Friday, April 10, 2009

KLDW 2009: A Good Effort but still not good enough


I attended the KLDW 2009 last week. I was pretty excited about this event. Finally a design event, with forums, seminars & masterclass in KL. We don't have to visit our neighbours anymore to attend a decent Design Forum. Good place to meet up with fellow designers in Malaysia as well. However, the event organiser kind of let me down in a few areas.

First of all, I only found out about the KLDW 2009 from a friend. There was no prominent publicity on it at all. I got the web address and surfed there. It all looked really good and after checking out the price & package for the event, I've decided to register to attend but need to check with my compnay if they would sponsor me. :) A few days later when i check the website again, i was surprised to see that the website has changed. A total change of website design and the change confused me. Why change an existing website 1 week before the event? The way the information for the price of the event was presented was also confusing.

So, i finally managed to attend the Masterclass 1. When i arrived, i was expecting to register and collect some writeups about the speakers, what are the intinerary for the class would be like or even a small doorgift. All i got was a lanyard and a piece of triangular cardboard with the words Masterclass 1. Imagine my shock, I paid real money to attend this event, and all i got was a lanyard? Not even some writeups about the speaker at all? Pen or even a piece of Paper?

Ok fine! Hopefully the content of the Masterclass would be worth it but the organisers did not plan this whole thing out properly. The Masterclass started late. Speakers had to set up their own laptop. No one introduced the speakers or even guide the speakers on what to do. The speakers were great, they did their best to present their work. However, I left the Masterclass really disappointed with the organisers. I am grateful that they managed to get such great designers/speakers to Malaysia but it's a shame that the participants were totally left out of the equation of creating a successful Design Forum/Masterclass. 
 

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