Siraj Log

Sun Feb 23, 2020

Scheduling of Workshops in Taiwan, Mainland China, Japan

Main concerns

1. 9 day workshops aren't going to be practical in any of these countries as work culture doesn't allow for much available time
2. The best case scenario is to hold the 9 day workshops during golden week, national day and chinese new year holidays
3. Alternatively, breakdown workshops into smaller chunks offered on weekends.
4. Typically, students will study on Saturday in Mainland China.
5. Company staff will be working on Saturdays often in both Taiwan and China.
6. Long work hours during the week are common in all three countries so evenings unavailable.
7. We need to be concerned about income differences and workshop pricing in Asia v.s. North America and Europe.
8. English as sole language may be an issue in market reach
9. Marketing budget and time far too inadequate.
10. Prep. time and budget inadequate.
11. OSE business model may have fundamental flaws outside of N.America and Europe. There is no OSE reputation and extensive leg work required by man on ground in Asia.
12. Payment approaches need to be considered, especially for China
13. Eliminate over use of google, facebook, amazon API. Add analytics and tracking. And obtain additional demographic data.
14. Landing pages for registration need to be translated in to Chinese (simplified/traditional) + Japanese.
15. Prep. material, presentations for teaching. Plus presentations for marketing and negotiating with organizations, schools, companies seem to be limited.

Income Differences

Below is the per capita average income for countries. Workshop price needs to factor in the level of disposable income available and the size of market

1. U.K. = $42,558 usd/pp
2. U.S. = $62,606 usd/pp
3. Japan = $39,306 usd/pp
4. Taiwan = $24,971 usd/pp
5. China = $9,608 usd/pp

Potential Schedules

I'm interested in doing these workshops in three potential countries: Japan, Taiwan, China - I have links and familiarity with all three markets to varying extents

Marketing Targets

1. Direct to teachers marketing: Approach international schools especially those focused on sending students to U.S. and European Universities to provide extracurricular activities via these workshops. Here provide teachers with training during the summer and winter holidays to provide students with club projects and the like. Approach the local board of education in each location and individual schools. Workshops will need to be adapted to suit the needs of and schedule of the schools.

1. Direct to company marketing: New hires or team building related activities for networking and for skill development. Willingness for such training is more likely with foreign companies in Taiwan, China and Japan. Local companies have training.

1. Hacker Community, Art Co'ops, Incubators, Accelerators: Many hackerspaces in Taiwan and a large community of enthusiasts. Here we can make use of the hackerspace itself. Incubators are a major thing in both China and Taiwan. Must be careful as there are many fake incubators and accelerators in China.

1. University Students and Cram School Students: Direct to student (and parent) marketing

1. Continuing Education of the Elderly: This group in China will be a hard break in community as there is a higher proportion of under-educated people. But a lot of free time available and an interest in showing off to their community. A community building tool for social support for the elderly. Especially important in Japan where isolation is a serious problem. Though also issues in China and Taiwan.

1. Family activities and outings: Family activities for younger kids maybe a good in road for workshop marketing. Multi-generational involvement to build strong families relationships - potential problem in China and Japan compared to Taiwan.

1. Foreign and Local Tourism: Taiwan is a major holiday destination for tourists from Japan, S.Korea, (formerly) China, U.S., Indonesia. Work with travel agency to offer tourist learning packages.

1. Bilingual Language Exchange: Business English training for engineers and scientists. Opportunity for networking and language learning.