Google Sponsored Competition for Businesses in Sri Lanka

Here’s some great news for those of you who run your own business. If you’re running a start up, a small or medium business AND have been using Google products or tools to improve your business; you just might be eligible for the Google sponsored “Success Stories” competition that is held on a global scale.

 

What is “Success Stories”?

Are you using Google to do extraordinary things? Has technology enabled you to start new ventures, grow your business or affect the lives of those around you in a positive way? Then, Google Business Groups – an outreach initiative of Google – would love to hear from you. You can share your story for a chance to win $5,000 for your business. GBG in Colombo is conducting a global program to recognize start up businesses. If your business is in any of the following sectors and has benefited from using Google products, you will be eligible to submit your “success story” through GBG Colombo:

1) NGOs
2) Businesses in music/sports/entertainment
3) Technology related businesses

There is a prize money of $5,000 to be won for selected stories and your stories maybe featured in the next Google I/O as well.

For more information and updates, visit the Google stories page and the GBG Sri Lanka G+ page.

 

Your Last Chance!

You know what the best news is? If you come over to Coco Veranda this Saturday, 23rd August; you can meet the GBG Colombo team and register your business for this global competition on site. Entries close by end of August, so this would be the last chance for your submissions so DON’T MISS IT!!

And, in case you’re unable to make it, just fill this form online and submit – http://goo.gl/WXM1D9

Oh, and don’t forget to tell your friends and family if you think their business is eligible for this. See you at Coco!

 

disclaimer:

I’m co-manager for GBG Colombo.

Become A Google Trainer in Sri Lanka

Google Business Group – Colombo (better known as GBG Colombo) is organizing something really interesting! They are planning on a series of Google training workshops in Sri Lanka. But for now, they are looking for “trainers” and they are calling out for those who are good at public speaking and in general training others.

Basically GBG Colombo will train these “trainers” and those people will then help GBG Colombo to help train their members and the rest of the public on Google products. This will be done free of charge in all aspects and will definitely be a great opportunity for those who love to learn more about Google products!

Here’s the official flyer for more details. And remember, the deadline is Sunday, 23rd Feb – just 2 days more! If you need further information you can email gbgcolombo@gmail.com

 

To receive the latest updates and future event details, follow the official GBG Srilanka Pages:
Google+ : http://goo.gl/BB0H0q
Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/GBGsrilanka

To join the GBG Colombo community and meet like-minded people, go here:
Google+ Community: http://goo.gl/HXapxD
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/GBGcolombo

Follow GBG Colombo Twitter: http://twitter.com/GBGcolombo

The WordPress New Year Surprise!

Hi Everyone!

This is my first blog post for 2014 and this one is going to be a little different :)

I was really busy as the new year began and renewing this website completely slipped my mind, despite the fact that I had set reminder alarms at 1-week, 3-days and 1-day prior to expiration. About a week after expiration I realized the site had expired! Since I don’t use a credit card (let’s not discuss my reservations here! lol), I asked my ever-so-helpful boss if he could renew the site for me. After attempting to pay several times, he told me the site kept giving him an error message every time. So the next day while in office, I asked 2 colleagues to help me make the payment with 2 different credit cards and the site kept giving me an error message that I’m trying to make a payment from an unsupported country!

I was completely distressed and asked a few others who came back with the same issue. With no where else to turn, I resorted to WordPress support and raised a private ticket on the issue. They replied and we conversed back and forth a few days with no clear solution. Then today, I saw the site had been renewed. The funny thing was that no one I knew were able to make a payment. Curious, I checked the support message thread and saw a reply from the WordPress staff member I was corresponding with, that they had not only paid the $18 site renewal fee but also the $80 redemption penalty – because they knew I had been having difficulty to make the transaction and during which the website had already gone into redemption. So they’ve decided to save it for me!

I’m still in complete surprise and almost in tears with happiness! And decided to dedicate my first blog post for 2014 to WordPress. Thank you guys! Your support rocks!! <3

Facebook Home Is In Sri Lanka – Have You Got It Yet?

I was waiting to download Facebook Home on 12th April as was announced by Mark Zuckerberg but was disappointed when it said ‘not available in your region’ on Google Play. However, this morning my boss said it was finally available on Google Play so I quickly downloaded it to try it out. At first I was a bit confused as to how I was supposed to get out of the Cover Feed and get to my apps. After playing around it for a few minutes I figured it out and quickly fell in love with it.

I love the big images that slide over my screen. I like this better than live wallpapers or other image based wallpapers because these are not just images, they are images from my friends or form the brands I like and follow and each image has a story or a message for me to follow up with.

I also like the fact that I can easily interact with notifications. For the past few months I’ve neglected so many notifications – literary hundreds of them because I don’t want to distract my work-time with Facebook (ironically, thought I HAVE TO BE ON Facebook almost all the time when I’m at work). So this app gives me an easier way to access Facebook on-the-go when I have small pockets of time to ‘waste’ on Facebook.

So yes, so far I’m in love with Facebook Home and I wrote this other post on the Loops Solutions blog – check it out. Maybe some of you are indifferent towards it altogether and couldn’t care less. But don’t judge until you download and try it for yourself. Unfortunately this app is only available on certain mobile phones such as Samsung Galaxy S III, Galaxy Note II, HTC One X and HTC One X+. If you have one of them, lucky you!

I’m curious to know how many of you love this app and how many hate – and of course WHY? So, try it out and let me know what you think. Post a comment here or on Loops blog.

Google Business Group – Colombo community meets-up again with top Google speaker

GBG Colombo’s first meetup for 2013 is today. The theme for this evening is ‘Innovation‘. The special guest for the evening is Julian Persaud who will be speaking on ‘Innovation at Google’.

Julian Persaud

Julian Persaud  is the Managing Director of Southeast Asia Sales and Operations for Google Inc., overseeing sales, marketing and partnership development in the region.

Prior to moving to Singapore, Mr. Persaud was based in Google’s Sydney office as the Head of Online for Google Australia, managing Google’s efforts to help small and medium sized Australian businesses take advantage of online advertising.

He was previously Head of Business Development at Google Australia, and has spent his entire career working in online businesses, including roles at Yahoo! Search Marketing and UK auction house QXL.

Here are the details of the GBG Colombo – March meetup:

Date   : Thursday, 21st March 2013
Time    : 6.30 PM
Venue : APIIT City Campus

Agenda:

➡ “Innovation at Google” by Julian Persaud, Managing Director of Southeast Asia, Google Inc.
➡ “Building an ecosystem to foster innovation” by Sanath Fernando
➡ “Using Innovative strategies in Eco Biz” by Sivahar Muthuramalingam
➡ “Innovating Marketing Solutions in the Digital Age” by Shehan Selvanayagam
➡ Refreshments & Networking session with Julian Persaud

You can register for today’s GBG Colombo event here – http://bit.ly/WGJi9s.

Networking With Speakers

GBG Colombo team is keen on having a longer networking session this time so the attendees can meet Julian Presaud as well as the other speakers of the evening, one-on-one. GBG Colombo team also encourages participants to network and make the most of the evening. For this event, APIIT Sri Lanka has been a generous venue provider as well as coming forward in providing the crowd with refreshments for the networking session. Free WiFi is provided courtesy Etisalat Sri Lanka.

Sanath Fernando

There are three other speakers who will be speaking at the event. First speaker Sanath Fernando has 20 years of industry experience and is currently Founder/CEO of Ridgecrest Asia (Pvt) Ltd., a company providing solutions in Global Capital Markets and Online Consumer Services. Prior to founding Ridgecrest, Mr. Fernando served as Managing Director of Charles Schwab’s Capital Markets division. He is also a Director at SLASSCOM and Co-Founder & Director of Lankan Angel Network.

Sivahar Muthuramalingam

Second speaker Sivahar Muthuramalingam is JCI TOYP 2012 Environment leadership award winner and is the Founder & Head of Marketing of Think Green (Pvt) Limited. He has 6 years experience on international trade and on environment management. Sivahar is a graduate from Edith Cowan Perth (Australia) and holds an MBA from University of Southern Queensland (Australia) He also received the prestigious Deans award for outstanding academic performances from University of Southern Queensland (Australia). Sivahar is been involved in Providing Electronic recycling & Eco friendly solutions since 2006 and formally set up ” Think Green” company in 2011 June. He is passionate about leading Think Green in providing innovative solutions to make Sri Lanka an environmentally sustainable destination of Asia.

Shehan Selvanayagam

The final speaker of the evening Shehan Selvanayagam is the CEO of Loops Solutions which is the leading Digital Marketing company in Sri Lanka currently providing digital media solutions for over 35 brands ranging from Small Business, Local Industry Leaders and Multinational Companies. He has over 10 years of experience in the E-Commerce Industry in Sri Lanka with an educational background of B.Sc in Business Management, Chartered Marketer as well as an MSc in Information Technology

RSVP

Registration and attendance for GBG Colombo is Free. You can also RSVP the official G+ event page and keep tabs of the details and any changes with regard to the event, which GBG Colombo will be making available on this space. This event will be broadcast live via Hangout On Air for those who are not in Colombo, Sri Lanka. HOA link will be posted on the G+ event page when the event commences.

Google’s Birthday Gift – A Personalised Doodle

Today is my birthday. Yes, yes, Happy Birthday to me! I was up since very early this morning and was preparing some documents for work. At one point I wanted to Google something and I visited google.com and what do I see? A special Google Doodle for my birthday! I was so thrilled, I couldn’t stop smiling :D

How is it that this image is ‘personalised’? Notice when I had put the cursor on top of the image, it had said “Happy Birthday Indulekha!” Now isn’t that just awesome? :D

The obvious question now is, exactly how and why does this happen? Well, as I’ve read via a couple of blog articles such as this one on Mashable and this other blog post here, this is probably Google’s way of rewarding you for filling up your profile. Cute huh?

So how would you like to see a personalised doodle on your birthday from Google too? Just follow the instructions on this article and wait for that little surprise on you birthday!

How many of you have already seen your birthday Google doodle?

The Social Media Marketing Conference

Hello my readers, today I would like to let you know that I will be doing a full day conference on Social Media Marketing on Tuesday, 12th February 2013 (that’s just a couple of days from now) from 9.00 AM to 5.00 PM at the Galadari Hotel.

For whom

I would like to recommend this for beginners to intermediate level Social Media marketers or sometimes who we call ‘account managers’ and Page admins. Maybe this would not go down too well with absolute beginners who are clueless about SMM but I guess one could still learn a thing or two. I would also not recommend this to the ‘pros’ who’ve been in the industry for the past 2-3 years. Nope, you would find this pretty boring :)

How to participate

This conference is organised by McQuire Rens & Jones, the people who conduct all sorts of exclusive corporate training programs. You can find more details on how to participate, on their website HERE or you can check out the e-flyer below. For registrations and more details, call them on 0727-002002, 0115-833100 or 0115-836888.

If you want to know more about this from me, Tweet me @InduNan and I’ll be happy to help! :)

Feedback

If any of you are hoping to attend this conference, let me know in comments below and don’t forget to come say ‘Hi’ to me at the conference. Also, after attending the conference, I would love to hear your thoughts on it so go ahead and comment below when you come back – or you could always Tweet me :)

– Update –

If you’re at The Social Media Marketing Conference, you’re most welcome to live-tweet with the hashtag #SMMconSL13 and even G+ update if you like!