Business Plan Presentations

Everyone worked hard and did a good job on your presentations.  You also all did a very good job listening to the advice of the guests who heard your presentations.  You could tell that there are many different ways to build a business and these guests did not all agree on the best way but they were all willing to listen and learn from each other.  I believe they also listened and learned from you.

Thanks for all of your work.  You all now have proposals that could be a part of your portfolio as you present yourselves to potential employers.

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Final Presentation Order

Here is the order for today's final presentations:

2:00 Photo Book
2:25 Eco Bags
2:50 Art Cafe
3:15 Art Vending
3:40 Motion Interiors

Currently there will be four guests to listen to your presentations and provide insights.  One guest is from the Cyberport Incutrain Centre, Two are Entrepreneurs who are a part of InnoCentre and one is an Entrepreneur who helped start DGC in the 1990s.

I am looking forward to everyone's work and hope we can learn from your presentations and the feedback and insights from our guests.



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Brand Wheels & Marketing

I have sent comments to the three group leaders on the completed Brand Wheels.  I need the two groups who have not yet completed Brand Wheels to get those in to me so that I can make comments that will help you move forward in your planning for your presentation.

Today we will talk more about marketing and start planning exactly what the company's are going to make, or the service they will provide, where it will be available (and how the service will be framed), and how you are going to tell people about your business, how it will be promoted.  We will worry less about price this week but we are starting to build practical plans out of the mission, philosophy and brands we have already started to create.

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Only one submission of Mission Statement Notes

It is very disappointing that only one group could find the time to send me their notes on their Mission Statement work.  I don't expect this work to be completed yet but it is useful to hear from an outside source as you are generating ideas and figuring out what kind of company you want to be.  An outsider reading the words you have chosen can give you the impression they have from those words, an impression that you may have missed.

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Business Groups Are Set

I have decided to cut down the number of business groups to five.  This will allow for slightly larger groups and allow everyone to share the work load.

I apologize to Ming but this means the business presentation company will not be developed this semester.

I came up with these groups on Saturday and I have made only slight refinements since then.

Traditional Art Cafe - Steph, Wene, Kel & Velvet

Motion Interiors - Chery, Dorcas, Daniel & Sum

Moneybrush - Jason, Shirley & Ming

Eco Bags - Phoebe, Peggy, Ruby & Meng

Photo Books - Alan, Vicky, Dolly & Nelson

I believe these groups should work and know that you will all do your best to make them work.  I will be checking with you about your group dynamics over the course of the semester.

We will start working in these groups today as we start solidifying and building the five business ideas.

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Group Choices - 18 February 2010

After very few responses on group choices there has been an increase.  Please send me your choices as quickly as possible.  I will make the group assignments on Saturday and post them to the blog.  If I do not have your choices then you will have no say in the process that will occur as a combination of your preferences, random assignment and strong group creation.

The groups will begin developing their businesses on Monday as we talk about goals, objectives and mission statements.  You will be working in your groups with each of the subject areas as we move toward the final presentation of the business plan on the last day of class.

I will also be making comments on your mock-ups and CVs in the next couple of days so keep an eye on your blog for comments.

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Group Preferences

  The group leaders for the development of the full-blown business plans will be:

     Wene & Steph - Traditional Chinese Food Art Cafe
     Phoebe - Custom Eco Bags
     Ming - Presentation Design Services
     Jason - MoneyBrush (bringing together designers and people with money)
     Chery - Living Interiors through animated environments
     Alan - Custom Photobooks - personal, high quality, retouching, design

All of the group leaders will add two members to their development team.  That means Team One will have four members and all of the rest will have three.

Team Leaders please send me three choices for team members in order of preference.

Team Members please send me three choices for teams in order of preference.

Overall the basic work was good and I look forward to interesting presentations at the end of the semester.

Blog Links and Subscriptions

Here is my ability to judge the current state of subscriptions to this blog and the links to various pieces of information that need to be online:

1 Kel CHAN Pui On - can't link to blog from subscriber list

2 Phoebe CHENG Sin Yu  - blog available and links to CV and Mock-ups

3 Wene CHOW Wing Yee - blog available and links to CV and Mock-ups

4 Vicky KWONG Yuen Kwan - blog and links available and I have downloaded the Zip within the allowed 7 days

5 Stephanie LAI Ka Ying - blog available and links to CV and Mock-ups

6 Peggy LAM Pui Yee  - blog available and links to CV and Mock-ups

7 Ruby LEE Sok Man  - blog available and links to CV and Mock-ups.

8 Dolly LEE Tsz Kwan  - blog available and links to single image Mock-up.  No link to a CV.

9 Nelson LI Kwun Ho  - blog available and links to CV and Mock-up, but there is no visualization of the interactive idea just a statement

10 Velvet LI Yeyun - link to blog and materials

11 Chery LIU Sze Wai  - blog available and links to CV and Mock-ups.

12 Daniel MENG Ye - link to blog but no links to CV or Mock-ups

13 Dorcas WONG Dorcas  - blog available and links to CV and Mock-ups

14 Meng XIE Meng - no subscription and therefore no link

15 Shirley YAU Ching Yi - blog available and links to CV and Mock-ups

16 Ming YEUNG Ming To  - blog available and links to CV and Mock-ups

17 Beril YIM Yuen Sum- can't link to blog from subscriber list

18 Alan YIP Ho Lun - link to blog but currently no content

19 Jason SHIFTER - link to blog but last entry was last year...so no links to CV or portfolio Mock-up

I will be making comments on your ideas and executions over the next two weeks so please provide working links and content where required.

Business Idea Presentations

Everyone will  have about 7 minutes to present their business idea.


Here is the presentation order:

1:45 Shirley YAU Ching Yi

1:52 Wene CHOW Wing Yee

1:59 Chery LIU Sze Wai

2:06 Dolly LEE Tsz Kwan

2:13 Dorcas WONG Dorcas

2:20 Daniel MENG Ye

2:27 Vicky KWONG Yuen Kwan

2:33 Velvet LI Yeyun

2:40 Peggy LAM Pui Yee

2:47 Ruby LEE Sok Man

2:54 Stephanie LAI Ka Ying

3:01 Beril YIM Yuen Sum

3:08 Phoebe CHENG Sin Yu

3:15 Ming YEUNG Ming To

3:22 Kel CHAN Pui On

3:29 Jason SHIFTER

3:36 Alan YIP Ho Lun

3:43 Nelson LI Kwun Ho

3:50 Meng XIE Meng

Each business idea will be scored by all of the students in the class.  When the presentations are complete I will tell you about any I am aware of that were not presented.  Students will then give me their scores and I will add them up to determine which of the ideas will be further developed over the rest of the semester and who will be the team leaders for the rest of the semester.  

From the 19 presented 6 will be developed further within 5 groups of 3 and 1 group of 4.  

Good luck and remember that today's presentation needs to tell us:

1 The Basic Business Idea

2 The Core Product, Service or Experience

3 The Potential Market

4 The Existing Competition (a brief overview)

5 The Reason you are the right person to further develop this idea

You need to get this all said within about 5 minutes and then leave a little bit of time for questions.

Good luck and do well!

1 February 2010 and Freelance Opportunity

Thanks to everyone who came along to the Tommy Li Studio and thanks to Tommy for taking the time with us.  I am sorry for anyone who was not able to make the visit.  Tommy provided valuable insights into the business of design and the design business.  Perhaps they were not what everyone wanted to hear but there is value in what he had to say.

I would love for you to blog on the experience.  Talk about what you learned and what you took away from the experience.  That will count toward your final count of entries for the semester.

Also, if you want to have information on the Freelance job contact(s) I told you about please send me an email.  I don't think it is a good idea to broadcast the information.  I need to know who is genuinely interested in freelance opportunities.

Finally, remember next week is your basic business presentation.  Think about your idea and about how you are going to communicate it in less than 6 minutes.

Until then...

Field Trip during Class Time on 1 February

Everyone needs to make plans for class on 1 February.  We will be traveling to Chai Wan to meet Tommy Li at his studio.  We will meet at the studio at 2:00 pm and you will be able to leave at around 4:00 pm.  We will travel to Chai Wan by MTR and then take a short taxi ride to his studio.

This means there will be no in-class presentation of your CV and portfolio concepts.  You will, however, need to hand-in your more traditional CV and give me a document which explains your portfolio concept in detail, including pictures.  You will also give me a description of the type of job and the type of company where you see yourself applying and using your CV and interactive portfolio as tools.  I will then be able to make comment and deliver it to you after the Chinese New Year Holiday.

This visit is a great opportunity to meet one of the best designers in Asia if not the entire World.  Please go to Tommy Li Design Workshop to see the kind of work he and his team are doing and what they have done.  The website itself was created by Wilson Tang and Javin Mo, the two partners in Milkxhake who are DGC graduates.

18 January 2010

I think we are now settled in FSC 901 and we need to get the rhythm of the class and the work it will require.

To see the information about self evaluation better presented go to the First Job SWF and look at the first part of the application.  We will discuss the latter parts in greater detail in the coming week.

You need to be working on your Personal Logo, your traditional print CV and the design of the paper being used for that traditional format.  We will take a look at your logos in the next class on Monday.

I will also talk more about using analogies for interactive resumes in the coming class.  Your printed and mock-up interactive will be presented on 1 February and there will be a grade associated with this submission.

If you have any questions feel free to make a comment on this post.

First Class and UPDATES on syllabus

I think we covered the class and you know what to expect.  I know everyone fully understands what they are going to need to do over the course of the semester and if they do not they will ask me questions.  I hope everyone will appreciate this approach to learning that will demand a great deal of participation from the students, including learning about yourself, and introduce them to some interesting Hong Kong Designers, Entrepreneurs and Business People.

I am going to make some changes that will allow everyone to work more efficiently and spread at least one important assignment to the middle of the semester.

Here it is:

The Portfolio Presentation will occur on 1 February.  This will be a design presentation and not the presentation of a complete interactive platform.  Students will show their design idea for their PDF or traditional C.V. and for their interactive portfolio, that includes CV information.  The interactive portfolio will include an analogy, interface elements, navigation devices, levels of information, color scheming and/or color coding.  An operational mock-up of the Interactive Portfolio will be due on 15 March.  This functioning information space will demonstrate the analogy and various elements in operation but does not have to include all of the specific portfolio pieces.

With this change the Business Idea Presentation will occur on 8 February, the class just before CNY.  The chosen groups will be announced via this blog and email so that everyone can start thinking about the business they would like to help to develop over the holiday.

Of course the one thing that might change our schedule is the availability of guest speakers, but due dates will remain unchanged unless there is a major reason or need for change.

I am sure this will help everyone better focus and produce better results in each of these assignments.  The presentation on 1 February will include a completed idea but will provide the opportunity for positive criticism and improvements before the final submission of the operating framework on 15 March.

The flow of the course is preparing you to get your first job and build a career and then using the skills you have learned over your three years in DGC to prepare for the possibility of building your own business at some point in the future.

IMPORTANT: We will be meeting in FSC 901 for the rest of the semester.  This will give us immediate access to computer technology in a space where we can also sit together as a large group, or in small groups, away from the computers.

FSC 901 - venue for class for the rest of the semester

1 February - Portfolio Design Presentation - Mock-up and design elements for PDF and Flash, presented in less than 6 minutes.

8 February - Business Proposal Presentation - Your individual business idea in less than 6 minutes.

15 March - Functional Portfolio Submission - Operating analogy and design elements submitted in an appropriate form.

Looking forward to continuing on Monday in the afternoon.

until then...

The First Post

Here is my first post for the semester.  It is cold and rainy but it will warm up.  Your career might start a bit cold but if you work hard and make the best of your opportunities then it will warm up as well.

This is the place where I will review each class session and I will post any necessary information for the entire class to see. 

This is the blog you should subscribe to and in your self-description provide a link to your personal blog related to this class and your group blog for your business.  These need to be two different blogs.

I hope you will learn a lot this semester and I hope it will be more than just how to work hard on your honour's project.

Until the next time...