About 2 weeks ago I was pleasantly surprised to find out the documentary series I hosted for Discovery Taiwan was nominated for Best Documentary Series at this years Asian TV Awards. Always up for an awards night anyway, so was very happy to be invited to join the Discovery table tonight.

This year it was held at the Shangri La Hotel, and they did a fantastic job with the menu – A lot of seafood and fish which was great! Only thing missing for me was juice! Entertainment included local funk hip hop group Sixx and an all girl dance group.

With Dominic Lau (E News Asia) and Joanne (LI TV Asia)

The best part as always was the chance to catch up with friends and make some new ones! Got to see Alaric Tay and Chua Enlai from the Noose (They won Best Comedy Program and were both runner up to Best Comedy Performance by an actor), Anthony Morse (His program – Hidden Cities on History was nominated for Best General Entertainment ) Dominic Lau & Oli Pettigrew (Both nominated for Best Entertainment Host), Henry Golding (His show was nominated for ), Jourdan Lee (Nominated for best Actor in a leading role), Linda Black (Co-host for the evening with her hubby Oli) and Rebecca Lim (Who was a Guest presenter on the evening). Click here to see all Asian TV Awards 2011 the nominations.

Also caught up with Kav, who worked on our documentary “Eye on Taiwan : The Search for Lost Happiness and the Search for Lost Fertility for Discovery. We got nominated for best Documentary Series which was awesome. Was was even more awesome, was we actually were runners up – scoring a “Highly Commended” Status. Congrats to the production team Samsara Films, Chandi Jayawickrama, Karina Holden, Kavitha, Joyce Huang, August, Umesh, the rest of the team and Discovery Networks!! Click here to see all the Asian TV Awards 2011 winners!

It was also fantastic to to meet many of the hardworking creatives and business heads behind the scenes.

Big thanks to Discovery Networks Asia Pacific for their kind invitation to join them and Congrats to Discovery for their 3 Wins!!! All in all a great night to celebrate Asian TV!

For more photos visit  Derrick’s Facebook page here

With Discovery Networks Asia Showing off their 3 Trophies for 2011

With Alaric Tay and Chua Enlai, The Noose Best Comedy Program Winners

With TV Host Henry Golding

Eye on Taiwan – Search for Lost Fertility – Best Documentary Series 2011 Runners Up!!! – Highly Commended:)

For more photos visit  Derrick’s Facebook page here

Its been over a year, I know, but finally the video has been completed. Check it out! Launch 3 is still in the works. Stay tuned!

Credits: Executive Producer – Launch, Production – Vizuall Studio & Billy Yuen , Host – Steve Lai

LAUNCH 2 – Singapore’s Premier Exclusive Networking Event For the Film, TV and Media Industry from Derrick Siu on Vimeo.

With the added buzz building from the first LAUNCH in February at the Helipad, LAUNCH 2 landed with around 250 creatives coming together for one night of networking fun. LAUNCH 2 sported a new venue with an open air registration at Indochine’s Cocoon Bar + Supperclub at Clark Quay. The Vibe was happening from the moment attendees registered and walked the ‘Pink Carpet’ and got their photos snapped in front of the new look ‘Launch’ backdrop. Many were then caught chatting to camera with host Steve Lai, the new face of ESPN Star sports.

Once inside the excitement of creatives coming together for one night to connect was electric. It was a great night with many catching up with work colleagues and of course making new connections whilst enjoying the great atmosphere and music by the specially selected local musicians – Yelyn and Crystal, Frances Maria Lee & Marcus Lye (with Joshua Chew)

Loads of great Prizes were given away from all the wonderful sponsors who supported the event. Old friendships were rekindled, new friends were made, collaborations set in motion. It was as one stated an ‘epic’ evening enjoyed by all.

About a Month ago, I had the opportunity to host what is to be the beginning of a series of Industry Guru Networking Events organised by the People’s Association and.  And what a great speaker they secured! – Mr Jim Rogers – An American investor and Author – who co-founded the Quantum Fund with George Soros back in 1973,  has circumnavigated the world twice – once on a motorbike alone, and the second time with his wife in a customised Mercedes Benz.  This 3 year, 245,000km journey achieved Guinness World Record Status.  He definitely has taken the dream of most people of travelling the world to the extreme!

It wasn’t surprising then to see a full house at the Jubilee Hall in Raffles Hotel all eager to hear Mr Jim Rogers address. He gave an inspiring and humorous talk about his journey in life, his successes and failures,  his travels and when pressed during the question and answer session – the occasional ‘financial tip’ despite him stating explicitly at the beginning he would not:).  Although mostly known for his financial success, his most important message he shared was not sharing what he saw as the biggest opportunities for financial gain to achieve the wealth we all want, but rather a great reminder to do what you love, and the wealth and success will follow.

It was a great evening and I hope to make the next one!

Special thanks to Raffles Hotel for sponsoring the Venue, Lindamans for the selection of wines and the generous sponsorship by Frank Cintamani, Chairman of The Celton Group and Fidé who all made this event possible.

This year has marked a renewed determination to stay fit after realising that I had let myself go a bit during an extremely hectic period of filming in late 2010 and early 2011.  So after getting back home from a period of filming overseas – I decided to start off with something simple – Running.  I also thought it would be good, as it would help increase my lung capacity which would be good for my vocal development.  As well, at the time I thought the running would be a relatively inexpensive exercise to partake in – After running over 500km, participating in 4 races and purchasing all kinds of running gear, I realised how wrong I was!

In any case, its been a enjoyable journey, and what started out from a 2km run, has extended up to 25km race with plans to go the full distance with a marathon at the end of the year.  I think one of the great aspects of running is it gives you time to clear your mind, in essence its a kind of meditation – something which my overactive mind and type A personality needs to help keep me in balance!

I’ve been meaning to blog about my running journey this year for a while (Since I started my first run in late January this year (2011), but wanted to wait till I completely refreshed my blog (its still currently undergoing some debugging – but good enough to start blogging again – anyway, when you get the inspiration, its best to act on it, before it goes I believe.)  Anyway this blog entry is start. I’ll be covering some of the races I’ve entered in the upcoming entries – 2XU Compression 12KM run, Passion 25Km run, Sundown Half Marathon, and the Gold Coast Half Marathon.

But for now I want to  share an inspirational video I came across a few years ago, which was the real reason I started writing tonight – And since I find it very motivational particularly for running and other similar sports I thought I’d use it to get my running blog happening.  Anyway  its  just a great inspiration for whatever aspirations you may have and a demonstration of what love is.  -  Its the story of Rick and Dick Hoyt, A father and son duo who have  competed in 240 triathlons, 68 marathons and hundreds of other races together around the world (over a 1000 and counting!) And they have clocked amazing times including a 2hrs 40min for a marathon! When I say together, I mean the Father Dick pushing his Son Rick in a wheelchair for the entirety of the races!  Its Truly Inspirational.  I hope I get the chance to meet these guys at an event one day. Anyway do check out the video below:

If you liked that video, you may want to hear the story behind this amazing father and son.

I just did a quick google search and found out they now have a website (checked a couple of years ago, but I don’t think they had one then) check Team Hoyt here

Enjoy & Goodnight!