We have been closely monitoring the situation since mid February, as our co-founders travelled to Melbourne to attend the Australian International Documentary Conference by invitation from the Motion Picture Association International. We were there to learn from industry experts while promoting our impact film project, “Kurang Manis” (Sugar,Less). The conference was attended by 750+ factual content broadcasters, buyers and media executives from Canada, UK, Europe and Australia and little would we have ever guessed that the trip down under would be even more eventful than we had originally thought! In Malaysia, the Movement Control Order (MCO) came to force from 18 March until the end of the month – a gargantuan task set out by the newly installed government led by PM YAB Tan Sri Dato’ Haji Muhyiddin bin Haji Mohd. Yassin to contain Malaysians in their homes in order to #flattenthecurve. Here’s an excerpt from the Prime Minister’s speech: Saya ingin merayu kepada saudara-saudari. Tolonglah. Stay put where you are. Yang ada di Kuala Lumpur, duduklah di Kuala Lumpur. Yang ada di Johor Bahru duduklah di Johor Bahru. Yang ada di Pulau Pinang, duduklah di Pulau Pinang. Kalau anda merancang untuk pulang ke kampung, batalkanlah dahulu niat itu. Saya minta tolong untuk tempoh dua minggu ini sahaja. Kenapa? Kerana kita hendak putuskan rantaian jangkitan. We want to break the chain of infection. Supaya jumlah orang yang dijangkiti wabak COVID-19 ini dapat dikurangkan… …Jadi, tolonglah. Saya merayu sekali lagi. Duduklah diam-diam di rumah. Stay at home and protect yourself and your family. For more information on COVID-19 in Malaysia, click here to the official PMO website. In Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison (Scomo) has announced that the country’s borders is closed in order to curb the rate of infections. Until 9.00pm 20 March, foreign nationals who have recently arrived in Australia must self-isolate in a home or hotel for 14 days after entering Australia. Residents or direct family members will be allowed entry. From 9.00pm 20 March, only citizens will be allowed to enter Australia. Now, the reason for this decision is consistent with the decisions we’ve already made on this issue, and that is we now have around 80 percent of the cases we have in Australia, that either are a result of someone who has contracted the virus overseas or someone who has had a direct contact with someone who has returned from overseas. So the overwhelming proportion of cases in Australia have been imported and the measures we’ve put in place has obviously had an impact on that… Morrison is keeping Australia running, while practising ‘social distancing’ to a 4-square metre distance between people in indoor areas. For information on COVID-19 in Australia, visit the Department of Health’s website at https://www.health.gov.au/. Good things come in threes at Go International Group… From a company stand point, our team is safe and working remotely away from the office is something we are used to so the Stay at Home call is something we can do while Keeping the Business Running. We realise that this has already affected not only the way in which we operate as a business ourselves, but also how it impacts other businesses, and the livelihoods of those working with, and within Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Our first initiative is a collaboration between our very own sport and fitness portal AsiaFitnessToday.com and Society for Exercise is Medicine Malaysia and issued this Infographic below as a community service. More virtual classroom activities are in the works, and will be announced soon. Our second initiative was to pass on savings from a negotiation with our principal media partners. Any companies wishing to disseminate issues or crisis communication news releases during the Malaysia Movement Control Order period valid until 14 April 2020 will receive a US$100 discount on their first press release or 15% discount on two releases or more disseminated via the PRNewsGIG/AFTNN platform. Our third initiative is designed to bring free AID to the elderly, frail and underserved populations at no charge to them. We’ve issued a call for #Move8 Warriors to join us as Community Leads in their own neighbourhoods with the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack playing in the background for our first ever Move8 Tea Dance-a-thon on 13 April 2020. Learn more: www.move8.org. So while we launch these three initiatives during the COVID-19 self-isolation and social distancing times, word of the day is “unprecedented” and we’re bracing our families, friends and business as best as we can in the safety of our homes, washing hands with soap for a minimum of 20 seconds, and pray for mankind to emerge the winner in the race to defeat the Coronavirus strain. Take care, be kind, stay at home and let’s continue to keep our lives running … from a distance.
Corporate Social Responsibility
Go International Group Dotcom founder and Chief Experience Officer Jasmine Low was invited to share her experiences at a session among Coach & Grow program cohort companies on PR and integrated marketing. She designed a 45-minute talk on “An Insider’s Hack to an Integrated Marketing Communication campaign”. Here’s the deck in slide share, and feel free to reach out to Jasmine with your comments, feedback or questions.
Have you ever wondered what ‘ubuntu’ means? I first came across this word when upgrading our office PCs to the Ubuntu operating system about a decade ago! Little did I know, that the origin of the word, which inspired the name of the free OS, was a philosophical term from Africa. Ubuntu is a Nguni Bantu term meaning “humanity”. It is often also translated as “humanity towards others”, but is often used in a more philosophical sense to mean “the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity” – Wikipedia Like the term in Bahasa Malaysia, ‘bantu-membantu’ or ‘gotong-royong’ are terms that were derived from the community, meaning to help one another or to work together. Recently, I stumbled upon another African inspired teaching, made known to the public by two Dutchmen Thomas Roebers and Flortis Leeuwenberg who directed and produced an 11-minute documentary on ‘Foli’. “Foli” is the word used for rhythm by the Malinke tribe in West Africa. But Foli is not only found in Malinke music, but in all parts of their daily lives. Directed by Thomas Roebers, this short film portrays the people of Baro, a small town in eastern-central Guinea, and gives you a glimpse inside their culture of rhythm. As the Malinke man says, “Tous les choses, c’est du rythme.” (“Everything is rhythm.”) What makes this film even more beautiful is the fact that it was edited so as to reflect Malinke rhythms. – Everyculture.com And this, is truly the DNA of the vision of GoInternationalGroup.com. It is my goal to steer the company towards making a positive impact in our immediate community and society where we participate as citizens of the world. Ubuntu + Foli both helped form our inspiration. Our vision in 2018 is to simplify our business to deliver Creative Event Technology solutions for our clients, and produce signature festivals that embody all that we love; rhythm and movement. A company is the sum of its people, a country its citizens, as man was made to mirror God. My resolution for this New Year is to provide a working environment for my team such that we nurture greatness through freedom of creative innovation. Simply put, a corporate culture that stimulates people to Be Amazing. Email your resume to KL@gointernationalgroup.com if you’d like to join us on this journey to bring JOY to customers. Happy New Year!!! Sincerely, Jasmine Low CEO, GoInternationalGroup.com
GoInternationalGroup.com has incubated AsiaFitnessToday.com – a fitness lifestyle startup since 2014. After 3 years of market research, development and testing out the product in the marketplace through fitness education and events, the team has rolled out the beta version of Asia Fitness Today – slated to be Asia’s No. 1 fitness media and activation company this Q4 2017. Asia Fitness Today (AFT) is one of 400 companies selected by Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Malaysian Ministry of Finance for the Coach n Grow program (CGP). Created by Chief Evangelist Dr. V. Sivapalan and CEO and Chief Explorer Renuka Sena of Proficeo, the program employs a team of coaches, partners and trainers to implement the CGP. CEO Renuka has been dubbed the entrepreneur’s “Iron Lady” and “Guru Besar” (headmistress) by the CGP Companies she worked with – a label she has grown to love – for constantly demanding more from each and every one of them. Jasmine Low, Asia Fitness Today CEO and co-founder shared, “We have found the CGP program truly innovative and motivating. As an entrepreneur since I was 27, I’ve not had the time nor opportunity to be grilled by a Guru Besar and we sincerely appreciate the commitment that Ms Renu and her team have given us. An additional boon to the program is their CGP pay-it-forward program, that encourages companies in the same cohort to give back in way of service and advice to one another,”. Asia Fitness Today (AFT) has one MAIN OBJECTIVE; and that is to Move Asia through fitness – safely and surely. Both founders have personal stories on why they each have committed to raising awareness about the importance of fitness and health. “Fitness is not just the state of your body, but the state of your mind”, said Nikki Yeo, AFT co-founder and ACE-certified fitness coach. “We have developed a 100-day program for busy and sedentary corporate executives. It begins with simply changing a person’s mindset from living a sedentary lifestyle, to living one that involves movement, and feeling good about it. It’s only natural that once the person commits to moving, they would release dopamine and feel good,” she said. On 5th November, AFT partnered with the prestigious OCBC Cycle Race Kuala Lumpur 2017, organised by Multigreen Events. Team AFT comprised of a fitness coach, four physiotherapists and two doctors who conducted the signature Moving Asia Movement Prep and Warm up sessions to the 2,200 participating cyclists. Join the Asia Fitness Today Moving Asia Movement here. Invite us to your event and enlist our help to start moving your colleagues too!
Original brief version published in Quora by Jasmine Low We welcome at least a dozen or so interns from local universities as well as from global mobility programs from Australia and Indonesia annually. Before we accept the cohort of interns, our management team prepares a project that the students will undertake during their internship. In the project brief, there are key performance indicators (KPIs) that the students will seek to satisfy. We find it’s great to assign a co-worker to welcoming the interns, and a key management staff to manage, guide and offer the face time so students can get accustomed to the workplace and feel free to ask ANY question they may have. We take internships seriously, and we see it as a way of ‘giving back’ to the ecosystem. Personally, I enjoy spending time with students as it keeps me grounded how young minds tick. Students also offer us insights into what’s new and what’s cool. Their feedback do matter. In structuring the internship program at your company, I’d recommend listing down a job scope. Here’s one for design/multimedia/IT/business interns: Research, data mining & data entry Cold calling with telephone script Setting up of social media accounts Social media updates via all relevant channels Online community engagement Appointment setting Account Management Design, copywriting, finished artwork Business proposal or business plan writing Attending conferences / workshops / talks etc Taking notes & keeping Contact Reports And… making a good cup of coffee! We’ve often brought interns along for meetings, and we find them very appreciative of the experience being involved. It helps when you announce to your client that the intern you’ve brought along is an intern, and will be observing. Well, in a nutshell, you get out what you put in. So if managers spend valuable time with interns, you’ll also reap the benefits. We’ve heard so many stories where managers send them off making coffee and photocopying, well then.
GoInternationalGroup.org, the corporate social responsibility (CSR) arm of GoInternationalGroup.com was launched in 2015. Our vision is to enrich the communities where we work, live and play through sharing of creative knowledge. We believe that by creating platforms like talks, conferences, events, gigs, festivals and even other creative projects like videos, vlogs, blogs, we are able to foster a healthy environment for mutual exchange of knowledge. Our mission is to: Enable peer-to-peer education Create platforms for knowledge exchange Empower youth via our programs Utilise creative technology as empowerment tools, wherever possible Focus areas: Technology Video Games Music The Arts You can support our Vision by attending any of events, partner with us, or by simply donating to our cause. VIVID Sydney is a unique annual event of Light, Music and Ideas and takes place annually in the beautiful city of Sydney! In May 2015, Gointernationalgroup.org presented its first series entitled: //GO INSPIRE SPEAKERS SERIES// INSPIRING SOCIAL CHANGE VIA CREATIVE TECHNOLOGY The 2-hour talk featured individuals who have harnessed creative technology for their social change campaigns. The talk was held in collaboration with VIVID IDEAS (Vivid Sydney 2015) on 23rd of May 2015 at the Museum of Contemporary Art at The Rocks in Sydney. Speakers included Favio Chavez of the famed Recycled Orchestra of Cateura Paraguay (via Skype), Saskia Wilson of Flashpoint Labs and Priscilla Brice of AllTogetherNow.org and was facilitated by Jasmine Low, Co-founder of Go International Group Dotcom. The inspiring session was coupled with a networking opportunity after, inspiring like-minded individuals to come together and make positive changes within the communities where they live, work and play.