A few days ago, my friend Vincent asked me if I can help him to promote this Brand Entrepreneur Conference 2009 which organised by Branding Association of Malaysia and SMIDEC.

A collaboration for brand differentiation is the main topic for this event. For the first time, this conference is aims to assist small medium enterpreneurs (SMEs) to develop and create personal branding for the future.

This conference will be officiated by YB Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, The Minister of International Trade and Industry (MITI). Among the guest speakers for this event includes Malaysia High Royal Highness Raja Nazrin Shah Ibni Sultan Azlan Muhibbuddin Shah, Crown Prince of Perak, YBhg Dato’ Sri Mohammed Shazalli Bin Ramly, CEO of Celcom (Malaysia) Berhad, YBhg Dato’ Steven Sim (hehe … not Steven Wong yet), CEO of Secret Recipe Sdn Bhd, YBhg Prof Emeritus Tan Seri Dato’ Dr Lim Kok Wing, President of Malaysia Branding and Packaging Design Academy and many others.

Topics being discussed and panel sessions:
- Local Hero, Global Brand!
- Choosing the Right Media for the Right Brand!
- The Secret Recipe for Strong Brands!
- Keeping Pace with an Evolving Consumer Brands!

Who Should Go For This Events:
- Entrepreneurs
- Start-Ups
- Students, Youths
- Brand Owners
- People who are simply Curious
- People who want to network with the speakers and participants!

Below is the event details:
Date: 2nd March 2009
Venue: Palace of the Golden Horses, KL
Time: 7.30pm - 5.00pm
Admission Fee: Full Registration Fee (RM500 per pax), Special Group Discount (for 5 pax and above) RM400 per pax
For those who are interest to hear from the great branding gurus in Malaysia, here is the opportunity to hear from the 9 corporate sector CEOs and leaders about branding.

You can contact Vincent Cheng at Mobile No: +6017-605 5493 directly to book for the seats.

A friend of mine emailed me about this report on The Star about how people are using Facebook to scam gullible and unsuspecting Malaysian victims.

Check it out here!

It’s not surprising because when it comes to scam, anything that fulfills desire, lust and greed, will always have a way of finding its victims.

I practically dropped my jaws when I read Marina’s posting here on the latest fiasco on what is deemed deviationist in nature.

For the life of me, I really cannot understand how learning Yoga can influence people to deviate them from their faith, regardless of their faith.

So, the next thing is, all fitness centres which have Yoga classes will then be deemed haram?

Go figure!

I’ve been booking hotel function halls for the umpteen times with various hotel but one hotel that beats them all down is Pearl International Hotel located at the Old Klang Road.

There were a few incidents that happened that gave me the conclusion that either their management couldn’t careless about customer satisfaction, or the people I spoke to are pretty much brainless.

Incident 1

A colleague of mine called them up to request for a quotation for the rental of a function hall for 4 hours (2pm to 6pm). The price that was given was RM500.

Fair enough. We thought that it was pretty reasonable. Then we thought of having another function at the same location on the same day in the evening (7pm to 11pm).

We proceeded to speak to the same Sales Manager and told them of our plans. He told us that for the booking of 8 hours (afternoon session and evening session), the price is RM1,500.

BUT… because this is our first time booking with them, they are willing to give us a discount and the price is only RM1,000.

Hello? Did I miss something?

If indeed the price of 4 hour rental is RM500, and the price of 8 hour rental is RM1,500 something MUST BE VERY WRONG somewhere. It’s just blatantly telling me NOT to book for 8 hours. Then can I make 2 separate bookings of 4 hours each?

I’ve no problem with the RM1,000 rental but to tell me that the original price is RM1,500, it just doesn’t make business sense. When I pressed him further to explain the logic behind the decision, he just pushed it away as being a management decision.

Come on…don’t give me this kind of crap. You’re the MARKETING MANAGER for goodness sake. If you cannot even rationalize a decision, how do you expect me to buy the story. It’s more like a sales talk.

I’ve met marketing managers, and I’ve met MARKETING MANAGERS. This is the first time I’ve met one whom I think clearly does not qualify to be one. If your management had made such a decision about the pricing, and it doesn’t make sense, don’t you think you have the responsibility to talk to them or reason it out? All he did was keep on telling me that it’s a management decision.

Go figure.

Incident 2

After the first incident, we decided ok we will book it anyway, but since it’s 2 separate function, we need the arrangement to be slightly different. The first event would need a theatre style seating whereas the second event is a classroom style event.

The so called Marketing Manager told us that it cannot be done because 1 hour is too short a time to change the seating arrangement.

Hmmm….

I know if I were to do it, it can be done. I just refuse to argue with such a moronic decision.

Are you telling me that if I’ve booked an event from 2pm-6pm and you have another potential customer (not me), who would like to book from 7-11pm, you will turn them away because you CAN’T change the seating arrangement in time?

DUH. Go figure.

Incident 3

Anyway, my patience was running thin, and I just told my colleague to make the reservations for the afternoon session only.

Pearl Hotel then faxed us a confirmation form, with an attached Terms and Condition.

It just blew me away.

Number 1 on the T&C was a clause which states that we have to pay them a penalty of sorts if the attendance is less than 30 pax.

In the first place, our reservation was for the hall rental, without food. So, regardless of the number of pax, it’s none of their freaking business. Even if I have ZERO attendance, or I just book and leave it empty, what’s their business in charging me a penalty?

I just DON’T FUCKING GET IT!

My colleague called them up and spoke to the Marketing Manager’s staff, and told them our concern and ask them to remove it.

The person later faxed back a revised copy, with the SAME clause still there but with a LOWER penalty. WTF??!!@$#@%

I was really pissed that time and spoke to him on the phone and asked him to justify the clause.

Now, this was his explanation. We are charging you a penalty because you booked the room and mentioned 30 pax, so if there are more than 30 people, we need to provide more chairs, thus the penalty.

I told him, before you make an idiot out of yourself, go read the terms carefully before talking to me. What you are telling me is just totally different from the terms, and what I’m asking. I told him to find someone who can talk common sense to speak to me.

He passed me to the Marketing Manager again. I told him about the clause and ask him to explain. He said no worries, he can remove it.

Huh???

That was what I requested for in the first place! And it should have been done there and then. Instead I had to argue with an idiot.

I told him, remove it and refax, and we’ll settle the deal.

Incident 4

The next morning, my colleague told me that the Marketing Manager called her, and told her not to ding dong the issue and sign it back ASAP. Otherwise they will cancel the reservation.

Pardon me, cancel it all you want. I don’t give a shit about your hotel. No sane managers will tell their potential customers using such words as ding dong. In the first place, we weren’t ding donging. It was your hotel’s incompetence which caused the delay in the terms.

Even if you have given us a free rental, you can go fly kites. I’ll never ever use this hotel again, and for sure, that’s what we’ll be telling our friends too.

I was having my breakfast the other day at Bandar Puteri Puchong, and something occurred to me. The mood of the staff over there were very sombre. They hardly smile. If not for the delightful coffee, I would have thought that I was attending a funeral.

Come to think of it, not only do I get this feeling at the Bandar Puteri Puchong outlet, I also have the same experience at the Bandar Puchong Jaya outlet.

Wonder why they don’t smile? Is it a company policy? Because if I were the owner, I’d definitely want my staff and front line officers to SMILE and be FRIENDLY.

Someone wants to start a class on SMILE MANAGEMENT???

Do you have problem to check out the next event in the city KL? Most of the time, people would try to search online on the upcoming events but end up disappointed.

Well, not until now! I have discovered one great website / blog that list all the events happening in Malaysia. They even have listing until July, 2009!

Introducing Must Go Lah, the Malaysia’s one stop event listing portal. According to MustGoLah.com, it provides the most convenient way for anyone to get an overview of what events are taking place in Malaysia. There are 43 different categories events, including exhibition, entertainment, fashion, business and networking, concert, competition and many more …

The next coming events like Beer Fest at 1 Utama, The Biggest Hallowen Party at Sunway Lagoon Theme Park and FIR Live Concernt at Genting Highland.

So far, this is the most comprehensive blog site that talks about Malaysia events. You might wondering why I mention it’s blog site. Apparently I found out this website is powered by wordpress blog platform.

The blog is look cool and I like the front design that look very happening.

I stumbled across this Sabahan mentioned in his A Simple Malaysian blog.

It was really interest me to click and find out what he will write about this thingy. Below is what he mentioned in the post:

It is really disheartening nowadays,the nation seems to be filled with liars and deceivers.Really one does not know what to believe and who to believe. I do not want to help spread these lies through my blog, so NO BLOG TODAY!

I believe what he is referring to is the social, politics and social political blogs.

Sadly to say this, many people still have the wrong perception about blogging especially after the March 08 (308) Malaysian Election. In fact, there are many benefits we got from blog, such as write as personal diary (that’s also what the most people do), corporate blog, hobby blog, review blog, non-profit organisation blog, make money blog and many more.

I have to say this!! Blogging is not totally equal to social, politic or social politic blog. Like us, we use blog purely on make online income streams and we do teach people how to make money blogging through our Profit Blogging Bootcamp.

So, who are we? bloggers? or something else in cyberspace?

Discover on how blogging can help you make passive income online. Come and attend 2-hours info jammed pack free profit blogging woskshop that organised by Asia Online Mastery Sdn Bhd. Click the banner above to find out the next workshop in your area.