Startup Impact Summit 2019 Recap
A core event of the StartmeupHK Festival 2019 by InvestHK
If you think Startup Impact Summit, held on 25th January 2019 at HKCEC, is just another conference, think again. You’re going to be reading about the conference that showcased impact, and created impact on Hong Kong’s startup scene.
Introduction with Numbers
First things first, let’s do a quick number-drop to properly illustrate and introduce Startup Impact Summit.
Startup Impact Summit is on the 5th day of StartmeupHK Festival by InvestHK. The host, WHub, is one of the 7 vertical champions to host during the weeklong festival. #sis19
Startup Impact Summit has condensed 365 days of HK startup ecosystem life into 1 day to showcase the impact the local scene is creating. With 100 exhibitors, 40+ world-class speakers from 20+ countries and 3,500 who stepped through the doors to Startup Impact Summit, sparks were flying everywhere.
Although we were hosting the conference, we were also consolidating powerful collaborations. WHub has signed 4 Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs), including a partnership within Asia — with IndiaTech Hong Kong, as well as with organizations representing countries in Europe and Middle East — with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF), a German foundation for liberal politics, Nordic Innovation House Hong Kong, a soft-landing concept for Nordic entrepreneurs, and Kokprojekt, a Turkish business development company for the food industry.
Friday was busy, but it was full of impact. We made use of every bit of space to make sure our attendees and supporters felt the incredible vibrancy of the Startup life.
StartmeupHK Festival
(Excerpts from Official Press Release)
Hong Kong’s annual StartmeHK Festival, organised by InvestHK, was packed right to the last minute after a week of events loaded with surprises, insights and thoroughly entertaining speakers. Guests throughout the festival had shared wisdom and discussed their experience in entrepreneurship, funding, creativity, communication, growing a business, and more, along with the pain, the setbacks and the struggle for success.
The week drew well 17,000+ delegates and 300+ speakers, presenters, panellists and performers to HKCEC. The events comprised of Healthtech o2o Summit, Tech[LIFE]style Conference, Retail’s Cutting Edge, Jumpstarter, The Connected Cities Conference, AI & Education Conferenceand Startup Impact Summit. While the events focused on different aspects of technology and start-ups, the link between them was an emphasis on new trends, fresh thinking and cutting-edge innovation.
Main Stage
Our impressive lineup of speakers really wowed the crowd… did you know that our official hashtag #sis19 was trending on Twitter? (Locally but still.) Please excuse the casual humble-brag! (#sorrynotsorry)
Opening remarks were a reflection of the innovation, passion and impact Startup Impact Summit brought to Hong Kong that day. Led by Karena Belin, co-founder & CEO of WHub, followed by Stephen Phillips, Director General, InvestHK and enhanced by Tammuz Dubnov, Founder & CEO of Zuzor, the open remarks highlighted Hong Kong’s startup achievements and encouraged the community to collaborate and build impact through synergy.
Our two stage areas — Main Stage and Inspiration Stage, were always filled with thoughtful listeners who were eager to meet and discover the heroes and champions in the startup space.
We’d just like to give a GIANT shoutout to our charismatic team for absolutely working and rocking those stages:
- Moderators & Speaker on the Main Stage: our awe-inspiring co-founders, Karena Belin, CEO, WHub & CFO/COO, AngelHub, and Karen Contet Farzam, CEO, AngelHub & Chief Hustler, WHub
- Master of Ceremony of the Main Stage: our quick-witted and charming Alchemist — Gram Milosevic, CTO, WHub
- Moderators of Inspiration Stage: our favorite startup celebrity — Felix Wong, Growth Manager, WHub, and our PR expert, David Li, Chief of Staff, AngelHub
- Master of Ceremony of the Inspiration Stage: Besides our own team, Richard Claydon, the Chief Executive Misbehaviourist of Organisational Misbehaviourists, did a phenomenal job
Our speakers included many big names, with our Hong Kong Unicorn Panel including Lalamove, TNG Wallet and WeLab, a fireside chat with Jason Calacanis - the Angel Investor of Uber, a call from GoogleX co-founder Tom Chi, all the way from Silicon Valley. We were graced with Ann O’Dea, founder of InspireFest and co-founder & CEO of Silicon Republic, Amit Agrawal - ex-head of YouTube India & founder of OckyPocky and Shanti Mohan - Founder of LetsVenture… Here are our 6 favorite quotes (in no particular order):
1.
“The most important thing is taking some form of action. And you don’t even have to pick the biggest problem to work on, it just has to be a real one.” — Tom Chi, GoogleX co-founder
2.
“How do you solve problems? You need people and how you get people to work for you is to give them meaningful projects that will deliver impact.” — Yat Siu, Founder & CEO, AnimocaBrands
3.
“If you’re very early stage, found in Hong Kong. It’s dense, diverse and megaconnected. If you’re late stage, come too! Perfect launchpad. Ultimately, don’t worry too much: it all matters less if you think global from day 1!” — Karena Belin, Co-Founder, WHub & AngelHub
4.
“When you’re small startup, don’t only chase well-known investors — you might not have the connections and luck to get to them. Focus on growing the business first, don’t be greedy.” — Alex Kong, Founder & Chairman, TNG FinTech Group
5.
“It’s important for leaders in the industry to realize that they put the same people forward all the time. We need diversity, not because of gender or race but because of professionalism.” — Ann O’Dea, Founder, InspireFest
6.
“The most important skill is the ability to learn new skills.” — Jason Calacanis, Angel Investor of Uber, host of Angel University
In partnership with Explorium HK, the innovation Hub of Fung Group, we also hosted an Open Innovation Challenge where passionate innovators submitted online where they thought Hong Kong’s biggest growth areas were and the top 5 were invited to pitch on stage.
The judges’ panel winner was “Happiness & Resilience”, which deals with how Hong Kong only ranks 76 globally in world happiness scale and how we should build a non-judgemental society. On the other hand, the audience chose “The Future of Youth Skills”, which questions how we could create an equal environment to enhance the hard skills and soft skills for future generations.
Exhibitors
This is where all the hustling happens. You would not believe how many of our exhibitors told us that they’ve been talking and networking nonstop and are very satisfied with the useful leads and connections they’ve hade.
WHub is well-known for connecting talent and startups, and our #11 Tech & Startups Job Fair was no exception. Besides the 29 top-notch startups recruiting (including Neat, miro and Lalamove), we also had expert Diane Mensah, founder of Work In Progress, providing one-on-one career consultation for free. We showcased, connected and educated, the Job Fair brought on the #impact.
Besides matchmaking talent, we also hosted a special Startup Services Marketplace with Zegal to ensure that visiting startups can find all the services and resources they need to fast-track their landing and scaling in Hong Kong. We were especially glad to have Xero, a beautiful online accounting platform, introduce how their services can consolidate your pitch, speed up organization and so much more. This area was constantly buzzing with tactful banter, serious negotiations and budding collaboration. The Startup Village, Pavillions and Booths of Sponsors areas matched this energy level.
Perhaps some of the most unique and intriguing party of exhibitors were the ones that dotted the conference. We had a designated nap zone with Dreem and SilentMode coaching power naps, 2 bicycles set up by HK Solar Sound System which generated power, MobiJuce and ChargeSpot to fuel your mobile phones, and ShadowFactory providing the best mind-boggling VR experience.
Workshops
“Learn something new every day — the good and the bad.” This is the sagely advice from Alex Kong, Founder & Chairman of Unicorn TNG Wallet during the unicorn panel.
One of WHub’s pillars is to educate. In this fast-paced, ever-evolving startup space, we understand that you need to constantly be learning, be innovating and be upgrading in order to stay in the game. We’ve therefore arranged workshops for the startup key players of different needs.
To help and solve common hurdles startups face, Zegal had a series of workshops on how to simplify common but cumbersome procedures, including streamlining legal and tax processes. They‘ve also giving pointers to entrepreneurs and founders on how they can nail their pitch for fundraising and networking.
Before the #ChallengeHK finalists were pitching on stage, Explorium HK arranged for experts to help the 5 teams refine and polish their questions and pitches. Besides intensive brainstorming with colorful post-it notes and mind mapping, it was really cool that they brought an artist to listen in and to immediately visualize the solution.
It was our incredible honor to have Jason Calacanis, one of Silicon Valley’s most famous Angel Investors (he was one of the first people to put his money on Uber) host his 5th Angel University here in Hong Kong, a workshop for Angel Investors. Sponsored by AngelHub, Hong Kong’s first regulated startup investment platform, this was a highly exclusive workshop for selected investors only.
Those who’ve made an impact
Officially, we’re a small team of 15+ that organized the conference, however, it wouldn’t have been as amazing as it was without the support, facilitation from our Sponsors and Supporting Organizations.
We’d like to give a MASSIVE THANK YOU to all these awesome groups of people.
Thank you for joining us!
We hope you will continue to show your support for all our activities and to put your faith in us to keep the Hong Kong startup space connected and growing. #StartupPassion
Stay connected with WHub, let us lead you to Startup Stardom!
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