I made my way to the capital city, Kuala Lumpur, last week for two purposes; event blogging and networking. One of the events that I attended was MOFEW, Malaysia’s (1st) Online Charity Fashion Entrepreneurs Weekend, which was held at the Exhibition Centre at MidValley Megamall (MVEC) from 13th to 15th, August, 2010. Entrance was free.

MOFEW, to many, was a place to shop for mostly female apparel, shoes, bags, costume jewelry, fashion accessories and beauty products. Besides being an offline avenue for online entrepreneurs to sell, it was also an opportunity for companies that provide web services to solicit customers and expand their user base.

And then there was a specific company that promoted their Entrepreneur Boot Camp which they claim is free though participants have to pay MYR50 to secure a place at the day-long course and I was told that at the end of the course it will be refunded.

The founder of this company and two of his partners were wearing clown wigs and when I was approached by one of them to participate in this “free” course, I was very interested, not because it was “free” but because I thought that it was a course to learn to be a clown. No, I don’t want to be an entrepreneur. I just want to be a clown. Bwa bwa bwa!!!

I forgot to mention that the venue was swarmed with credit card sales people. I know how tough it is to sell credit cards but I wasn’t interested. The mostly male sales people were very friendly yet persistent. One guy kept pushing to me a sheet of promotional F&B vouchers that he said I would receive if I were to sign up with his bank. I said that since I am from Ipoh (Ipoh mali!)and most of the vouchers are only valid at outlets in the Klang Valley, they would be useless to me. Upon finding out that we are both from the same city, he insisted that I support a fellow Ipohan. I had to disappoint him and told him that if he was promoting something else instead of credit cards, I would surely support.

Even though MOFEW looked like a flea market, I managed to see what I wanted to see and I would say that even though I haven’t time to follow through on the information that I gathered that day despite being home a week already, it was still quite a fruitful trip.

And guess what? The freebies-loving me totally didn’t expect to receive a goodie bag. We had to register our particulars at the entrance in order to receive it, though. I did and was delighted to see that although most of the items were promotional freebies sponsored by some of the major participants at MOFEW like DiGi and KFC which looked like leftovers from other promotional events, I was still very happy to receive a free watch. Yes, I am a sucker for cheap promotional watches, even plastic ones!

KFC promoted their new Snax website at MOFEW. We had to register there and then and were given a goodie bag too. I have to say that despite being a large advertiser, KFC was pretty cheap. Inside the bag was “only” two sticker sheets, an advertisement promoting their Snax programme, a voucher worth MYR1, an Isotonic can drink (not in picture) and a Clash of the Titans movie premium water tumbler. Oh yes, I should also mention the paper bag that these came in.

I also received a few vouchers for free make-up and manicure sessions courtesy of Snips and 50% discount vouchers on waxing services @ Strip – Ministry of Waxing. Coming from Ipoh, I wonder if I will have the chance to take advantage of these vouchers. I may go to KL off and on but certainly do not have the luxury to beautify myself.

Having attended MOFEW on Day 1 only, I wonder how successful the event was for the organisers. Will we be seeing another gathering of online entrepreneurs next year?

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