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And since it doesn’t make sense for just my social media company Socialgrooves.com to go by ourselves (having just 3 people in it), we went ahead and invited our Malaysian Youtubers as a way to say THANKS for all they’ve done for us, those videos that has become part and parcel of our joy, sadness, laughter and miracles. We’ve also extended it to @bboyrice who is somewhat always hanging around our Youtube heroes, who opened the doors for us!

Check out our group picture thanks to @BBoyrice! I have known this blogger for such a long time, and his skills with his camera isn’t to play around with. Check out his page! Very happy to have him with us PS – can you identify your favourite Youtuber? Who’s missing?

Immediately we were given our printed pass to make sure no bouncers will boot us out haha. Our host was @Zeffri, head honcho in the communications department, who was kind enough to take an afternoon off to host us for lunch.

Of course we couldn’t go around taking photos of the main office itself, but we were able to explore fully their lounge and makan area, and yes, they have ice creams, snacks, drinks (even coconuts) and even a spread of dishes that goes by their daily theme (ours was Indian!) as per what was shown of the Google office in “the Internship“!! And they called it, get this, Gerai Gugel LOL!

Here are some of the wonderful selection of desserts they have… cooked by a proper chef no less. They really do take care of their employees well huh? So jealous… One day we hope to have an office that looks like  this too

Even Country Head of Google Malaysia Sajith Sivanandan made time to come over abd talk to us… well more specifically, to the Youtubers haha. A lot of discussion went on, including how Google Malaysia can help to make a thriving economy for our Youtubers so that they can continue to do what they do and make a living out of them. I think that would be fantastic wouldn’t you? We need more creative content creators here in Malaysia, and I’m glad Google Malaysia is looking to play a huge role in making it happen.

We then started a tour around the office at KL Sentral area. It was gorgeous, looking out to KL from above here. And I love how they let in a lot of sun to light up the place, our natural resources…

They even have a games room, where you can find classic arcade systems and chess board that sits on the ceiling, LOL! Funny thing is we didn’t see anyone hanging about this area… Guess they are all working too hard? Haha.

In any case from here on, we are not supposed to take pictures to show you, but we went inside the office space and oogled at the beautiful layout, which is VERY open to allow engagement of any kind… This flat structure reminded me of how AirAsia’s offices are like too, and it’s great because you can meet whoever you want, even the Country Head himself, should you want to. This will encourage honest feedback, cultivate the idea of everyone going on the same journey as friends rather than bosses and followers, and I guess the “flat” structure is the very reason why Google is where they are today, so why not have it here too, huh?

Oh by the way, they have a car that’s split halfway and made into a sofa lol. I’ll leave it up to your imagination to picture it!

As we went out and checked out more of their unique rooms (you should have seen their BOARD ROOM, it’s super futuristic and contains sound-proofing element, which I think is so that they can watch movies there with an awesome sound system haha) we realised that no matter how global Google is, they do take care to localise the elements here to remind us of where we are, which is Malaysia. I really like that. The way they name their rooms, and even played a joke on one of their staff, who missed the polling day during the 13th General Elections so they modified one of them to become a Polling Station. LOL, really funny guys

Unfortunately I cannot show you a photo of those rooms too, so you’ll have to watch instead how Ming Yue, one quarter of The Ming Thing showcase his Yo-Yo skills to the Googlers in the office haha. Sajith brough everyone out to watch his amazing talent!

Just to give you a look at how the reception area looks, while Ming Yue continues to do stuff that made them Googlers go “ooh” and “aah”. If you could have seen Sajith’s face, his mouth was literally hanging open LOL!

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And that’s the Country Head himself giving it a go! Will we see a Youtube video of him trying to play the Yo-Yo? Maybe, maybe not! haha.

So yeah, we were all given a goodie bag containing a Google merchandise to remind us that we were here, and that was about it! After that there were a lot of camwhoring moments as we took pictures with the iconic Google Search board, and this one contains none other than the infamous DISAPPEARING ACT MAGICIAN Dan Khoo and BBoyRice! Haha

Then there’s always someone trying to get lucky XD

Our two @JinnyBoyTV personalities couldn’t make it that day, so they went a day later and probably chowed down all tho
se free meals at the counter haha, ala Bill of The Internship style haha.

In any case, it was really great hanging out at their office and I suspect there’ll be more to come. On behalf of @Socialgrooves.com, we would like to thank Google Malaysia for giving us this opportunity to visit their amazing office.

 And this is us again with the Youtubers… the GRIM FILM folks ie Sinclair and Hasssan (Jared was out of town), The Ming Thing (Ming Han, Ming Yue, Bryan Lim and Raffi), Dan Khoo, Guany Guan and Jeremy Choy, and of course Googlers Zeffri and Sajith. My utmost respect  to them all for being awesome at what they do

Me and my favourite search engine, Google. The end!

 ps- I know that wasn’t much of a tour, but there’s a reason why you have to visit the office for yourself hehe. Who wants to go the next round?

The post Ever wondered how the Google Headquarters in Malaysia (@googlemsia) looks like? appeared first on Spinzer - Blogger, Entrepreneur, Celebrity Manager.

The first

thing I noticed was the refreshed outlook of the college. I used to come here to give talks during the fresher’s predeparture gathering, so I know how it looked liked, and it was okay, well, it looked like your typical classroom. This time, as you enter you’d see a huge *asterisk* mark that INTI is known for nationwide, their symbol of uniqeness. Can’t resist but to take a picture of it 😛

Before we were taken for a tour, I did a few checks of my own and found out that there are lots of spaces not common in a university building, spaces that do not have a specific function as you’d normally find elsewhere. Little did I know that it was somewhat of an accident too, as the management at INTI shared with me that by studying the behaviour of the students’ activities in these areas, they are able to learn how the space is being used in an organic fashion. FANTASTIC I tell you!

But that’s for later, let’s focus first on…. the Youtube Celebrity Gathering at INTI College Subang campus’s NEW AND COOL AUDITORIUM! Really love the spacious space, ideal for performances, talks, celebrations and anything you can practically think of. Fitting a capacity of 350 people with built in seats numbering 274 seats in total, this is an auditorium not to be made fun of. And guess what, each seat comes with its own power outlet and table, and the stage lighting and sound system is an American based integrated system – don’t play play ah!

In fact I’m already thinking of how to plan for @EYEProjectMY events here hehe *ding*

First we were entertained by some of our popular Youtube musicians, and in this case we had two awesome performers, Ryan Lucas & Jenn Cheah (@soimjenn). The audience really loved the cover of famous songs, a great start to the talk 🙂

Then begin the talk of the town, where @dmingthing, @reubenkang @jinnyboy, the folks at @GrimFilm and @dan_khoo got together to share with us their secrets to becoming famous Malaysians! Among some of the questions asked was more towards how they started that made them successful. But the truth is, any one of us could have starting Youtubing. @dmingthing used his laptop camera back then. So what’s your excuse?

Dan Khoo started without worrying if there will be people viewing his videos, believing in his work (which is excellent, by the way, saw “The Last Gift” which hasn’t come out yet.. You’d love it.)

Jared Lee & Roy Ajong believed in promoting feelings we try to deny from ourselves through GRIMFILM’s emotion-filled short films, when people only wanted to watch short, funny videos.

Jin Lim & Reuben W.J Kang of JinnyBoyTV believed so hard that our YouTube videos made in Malaysia will one day be made known globally, so people know where Malaysia is on the world map.

Well, guess what: they are now so famous and popular, YouTube Partners with videos fetching a million views, and respected by many including youths and adults alike, because they started and didn’t let anyone tell them not to 🙂

Anyhow, LOVED this Youtubers Celebrity Gathering at the INTI Edge Festival, get to know all of them even more closely, yes, even @MamaJinny hehe

That’s enough of the Youtube celebrities already, what else can we expect from the new campus? Well, an outdoor platform where it could either be a car park, a court for sports or *gasp* an entertainment ground! See what I mean about the flexibility of the place?

Oh and before I forget, we were taken around by Dr. Dominic Szambowski, Campus Executive of INTI International College Subang – 5^th from left. He’s so humble and approachable 🙂

Even the classrooms have an EDGE to it (hence, INTI Edge festival :P), showing futuristic architecture around the campus.

Taking a look at their front porch, we saw how creative the organizers were by turning it into a fashion walkway!

That’s when we met Anis Laila Yap Abdullah, Chief Executive of PJ College of Art & Design (PJCAD) and Dean of INTI Centre of Art and Design (ICAD) and Amit Sevak, CEO of INTI International University & Colleges, and of course like all bloggers we took a group picture together 😀

Ps it was Anis who contributed to the artistic side of the campus, so go thank her when you see her next!

Of course what is a campus without her facilities. Look at the number of MACS they have for the student’s use! Of course it is only restricted for its main purpose, but hey, this is something other universities may not provide – some sort like a secret weapon haha!

The grass seats can turn into a nice study area, as the administration noticed. So cool right, studying on the grass like how I used to do that in Hyde Park when I was still studying in Imperial College London. If I knew there was a park here too… hehe 😛

In any case, I was really impressed at the sort of change that has happened here. More creative, less structure, I think these are the basis of improving the way we look for solutions, troubleshooting elements and breaking out of the mould. The above points is why I’d probably consider an international college, to experience things others aren’t able to, giving me the required edge for my future career. So if you’re looking for a place to study, why not give IICS a go?

After what I’ve shared today, this should be a no-brainer 🙂

The post Youtube Celebrity Gathering & Campus Tour @ INTI Edge Festival appeared first on Spinzer - Blogger, Entrepreneur, Celebrity Manager.

That time came when OMG Malaysia surfaced. While currently consisting of 5 Malaysian YouTube channels that you should be familiar with by now, they are NOT a closed platform and all they are asking is for YOU to showcase your videos in order to be supported by these guys, and be part of OMG. Currently, the YouTubers are all from Kuala Lumpur/Selangor area only.

In any case they have just organized their first OMG Live event yesterday and I was one of the lucky few who got in as a VIP, many thanks to @dan_khoo Productions! For that, you should go subscribe to his channel NAO

With an event poster like this, who WOULDN’T have gone, eh?! Free somemore. In any case, I booked this slot out regardless of how busy I was this weekend, just to be able to meet a few key characters, mainly Darren Ashley aka @DazzaAshley and the founder of WAMM, Michael Chen aka @michaelcsm, apart from the obvious main characters of course!

Yes, not only did they make me feel like my presence truly did matter (when it really didn’t :P), they also provided everyone who came with a free RM10 voucher to be spent at www.dsyr.com, a cool marketplace to get cool stuff. Haha.

Did you see that? FULL HOUSE baby. I’m hoping to see a larger stage for the next OMG event, and MORE people should come to support these awesome guys because they have TALENT. Didn’t all of you watch and share their youtube videos? Next time don’t just click here and there, get your arses out of that chair and support too okay!

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 The show couldn’t have started if not for these two amazing emcees of course. They would be @dmingthing and @mistergermani. I’ve said what I said about them in my previous blogpost, ’nuff said.

The first performance was by this new band I’ve not seen before, called Bob the Sausage. Don’t ask me why they called it that, but do follow their performance on Youtube – pretty wicked! Even Joseph love them enough to sit with them haha.

Of course we had LOADS of comedy relief happening in between the performances. Lead by Ming Yue aka @mingyism, an accidental Youtube superstar as I would call him, these acts often make us laugh until it hurts haha… Some say even better than comedy shows lor!

Then comes this all important scene, where Ming Han’s “Alone, Forever?” video came to real life. Watching my favourite Youtube actress Marianne doing the scene with Ming made my legs go jelly again… Oh man <3

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Joseph Germani, as usual, doing his Pek Chek thing -_- But we loved it anyway LOL! Go watch his video if you haven’t!

Then of course there’s the #Skyward people… consisting of people I really, really like and admire. Yes, all 3 of them – Ming Han (@dmingthing), Charis Ow (@charisow) and Ming Yue (mingyism) make up #Skyward and they have a really lovely voice. Funnily enough, it was this song that made me so obsessed with them. Make more covers and get more performances with Youtube stars worldwide guys, I have HIGH expectations from you!

Dan Khoo‘s turn, and he did the very thing he loves doing in his free time – a directing game lol. Well, it was fun and the footage is now available on his channel. Go watch it!

First time meeting the people at @GRIMFILM and boy were they awesome. Their movies truly evoke emotions that, in all honesty, we try hard to hide to appear cool. Look out for them as they continue to produce awesome films and hopefully, feature-length films in the future!

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Having @ShawnLeeBeatbox in your event is a must, nothing I can say to truly describe the amount of talent this small boy has… the way he produces HUGE SOUNDS is a phenomenon, really! Man, if only you were there to see his performance, WOW!

These guys don’t need any introduction. With multiple videos amassing up to 2 million hits on Youtube, they are the very same guys who bring you international Youtubers and even collaborate with them in some of their videos. Both @jinnyboy and @reubenkang make up for their weaknesses with strengths they both possess, making them a couple not to be messed with. While Jin Lim, for all his cool demeanor as a Radio DJ, ability to push content out to the market effectively and attractive personality, is well suited to be the face of #JinnyBoyTV, Reuben Kang, for all his crafty ideas, storytelling abilities and finally, his cuteness that has made a lot of fans fall for him, handles everything from the storyboard to technical magic that you often see in the videos.

If anybody is going to put Malaysia on the global map, it will be them. Malaysia #BOLEH!

And finally we have @DazzaAshley with his long awaited performance. Seriously, his music made me trash in ecstasy, the very definition of #eargasm. Among all the local bands I supported such as @Kyotoband, sometimes it’s hard to go a step further when the music doesn’t gel with you…. well, in his case, EDM is his forte and EDM is MY VIAGRA! Hence, this man is a musical genius to watch and I cannot wait to attend any of his events again in the future! DAMN!

That was the last of it and I’m glad I did come… met so many people, especially the “behind the scenes” ones like Bryan here. We talked a lot and promised we would dedicate an event day to the BACKGROUND people haha… and maybe called it “GMO: The forgotten heroes”? LOL!

8TV Quickie featured a short clip on what happened during #OMGmy Live, produced by Raffi Th’ng.
WATCH IT AND EXPLODE!

Congratulations to the Malaysian Youtubers aka organizers #OMGmy for making it happen, and for WAMM for hosting them.  Malaysia would not be as cool as it is now if not for you guys. I am always waiting to see what else you will come up with and offer you my full support!! Go subscribe to their channels now!

The Ming Thing: http://www.youtube.com/user/dmingthing
Germani Productions: http://www.youtube.com/user/GermaniProductions
Dan Khoo Productions: http://www.youtube.com/user/dankhooproductions
The Grim Film: http://www.youtube.com/user/thegrimfilm
JinnyBoyTV: http://www.youtube.com/user/JinnyboyTV

BobTheSausageTV: http://www.youtube.com/user/BobTheSausageTV
TheShawnLeeTV: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheShawnLeeTV
Darren Ashley: http://www.youtube.com/user/Darrn2

The post OMG! A talent-fest organized by Malaysian Youtubers in KL appeared first on Spinzer - Blogger, Entrepreneur, Celebrity Manager.

Below, is such an example of a beautifully rendered production that could come off as a rojak of Yasmin Ahmad’s familiar sentimental direction, collaboration of a few Malaysian Youtube stars ala US’s @Kevjumba and @nigahiga style, amazing cinematography with nothing less of a short feature film’s expectation and stitched together by an amazing soundtrack, if not just to give a lasting impression to the viewers. Watch.

My Generasi – JinnyBoyTV

But it didn’t always start out this way. Nope. A lot of experiments (and copying) of the different methods from the west were tested by our pioneering community, and while some got little or at best mild support by the rest of our Malaysian brothers and sisters, most got ridiculed by them. After all, aren’t Malaysians the best critics of their own nation, at all times?

I still remember, some 2 years back, stumbling across some our would-be rising stars, who were getting pretty decent hits and had so much talent to share. Some of them include Youtubers like @inianwarhadi and @themingfeed, who were some of the earliest vloggers/singers I encountered.

They were pretty good! @IniAnwarHadi was filling in voids and gaps that were existent for the Malay market, who by the way, makes up most of the online population here in Malaysia. His content, hilarious yet educational, made excellent substitutes for crappy TV shows, and the creative way he sees certain things which we can connect to as locals make it an even better watch! Ps- his videos can come up to 500k-700k hits, and that’s IMPRESSIVE!

As for @themingfeed, he had something else to offer – beneath the first few videos he created to showcase his singing prowess together with some guest singers, he showed that there was effort being made to be as good, if not better, than the other Youtubers on the net. He later went on to prove this by coming out with his own short film, which had garnered a lot of views and shares not only among Malaysians but beyond that too, using his uncanny ability to connect and reach out to you in the way he produces the video. Enjoy.

Alone, Forever? – DMingThing

Nice? Bet you it was. I had my eye on him when I first saw his old singing video, and thought hard on how to meet him so that I could help him expand on his vision. It wasn’t till @missycheerio’s birthday party that I got to see him, and boy was he surprised to know that he had a fan from all the way in the UK (I was studying in London back then). I wanted him to be a star, to be recognized for his talents. And Youtube, was the channel for him to do so.

You see, my understanding on social media, is that one’s influence, or reach, doesn’t just stop with their Facebook friends, Twitter following, or the most common denominator of all (at least to online ad agencies)- blog readership. Already various tools and platform are shared out there in the world wide web, free for us to use and thus allowing everyone to have a chance at creating content in their own preferred style, reaching out to the pockets of untapped demographics of a larger, invisible pie, thereby claiming that particular space for their own.

In the Youtube space, that is exactly what happened. The few pioneers in Youtube community are right now getting easily a 500,000 hits video, if one did everything right. That’s a HUGE number to many others!

Heck, even one vlogger by the name of Joseph Germani, or @GermaniPro on Twitter, grabbed Youtube by the balls and created a personality for himself on that channel! Starting off on humble beginnings, the guy managed to fight off haters (who hated him for his guts and his ability to be so self-absorbed in his videos) and have steadily gained an increasing number of fans who would now fight for him! Check the #LouSai out

 #LikeALouSai (Like A Boss) – Germani Productions

Yeap, he allegedly started the whole “#LikeALouSai” trend on Twitter, Facebook and many other places. He also started collaborating with many other Youtubers OUTSIDE of Malaysia. This guy really dreams big, and big dreams he definitely has. He has certainly created a following for himself on Youtube

Oh and speaking of dreams, a friend that I fondly know as one of the artists in Bolehland.net (a webcomic site) also shocked me with his ability to create short films! If it weren’t for collaboration between some of the Youtubers, I wouldn’t have found this really awesome video he did that reminded me of Counterstrike… and boy was it really well done! Check it out!

School of war – Dan Khoo Productions

Impressed? Well he’s not stopping there, for sure! Another wicked short film he created, this time involving my sister @SandraTock even! Ps- she’s now a celebrity appearing in almost every medium out there, from newspapers,  to websites, to people’s Facebook wall, Twitter – she’s everywhere! Check out the video below:

Memories  – Dan Khoo Productions

Seriously, thanks to Youtube, talented people like these guys get to show their stuff to the world. Here’s hoping that he’ll one day take the challenge to create a real blockbuster movie one day, a protege to some super director one day, who knows!

Of course, thanks to celebrities like @JinnyBoy, who also created his production team with some friends of him, the Malaysian Youtube scene has never seen so much light of the day. One of his very first work collaborating with @GermaniPro got so much attention that it literally went on wildfire on most Malaysian’s social media platforms – because his content was notoriously naughty and local to boot! For example, catch this typical scene at a shop in Malaysia…

Ah Wing – Malaysia’s Number 1 Salesman – JinnyBoyTV

As if that wasn’t funny enough, he and his team made another production featuring a very commonly used word among us youngsters – you’ve got to watch it.

ABUDEN?! – JinnyBoyTV

With all of that, the launch of Youtube Malaysia shouldn’t come as a surprise to Malaysians. Now that you know the community is really thriving, and much more effort is being done to help the community grow (both newcomers and existing players), we can certainly expect a lot more of our own content coming in and I really hope this will all translate to positive news for our country’s entertainment industry. 

 

My only hope is that Youtube Malaysia will play a larger part in contributing to the community, giving more Youtube Partnership to those who earn it, for one thing, and not just focused on the advertising side of this really beautiful platform, as we can see bigwigs like @MAS and @ETP_ROADMAP taking advantage of this new ad feature, haha. Must be good money huh? 

Rock on Malaysian Youtubers! I salute you!

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