Finally, it’s over.

This has been one of the most exciting yet challenging launches to put together — so many wonderful products and so many experiences to compress into a tight day and a half.

Events like these are a great way for us to connect with customers and learn first hand how they feel about HP products. Having worked at HP for a decade plus, it is a personal joy to see the way the business and customer perception of HP as a company has evolved.

The notebooks have really led the change perception. The really cool imprints, which are true examples of aesthetic excellence (the notebooks are not just differentiated by colours alone), would have been totally unthinkable just 2-3 years ago. They are changing the way people look at commercial products and, as an HP employee, I am delighted that I no longer have to explain why our products are really great stuff with reliable technology, even if they are lacking in the looks department.

But, customer feedback counts a lot more than how I feel and what I say. And the greatest pleasure is when someone walks up to me and says that HP is really delivering cool products. This gives me a swelling of pride on a par with when my daughter comes back and tells me she got 100 marks for her spelling test.

One question that I always get asked is what are we doing to respond to a certain vendor moving from a direct to a distribution model? This always puts a smile on my face. The beauty of it is that we have believed (when everyone else assumed otherwise) that the ultimate battle is won when together with our partners we offer our customers a choice of how to buy and where to buy. This steadfast belief did not make us a Wall Street darling then but it allowed us to define our customer engagement in a way that is uniquely HP.

And the other “favourite” question is regarding our flagship store….urrrrrgggghhhh! I keep having to tell these friends of mine that you can find HP products almost everywhere and NO they are not all consolidated under one roof and YES it would have been a physical challenge considering the range of products and services that we have to offer and the scope of customer needs, both consumer and commercial, that we respond to.

But more importantly, the consumers’ profiles and opportunities have also changed. The netgen group, for one, have grown up with a keyboard and a mouse in their hands; they probably have fixed a family picture with their photoshop skills and spent more time downloading music, games and screensavers than playing with Lego and Barbie dolls. They don’t need to walk into an IT mall or get educated on why they need to buy a PC or notebook, for crying out loud. They know what they want and they know where to get them.

They now want to experience the technology and how it can integrate with their lifestyle more effectively and intuitively than before. They want to see this in action and then they will walk into an HP store and buy that model. It’s a little like how a boutique mixes and matches different pieces of outfits and accessories to deliver different looks —the customer finally settles on the piece that works for him or her.

So yes, it has been a tiring but fruitful time spent sharing with our media friends these exciting products and defining moments of experience. And now, I just want to kick off those heels and collapse into blissful sleep.

Until the next event…

Engage. Excite. Experience is officially over.

Bags were packed up and everyone is headed home. But that doesn’t mean that this is the last blog post from us.

Stay tuned to this blog for announcements and news on when the products launched here in Hong Kong will reach you.

Meanwhile, I’m off to meet up with friends and unwind. Catch you later!

At HP’s product showcase yesterday, I found a couple of exhibits that would interest SMB owners. And it wasn’t just a display of products and solutions. There were actual “small/medium business set-ups” - showing how PCs and printers (and the oft-overlooked Point-of-Sales systems - or POS) would work together to fulfill essential business needs.

Using a new tool released from Microsoft Live Labs - Photosynth - I had a couple of exhibit photos stitched together to give you this little ‘tour’ of the Suzie Jeans office set-up:

Photosynth joins photos together and presents them to the viewer with, according to Microsoft, “the cinematic quality of a movie, the control of a video game, and the mind-blowing detail of the real world.” While it’s not the best ‘virtual tour’, you can find more Synths I created at the event here.

If you have problems viewing the Synths, we can stick with what works and view all the event and product photos on our ‘Experience HP’ photo collection.

Ok, so I’m kidding you. HP is not going into the Spa business, but what inspired this title was the deceivingly-real Spa service menus, marketing collateral, and essential oils packaging! All found at HP’s technology exhibit yesterday.

I was at the Back Office Showcase yesterday where HP demonstrated their technology for Small and Medium Businesses. You’ll find loads of photos here that show you all the products and solutions displayed in the Back Office showcase yesterday…

And I’ll be back shortly with an interesting ‘perspective’ of the event…

At last I’ve managed to get my hands on some of the new toys on show here! Technology has never looked so beautiful. You have to see these laptops and PCs with your own eyes to fully appreciate their incredible designs — the pictures just don’t do them justice. I posted earlier about the imprint laptops and it looks like a lot of research and development went into the stunning fall collection. But these are not just pretty faces. They have awesome features too.

Here’s what I have been playing with so far:

The HP Imprints – Inspired by imagery, travel and lifestyle trends!
- ‘Renewal’ HP Pavilion dv4 Entertainment Notebook PC – Completely gorgeous and inspired by spring and new growth
- ‘Intensity’ HP Pavilion dv5 Entertainment Notebook PC – Like the name suggests, this is definitely intense. Inspired by eco design, nature and the famous Japanese woodblock print “The Great Wave” by Hokusai.

HP TouchSmart IQ800 Series
This one takes my breath away! It is touch-enabled with an AMAZING 24-inch true high-definition touchscreen. I have identified my favorite.

HDX PCs
Those craving for high-end entertainment and gaming should should check out the premium HDX series: HP HDX 900 Desktop PC, HDX 16 and HDX 18 notebooks

HP has also launched its wireless printing solutions with the C5380, C6380 and D5460. Not only are these printers wireless, they come with a five-ink printing system! Can you imagine the quality of the printing that comes out?

We’re back, reveling in the comfort of our hotel rooms - after an eventful night at The Peak.

The evening started with a tour of the EA Experience Center. We checked out the HP experience zones, where HP desktop and notebook PCs were set in game booths and outfitted with game-themed wallpapers and icons to match.

HP Experience Zone @ EA Experience Center

It ended with a good dinner…. and we were fortunate to have had clear skies and spectacular views of the Victoria Habour.

It’s been quite a day! So goodnight world… and see you tomorrow!

I’m sure all you gamers know Electronic Arts and that Hong Kong has its very own EA Experience Centre (located on the scenic hot spot of Victoria Peak no less). Well, HP has just announced that it will partner with the EA Experience Centre to create a mind-blowing experience for Hong Kong’s gamers.

So far, I have just seen the photos and it looks very cool. I’ve also been hearing that visitors to the center can enjoy gaming sessions on HP laptops and create unique personalized software applications and memorabilia that will be available nowhere else.

Be sure to put the EA Experience Centre on the itinerary for your next visit to Hong Kong.

More after we visit the place tonight!

This is a first for me – experiencing an HP event virtually on this blog, while the team’s miles away in Hong Kong, busy with the Engage. Excite. Experience event! It feels a little strange especially knowing that the team is working hard on the last bit of preparation on the eve of the event.

I’m staying back because I’m into my 3rd trimester with my Baby - the 4th actually - and deemed unfit for travel.

And the other Baby I was alluding to in my title – is HP’s Alternate Experience Centers. It was a vision that was conceived by my boss, to connect more emotionally with our consumers, getting them to experience HP where they shop and play. So if the vision was conceived by my boss, then I’m like the surrogate mother, giving it more shape and life. It’s been an exciting journey so far, trying to carry the 2 babies to full term, though it’s like a roller coaster ride at times, exciting and at the same time nerve-wrecking, worried if something will go wrong with either of them, just like any mummy would be…

You’ll hear more about the Alternate Experience Center from the rest of the team in Hong Kong… You can see photos of the Vivienne Tam boutiques here; and this evening, they’re going to visit the EA Experience store - the first and only one in the world – where the PC gaming zone is outfitted with HP HDX and Pavilion branded desktops and notebooks and have been individually paired to popular game titles, namely Spore, Sims, Crysis and Need for Speed. The desktops and notebooks are also installed with game themed icons and wallpapers. My 2 favourites are the ones for Crysis and Need for Speed (though I’m no gamer myself). What’s more we’ve specially developed a desktop-based application for the HP TouchSmart IQ800 PCs for Spore which allows the user to have his/ her own picture superimposed next to their SPORE creatures and emailed to friends.

Stay tuned… and so will I!

Melvin has been blogging up a storm about this morning’s keynote, but the announcement about our retail business solutions is something personal to me because it’s my first event for HP since joining in July.
I’ve been both excited and looking forward to this with trepidation since a lot of work has gone into this (not just with me but with the rest of my colleagues as well).

Just today, during my retail solutions enabler track, we shared a lot about how we intend to transform HP’s retail business. But more than that, we also intend to give all retailers a helping hand in improving their in-store experience, and corresponding this will translate to an improved customer experience as well.

Running one’s own business is not easy. Even the thought of the technological needs of running a company can be daunting enough to me a migraine attack, let alone the typical business owner. However, at this year’s Engage. Excite. Experience event, we are showing how we will help retailers tackle these problems with the solutions designed to support their entire business lifecycle.

This week in Hong Kong, we’ve laid out a very exciting retail solution for businesses of different sizes. Check out the event photos below. As you can see, the complete day-to-day technology needs of a business are almost completely covered. With either one of these solutions powering your business, you’re ready to get started!

Here are the product highlights from the track that i’m managing:

rp3000 Point of Sale (POS) Solution
- Developed for, and is ideal for the smaller retailers
- Affordable, retailed hardened POS that can be customized based on various business requirements
Dc7900 Business Desktop PC
- Use this as your primary workstation
- Power-saving technology cuts down your costs
HP Color LaserJet CM2320 MFP Series
- Print, copy, scan and fax all in one
- Reduce your footprint – less space and power used

Details can be found on the press release.

Though the above are representative of just some of the products and solutions that will drive a business’s operational efficiencies and help in the reduction of costs. The bottom line here is that running your own business does not need to be a headache. The technology available now – as demonstrated by HP today — means entrepreneurs can spend less time worrying about the day-to-day grind and focus more on their customers.

The days of bringing your roll of film to the store are now over! Ok, so those days have been over for a long time already. But pre-selecting digital snaps and taking them to a photo shop is still a hassle. Even burning them onto a CD can be a drag.

That’s why the photo stuff on show here at HP’s Engage. Excite. Experience. is really grabbing the crowd’s attention. With innovative solutions, HP is not only making printing photos easier, it is turning the whole process into a family affair.

Did you know that CGV in South Korea opened a HP Photo Café - an express digital photo printing shop? But beat this… it doesn’t just print your photos; you can print fancy digital photo products such as albums, calendars, CDs, greeting cards and posters too. And, it is a much lower cost option. AND, HP is doing the same thing in India. Future Group collaborated with HP to open up Foto Depot and now it is already in 4 Indian cities.

Who said that digital photos were only meant for viewing on the computer? With these photo booths, all you need is your camera with the memory card. It doesn’t get more hassle-free than this.

Another big photo-related draw here at the event is HP’s Snapfish – an online photo-sharing tool available for families to share their photos before printing. Viewing and sharing those precious moments are central to family life everywhere in the world.

Whatever your magic moments are – reliving and sharing them will be a whole lot easier with these innovations.

More information here. And back later!