WebCamp #7 – Pecha Kucha Night

In the spirit of WebCamp, we are always eager to try new things to spice things up. In this meetup, we are trying out two new formats: Pecha Kucha (20 slides, 20 seconds each) and Powerpoint-Karaoke (impromptu presentations on random slides). We are fortunate to have lots of brave first-timer taking up the challenge speaking […]

In the spirit of WebCamp, we are always eager to try new things to spice things up. In this meetup, we are trying out two new formats: Pecha Kucha (20 slides, 20 seconds each) and Powerpoint-Karaoke (impromptu presentations on random slides).

We are fortunate to have lots of brave first-timer taking up the challenge speaking on different topics from technical to a personal musings about technology and the world. And the audio recordings really doesn’t do justice to the Powerpoint Karaoke sessions – the audience are really on a roll laughing uncontrollably at the humour and the completely non-nonsensical slides that goes with it. You’ll have to wait for the videos to see what’s got the audience ROTFLOL.

This month’s agenda:

Symbology – Chern Shue, Qnack
40square’s Git Workflow – Ruben Tan, 40square
Hello World (I am a slidedeck) – Yang Jerng Hwa
On Diving and App Ideas – Ngeow Wu Han, MindValley
What the F**k is Wrong with the Game Industry – Bazil Akmal Bidin (aka BuZz), notaThing
Powerpoint Karaoke: Presentations with Powerpoint, part 1 – Kal Joffres, Tandemic
Powerpoint Karaoke: 25 Most Famous Bollywood Movies of All Times – Kevin Francis, Arcis Communications

Powerpoint Karaoke: PPTK: So You Think You Can Present – Harinder Singh, Tandemic
Powerpoint Karaoke: Using Google Forms; The Hidden “Secret App” of Google Docs – Aizat Faiz, Facebook
Big Think: The Future of WebCamp – Ngeow Wu Han, MindValley

Summary

The session is started with Chern Shue sharing his knowledge on symbology: how symbols gives us a very helpful way to condense information that communicates meaning to people instantly. And that ties into how the invention of barcodes have completely changed the world that accelerates data input tremendously and his passion in QR code.

Ruben took over the baton and talks in-depth on the Git workflow in 40square and how this new source control workflow speed up development, avoid merging hell and get stuff deployed fast. Taking a random turn, Yang Jerng Hwa gives a very interesting monologue and muses about how he sees the world through computers and the advancement of technology and ponders about how the future can be changed for poorer parts of the world.

As usual, Wu Han stepped up the podium to share about how the seven steps of the diving procedure is almost like starting your own startup and a couple of his app ideas. He’s then followed by a surprise presentation from Bazil talking about how the game industry is totally screwed up and why he is still a game programmer despite all the tough challenges. What a great way to end the session.

In the second session, the audience was served with tons of laughter from the humorous impromptus from Kal, Kevin, Harinder and Aizat as they keep their lateral thinking muscles going on a overdrive tackling crazy and random curve ball slides being shown to them.

The night was ended with Wu Han sharing about his visions for WebCamp KL, acknowledging the need for more cross-pollination between tech and non-tech communities and calling out for help in implementing some web applications that’d greatly beneficial: from bookmark archives, job boards to organizing mastermind sessions among members.

Hakim Albasrawy from Weekend.my is now looking for mobile web and application developers. And Mindvalley is hiring PHP talent.

And did I mention that WebCamp KL is looking for volunteers to help with our website and developing web apps that enables communities? We need a broad range of different talent for our various initiatives: developers, designers, videographers, audio engineers, copywriters… if you lend some skills to the community, we’d love to hear from you – send a shout out to Wu Han or Seh Hui now!

If you have listened to recordings from the past, you’ll probably notice that I’ve changed my approach and cut out filler sessions more aggressively: portions like the usual introduction to WebCamp KL group, silences and occasional audience bantering are completely cut out to make it a tighter listening experience.

What do you think about it? Please share your comments on how we can improve the audio further.