Nulab CEO participates in panel at 2016 IDEAS Show
Going global as a startup isn’t easy, and the truth is, it can’t be done alone. Nulab is one of the few startups in Japan to expand their business internationally, and we know we couldn’t have done it without the support of our users, community, and dedicated friends and family. As a result, we’re always looking for ways to pay it forward.
2016 IDEAS Show
Our CEO Masanori Hashimoto is sought after for his expertise in the startup ecosystem. He gets invited to speak at events all across Asia, and most recently, he was invited back for a third time to act as a guest speaker at the 2016 IDEAS Show in Taiwan, a startup pitching event commissioned by the Institute for Information Industry that brings together 15 countries and more than 3,000 participants.
Attendees
As we said, we’ve attended this event twice before, so we know what a great opportunity it can be for startups. We were extremely honored to be invited back, and we wanted to share the experience with our fellow Fukuoka startup community. So we decided to bring along a few fellow Fukuoka startup teams to join us.
Creating these kinds of networking opportunities for both Taiwanese and Japanese startups is crucial for our industry, and it’s an important part of giving back.
Fukuoka mayor Soichiro Takashima with Japanese startup teams and Startup Cafe members at 2016 IDEAS Show
While at the event, we saw some familiar faces, including the mayor of Fukuoka, Soichiro Takashima.
Takashima sees events like the IDEAS Show as an important chance for local government and the startup community to collaborate and connect.
Fukuoka mayor Soichiro Takashima visits the Nulab booth.
The diversity of attendees is what was most impressive, with people from across the globe representing countries like India, Korea, Singapore, Vietnam, Japan, Israel, the United States, France, Russia, China, Sweden, Malaysia, and more.
Activities
This year was somewhat special for the IDEAS Show because it was the first year they collaborated with APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation.) This collaboration helped expand the event’s international reach and collaborative nature even further.
The conference, which took place over the course of two days (July 20 – 21) at TICC Taipei International Convention Center, was filled with guest speakers, competitions, panel discussions, matchmaking, forums, and exhibitions.
With thousands of attendees, over 50 speakers, 32 competing groups, and six official APEC representatives, there was never a lack of things to engage in or interesting people to meet.
Spotlight Talk Panel Discussion
Most notably for us, Nulab CEO Masa participated in a Spotlight Talk panel discussion focusing on the startup market in Northeast Asia. The 20 minutes session, led by iiiNNO’s David Kuo, included fellow panel members Xia-Ha, co-founder of Capsule, and Tom Brooke, co-founder of Qurate.
The panel discussed some of the biggest startup trends in North Asia, including IoT, AI, and data mining, as well as Taiwan’s growing gaming market.
From left to right: Nulab CEO Masanori Hashimoto, Capsule CEO Xiao-Ha, Qurate CEO Tom Brooke, iiiNNO CEO David Kuo
You can view the full discussion below, as well as in the IDEAS Show panel playlist on YouTube.
Nulab CEO Masanori Hashimoto being interviewed by Taiwan’s USTV
Final Thoughts
From creating tools that enable startups to succeed to sharing our experiences and insights at industry events, we stay engaged in the startup community to make sure we never forget where we’ve come from or all the help we received along the way. We can only hope that the startups that come after us continue to do the same.