The empowerment of 10,00 youths in digital entrepreneurship skills and knowledge is a mutual initiative by the Ministry of Youth & Sports and Malaysia Economy Corporation (MDEC) through the eUsahawan Young Heroes Programme. Everyone who attended enjoyed the fun and intriguing topics discussed.
Close to 2,000 entrepreneurs from across Malaysia was rendezvous at Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Center (MITEC) to celebrate the rise of their achievement as successful young entrepreneurs for this year.
Young Heroes Summit 2019 provided the entrepreneurs with multiple opportunities to discover, understand, and engage the digital economy. It is a great platform to extend networking opportunities among each other, meeting and learning from the event’s co-organiser, Facebook and learning more about the latest technology and digital trends for 2020.
We felt grateful to be involved in this surrounding with professionals around that come out with fresh knowledge for the entrepreneurs. The day-long event included an announcement that all entrepreneurs who attended the event will be receiving access to a new and easy-to-use video library and editing platform. Provided for free for a limited time by MDEC, this service will roll out in stages in Q1 2020.
Special invitation for MU DOT MY from MDEC got us thrilled to participate in the conference. It was a serendipitous experience as we can learn, understand, and leverage on the major functions and benefits of being digitised. To date, this programme has trained 20,653 young entrepreneurs. More astounding is how, collectively, this group of newly trained youths managed to record RM52 million in sales generation.
Conference Agenda
“At its core, the programme is all about empowering youths across the nation with digital entrepreneurship knowledge and skills. This programme, and other initiatives that MDEC has in place, provide Malaysians with the right insights on how they can thrive in the digital economy. Ultimately, we want to digitally enable and empower Malaysians through ecosystem initiatives like eUsahawan and this event,” said Surina Shukri, CEO of MDEC, small- and medium-sized entrepreneurs (SMEs).
The eUsahawan Young Heroes Bootcamp, launched in 2019, is designed especially for Malaysians and country’s youths. This platform provides continuous advancement of digital marketing skills.
Morning Conference
“We are always supportive of any initiatives that encourage digital adoption amongst microentrepreneurs in Malaysia. The eUsahawan programme is in line with the government’s aspiration to spur entrepreneurship and accelerate the digital economy. By working with global industry players, this initiative opens up important prospects by introducing in-demand digital skills that range from marketing, content creation, and social media engagement. This ensures these young entrepreneurs are provided with the right digital skill sets. This will expand the development of a capable and digital-savvy talent pipeline that can help propel local businesses to the regional and global stages,” said Dato’ Suriani Ahmad, Secretary-General, Communications and Multimedia Ministry, Malaysia.
“The Youth and Sports Ministry has been taking proactive steps to develop comprehensive programmes that accelerate innovation, enhance talent skills, and hone latent skill potential of the youths. Case in point, this eUsahawan Young Heroes initiative is one of the key platforms we are focused on,” said Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, Minister of Youth and Sports Malaysia.
“We recognise that SMEs are the backbone of the nation’s economy and we are committed to support initiatives like KBS-MDEC’s eUsahawan Young Heroes Programme in helping SMEs grow and contribute to the country’s digital economy,” said Nicole Tan, Country Director of Facebook Malaysia. “Today, we are pleased to jointly celebrate the success of these young heroes that the programme produced. We will continue to invest in initiatives that will help SMEs build digital skills, encourage digital adoption, and scaling education to more businesses”, she added.
Using chat or messaging to buy and sell online is a very common behaviour pattern now in Southern Asia. This trend, known as Conversational Commerce (CC) is a consumer behaviour with two factors. First, it engages conversation influence – the process of having an online chat with a brand or seller to purchase or post-sale. After that, it leads into Conversational Transaction – a process where buyers place or confirm a final order over social messaging applications or on the chat system inside eCommerce websites.
Afternoon Conference
Facebook has launched an online campaign – Commerce In The Era of Conversation to help businesses get to know customer expectations in Southeast Asia and beyond. This is another step from Facebook for businesses create and deliver effective and meaningful conversations with consumer.
With the complemented of knowledge and skills in digital marketing, these entrepreneurs are one step forward to gain additional sales growth by accessing the online marketplace.