 Thanks so much Joyce. I think we should give a hand actually to Joyce and Sylvie for all the efforts they have and kind of like putting all this together It's so inspiring to see you know people in Singapore being able to come together and and just really Support one another and and have this environment to to really Talk about and be geeks. I think we all are geeks here probably that's why we're here And we're proud of it and I just really love that about about what you guys have done So thank you for having me So I thought I would give just a quick overview Because I look Asian but people every time they see me and I open my mouth. They're like in Singapore. They're like what? So I'm actually Canadian And I've spent a number of years in New York and now I'm in Singapore So I say I'm a temporary New Yorker and Singaporean I'm an industrial engineer as as Joyce mentioned by trade and I think I'm just curious is are there who out here are also engineers Okay Okay Comps I like computer obviously everybody. Yes. Yes, okay Great. So for me I mean the comm size always made fun of the industrial engineers because we were like the ones who are optimizing business like really So we were on the low rung of engineering but So I actually ended up I did engineering for for three years And then I actually moved and fell into marketing and I'll tell you guys a little bit more about what happened And I think you know for today. I don't think I'm any wiser than anybody else here I'm just happy to be here to share my story a little bit and and talk about I think when I came out of University I really didn't know what I was supposed to do and even now I'm 34 and I don't know necessarily what I'm supposed to do or what I'm gonna do next But I know what I'm doing now and so What I stand for I think is this quote. I think is is a beautiful quote I'm just gonna read it out I began to realize how important it was to be an enthusiast in life if you're interested in something no matter What it is go at it full speed embrace it with both arms hug it love it and above all become passionate about it And and at the end what rule doll says is lukewarm is no good And I think if anyone knows me they they know that I never pursue anything kind of halfway And and I think that's just the way that I I've always been and I think engineering and technology has given me this great Foundation to just no matter where I am in my career I'm always Leveraging the thing the skills that I've learned to think a little differently And I think all the engineers out here, which in all the secret engineers I think you guys all have probably thought you know you can apply it to your jobs too And that for me is is very inspiring and and I love going into a room where we're doing a creative brainstorm and I can actually offer some insight based on the my my Background not necessarily, you know something that's directly related to code but but definitely the skills you learn So this was my first job for this was for this is just an old screen cap I found but You probably look it's it's really hideous. I'm I think this is actually a current iteration of the of the application to so What happened is I came out of engineering and out of industrial engineering, and I didn't really know what I wanted to do I didn't have great grades either, but I was probably one of the one engine like Some of that one engineer that kind of had a bit of eq. So they were like, oh, okay. We can drop her in consulting So so this was a truck a transit software company where they think of them as Microsoft office, but instead of Offering office suite products. They offer transportation Products for optimization whether it's optimizing your drivers or optimizing the bus routes Optimizing bus routes was incredibly complex, and I was walking into these rooms and and these Planners these transit planners literally were organizing schedules by pieces of paper like strips of paper upon paper And they were all kind of like aging through their process and we're like, okay There has to be a better way to do this there has to be an optimization algorithm that we can code to To help make this easier and then you layer on the people portion of this which is what I focused on It's like okay. Now you've got the optimized routes. How do you optimize the number of drivers you need? Just got really complex so On top of that in the u.s. Everyone is unionized So it was like oh if I work on a holiday And it happens to be also on a Saturday I get like double time and a half But if I work the Monday it becomes like triple time and a half and something really crazy So we had to try and find a way to kind of optimize all this so we weren't paying people like triple Could you pull the rates so that's basically what I did and I did it for Sam San Francisco transit So it was like from the cable cars to the to the buses to the subways But then I also did it did this for places like Nashville and Cincinnati So I was very lucky in my first in the start of my career to be able to really travel as a Canadian to all these Places in the u.s. To just really be able to work and it was crazy They let me into their server rooms and they're like, okay Go forth and put whatever you want to put in I'm like I can take this whole thing down You know so and I wouldn't say I was a strong coder by any means so So I always rely I had to rely a lot on my on my actually com-sci friends, so So you must wonder you know going from from transit software How did I make the leap to like the next step so stupidly? I think this is this is one of those things where I learned in life was like okay when an opportunity presents itself And it's a interesting opportunity. There's Why not just try and pursue it and see what happens so? Someone came to me and said hey, and yeah, you know, there's this company called critical mass Actually, they're here in Singapore too, but they're a Canadian company and they offer business solutions for clients I'm like, oh business consulting cool. I can do that so What I found out was it was a marketing agency that did banners so circa 2007 I think We only had four sizes of banners I think nowadays there's like hundreds of sizes because you have all your mobile devices But I literally was able to dig up last night some of the old banners we did for the in spron Dell was relevant at that time. They're not a relevant brand now I would say but they were they're relevant and I still remember walking into that room as an engineer and being like Okay, we're gonna kind of brainstorm about the in spron and how we're gonna bring it to market And I remember sitting there and it was my very first brainstorm It was my first time realizing as a developer or as a Industrial engineer that there's other people in the world that are smart that Aren't just you know physics majors or like, you know people who specialize in science. There's so much more There's so much more to creativity and beyond book smarts And I think that was a turning point for me that I was like, yeah I want to stay here forever now and and just and learn how to better communicate and solve business problems But using our our our engineering mind while being able to apply creativity What a brilliant idea. I was so excited and they always, you know thought of me as the geek In the room, but I didn't mind I didn't mind being there just to just to learn and absorb everything from them So from there, I Realized what I missed was we were doing great banner work and we were doing a little bit of work for city city bank And but when it came to implementation We were working with all these kind of like technology partners so half the time you would create these really great ideas and It would get watered down and watered down and watered down because the software or the back-end company would be like Oh, we can't do this. Okay, but we'll do this and then well They butcher all my work and I was my team's work and I was so upset about it So what I realized is that I needed to marry back the world of technology back into my life a little bit more So this is when I went to another agency called a sapient. I don't know if anyone's heard of it. They're pretty big here Thanks So sapient is a company that actually does they they started as a technology company and at the time when I entered They were just trying to kind of go into the marketing space. So they were always very technology driven in their solutions So when I went in we happened to be pitching for Harley-Davidson globally And I happened to you know stumble upon hey who wants to help on this really awful pitch You know, it was like pages and pages upon pages of detailed information that we needed to kind of put together for them and I was like, okay, I'll do it and We won with and we and four years later. I think we built we actually went in and re-platformed their entire site for them globally, which is like 34 languages In in some 34 countries in 15 languages, which is which is kind of crazy including Arabic So right to left left to right I think what I learned here was in my journey was just that you don't always it's it You never know. I don't think that I was like very I knew I wanted to get back more into technology But I didn't really know how and this was just the perfect fit was being able to kind of marry My all the skills I now had kind of sort of acquired from marketing, but not really I still feel like I'm learning that every day since I don't I've never taken a marketing course in my life and then going into going into a brand like Harley-Davidson, so that's so epic in the US but like in Asia as a Totally different market. So I remember still talking to my team in Singapore and they kept complaining to me and they said, you know This work is not going to work for our region and I was like why just listen to me I mean, you know, I'm I know I'm in Chicago. I'm in your headquarters. I know and I think that's the thing that I realized too is very humbling is like is is the fact that I Don't know everything, but I also don't you don't know all the nuances of all the different markets And it was it was actually very interesting learning experience for me So so we actually ended up doing customized work customized content for the different markets because obviously How you kind of portray the brand in the Middle East or Asia does matter So yeah, that was that was technology Any questions around Around what I did Cool, okay So current state where am I now? I think I spent a number of years at Sapient and then I remember talking to Joyce and saying to her You know what I realized though after doing tons of tons of then hardcore technology work because it was like one-third Creative and then it would take two-thirds of the time to implement anything Even though we could definitely implement it and we had like a team massive teams to implement major technology Replatforms was wanting to go back to the creativity side and really being able to solve business problems for multiple kind of clients. So So where I am today is I'm now at Rokin and I've been at Rokin for the last few years and I got interested in them actually they came to me and I was interested in them because they really took a digital first approach to marketing So I know many agencies especially in Asia today. They tend to do a lot of marketing That's like, okay What's the big idea and then we'll just kind of apply it to take to to digital But what we realize is that digital is innate like everybody here has a has a phone Everyone's probably holding some sort of technology here And we have to think about things digital first, but how can you communicate with people effectively through digital? So let me give you a little background on Rokin Rokin is 15 year old 15 year old company We started in New York and at that time it was like, okay How do we put websites on the web because we had to because people were saying oh, okay? I'm I don't have a presence online. So can you just build me a website? But where we've come to today is like I said, it's about how you actually Interact and we and I think that's where it's interesting for us with a technology background many of us here It's how do we actually interact with all these people that are all digitally innate have many things happening at the same time How do we stand out above the crowd? So it's interesting because it becomes not just about It's not technology first nor is it the creative first it's like this perfect perfect marriage And there's never I can't tell you like there's like a methodology to this There isn't it's always a bit messy and it's always a bit different, but that's okay. It's it's that's how we get to the solution So Rokin is actually in a company owned by Puba sys group. We got bought about three years ago So we're part of the big mammoth agency world However, we do run autonomously so we've been kind of it's been good because we've been able to kind of come in as this kind of smaller agency of only 150 people globally to To come and look at how we can solve different business problems And that for me was was really interesting being able to have a lot of different clients Not just one mammoth Harley Davidson But being able to kind of dig my heels into different types of problems on a day-to-day basis So I thought I would show you guys a little bit of work I'm not trying to mark it Rokin here But it's just the only way I can kind of explain the the type of stuff that's got me excited now With my technology background so airlines. Does anyone work in the airline industry here? No, okay. It's incredibly complex like incredibly incredibly complex And they have a million systems and they store all their data in all these different places And you know like I don't know if you guys know about GDS's and and so basically when you go on Google flights And you try and find like a flight. There's airlines can put their flights onto those inventories They can choose not to they can select what they put in there Then there's like these other platforms called like Saber and other platforms where you can then choose to Put certain types of flights so that it becomes like a four-layer process before it actually gets to your actual site So we actually started as a business working for Virgin America. They came to us and asked us Oh, hey, we need to launch our planes on the ground. We don't even have planes right now. What do we do? We don't have planes on the ground in America. How do we launch our brand? How do we create a loyalty program? How do we create a site? So we did all that for them It was great. Jeb blue loved it and then Jeb blue told us Hey, can you fire Virgin so you can work with us because they're a direct competitor. We're like, okay, so So jet blue They are I don't know if anyone's heard of them outside of okay. They They're I would say they are a budget airline But they aren't the stereotypical budget airline that you see here in Asia like a tiger air or a scoot where it's all very price-driven For them, it's more they wanted to kind of create this experience though. They were budget It was about building human like building experiences wherever they are and being able to kind of take a sense of humanity into flying So we touch every aspect of their business and this is what excites me is that just because I have a technology background And yes, I need to do all of this. I also get to do really great marketing work. Um, I think being able to have a technology background and being able to kind of apply your thinking into All the different channels Like I mentioned before how complex it is. This is not a brand that you can be like, don't worry about it We're gonna do like a responsive site and you'll be fine Right, it's it's not like that at all. In fact, it was so archaic We had to do like platform. We had to do channel by channel We had to do this the main site then we had to do the mobile and iPad We like did all the designs three years ago. They launched last year So, you know, it's it's a very slow process and how do you keep thinking for the brand? What the next thing is right? How do you stay and and that is a technology problem, right? It's not just a business problem. It's okay. Yes, how do you stand out as a brand? But also what we have to work closely with their technology partners to understand what we can do next so right now We're talking to them a lot around personalization Which I know is kind of a very common thing now and even though people don't all execute it very well But for them, it's a really big challenge if you think about personalization It's all it's to the point of like, okay, if I see that you're traveling from New York to Chicago every single week I know I can how do I identify you and know that? Oh, hey, you're a business traveler from there How do I encourage you to maybe take a side trip on you know on your flight home to go to I don't know San Francisco, right? Like this kind of complexity is not something. That's just Something that can be solved from business from a business mindset And I think that's what's unique about this job that I love is that is that I can come in and say Oh, okay Well from a technology standpoint this is these are the type of challenges They may run into the way that their data is set up or how they I may not know how I don't know the details of how to code, but I know how they've coded some of their Systems so we can I can help them without being a technologist myself day to day Apple watch was just really cool because when they launched they invited us to go work on Because they obviously when they launched the watch they needed to have some applications in there So they invited jet blew in to create one of the first airline apps for the Apple watch so that when you got the watch I already had that so they actually took our phones they They locked us in a room and we literally were like hey We need this feature and then they would go run to the engineers the engineers would code it And we would add the feature But even then we were brainstorming on the spot of what people would want for the Apple watch because we didn't know That was our first like when we got there was the first time they told us this is the Apple watch We had no idea what really it was supposed to do So I think This is all sorry. This is all the broken stuff I have to show but just to share a little bit more about me I think at the end of the day it's What I've realized is that it's not just it's you're you can see in all of these case studies that I was able to apply What I learned in in in school and kind of that foundational kind of thinking and apply it in however I was contributing on each of these kind of projects and I think you know There's no definite path for any of us in terms of I think I was very lost coming out of school of what I was supposed to do and I sure as Hal did not ever think I was gonna end up in marketing of all things, but I think our our skillset is very unique our way of thinking is very unique and we need to we do need to embrace that and I think All I can say is the world needs what what you every one of you have got And you know, I don't think I took the most regular path of what you would think An engineer would do but it doesn't I think the world is your oyster and you know go for it. So Yeah Quickly, yeah, okay, so I actually have a few things to give out. I just want to see if anyone had questions I'm not bribing you with a question Yeah You know, it's I was joking around about how how I had like a relatively okay, eq So that's why they took me in initially, but yes, absolutely. I think that was that was Something that it was funny because I thought, you know, my dad was just being hit like an Asian dad And he said to me I said dad. I'm gonna take either business school or I'm gonna go into engineering And he's like an thing you're gonna end up in a business no matter What you study you're gonna somehow work in business So why don't you focus on the actual skills and getting the the technology skills? And then you'll be able to learn the business skills. So I don't you're right I don't have a management background and that was just for me It was about just learning from all those people around me and when I don't know Something I was very open to kind of just being hungry and learning and just and so that was stuff that I just kind of learned along the way Um, I I'm still learning. I think um, how do I start a business in Singapore? You know, it's it's very it's very different market than than the us, right? So, um, I'm and how do you even manage a team here is very different The the way that I run the business here is that I need to hire a local talent I don't believe that I can pretend I understand the culture, but I still I I definitely failed I went into Um, a couple pitches when I first started here with just my team in the us and the people that were sitting across from me We're all local um customers and they're like, what are you doing? Like why are you talking like you know me, right? Like I I don't you know, so I think these are the things like I I've fallen And and you just kind of keep learning from it, but I haven't yeah. No, I haven't actually taken a course. So yeah Yes Yeah Who do I turn to that's a Yeah, that's actually a great question. I'm so happy that rupal's um teachers are here tonight. I think um for me it's it's Yeah I think they should be you know, they I sometimes I always joke with my friends that are teachers. I'm like, you should be the highest paid You know people um because you fundamentally really Yeah You fundamentally really shape Every single person that you see I think you know, I'm sure you guys are like, oh, wow You know, like it's it's very you'll think back to all the students that that you've shaped and and I think Definitely from the teachers from my family from but more it during my career. It was um, I think my biggest Jump was actually a sapient um when people when management just believed believed in me And I was also very willing to kind of do whatever and I know this is this is um You don't always want to say yes because then you'll be overloaded But I often did say yes to anything and everything even things that I didn't I wasn't sure if it was going to go Anywhere such as the Harley-Davidson Account and when I got when I did that it gave me the opportunity to do things I was really uncomfortable with I remember one of the CTOs at the time actually said to me he was like so anthea targets coming in on private jet They're opening in Canada. They don't really know what to do So I'd like you to talk about the globally distributed model you have for Harley-Davidson And I remember sweating through my shirt and being like, okay Okay, I'm gonna present and these guys are all sitting there from their product Like just got off their private jet and you know very very uncomfortable But I think it's when you get into that kind of zone of being a being uncomfortable It helps you grow immensely every time and I remember you know first pitches where I was Practicing and practicing in the bathroom and people you know like just so nervous and But you do have to kind of latch on and and I'm so grateful. I think I just wrote to my linkedin And uh person who hired me for trapeze my first job I just messaged her the other day and I was like, you know, thank you for giving me a chance I didn't have you know great marks. I didn't have what you would say is great on paper But you took a chance on me. So thank you and she said to me anthea I challenge you to take a chance on others. So I think that's that's great advice. Yeah Yes Yeah, um I I think actually engineering probably helped me a lot for that because I think a lot of you guys know For engineering or comms or whatever you do in university. It's often you're like thrown Way too much work and too many things that you're trying to balance at the same time And I remember and I think that actually created a good foundation for me to be able to multitask faster than maybe Some other people in in my career So yes, absolutely have to multitask, but I always you know, you always have to prioritize for me It's always okay, which client has I know this sounds very mechanical And I'm just going to say it but it's always who has the like the largest amount of revenue And then from there it's like, okay, but like but my focus is will change right? So for here, for example in the Singapore market, it's a lot of new business. So how do I Focus my time on new business, but also then and then also still How do I build a team to help me really ensure that the clients I do have are being serviced? Well, so it's kind of like it's it's a jigsaw puzzle every single time and then on top of that You know your personal life, right work should not be everything I think everyone encouraged you to kind of I think actually Singaporeans are quite good at it I call you I call my colleagues all unicorns Because they always have like three jobs. I don't like how how do you do that? I don't understand like I mean Joyce has her day job, but she also like runs this I'm like, I don't really get it. I don't know how you do it But you know, I it's definitely important to to have that balance and and so yeah, there's no signs to it Thank you. Yeah Any other questions? Hi Wow Oh You know No, I don't know You know, one of the things I did learn is that you can't win at everything So you do have to kind of put your focus on certain things at certain times in your life And so I don't think I would have changed anything I did. I'm very humbled and and honored to be you know, doing what I'm doing and and um I don't but there was no clear path to get there Right? It was you can see it's like a bit of like everything and so you just never know What's going to take what what opportunities will take you where and just being able to kind of own them and embrace them Like I said in my first quote just embrace them and and give it all you've got All right, so and I think the thing that I always keep in mind is always always, you know, there's like this Marketing lingo called the ABCs always be closing. It's like this really aged. It's like from the 70s from a movie But for me, it's always be learning. So I know when a time is to go is when I'm not learning anymore from where I am So that's just something that I've lived by Yeah Open more offices in Asia Um, no, I think, you know finding right now is finding good partnerships with with the right type of Clients here and then, you know, then we want to expand further into into Asia So I think that's a very big challenge for myself and understood for me It's it's understanding the market is a is a big challenge for me So we're learning and I have a team and we're we're working through each of the working through that. Yeah Thank you I think that was the last question. Oh, but there's one more. Okay. One more last last question Well, this is probably this is like getting it's actually outside of this This industry and outside of this talk and it kind of speaks to the idea of being more balanced I think Singaporeans also I notice are very good at the the yoga practice here is very strong And it's very hot here. So I don't like to do anything outside So I've actually been taking a yoga teachers training course and I think It's it's just interesting way to kind of take myself out of out of my day-to-day job And think about and focus on other things and I think I think that tells you a little bit like, you know, you don't always have to be learning within your industry Although I think my colleagues have said to me auntie. I'm worried that you might quit this industry altogether and become a yoga teacher No, I won't But yeah, so yeah, just learning different things not just, you know The one thing that you're doing not just taking more and more and more marketing courses, but learning things outside too. Yeah Yeah, absolutely Thank you so much I'll talk to you after Okay Yeah, no, no, I'm joking go for it Yeah, it's it's definitely in its elementary stages here in this market, but I'm very Respectful you have to be respectful of where the market is at and so typically how I'm working with clients right now is kind of Easing them in so yes, they may be starting with like, okay What media plan are we doing for next year? It's and you're like, okay. Well, maybe you could better spend your dollars On maybe revamping your e-commerce site or something like that So but you can't just do it walking in and pretending like I I don't want to walk in and say hey I know everything I come from the states. I know it's I can't work that way So I'm very respectful and and I try to kind of work within their boundaries and then slowly push them So I've been so with the relationships we have here now We're slowly pushing them towards 2017 and kind of thinking. Hey, maybe you do digital first Maybe you don't spend all your media dollars on TV Because that's that's usually the bulk of the cost if anyone's not in marketing, but yeah, so Does that help? It's it's a slow process. It's it's not like overnight. Yeah, I know it's frustrating Thank you I'll pass you your notebook later So, um, thank you so much and yeah big big round of applause for her again. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much