It’s the first day of the iMedia Southeast Asia Agency Summit, here in rainy Phuket. Yes, the rain has been off-and-on, but so far, that hasn’t put too much of a dampener on spirits, unless anyone was craving for the beach.

Today’s event started at 5pm with a “One Minute Match Up”. All of the agency delegates sat at their assigned seats, while members of the media and publishers moved around the table, kind of like musical chairs. The idea was that the delegate and media member would have one minute to get to know each other, exchange namecards, that sort of thing. Every minute, there would be a bell and a recorded voice, saying, “Please move.”

Of course, few people actually stuck to the rules. One minute was probably too short for a proper introduction. Nonetheless, in the hour allotted for this session, I got to meet a few folks, half of whom were already familiar with XM (yay!).

A cocktail reception followed, where we could mingle more casually and catch up with old friends or make new ones. Later, we were ushered to a ballroom for dinner, sponsored by Tribal Fusion. There was a short presentation about what Tribal Fusion does (it’s an advertising network that sells advertising solutions across content verticals, it’s key difference being that it also scans those content to better understand the websites in those verticals), and then the buffet dinner commenced. Another round of drinks followed after that.

Today was a short day, with delegates arriving almost the whole day. But the next two days should be packed with keynotes, discussions, and fun!

Balasingam-Chow Yu Hui, with Rueben Anthony, is representing XM Asia Pacific at the iMedia Southeast Asia Agency Summit in Phuket, Thailand. The conference is on 5-7 October at the Indigo Pearl. Stay tuned to find out what’s happened at the conference.