On paper, Beta is a conference about media and journalism. In reality, it’s a mini festival of innovation and inspiration that celebrates the power of the industry.
I haven’t been able to get Rishad Patel and Alan Soon’s opening address out of my head.
Standing onstage alongside a giant sign made out of balloons that reads ‘Beta’, they explain that hospitality is the theme of this year’s conference – because it sits at the heart of everything the industry does.
“If you’re in media, you’re in the hospitality business,” says Patel. “Modern media is user-driven, demand-based, highly intentional. It is also, ‘How can I help you today?’
“It’s not enough to just publish the news. Building a good product is only one part of the puzzle… The best of media happens when we make our audiences feel seen.”
Helping people put that puzzle together is Patel and Soon’s bread and butter.
It’s been 10 years since they started Splice, their “little startup” dedicated to helping people create viable media businesses in Asia.
And for the past five, they’ve hosted Beta, an annual conference that brings the industry together from all of corners of the globe – there’s folks here from Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, China, Fiji, South Africa, Italy and, of course, our delegation from Aotearoa.
During that welcome session, Soon and Patel set the tone for the next few days, starting by acknowledging those from Myanmar in the room and the current brutal military regime the country lives under.
They continue by celebrating all 255 delegates, both first-timers and returning attendees, explaining that the Splice community has been intentionally crafted to reflect their commitment to gender balance.
Just over 53% of delegates identify as female. For the speakers, that number rises to 55.3%, while 68.1% have never presented at Beta before. Patel and Soon add that Beta is also proudly a “manel-free” community.
“These numbers are not a coincidence, they are designed like this with pride. Hold us accountable,” says Patel. “If you’re an event organiser, we invite you to do the same. Gender imbalance is a decision, not a side effect.”
Diversity matters in media because it helps you understand what your users need – and serving those needs is why we’re in the business in the first place, says Soon.
“You can’t serve people you don’t know.”
There is meaning to everything at Beta. Held at Chiang Mai University’s Faculty of Mass Communication, the volunteers running the registration desk are current media and communications students.
Fitting with the hospitality theme, they wear branded shirts with the word “chef” on the back. The programme has been designed to look like a Chinese takeout menu, and there’s a pair of pink chopsticks inside the pink conference bag.
That programme starts with yoga, then breakfast in the university cafeteria, which is next to a small waterfall. The meal is run by Sonny Swe, an exiled journalist from Myanmar who has literally set up shop in Chiang Mai, running Gatone’s Teashop as well as his media business.
Beta sessions run from 9am until about noon then from 2pm to 5pm. The three concurrent streams featuring interesting topics from artificial intelligence, investigative journalism, burnout and balance, as well as exiled media, make it extremely difficult to pick where to go.
Access and connections
You don’t often go to a conference and get to have a one on one with a keynote speaker – but accessibility and connections is the name of the game at Beta.
A Telegram group provides a means to chat with speakers and attendees, while the luxurious 90-minute lunch break allows time to catch up with speakers you may have missed.
Beta also offers clinics, which provide a 45-minute one-on-one session with a speaker to talk about their topic of expertise. These book up within minutes and I was lucky to bag two.
To have dedicated time with a leader in the industry to pick their brains and get advice is invaluable and I am so grateful to both Xin Feng, Founder of Beijing SourceEngine Technology and Mili Semlani, who manages the Splice Slack community, for their time and expertise.
The programme is rounded out with networking events at picturesque locations across Chiang Mai, with a quiz and a photo as the final course.
There’s hugs and definitely tears as goodbyes are said, but we all leave with a more inspiration and new friends than we came with.
It has been an incredibly tough year for media and journalism here in Aotearoa and the industry feels like it is in prolonged survival mode.
But being at Beta and hearing about incredible projects – including Feng’s SourceEngine that delivers AI-powered open-source intellingence for businesses and individuals, or Cambodia’s Impact Hub that partners with creators and journalists to create public interest content – restored hope that our industry will persevere.
As Patel says: our job is to help people solve problems and create more meaningful lives – and that is never going to change.
Zahra Shahtahmasebi was able to attend the fifth Splice Beta, held from November 5 to 7, thanks to the support of the Asia New Zealand Foundation.
This was first published in the December-Janaury 2024/2025 NZ Marketing Magazine issue. Subscribe here.
