Maverick Indonesia

Pesta Blogger 2007!

I was given the task to blog about Pesta Blogger 2007, the nationwide gathering of bloggers that attracted about 400 bloggers and 100 guests on November 27. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to get to this task done until now because of work commitments. I know, I know, it’s a little bit late in the day for such a posting but better late than never. Besides Priyadi has just completed the audit report and posted it on pestablogger.com, and that puts a bit of finality on it enabling me to relax since I was one of the team members from Maverick charged with seeing to the smooth running of the event. So here goes my account:

Saturday, October 27th, 2007 was blessed with bright sunshine. We could all see it from the huge windows of Blitz Megaplex which is on the 8th floor of Grand Indonesia. Our team was there by 8am. Shortly afterwards we had one or two enthusiastic participants showing up way ahead of everyone else wanting to claim their Entry Code or reservations to attend and enjoy Pesta Blogger 2007.

 

Registration desk was filled by big smiling faces of Maverick staff, helping out in giving out 500 goodie bags.

By opening time at 11am the place was already packed with bloggers, some lining up to claim their reservations while others who had been registered took the opportunity to meet fellow bloggers, introduce themselves to new ones and take lots of photos together.

Shortly after 11 am the bloggers were asked to enter the auditorium where the event’s main activities would be held. Inside, State Minister for Information and Communication of the Republic of Indonesia, Muhammad Nuh gave an opening ceremony speech and officially made October 27th as National Bloggers Day.

 

 

This was followed by a talk show hosted by Wimar Witoelar and four panelists: Budi Putra, Enda Nasution, Mohammad Nuh, and Adrianto Gani. These icons of the blogosphere, I believe, are very concerned about the future of blogging in Indonesia. Bravo!

One of the highlights of the event was the interactive voting for the participants’ favorite blogs in different categories, namely online marketing and sales, women issues, technology, personal blogging, celebrity blogs, current issues, bridge blogging ( blogs that are written in English so that the wider world has an alternative window to the happenings in Indonesia) and the New Blogger Award, for those who have started blogging in the past six months. From 216 Indonesian blogs that were nominated by Indonesian bloggers, three top blogs from each category made it to the shortlist where the participants at Pesta Blogger 2007 get to vote their favorites.

After lunch, there were the breakout sessions hosted by well-known bloggers. Many of the groups had quite impassioned discussions and virtually the only complaint about the breakout sessions was that they were too short.Finally, the bloggers trooped back to the auditorium for the finale of the event, which comprised a summary of points discussed in the breakout sessions, followed by the announcement of the winners of the favorite blog categories. The winners were:

1. Online marketing and sales category: Media Ide Bajing Loncat
2. Women’s issues category: Fashionese Daily
3. Technology blog category: Ilmu Komputer.com
4. Personal blog category: Istri Bawel
5. Celebrity blog category: Jennie S. Bev
6. Current issues category: Perspektif. net
7. Bridge blogging category: Enda Nasution
8. New blogger award: Lidya Wangsa

Each received a certificate, and on the hand it was only Lidya Wangsa who received Nokia N73 Music Edition.

Here’s a few interesting comments or reviews from bloggers who attend Pesta Blogger 2007 that I found on the blogosphere: Priyadi on his personal blog, priyadi.net wrote: “Yang menarik dari sini adalah diketahui bahwa salah satu peserta berasal dari Poso dan tidak bisa kembali lagi karena kehabisan uang. Di akhir sesi salah satu sponsor memberikan tiket kembali supaya yang bersangkutan bisa kembali lagi ke tempat asalnya.”

One of the sponsors, XL Business Solutions jumped to their aid and agreed to pay their return passage.

There were also many bloggers who came from other cities to show their existence in the blogger community. They are Angkringan (Yogyakarta) , Anging Mammiri (Makasar), Go Ranah Minang (Padang), loenpia.net (Semarang), and Bali blog community who unfortunately could not attend by they did send felicitations to pestablogger.com.
Another interesting comment was from Rendy Maulana who wrote on www.rendymaulana.com “Seharusnya acara ini masuk MURI, karena ini merupakan acara blogger terbesar sepanjang perjalanan Blog di Indonesia, Suara Baru, pemersatu dari berbagai komunitas yang ada di Internet, apakah panitia mau mengklaim ini sebagai acara terbesar kepada Muri ?” This is sounds like a great suggestion.

And last, I found this one very unique yet impressive: Cak Andry wrote on Human vs Machine PestaBlogger 2007: “Pesta Blogger 2007 is a lot like having sex for the 1st time. You’re excited but you don’t really know what the hell you’re doing. And some way, one way or another, it’s over too fast.” There were other many interesting reviews from bloggers, I just couldn’t fit all here.

Thank you for the support and participation to make the national-scale blogger gathering a reality. Pesta Blogger is organized by Maverick together with Bubu Internet and is supported by the Ministry of Communications and Information. The main sponsors are Microsoft Indonesia, Nokia Indonesia, and XL Business Solutions. The media partners are Kompas Cyber Media, Koran Tempo, The Jakarta Post, and O Channel.

By: Finnie

National Condom Week 2007

First, some facts:

There are 10,384 people who are registered as living with HIV/AIDS. As many as 2,287 of fellow living with HIV/AIDS have died. And this is only the tip of the iceberg as they are reported cases. The number of unreported people living with HIV/AIDS is estimated to be between 176,000-247,000 people. Some are married, some are planning to get married. - Ministry of Health, Republic of Indonesia

Housewives and babies are living with HIV/AIDS - Dr. Nafsiah Mboi, Secretary of National AIDS Commission (KPA)

Illegal abortion has reached 3 million per year - Dr. Sugiri MPH, Head of National Family Planning Coordinating Board (BKKBN).

Bearing these facts in mind, the KPA and BKKBN will hold a National Condom Week 2007 (siaran-pers-pekan-kondom-nasional-2007.pdf) from 1-8 December 2007. Why condom? Well, there are three ways to prevent getting sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS: (A) Abstinence, (B) Be Faithful and (C) Use a Condom. Since promoting Abstinence and Faithfulness is not very sexy, the Condoms have the vote.

Coordinated by DKT Indonesia, a non-profit organization that focuses in social marketing for HIV/AIDS prevention and family planning, National Condom Week aims to reduce any stigma against condom use and provide better understanding that condom can save lives. Also to reduce the misperception that condom use encourages free, promiscuous sex.

For the week, DKT Indonesia will coordinate activities such as condom giveaways along with educational materials, trainings, demonstrations on condom use, musical concert, talk show, and appreciations to those who have been showing commitments to HIV/AIDS in Indonesia. Another agenda would be writing and photo competitions (penghargaan-karya-tulis-dan-foto.pdf) for journalists, photojournalists, and BLOGGERS with the topic “Condom Saves Lives” starting 12 Nov to 5 Dec 2007.

(Disclosure: Maverick works with DKT to help promote National Condom Week 2007).

Invasion of PR students

We at the Orange House, as we fondly refer to our office, aren’t used to many visitors at one time so it was a bit of a departure from business as usual when 36 Public Relations students from the Diploma Program, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Gajah Mada University (UGM) visited us last Tuesday.

It was not the first student visit to Maverick but we were no less enthusiastic because we welcome any opportunity to help people understand PR and sharing our experiences with younger minds. Who knows, we may influence them to make a career decision that could affect the rest of their lives.

The visit started off with Maverick partner Lita Soenardi highlighting Maverick internship opportunities for students. She spoke of the challenges interns would face working in a professional services firm and also the opportunities they would have in learning new things. She also explained to them the rigorous selection process of selecting interns. The students, all coming up to their third year of study that requires them to seek internships in companies, were all ears for this section.

Anyway, next to speak was Associate Hanny who talked about the similarities and differences between PR consultancies and In-house PR. Hanny also explained the advantages and disadvantages of being a practitioner in the two areas. Hanny’s presentation was concluded with what she does best: Marketing PR.

Another associate, Indri, then shared with them her experiences in Corporate Communications as well as Corporate Social Responsibility/Leadership. The session was rounded off by Riri, who’s in charge of our media monitoring department and online media monitoring and PR measurement service called Gauge, provided her insights on the importance of media tracking activities in a PR consultancy.

During the Q & A session, the UGM students seemingly could not get enough answers and kept peppering the Maverick speakers with an endless list of questions. They were most interested in Crisis Management that we had accidentally left out in our talks and peppered all the speakers with a stream of questions, forcing Hanny, Indri and Riri to recount our experiences with crisis-situations for clients, with their names left out when appropriate.

Eventually, the discussion ended up with Mavericks sharing tips on how to get about and around the profession. The students were most curious about day-to-day activities and wanted to know how the theories they had read about in their text books stacked up against reality.

Very interesting questions, especially when most PR text books are written by Westerners about Western situations that have very little to do with reality in Indonesia.

Children helping children

I know some parents who prefer to celebrate their children’s birthday in an orphanage. When asked, these parents said that they have the best intentions to teach their children to love other people, share happiness with their friends, and also be grateful of what they have.

Ask your children to participate in this fundraising activity and tell them that they are also capable of making a difference to other children’s lives.

If you don’t have any children, I’d appreciate if you could pass this message to your circle of friends…

Vigil for BBC Reporter, Alan Johnston

Yesterday evening, The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) held a vigil for Alan Johsnton, their correspondence who was abducted in the Gaza Strip. People lighted candles to express their support to Alan and also to mark World Press Freedom Day.

Alan Johnston, who has worked with the BBC since 1991, was kidnapped in Gaza City on March 12. Until today, nobody knows his status as there has been no public statement from his captors. No one can even be sure that the detained journalist is still alive.

People from all over the world have signed a petition calling for his release. Lucy Williamson, the BBC representative, who organized the vigil, got so emotional when speaking about Johsnton, while the Chairman of Aliansi Jurnalis Independen (AJI) Heru Hendratmoko expressed his sympathy to Johsnton and his family. He said that a journalist only wants to report freely of what’s happening in each corner of the world. Thus, it’s such a shame if in doing the task, a journalist has to risk his/her life. It is just not right.

Journalist isn’t a threat to anyone.

Even though I don’t know Johnston personally, I have a high respect on him. Not everyone has the courage to venture into Gaza Strip considering the risk, but Johston was so dedicated in doing his job and fight those challenges – the right to report freely without fear or intimidation a.k.a press freedom.
Let’s pray for Alan Johston. Wherever he is… May his dedication to his profession keeps him strong and alive. Our heart goes for Johnston and his family.

Light in a dark tunnel

Despite the low quality of the Indonesian media houses, as mentioned by S. Leo Batubara of the Press Council here, Dewi magazine recently won a silver award for the Best in Design category during the 6th Asia Media Awards 2007 held in Manila.

The event is organized by Ifra, a leading association for newspaper and media publishing, and is aimed to “acknowledge excellence among individuals and organizations that have embraced new technology, innovative thinking and creativity in the Asian region”.

Well done, Dewi. Hope that your achievement will soon be followed by others.

Seriously accountable

It’s always gratifying to receive messages from Charles M. Ham, the Country Director of HOPE worldwide – Indonesia. HOPE operates in more than 100 countries, focusing on helping societies in the education and health sectors as well as children and social welfare.

Charles Ham has been proactively sending updates of HOPE’s activities in Indonesia.  Below is the latest message I received in my mailbox. Glad to know that HOPE is taking accountability issue seriously.

“Dear Friends & Donors of HOPE worldwide Indonesia,

Greeting from Jakarta!

We would like to share with you the March 12, 2007 report from Independent Auditor’s report on 2006 Financial Statements of HOPE worldwide Indonesia (locally registered as Yayasan Hope Indonesia) :

“In our opinion, the financial statements presented fairly in all material respect…………in conformity with generally accepted accounting principals (GAAP) in Indonesia”

As many of you may notice, There has been plenty of pressure among the media regarding accountability issue of NGOs in Indonesia. President of Indonesia request more regulation on NGOs for professionalism, The Global Fund for Aid Tuberculosis, and Malaria has frozen its funding for Indonesia since April 2007 after discrepancies reported by Pricewaterhouse Cooper, Oxfam scandal in Aceh, The World Bank’s Director scandal are just some of the coverage we have seen in the media lately.

Every year without failure, HOPE worldwide Indonesia is audited by independent auditor to keep up with our core values and beliefs, which is headed by Accountability. Charity Navigator , the international NGO watchdog for 6 years in a row since its formation has awarded  HOPE worldwide 4 star rating (highest one for exceptional) in fiscal management. Only 45 non profit organization are recipient of such honor, in which only 29 are NGos while 19 are top universities. (www.charitynavigator.org).

In 2005, Resource Alliance also recognized HOPE worldwide Indonesia as one of the NGOs in Asia Pacific that “have very good practices in the areas of resource mobilization and governance, accountability, transparency”.

With your support, we are able to continue services to the people of Indonesia holding on to these principals.

Thank you for your continuos support.”

Our first association with HOPE was for one of Citibank Peka’s community development programs called the Citigroup Success Fund (CSF). CSF disburses funds to high school teachers for developing creative and fun learning experiences for their students. The program has been running for four years in Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang and Surabaya.

In conjunction with the National Education Day on May 2, HOPE and Citigroup Indonesia will organize the 2006 CSF Winner Announcement - so fellow journalists please feel free to come.  More info about this event is available on the ‘Check This Out’ column in this blog.

The Gypsy Night: Maverick’s 2007 Media Gathering

What’s a party without good companion?

Last Thursday, the Mavericks enjoyed the good companion of our journo friends in a Gypsy-themed party, held at Rumahlima, Jl. Iskandarsyah, Jakarta.

We normally meet up with our journo friends on our client’s events, and so this annual media gathering was conducted to know them better and subsequently deepen our relationship with them.

About 80 journos attending the gathering excitedly participated in the games.

Some of them also unleashed their undiscovered modeling talents in our Gypsy photo booth

While some others challenged their luck in tarot reading

***

Our regular blog readers must have read about Maverick’s ‘click of the week’ where we choose one good quality journalist blog every week to be featured in our blog. On this occasion, we also announced Andreas Harsono’s blog as the 2007 Maverick Click of The Week.

“This is an iseng-iseng project,” commented Andreas, a previous The Jakarta Post journalist, about his blog. I’d say this is a pretty serious iseng-iseng because out of 11 other eminent journo blogs previously featured in our ‘click of the week’ Andreas blog really stands out.

Congratulations again, Andreas!

***

By the end of the night, our journo friends had this to say about the event

“Maverick keren!! Sukses ye jeung, Cup ah” Ardian, Cakram
“Thx Maverick for the grand prize.”  Iwan Ungsi, Jawa Pos
“It’s good to meet old and new friends here.” Yos Mulya, Metro TV
“A night to remember.” Heri Eko Prasetyo, Rileks.com

It was indeed a night to remember for us.
Thanks again for coming. Hope you had fun as much as we did!