I'm passionately curious about life events that change trajectories. And I've had a few of those moments: studying at Penn and MIT in the United States and K.U. Leuven in Belgium, switching from a stable 'scholar' career track at an established firm (Singapore Airlines) to a (then) upstart company (Viki) that didn't even seem like it was based in the right location (Singapore, not San Francisco).
So even though I'm not a startup poster boy, I've been lucky to have the benefit of experience that would be useful to others starting down certain paths. That's why I give talks - it is my way of giving back. You can never start too early in giving back.
This post is essentially an invitation to organisers - if you're looking for a speaker, maybe I can help by being one. I'm particularly interested in speaking to these three groups 1) youth / students 2) people at a transition point of their lives 3) curious polymaths.
In the past, I've spoken about:
-
Growing Startups across Geographies at MIT Tech That Matters Series
- Singapore is a hub for startups and technology, but startups founded or based here cannot afford to restrict hiring or innovation to Singapore. Fabian shares personal and practical lessons learned from helping startups like Viki and Peatix grow across geographies.
- 7 things I learned from having a beer (and my 90 beer caps collection) at BarCamp Singapore 6
- Have you ever wondered why is it that twist off beer caps have not taken over the world?
-
The Price is Right: Ticket Pricing and Human Behaviour from the Airlines’ Perspective at BlinkBlank #11
- Ever wonder how air ticket prices could vary so dramatically? How do airlines decide on pricing? In this talk, Fabian Lua won’t quite go so far as to “Break the Airlines Code”, but he will give some insight into airlines’ approaches to figuring out how much consumers are willing to pay to travel. He will also share some anecdotes that reveal the lengths people go to score cheap tickets and find loopholes in the system.
- As you can imagein, I got into some trouble giving this talk.
- Dogfooding: A Product Manager's Best Friend at Hackers & Painters
- Fabian Lua (@fabianlua) talks about when Product Managers need to "eat their own dog food". The talk will cover lessons learned from building a set of new subtitling tools at Viki ("global TV site powered by a volunteer community of avid fans"). Fabian is currently the Community Growth Manager at Peatix and was Product Manager, Community at Viki.
Related experience I have:
- Guided architecture walks (my own project) and art walks in Tiong Bahru and Marina Bay (with OH! Open House)
- Co-organised talks at TEDxSingapore, TEDxMITClubSingapore, MIT Enterprise Forum Singapore, Backstage Pass at Peatix etc. Attended conferences like TED Global.
- Attended lots of talks series like Creative Mornings and Pecha Kucha Night.
- Essentially I'm familiar and comfortable with different formats, and have seen a bunch of great talks.
Other topics I can talk about:
- Hacking the wine list. About how to choose the best value wine from a restaurant menu. Because I prepared this talk halfway but never gave it.
- Being Singaporean in a tech startup. Because there just aren't enough Singaporeans venturing out to startups.
- Taking a scholarship or not, and career choices / transitions. Because I was a Singapore Airlines scholar, and jumped to a tech startup.
- Startup culture, and culture in startups, including working remote. This is a topic I'm passionate about.
- Becoming a product manager (or moving from being a product manager). Because that's what I've experienced.
- Stroke happening to someone close to you. Because my dad suffered from a sudden stroke.
-
Architecture in Singapore. I'm not an architect, but I'm a fan.
The easiest way to start a conversation is to leave a comment below. I don't know where this will go, but I'm just putting it out there!
---
Related post: Help others wholeheartedly (How I network)