I honestly believe ON | OFF Chat 2011 is one of the best ideas that come from ON | OFF 2011 team. We used to do pre-event roadshow to 10 cities with the name Blogshop. That’s where people are taught how to create a blog.

We think, with 38 million people on Facebook, and more than 5 million blogs in Indonesia, now it’s time to go to the next level. We’d like to inspire people, that already having blog and their own social media channels like Facebook and Twitter, to use the powerful tools especially for the good of their community. Let’s think beyond a regular update status activity. And after finishing the roadshow, I’m very happy with the result.

There are 2 sessions in each ON | OFF Chat 2011: speaking session & group discussion. In the speaking session, we invite 2 speakers to speak about their experiences in using blog and other social media tools for various needs. Every city choose their own topic, suited with what they thought important for their city. We went to 10 cities: Solo, Lampung, Palembang, Medan, Pontianak, Surabaya, Balikpapan, Bandung, Mataram and Makassar. I’m lucky I can share at 4 cities with different topics: in Medan I talked about Onlinepreneurship, in Pontianak about StartupLokal, in Mataram about Travel and in Makassar I was talking about creativity specifically in writing.

After participants listen to the speakers, they will have to be in group to think about their own campaign ideas and it must be presented in 3 minutes pitch in front of everybody and judges. The practice teach participants to discuss and connect with a total stranger (we choose the group for them), to pitch effectively and of course to do some actions after the event: executing their ideas.

I was not teaching on step by step solid way what to do on social media, but I give a lot of examples from what I (and other people) did in social media, so hopefully participants  could get some inspirations.

In Medan, I met a lot of ‘offline’ business friends from TDA and it was fun to finally meet all of them. They’re a very active and vibrant entrepreneurs community masha Allah. They told me about all of their amazing plans. Good luck for Medan entrepreneurs! I am also pleased to hear that one of our participants in Medan inspired to finally open his own business after attending ON | OFF Chat. Hopefully I can hear such testimonials from more participants.

In Pontianak, I was kind of surprised that they choose the startup topic. Startups are indeed sexy with over 800 new startups launched in a year in Indonesia, check some of them in #StartupLokal Showcase. Turned out there’s a lot of untapped potential in Pontianak. But yes, I hope after the event a lot of startups are currently in progress of developing. At least, the winner of the ideas competition already make action and buying the domain name for their startup. Way to go!

In Mataram, this is where I talk about something that I really really love: traveling. Not much of you know that I’m a travel blogger. I travel with Trinity once. And on some good days, I also get to travel for free 😀 Mataram has a target of 1 million tourists in 2012, and I hope they can easily achieved the target with the new knowledge on social media, new great airport and 2 people from the government attending our seminar 😀

In Makassar, the topic is a little bit broad: creativity. And of course, as a writer of 20++ books, I think I must speak and spread the words about how to get inspirations using social media tools. I was having so much fun, I believe all the participants do too. The winner of campaign idea come up with Losari Berseri and with collaboration of knowledge in the team, they’re aiming to make their plans happened.

Surprisingly, at the networking night, a participant approach me and said that they all will try to make all possible ideas in the seminar happened. So, all participants in the seminar will work hand in hand to make every ideas come true! I know the feeling, all the good ideas for your city, and of course you can’t let it just passing by without you can do anything about it. So this is how a proud teacher felt like 😀

Makassar Terkini’s director, Adhi Santoso, was sitting beside me at Makassar networking night. I said to him, in Jakarta, media will always there at the community events. Because communities consist of passionate young people and all good news coming from them. He nodded, said he will support Makassar communities.

ON | OFF Chat 2011 has teach me a lot. On how to communicate effectively with people, especially when you have a mayor sitting beside you 😀 (In this case, Mayor Jokowi from Solo).

My public speaking skill is one of the areas that is totally improved after the journey.

I got to see a lot of beautiful masjids for my blog PinkMosques.com.

I saw amazing cities in Indonesia with all their delicious food and beautiful scenery. I am also very grateful for the friendship and support from my amazing advisors & team (you know who you are), our wonderful speakers, our sponsors  The US Embassy Jakarta, Acer Indonesia and local community partners in each cities we visit. It’s been a wonderful journey.

Pak Adhi nicely said to me, “You look good smiling.” And smile is all I have now. See you all at ON | OFF 2011!