Habitat Update — Jul / Aug 2018
A recap of past events and a guide for upcoming activities in the Kansai region.
The heat is real! Not only are we experiencing the hottest summer in decades in Japan but July has been very busy with many smaller and larger events and festivals in Kansai:
Most notably the annual Gion Matsuri (Gion Festival) took place in Kyoto, attracting many domestic and inbound tourist to the ancient capital. Every year the whole month of July is dedicated to the festival with two big procession through the heart of the city featuring large floats and masses of spectators. It is Japan’s biggest such festival and dates back to the year 869!
This year the wooden floats of Gion Matsuri were joined by a digital waggon of knowledge rolling into town: Le Wagon Tokyo, the internationally acclaimed coding bootcamp from Paris, announced a first batch in Kyoto! Le Wagon has been successfully teaching programming and organizing events in Tokyo since early 2017 and recently opened applications for a first bootcamp in Kyoto starting October 2018. We have been hearing great stories from graduates of past programs and are happy to welcome the team in Kansai. You can read more about the news in the official announcement: https://medium.com/le-wagon/le-wagon-is-coming-to-kyoto-75369dec14fc
It is great to see international movements finding their way into Japan and successfully collaborating with local organizations — connecting individuals and strengthening the ecosystem. Just as the communities of Startup Weekend Kyoto (54 hour startup building event by Techstars) and Flamingo (language teaching platform from Japan) did too last month with a first joint meetup. It was a very enjoyable and diverse evening with the opportunity to learn more about and get inspired by the cause of one or the other group.
Making new friends and meeting individuals of various interests and backgrounds is also what The Habitat is all about! Particularly Habitat Drinks — the monthly casual meetup for startup people at Sauce Boss in Osaka — and we were once more joined by an exciting group of people from all over the globe for a fun evening eating wings and enjoying drinks.
Habitat Drinks is supported by the Gochiso team. Gochiso is offering a free service that enables you to donate through dining, and we have been using the platform throughout the last Habitat Drinks events. It was time to make use of the points we collected (1815 Gochiso Points = JPY 1815) and we donate them to TELL, an NPO providing support and counseling to Japan’s international community and its increasing mental health needs.
The donation process is really easy: once you have any amount of credit on your Gochiso account by dining at partner restaurants of Gochiso and uploading your receipt, you can simple select what organization you want to donate to and submit the set amount without any additional questions asked. Alternatively, you can also use your credit to pay your meal next time you are eating out at one of the supported location.
If you have any further questions about NPOs and the Gochiso platfrom, or if you just want to meet local startup people and have a good time: join the next Habitat Drinks on August 16 (Thursday)! Looking forward to meeting you.
You might have noticed that we skipped July regarding Habitat Meetup but fear not, we are back in August with a very exciting next event: we’ll be hosting a group of motivated local students to pitch their “Japan x Hong Kong” business ideas. A very important milestone for the students, who will adjust their pitches based on your feedback before presenting their projects in Hong Kong the next month.
In that sense, it is very important that we not only pursue our own interests but support and nurture the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs to tackle future challenges.
With that, I believe to have set you up with the right mindset for August. Please find below a list of further events for you to attend in the upcoming weeks and don’t forget to follow The Habitat on Twitter and Facebook to not miss any announcements and updates from the startup ecosystem in Kansai.
Thank you and stay hydrated!
Upcoming Events in August 2018*
*Order by date. Please click on individual event-link for details.
- Cross Cultural Team Building — Monozukuri Hub Meetup (Aug 1 — evening, Kyoto)
- Hammer Out Your Business Plan (Aug 2 — Osaka)
- Kyoto Mentoring & Coworking Session — Hacker News Kansai (Aug 4 — afternoon, Kyoto)
- Japan x Hong Kong Student Pitch — Habitat Meetup (Aug 9 — evening, Osaka)
- The Monthly Osaka Makers Meetup (Aug 11 — evening, Osaka)
- Habitat Drinks (Aug 16 — evening, Osaka)
- Japan x Hong Kong Student Pitch Part 2 — Habitat Meetup (Aug 21 — evening, Osaka)
- Ruby for Beginners Workshop — Le Wagon (Aug 21 — evening, Kyoto)
- UI & Design for Beginners Workshop — Le Wagon (Aug 23 — evening, Kyoto)
- How to Start — Monozukuri Hub Meetup x Kyoto Startup Summer School (Aug 29 — evening, Kyoto)
- Hacker News Kansai Meetup (Aug 31 — evening, Kyoto)
- Startup Weekend Kyoto (Aug 31 — Sep 2, weekend, Kyoto)
Did we miss anything?
Let us know and we see that it is included in a next update!
Criteria:
- Takes place in Kansai region (Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, Nara, …)
- Related to entrepreneurship, innovation, startups, …
- Is held in English / features English content
Thank you!
