Malaysia’s 2008 IT Events, Awards and Challenges

2008 was now 3 days behind us,  with the new year 2009 waiting us with the full loads of challenges. A lot of interesting things happen in our IT industry last year, which is relatively small and young, as compared to the IT powerhouse such as India or US.

No event such as CES and CeBIT, or Masable or TechCrunch award here, but our own home grown events/awards are on the right path if it is groomed properly.

This post list some of the IT (Information Technology) events and awards that I came across last year. I’m well aware that there are many more that I might missed, but I’m more than happy to include it here, in case you mention it in the comments section.

The ‘when‘ is provided as it is, depend on 2008 event’s date. The list is not in order of important or whatsoever.
youthmalaysia Malaysias 2008 IT Events, Awards and Challenges

1. YouthMalaysia – The organizer of Youth 08 which is the largest youth event. Under this event, there are other project such as Malaysia Dotcom Youth Search , YouthSays andThe National Youth Entrepreneur Convention (NYEC). Youth09 is just aroung the corner, so you mingt want to checkout the official site for further detail

When: January each year

mcc Malaysias 2008 IT Events, Awards and Challenges

2. Mobile Content Challenge – Competition between universities and colleges to develope mobile content. Co-sponsored by Maxis via its Maxis Developer Program

When : July 08 – 31 October 08.

barcamp Malaysias 2008 IT Events, Awards and Challenges

3. Barcamp KL & JB – Is an informal workshop/conference where participant sharing and presenting the app/solution/idea to attendees. And not to misled you, here it the full meaning from barcamp itself

BarCamp is an international network of user generated conferences – open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants.

When : Barcamp KL held on July while Barcamp JB held on December. Visit their website for detail.

startupcamp Malaysias 2008 IT Events, Awards and Challenges

4. Startup Camp -Just like barcamp, this is the informal conference for start-up community to sit down together discussing and sharing ideas, strategies and etc

When: November

foss Malaysias 2008 IT Events, Awards and Challenges

5. FOSS – Malaysia’s premier free and open source software event

When: Since FOSS 08 held on November, you could expecting 09 event held on the same month. Do check the official website or follow their twitter to get update

apicta Malaysias 2008 IT Events, Awards and Challenges

6. APICTA 2008 – An award  to individual or organizations that build application/solution that benefit Malaysia and world as a whole. There is APICTA Malaysia which open to Malaysian only, and regional APICTA which open to participate countries from Asia Pacific.

When : APICTA Malaysia winner announced at Oct, while the regional award announced at November

pc fair 2009 Malaysias 2008 IT Events, Awards and Challenges

7. PC Fair – Organized by PIKOM, it is arguably the largest hardware, gadget fair in Malaysia. Held few times a year all over Malaysia, this fair used to be using as a medium to promote new solution/gadget with a bargain price.

When: First round started April every year.

ipcc Malaysias 2008 IT Events, Awards and Challenges

8. The Intellectual Property Creators Challenge (IPCC) – Annual creative multimedia content competition organized by MSC. Divided to 4 categories which are Animation, Computer Causl Games, Digital Interactive Comic and Mobile Edutainement Content.

When : Closing Date July 08

gew Malaysias 2008 IT Events, Awards and Challenges

9. Global Entrepreneurship Week Malaysia – An event where various type of peoples and organizations interact and taking part in a range of activities, to celebrate entrepreneurship across the globe.

When : 17 – 23 November

innotech Malaysias 2008 IT Events, Awards and Challenges

10. MSC Malaysia Innotech – Platform to connect stakeholders, local and international Venture Capitalists (VCs), entrepreneurs and implementation agencies as a means to move forward in the industry. International speakers within the industries will share their thoughts and ideas on the opportunities and challenges that exist in the Malaysian industry

When: Bi-annual

wcit Malaysias 2008 IT Events, Awards and Challenges

11. WCIT – Held in Kuala Lumpur in 2008, this event brings together global leaders in business, government and academia  through the exchange of policies and ideas on technology.

When: May

eny Malaysias 2008 IT Events, Awards and Challenges

12. Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® Award – An award that need no introduction. It recognized entrepreneurs who has performed extremely well on their industry and leads the company to the new height. The winner will represent the country to the global award. 2008 winner can be found here.

When: Announced at the end of the year

itshowcase 468 60 Malaysias 2008 IT Events, Awards and Challenges

13 IT Showcase Asia IT Showcase Asia emphasizes on managing your IT resources right. Major highlights of this high-profile congress would include the latest updates on virtualization, cloud computing, IT security, IT governance, refurbished technology and networking. This is the place to check out the latest technologies like FTTH, Broadband / WiMAX, Blade Server Technology, VoIP and much more!

Date : 6-7 October 2009
Venue : Berjaya Times Square Hotel & Convention Center

PC fair 2008 is coming to town


It is PC fair time again. Though I wont’ be attend any PC Fair this year (until Luqman has reduced his crying tempo and rate) , I still have interest browsing for the best deal on the net. As usual, Dell slashing their price for certain model up until MYR2000. HP, Lenovo, Acer and Toshiba done the same I believe,  but since their bulk sales coming from their retail or channel partners, it is hardly to find any detail or promotion on their local website.

In Kuala Lumpur, as usual , the fair would be held at KLCC convention centre. I don’t even know that Manjung, one of the nearest town at my home town (Teluk Intan) now has their own PC Fair. I wonder when Teluk Intan will have one. PC Fair’s event and place detail can be found on their website.

2008 PC Fair first round schedule

4-6 April 2008 Johor Bahru, Taiping, Sandakan, Tawau & Kuching
11-13 April 2008 Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh, Kuantan, Kepala Batas & Muar
18-20 April 2008 Penang, Melaka, Sibu, Miri & Manjung


Best Deal

dell1525 PC fair 2008 is coming to town
Normal price: 2,399

Inspiron530s PC fair 2008 is coming to town
Normal price: 2,299

XPSM1330 PC fair 2008 is coming to town
Normal price: 3,599

DSC00697 PC fair 2008 is coming to town
Normal price (Tesco) : 1,899



PC fair vs ICTS Computer Fair

I remember sometime back, there is an attempt to have another PC fair which known more as ICTS Computer Fair by PIKOM’s members who dissatisfied with how PC fair was organized.  However, it seems that it only runs for 2 years, 2004 and 2005 if I’m not mistaken. In fact, their domain name, icts.org.my and their website (and even the cache version) no longer available in WHOIS . Having single major PC Fair is better (and more crowded), since all IT players can be gathered in one place which will ensure that fair is bigger and attractive enough to bring more international brands joining the fair. And at the end, end user like us is the real winner here. There are more choices available, and be able to spend without any hesitation knowing there is no other fair that could offer similar things

PC Fair’s price cheaper than computer shop such as lowyat??

Of course there is no definitive answer for this questions. PC Fair has been in most states in Malaysia including small towns. In order to attract the shoppers, the price could goes down pretty significant compared to the local shop,  especially if the booth operated by big companies from KL or Penang or which has wide range of distribution. Local computer shop also, usually sell their stuff with more discount and more free gift (sometime useless) to win the competition with the bigger competitor from outside

But the situation is different in big cities like Kuala Lumpur or Penang where PC Fair’s price is almost similar with what offered in shops at Lowyat or Digital Mall but with one exception. Big and renown brand or distributor such as Dell, Canon, Apple and HP will normally open their own both and offering discount you can’t get else where on the their product. Taking example like Dell above, you can’t get this price(discount up to RM200) except during PC Fair or festival (the discount not at this best). Similarly with HP, such as when ZakiY bought a new printer and get a lot of goodies.
I also agree with the fact that, sometime, it is not the price that matters, but it is the goodies that matter most(from ZakiY’s comment). You might want to have a look discussion about this on Lowyat.net at here and here


PC Fair VS CES VS CeBIT

CES and CeBIT are arguably among the largest PC and electronic fair in the world. Back in Asia, we have Computex Taipei, the larget IT shows in Asia. It is matters of time and the right strategies before PC Fair will level with all these bigger and well known fairs who has more exhibitor from around the world showcasing the latest product.  It might not happen on short period of time, but I’m hopeful that PIKOM together with the Ministry of Energy, Water and Communications (MEWC) can do something to further enhance the visibility of this fair on IT’s world map.

On related development, I’m fully supportive of PIKOM’s proposal to have new ministry especially for ICT
to spearhead Malaysia’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry. Why?? I feel that the current ministry has too many portfolios, energy, water and communication,  thus less efficient to tackle on each portfolio effectively. Just my 2 cent