Environmentally friendly

We're a pretty socially-conscious bunch of kids here at Alphabet - we like to think that we can combine doing a good job, having some fun, eat a few doughnuts now and then, and incrementally make the world a better place. Our namecards ('business cards' if you're not Singaporean) reflect this a little with their images on the back emphasising the natural environment, and our sense of being rooted in it.

So if you're having a monotonous day in the office, and want to cut free for a few moments, flipping an Alphabet namecard is your chance to get away from it all by focusing on one lush landscape after another. Each of us has a different image - mine is from Epping Forest in Essex, where I come from; James2's is of the Cornish coast, where he comes from.

So for those of you who have not got round to swapping namecards with us, or who are in need of a little break, let our gallery of namecard images take you places. Enjoy.

James1

James2

John

Jianggan

Captain

Melissa

Bryan

Chirag

Vanessa

Kelly

Minky

Edmund

The Man

Alphabet Media finally got their man when we managed to persuade John Lui to come join our editorial team as our new Deputy Editor. John, as if you didn't know, is one of Asia's best known English-language enterprise technology editors, having worked across a string of the best known general IT magazines in the region.

Besides having a droll sense of humour, the best fringe in Singaporean journalism, and numerous awards for his editorial work - he also is a dead ringer for James Cagney, legendary Hollywood movie star. Don't believe me? Well you try and tell me who's who in the following photographs!

He took one look at our sumptuous offices, rubbed an inquisitive finger across our dust-free flat surfaces, and asked some tough questions about where we wanted to be heading in terms of our content. We gave our answers, then there was a slight pause before he gave us his trademark sideways on grin - on which the team broke out into high-fives all around.

An interesting thing you probably never knew about John is that he can see dead people. Actually that's a complete lie, but what is true is that he plays lead guitar in a band. So far there's only one person in the band. But as we're fond of saying in Alphabet Media, it's small but perfectly formed.

Last post for the old soldier

Parting is such sweet sorrow. As you can see from the pics, the tears flowed on Friday when one of MINDEF's finest took his leave of the Alpha men and women at 43c Beach Road.

Of course it begs the question that if he's so bloody sad to be leaving us, maybe he should be staying, right? But apparently he wants to "find himself" by backpacking around the fleshpots of the Philippines for a few months. So I say, good luck, make sure you pack some raincoats, and I'll see you begging for your job back in 6 months Gerry.

Seriously though, it seems a good moment to pause and reflect on Gerry's contribution.

I still remember him coming into the office for an interview on a Saturday morning, bright-eyed and eager to throw himself into a new career. That immediatelty impressed. The fact that he was a fluent Thai speaker was also a big tick in the margin, as it dovetailed nicely with Alphabet's strong regional readership.

But what was genuinely 'Great' about Gerry - beyond his ability to sprint, dodging machine gun fire, whilst carrying a wounded colleague, and bayonet clenched between teeth - was his willingness to join Jessica and myself as employee number three in an office the size of a shoebox.

Others rapidly joined us - but Gerald was the first in the wave of people that transformed the business from being a single magazine, to a business with scale. In his time we launched two new magazines, two new online communities, a seminar business, and six new stand alone conferences. And we're still growing at a breakneck pace. Of course Gerald provided a helping hand out on all of the above - because part of the 'Alphabet Way' is that we're a bloody hard working SME, and we're here to collectively succeed.

But perhaps his greatest contribution was simply being the first in line to believe in the Alphabet future. After he joined, it was progressively easier to persuade the next person to join, and so on, and in so doing set in train a transformation of the scope, and quality of the business.

Gerry, thanks for the hysteria, the worrying, the handling of the CMS, the discussions on body fat ratios, and your catwalk sashaying. Farewell, Commando.

A room full of the right people

The title of this post explains what makes for a great conference - and having the smarts to know who the right people to invite, along with the credibility to persuade them to spend time and money attending is what I believe makes Alphabet Media's events a little bit special.

Yesterday's Asian CCTV Summit was a bit of a humdinger, attracting over 100 CCTV operators and security buyers from around the region. Together with our speakers and four sponsors we had something like 125 bums on seats - and what genuinely surprised me was the fact that delegates stayed around for the whole day at the Grand Hyatt, rather than disappearing off during the middle of the afternoon, as I've seen happen at other conferences I've attended.

In fact I'm beginning to think that events organised by media brands (Asian CCTV Summit was organised by the Asian Security Review team) fare much better in the end-user (ie. buyer) community than those organised by dedicated conference companies and vendors. Why? Simply because we're closer to the market, understand the interest levels of our readers better, and benefit from having an opt-in, content-driven relationship with our magazines readers all year round.

Otherwise I'd have to attribute the success of Alphabet's events to that rather dashing botak moderator we keep using ...

Rubber Boy joins the A-Team

Well look who we have here ... just in time to oversee the smooth onsite logistics of this Thursday's Asian CCTV Summit at the Grand Hyatt in Singapore we have the latest addition to our fast-growing events team: Bryan Krishnan.

Bryan is the new Operations Manager at Alphabet Media, managing Vanessa, and working closely with Melissa, our Conference Manager.

Bryan has cut his teeth on key events for Moet & Chandon, Prada, Gucci, Nokia and a whole host of other smallfry ... but he was looking to take a step up professionally and oversee the management of government events of scale ... so naturally he turned to Alphabet Media.

Interestingly Bryan first got a taste for the events business when he ran away from home to join the circus at the age of 15, earning a living as "Rubber Boy". He earned the sobriquet on account of being double-jointed. See close-up photo for proof.