Perception

[Note: This entry was written for the module, CS3216]

The pitching session last Monday evening, in my mind, was prized to be one of the highlights of the module. Sans the informative seminars by the technological giants like Microsoft, Google and Amazon, the pitching session was alluring in the sense that it was an opportunity to link up with established firms and find out more about their needs, especially in the social media space. When I left the lecture theatre that night, however, I wasn’t as satisfied as I would have liked to be.

I think in all fairness, my expectations were probably skewed to an unreasonable upper bound partly because of all the wonderful things that had been put on offer in this module so far. I was under the impression that the companies would be soliciting the services of us students to execute a particular idea that they had, and its relevance would be based on the usage of Facebook as the platform. However, during the event, not all the external parties were clear about what they wanted or what they could offer, and whether I was wrong to assume so is, well, irrelevant on hindsight.

I’d like to talk more about what I particularly liked or disliked about this session. For me, it was really quite an eye-opener, and I think this warrants it a post on its own. As for the three things I learnt from all the pitches, I’ll be covering my thoughts on that in a follow-up entry of this post, so bear with me.

Let’s start with the bad stuff. Do note that my opinion is formed mostly based on the pitch that I was subjected to, along with the information provided in the Project Proposal PDF file. As I mentioned, I felt that some firms weren’t specific with their requirements, and this lack of clarity kind of left me hanging there wanting more information. I didn’t get to speak to most of them after the session as I had to rush off, but I think these companies didn’t really justify their ten minutes of fame.

In particular, Project Nimbus and 6Waves weren’t pitching specific ideas, which might have been their intention, but for the latter it seemed more of a seminar than if anything. While interesting to a certain extent, I guess it just wasn’t what I was expecting, and I suspect that ultimately a game worthy of their notice would have to be of quite a high standard.

The Microsoft evangelist, as like all of them, just did his job promoting this Dallas concept involving this API of information, which admittedly was something I felt he did not spend enough time on. Instead, he spent a great deal of effort laying condescension into Professor Ben repeatedly, which I thought was uncalled for. I definitely enjoyed the irony when Internet Explorer bailed on him.

Contrastingly, some pitches were clearer about what they wanted – Explosive Barrel’s presentation notably, but that of Ministry of National Development as well. They were also a tad more specific regarding what they could offer the students who collaborated with them, which I thought was quite an important gesture, especially from our perspective.

The company whose presentation struck a chord with me specially was RedSports, considering that the audience of the site is very similar to the users of sgBEAT. More significantly, I was quite moved (for a lack of a better word) by the honesty of Leslie Tan, the founder, in describing the problems that he faced, as I think it’s something not everyone is comfortable with sharing in public. Coupled with Yanjie’s earnest recount of his experiences regarding the site, I was even more impressed by the effect that this man’s endeavour has had.

I got to speak to Leslie after the pitching session (he was the only one I spoke to before I left), and I’m really hopeful of a collaboration with RedSports a few months down the road. While I don’t think I’ll be assisting him for my final project, I’m pretty excited about the prospect of working together in future with the established news site that he runs. His name card on my desk is quite a testament to that sentiment.

I’d like to end this entry with a random side note of something I found particularly amusing – that the Module-Review presenter had to explain his site. I thought that he’ll have the easiest time explaining what his idea is, so it was kind of funny that it took one slide and about a minute for him to do it.