Behind the Scenes | GetCraft Conference | Looking Towards 2021 SouthEast Asia

Behind-the-Scenes | GetCraft Conference | Looking Towards 2021 SouthEast Asia

Orchan Director Dr Craig J Selby just spent over ten hours preparing for a ten minute presentation! WTF, right? But it was worth it. 

GetCraft, SouthEast Asia's premium creative network, hosted its final conference / webinar for 2020 this afternoon, and Orchan was invited to represent Malaysia. No pressure, whatsoever :P 

Alongside other senior Marketers and industry specialists from Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, and the Philippines, Craig on behalf of Malaysia shared insights into economy and society, and the broader implications for the marketing industry.  

This was an opportunity for regional CEO's and other stakeholders to get a quick snapshot as to the current state-of-play in each market, and to get perspectives on issues as they are playing out 'on-the-ground', as opposed to 'in-the-media'. Such a realist approach enabled each speaker to highlight important issues and to give direct perspectives and reflections on their impact. 

Craig spoke on one of his passion areas, Globalisation, or in this case, 'deglobalisation' as a key feature of this new norm - and how that manifests into changing consumer patters. He touched upon the 2020 political climate, economic support and recovery initiatives, changing commercial and retail demographies, the upswing in e-commerce and last mile solutions, along with 'eldertech' adoption trends which is tightly related to the previous comment. Also explored were the potential impact of EPF withdrawls on spending patterns, increased bankruptcy within the millennial generation, and tertiary education changes and its impact on newbies into the workforce.

The (rather extended) Q&A session gave rise to questions on e-wallet trends, new patterns of consumption, healthcare and big pharma, and what to expect with the advertising industry in 2021 as businesses start to bounce-back from Covid restrictions.

What a year it has been. Still here, still surviving, still kicking a$$, and looking forward to an up-swing in 2021 on so many fronts.