Chandler Nguyen

It has been a month since my last post. For those who don't know, i moved back to Ho Chi Minh city 4 weeks ago on a temporarily basis or 6 months to be exact.

I am still working in this field but the job scope changed quite a bit. I am now helping an agency in Ho Chi Minh to build up their team and provide a professional level of service to their clients.
Things have been going quite well so far. I have been meeting a lot of direct clients (at least 4-6 per week).

Before we go into Web Wednesday, i just want to mention that today is the Vietnamese Independent day 02nd Sept 1945 - 02nd Sept 2009. Today is my first national day in Vietnam after 7 years in Singapore and the spirit is high :)

Google actually surprises us with the new logo in Vietnam to celebrate our independent day.










I am led to believe that this year is the first time Google's done this so cheers!

Back to Web Wednesday, i attended the first Web Wednesday in Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh city) last week. There were about 100 people from agencies, direct clients to media owners. I didn't come across anyone from Yahoo though.

Web Wednesday in Vietnam has the same format as in Singapore or other countries, which means it happens every last Wednesday of the month for every month.
For the first event, Bryan Pelz, co founder and advisor of VinaGame Vietnam, spoke about where vietnamese online industry is from a big picture stand point, how it's related to the overall economy etc...

Bryan also mentioned a very good point/initiative that i personally will support strongly : Online marketing professionals in Vietnam need to come together, put aside our differences and own agenda in order to build a prosperous industry. When the pie gets bigger, everyone's share will be bigger also. Challenges are many and easy to list down so it will take good amount of efforts from the community to address them.
50% share of a total $10 million online marketing revenue is nothing compared to 15% of $150 million.

I will come to Web Wednesday regularly and i hope that organizers will try different things everytime to make sure that the event is engaging enough, not just about sales pitch but a place where people can actually make friends and do things together. Otherwise, Web Wednesday in Vietnam will probably follow the same path as its counterpart in Singapore, in which the attendance is dropping.

That's about it for now. Just want to drop a quick note to let everyone know about my status :)

Cheers,
Chandler