’t have English menu and we can’t read Russian cyrillic. I’ve learned from Macon about Word Lens app. It can read to you in real time those curly words that you won’t normally recognized. It’s even can work offline!

Talking about restaurants, the food was so GOOD at Alasha restaurant! They cook a lot of lamb, which my favorite!

I’d like to thank Ong for recommending me to speak at Tech Forum and Tristram, Dinara & team from the US Consulate in Almaty that has trusted me and giving me this valuable opportunity.

I celebrate my birthday in Almaty. Just felt so lucky to be able to spend the day in such a beautiful country that I thought I could never visit. This is truly a birthday gift from God. Alhamdulillah! The love and experience in Almaty will surely stick with me forever!

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How I Face My Day

I have a confession to make: I took daily selfies every morning.

Saya selalu menyempatkan selfie setiap pagi sebelum berangkat ke kantor. Kenapa selfie? Karena saya percaya pada kekuatan ‘looking good’ maka selfie akan memastikan saya look good hari itu. Saya bisa melihat dan mengevaluasi komposisi make up yang benar untuk meng-highlight kelebihan wajah saya.

Efek selfie dan gonta ganti avatar tiap hari di twitter ini ternyata so far positive buat saya. Saya, yang bukan model ini, suka diminta untuk jadi model produk fashion dan diminta bicara di acara-acara fashion dan kecantikan.

Banyak yang penasaran apakah saya memakai make up sendiri atau dengan make up artist Tentu saya saya pakai make up sendiri setiap harinya. Awalnya sih memang saya pakai make up standar saja untuk sehari-hari, namun saya dituntut untuk bicara di depan banyak orang dan ketemu orang baru setiap harinya. Jadilah saya mulai bereksperimen dengan heavy make up.

Ingin juga ikutan mencoba eksperimen dengan make up? Pertama, kita harus tahu kelebihan wajah yang bisa ditonjolkan dan kekurangan wajah yang perlu disamarkan. Kemudian nonton YouTube untuk tips-tips make up yang oke untuk wajah kita. Terakhir ya, terus bereksperimen dengan berbagai macam teknik dan warna. Dari hasil eksperimen plus rajin selfie ini, saya jadi tahu kalau lipstik warna pink adalah yang paling bagus untuk mencerahkan wajah saya!

Masalahnya, bagaimana caranya agar tetap terlihat fresh dari pagi hingga malam hari? Apalagi kalau malamnya ada acara resmi. Nggak mungkin kan pulang lagi trus make up ulang, ke salon juga mahal

Solusinya adalah retouch make up! Saya bawa Biore Cleansing Sheet Make Up Remover yang praktis buat menghapus make up, bawa juga bedak, lipstick, gel eyeliner, mascara waterproof, blush on dan shading untuk membentuk wajah. That’s all!

 

Make up saya untuk event malam bisa jadi lebih fresh dan berbeda dari make up pagi dengan mudah (psst… saya sering retouch di toilet umum loh sebelum acara :D)

Pengalaman kamu dengan make up gimana? Share di sini ya!

Buat kamu yang hobby selfie juga seperti saya, bisa ikutan #FaceMyDay Selfie Competition yang diselenggarakan @IDBiore- klik sini untuk mulai ikutan!

Hadiah-nya seru! Make Over & Photoshoot session di Majalah Go Girl, Hampers cantik senilai Rp 500.000, voucher belanja total jutaan rupiah, dan buat 1000 orang pertama ada free sample dari Biore!

Ditunggu ya ^^

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Me & My Makeup Moments

Make up ‘aha moment’ pertama buat saya adalah saat saya ke Korea tahun 2011 dan menemukan Gel Eyeliner!

Alat make up yang satu ini gampang diaplikasikan, tahan air, dan benar-benar awet tak berubah bentuk hingga malam hari. Gel eyeliner tak hanya membuat mata kecil saya terlihat lebih besar, namun juga merubah penampilan saya secara keseluruhan. Perlahan-lahan saya belajar caranya shading pipi saya agar terlihat lebih tirus dan juga hidung saya agar terlihat lebih mancung. Make up memang magic, sampai banyak banget yang komentar saya operasi plastik ke Korea LOL.

Saya percaya pada inner beauty dan outer beauty. Make up membuat saya jauh lebih percaya diri dan tentu saja itu modal buat saya saat bertemu dengan orang-orang hebat di banyak event bisnis yang saya hadiri di dalam dan luar negeri. FIrst impression is the key!

Masalahnya, setelah acara padat yang saya jalani, saya suka kecapekan dan tidur dengan heavy make up saya, terutama gel eyeliner yang melekat erat di mata saya. Akibatnya tentu tidak baik untuk kulit dan juga seprei jadi belepotan make up

Make up ‘aha moment’ kedua hadir saat saya ke Amerika tahun lalu untuk program IVLP: A New Beginning 2013. Di Amerika, banyak drugstore yang menjual segala macam produk make up. Pada saat itu saya kehabisan make up remover saya yang saya bawa dari Indonesia. Saat bertanya pada kasir drugstore-nya, saya diberikan make up remover berupa cleansing sheet. Dari sini saya tahu ternyata ada jenis make up remover yang sangat praktis dan memudahkan saya.

Saat pulang kembali ke Indonesia, saya segera mencari produk Cleansing Sheet seperti di Amerika, dan saya menemukan Biore Cleansing Sheet Make Up Remover. Happy melihat pack-nya yang rapi, berisi 40 cleansing sheet, yang membuat saya nggak perlu bolak balik beli remover. Pack ini cukup untuk 1 bulan!

Setelah saya coba, Biore Cleansing Sheet ini ternyata menyimpan cleansing oil lebih banyak dan ada efek mint yang menyegarkan wajah, sehingga nggak perlu bilas lagi setelah menggunakan. Bisa langsung istirahat!

Gimana dengan kamu? Share dong Make up ‘aha moment’ kamu juga di comment box di bawah! ^^

Oh ya, buat kamu yang suka ekspperimen dengan heavy make up juga seperti saya, bisa ikutan #FaceMyDay Selfie Competition yang diselenggarakan @IDBiore– klik sini untuk mulai ikutan!

Hadiah-nya seru! Make Over & Photoshoot session di Majalah Go Girl, Hampers cantik senilai Rp 500.000, voucher belanja total jutaan rupiah, dan buat 1000 orang pertama ada free sample dari Biore!

Buruan ikut ya ^^

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How to Work in Paradise: Start with Hubud

Last weekend, I have to work overtime but I have nothing to complain about, because I was working in paradise.

NulisBuku.com and The Bay Bali held a writing competition ‘Letters of Happiness’ and a writing workshop in Bali. Me, my NulisBuku.com partners and my lovely writer friend Feby Indirani, headed to Nusa Dua, to speak in front of 50 aspiring writers, doing writing exercises while enjoying the sound of the beach nearby. I sat down near the coconut tree and wonder to myself, am I working? Because it felt like a holiday!

I went straight to Ubud the next day to speak about social media at Akademi Berbagi, Bali. It was a pleasant surprise that they choose Hubud, a co-working space in Ubud, that supposed to be my next destination after Denpasar.

I really love the energy of Balinese young people bring to the forum. They came up with a lot of exciting ideas, either for their non-profit or business. Again, it’s hard for me to find speaking for them on Sunday as a chore. Hubud’s a very environmental friendly place, panelled with bamboos. I feel fresh and energized inside the room.

Me & Hanny were staying at Rumah Alaya, Steve Munroe‘s guest house. I remember the first time I met Steve, co-founder of Hubud, at Endeavor event. I couldn’t recognize him because his face on his twitter avatar was wrapped entirely in sarong LOL. After cosmically stumbled upon each other, we connected and were very sure that we can collaborate on something in the future.

Rumah Alaya is a paradise inside paradise. The view is extremely beautiful with the infinity pool, open air kitchen and outdoor writing deck overlooking the forest, where the green trees spread before our eyes. I can picture myself writing few pages in the morning, enjoying the misty air of Ubud.

Bali has inspired my creativity in a way no place can do. It is very natural for me to wanting to stay longer, even dreaming to live and work there. Before, it was something that almost impossible. Though my working hours is flexible, I need to have a constant and stable internet connection, environment that is friendly for me to work for hours without getting an evil look for ordering iced tea and not moving for 5 hours :))

Now, coming back to Ubud after years, I’m relieved and excited to found Hubud’s ready to accept me as one of their members. BBC wrote, Forget Silicon Valley, Meet Silicon Bali. I must agree to that. Why go miles away when you have paradise in your own backyard and work conveniently in the same time?

With $50 a month, we can have 25-50 hours of working in Hubud. That means, 50 hours of fast & reliable internet connection, beautiful working space, unlimited inspirations, chances to meet like-minded people, larger chance of collaboration from the community events like Pecha Kucha, Bali Bungkus, and many more that held almost every day, and of course, a sense of deadline. Because, in order to finish anything, you need to have a deadline. Productivity, I’m sure, will increase. I paid for my 50 hours, I got to spend it wisely!

A lot of interesting rooms in Hubud. Toilet is called ‘Thinking Room’. They have Quiet Room and Skype Room. They have helmet trees. They have their own ricefield view. They have raw food canteen that sell healthy cakes and delicious selection of salads. And I have found ‘Inspired Bali’ magazine in Hubud, must be one of the most inspiring free magazine I’ve ever read.

Rumah Alaya and Hubud are spiritual and warm in its careful touch of perfection; they are indeed have touched  people’s heart. I got a mention on twitter saying they missed working in Hubud. How can you missed working? It must have been very special!

If you’re interested to consider moving to Ubud, check Hubud’s website to get “Moving to Ubud Guide” ebook.

Who would have thought that working in paradise is only a click away?

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Empowering Productivity at CrowdSourcing Week Global Conference 2014

People say, “If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.” – I was definitely in the right room when I attended CrowdSourcing Week Global Conference 2014 in Singapore, 7 – 10 April 2014. The event was packed with brilliant speakers and visionary audiences. That way, I found myself learning new things about crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, co-creation and open innovation the whole time I was at the conference.

I’m one of CrowdSourcing Week 2014 advisors from Indonesia and Epi Ludvik Nekaj, founder & CEO of CrowdSourcing Week, was speaking about CrowdSourcing at StartupLokal meetup last February in Jakarta. The concept of CrowdSourcing has been a part of Indonesian culture. Without labeling it as a ‘crowdsourcing’ we already use the power of crowd to solve problems in our country, like finding blood donor, giving out free classes to educate the community, natural disaster relief, and many other. From the meetup I’ve learned that crowdsourcing is social media turns into social productivity.

Every day in CrowdSourcing Week Global Conference 2014, we got inspired by 15+ speakers, sharing best practices in crowdsourcing projects and showcasing what they have done in their company. Some that got me thinking are talks by Sean Moffit of WikiBrands, Jeremiah Owyang of Crowd Companies, Jennifer Gustetic of NASA, Jay Rogers of Local Motors, Maria Ressa CEO of Rappler, Bryan Kramer the writer of ‘There is No B2B or B2C: It’s Human to Human: #H2H’, Arun Mehra of TalentHouse India, Paul Niederer, Joel Cere, Sangeet Choudary, Pedro Oliveira, and of course Mark Philpott of Humenaeity with his inspiring personal story on leaving everything behind, being a homeless, and crowdsourcing his life.

Mandy, the CEO of Wujudkan.com, Indonesia’s crowdfunding platform, asked me what was I doing in Crowdsourcing event. A good question because on the surface, my company NulisBuku.com is an online self-publishing print on demand company, but we truly are driven by the crowd.

We do crowdsourcing because we love the crowd disruption possibilities. Something that we never think of will come out of crowd. Crowd connects people with purpose, crowd want to belong to something, it creates a strong bond in the community. It also validates new ideas that you have.

Jeremiah Owyang gave us a lot of examples on how to apply crowdsourcing concept in various companies. He event came up with a formula to crowd enable your company.

Jay Rogers wowed the audience with his Local Motors where people can crowdsource a car

Jennifer from NASA Explaining how NASA use the power of crowd at Top Coder to solve problems faster and cheaper too

There are a lot of buzz around airBnB, one of most successful crowdsourcing platforms, and also talks about bitcoin. At this point, I installed BitCoin app on my android out of curiosity. Antonny said it’s banned in Indonesia though.

Nick, CEO of Rocki, presented to us on how to successfully raise a million dollar for your crowdfunding campaign. It’s inspire me start my own campaign for people to fund me to stay in Istanbul for a month and write a novel

Aside from insightful knowledge, CrowdSourcing Week 2014 brought me to a new global friendship from Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Kenya, Japan and many other countries. I valued our friendship that has been giving me a lot of new perspective about business and life in general.

Bravo CrowdSourcing Week team: Epi, Ben, Priti, Briana, Hane and volunteers. Wish you luck for CrowdSourcing Week Summit Brussels and hope to see you next year at CrowdSourcing Week Global Conference 2015!

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Lucky that Nulisbuku.com was invited to be part of this inspiring festival and showcase in a stand just in front of the main entrance. We had a great time talking to aspiring writers on how to help them self-published their books. It’s also very refreshing to walk around and eavesdrop on people talking about their progress in writing, editing, next plan of writing books… it was surely a writers heaven!

We asked people to write down their vision of their own books in #writingplan board. It was a moment of truth for some of them. They never articulate their dreams of writing a book. And when they were asked to write them down, they were shocked. But the results were amazing.

There were plans to write a book about kingdom of cats, something involving aliens and some other wanted to highlight their own culture and heritage. They wrote their writing plans with smile on their face. And I know soon, their writing plan is going to come true.

Among the visitors, I spoke more with Mr. Rahmat Ali. We accidentally met at the sego pecel stand for lunch and the next day, he brought his book with him. Turned out, he’s one of Indonesia’s talented and productive writers, he’s my senior! “Keep on witing…,” he said. We collaborate on the spot trying to create a poem and that was super fun.

I fall deep and deeper in love with words each day. I read and write at any possible time. I read 3 books this morning alone. I ignore my friends because I prefer reading ‘A Complete Idiot’s Guide of Creative Writing’ – even  when I’m already writing 28 books.

I could see books in every person I met, see words in every decision made in my life, words make me understand what love really is, they make me understand who I am.

When you’re in love, you’ll make time and you will find yourself effortlessly inspired. Have you nurture your love for words today?

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