2020 is a mess! Yes, most of it is due to the Coronavirus. When we started the plans for JOMLAUNCH ASIA, we were all very excited. We had plans to get everybody to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. And we wanted everybody to have a good time learning from one another, network and build awesome indie software businesses online.
I was so very excited to meet people. The speakers, delegates, sponsors and maybe even you.
Then the world got into panic with the Coronavirus. And not too long after that, the MCO (movement control order) kicked in, that restricted everybody from going out, let alone gathering. There was too much uncertainties. So we decided to cancel JOMLAUNCH ASIA.
But after a few months, Malaysia has eased up on MCO. We are in the MCO-Recovery now. Things are starting to pickup. And we have seen and participated in a few virtual events as well.
Having a look at how things are currently, I thought that maybe JOMLAUNCH ASIA can host a virtual event too. So the team had a meeting and I am glad that everybody else feel the same too. Despite Coronavirus, everybody is in high spirits and eager to give JOMLAUNCH ASIA a go, as a virtual event.
Block the Date – November 23rd to 28th, 2020
After much deliberation, I can officially announce now that JOMLAUNCH ASIA 2020 will be held on a Saturday, 28th of November, 2020.
And combining this with JOMLAUNCH Malaysia event, we will be having a one-week program starting from 23rd of November all the way to the pinnacle conference on the 28th of November 2020.
Although being a virtual event, much planning, preparation and works need to be done. Since we cancelled the event previously, we now need to re-engage with speakers, partners, sponsors and also suppliers.
JOMLAUNCH ASIA is all about solopreneurs, solo developers, indiehackers, bootstrappers and the likes. So far we have confirmed the following speakers to share their experience and wisdom.
These nice gentlemen will be sharing their stories on the 28th of November 2020 (Kuala Lumpur time) :
- Kyle Gawley (UK), from UseGravity.app. Kyle used to co-found a VC-backed startup. But he now goes indie with Gravity, a NodeJS boilerplate for building SaaS. Kyle has helped over 200 entrepreneurs develop and deploy their SaaS online.
- Asep Bagja (Indonesia), from Tania. Asep develops and maintains an open source precision farming software called Tania, all from the tiny island of Bali. And from there, he gets a ton of new clients from all over the world, that requested customizations and implementations of Tania.
- Takuya Matsuyama (Japan), from InkDrop.app. Takuya develops and markets Inkdrop all by himself, deploying the software for the web, mobile for both iOS and Android and also desktop for Windows, Mac and Linux. He makes a comfortable earning for himself and his family selling the software at $5 per month.
- Fajar Siddiq (Singapore), is a serial indie hacker from Singapore. Fajar has a number independent, investment-free ventures of his own. Prior to his entrepreneurship journey, Fajar is also a professional yo-yo athlete, having been sponsored by Duncan Toys and went on tours to perform all over the world. He is also a well-known influencer in the indie hacker and maker community, especially in ProductHunt.com and IndieHacker.com.
- Warren Leow (Malaysia), from AmazingFables.com. Warren has had a good number of years in the corporate and in government service, and now working in Inmagine (the parent company of 123RF.com). However he has always had the indie hacker spirit in him. Warren develops AmazingFables.com and automated all the process to deliver beautiful, customizable children books to customers all over the world.
- Ryzal Yusoff (Malaysia), from ReaderMode.io. Ryzal is definitely a talented developer. Although from Malaysia, he now works in a startup company in the UK. But wanting to generate some extra income, he developed ReaderMode, a Chrome extensions that allows you to eliminate distractions when reading articles online. It is also a better way to keep track of your research and readings on specific topics. Among other cool features is that it supports dyslexic friendly fonts for those living with dyslexia.
But What is JOMLAUNCH Malaysia?
We have been running an event in Malaysia called JOMLAUNCH since 2015. It is where programmers and developers get together and showcase their works. Every year we showcase 16 to 20 projects. So it does not feel like JOMLAUNCH if we don’t showcase any projects this year.
JOMLAUNCH used to be a one-day affair, where presenters take the stage one by one, from morning until the afternoon. But since we are doing this online, I feel that having to sit in front of the monitor screen the whole day could be exhausting. So we plan to spread out the project showcase across five days, Monday to Friday. And on Saturday, we’ll have the pinnacle event, the JOMLAUNCH ASIA Conference.
JOMLAUNCH ASIA, JOMLAUNCH Malaysia Or Both – We’ll Ship Out the Goodies to Your Door Steps
We have tickets available whether you want to participate for JOMLAUNCH Malaysia, JOMLAUNCH ASIA or both. And we’ll be shipping out your tickets and swags to your door steps. We hope that it will arrive before the event so that you can don the t-shirt and join the Selfie Contest we’ll be having during the event.
Being a virtual event, we have to plan more to still make it engaging, interesting and beneficial for everyone. We will definitely have contests and networking sessions during the event.
Stay tuned for more updates.