KM Asia, SUNTEC Convention Centre, Singapore, Nov 7, 2006

I was told there were more participants this year compared to the last. I observed ¼ are Malaysians that include people I know and those who know me. Whether true or not, good or bad my reputation precedes me. I am mainly at this years’s KM Asia to learn something really new but the first day disappoint me already. Lief Edvinsson maybe a revelation to some but to me he talked about the same thing with less or no value-add. Nevertheless organizationally we are ready to explore the possibility of looking at IC accounting seriously. In general he set us on several challenges.

• The idea of looking at things Organically – city of ideas, organizations
• Quizzics – the art of asking questions• Future is 14 second away
• Knowledge Navigation
• Knowledge city, Regusa –Dubronik
• Blind spots
• Product to people business
• HR – why internal brains whereas more available external
• www.Akwissensbilanz.org, www.Wissenskapital.info
• www.intellectualcapital.se
• Volunteers – Volusion
• Island economy – Open source, society
• Knowledge tourist
• Measure, Multiply, Futurise

Alex Bennet also shared her US DON experience that I have heard before. Afterward I said hello to both Lief and Alex. Lief interested to come down to talk to us and Alex asked me what I have done. The networking was great as I got to meet new interesting people which include some from Malaysia.

The first day was hectic as the organizer cramped a lot of things for one day. In the end I had to miss the later part of the evening’s session as I already booked myself to attend my first Knowledge Café by David Gurteen at the NLB. Around 1730 I left Suntec with Annis on a cab to NLB. Later I found out the place to be very near and walking there would not be an issue by my standard.

Knowledge Café is not rocket science and it is about honest and free flow conversation on any topic. There were about 40 of us comprises of really a good mix of practitioners which include 5 from Malaysia. Dave initially explained to us the mechanics of Knowledge Café. Basic rules are;

1. Select a topic to converse
2. Divide and sat yourself in a group of 5-6 any more or less than that would not be effective
3. The idea is to converse with no record or note taking or even a conclusion. The idea is to break the barrier of knowledge sharing as well as discovery. Quite different compare to Peer Assist

Of course on a corporate setting the idea of just talking about something together without any objective in mind would be wasteful. However the simple nature of Knowledge Cafe is what makes it works. I would suggest using Knowledge Café carefully and not going into the extreme. I had fun doing it and again met with a lot of interesting people as well including Naquib who introduced himself to me. We finished around 2030 and as I planned walked back to the hotel.

Singapore to me is just like the Singapore that I had been three years ago. Concrete jungle with rows and rows of shopping malls that some areas, to certain extend, too clinical. Knowing that I would be in Singapore I bought and read Neil Humphrey’s (Notes from even a smaller island) Singapore trilogy, one of the current Singapore best sellers, to understand Singapore from an outsider perspective. Humphrey’s version of Singapore is from the perspective of and expatriate living in Singapore like a normal Singaporean. For the record he lived in Singapore for ten years before he decided to move to Downunder. So you know now my biases looking at Singapore during this visit. Continuous urban redevelopment, building more and bigger shopping malls, the latest was Vivocity, Kiasuism, and a young generation that seems to me very confuse.