2nd Global World Innovations Forum, Digital Conference
We are living in a world where Co² emission, energy consumption and major travel expenses are highly sensitive topics. We are also living in a digital age where connections are made through networks, people learn to “read” the digital body language and adapt to a digital experience. All good reasons for moving even major major conferences into the digital space.
What can you expect:
- 3-DAY EVENT – 3 1/2 hours each day, packed with keynotes, discussions, technology introductions and more
- LIVE – The whole conference is streamed life
- NETWORKING – of course networking is a key aspect of any event. Digitally it will be even better.
- PUBLIC VIEWING – Local public viewing in at least 10 countries, connect locally, experience globally
- INNOVATIVE STARTUPS – Contest winners from Africa and South East Asia present – hold your breath
- GLOBAL INVESTOR DISCUSSIONS – a network of global investors investing in fast growing businesses
- ECOSYSTEMS – some super innovation ecosystems dwarf what is created in the west
- MULTI LAYER INNOVATION – learn about the various facets of innovation, products, processes, business models and more.
June 23 – 25 we will conduct our second World Innovations Forum Digital. We expect approximately 1,000 attendees from around the world online or joining local public viewing sessions. No CO² emission, no travel, no expenses, but top speakers, great interaction, lots to learn and lots to share. And yes, networking as well – digitally. More information will be released at the beginning of March, so check back regularly for updates.
Our online conference experience
After an amazing experience in 2018, where we launched the World Innovations Forum with a global online event, we promised to continue in a two years rhythm.
Our 2018, approximately 500 attendees joined us from 41 countries: Albania, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, El Salvador, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Macedonia, Nepal, Netherlands, Nigeria, Mexico, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Ukraine, United kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan, Vietnam.
A new dimension in high tech conferences
There was never any innovation conference on a global scale run all online over multiple days. If you would come from Hanoi, Lagos, Helsinki, Shanghai or Kathmandu to us in Zürich, it would take more than twice of your time, would cost you easily $2,000 travel alone, the cost for putting the show together would end up in a $1,000 to $5,000 entry ticket and the environmental payload would be mind boggling when 1,000 people fly in.
Of course, in a physical event, it is different when you sit in a ball room together with 1,000 people and discuss what you heard, exchange business cards, reconnect after the conference and so forth. But why not do the same digitally? We prepare the infrastructure to meet all attendees in our digital forum. There you can follow them, connect with them, chat online and re-connect after the conference.
What a fast emerging nation. After the typical get to know each other and what our plans are, we have been very welcomed. At our entrepreneurs night at THE DESK in Phnom Penh, we met three amazing teams with very creative ideas. One is building a business that focuses entirely on e-commerce returns and its entire logistical challenges for any e-commerce operation that is not as powerful as Amazon. Another team, also in the e-commerce business, found a way to build a hybrid for small shops with no digital affinity to slowly emerge into the digital world by offering a scalable model from no digital to fully digital. And a third company is bold enough to actually stand up to Amazon and Alibaba by building an e-commerce platform with already over 100,000 products, mainly from China, at a purchase price level of the likes of Amazon. Bun, the founder, had already built a successful startup in Phnom Penh and had an exit with which he started his new company. All three joined the Accelerator program in Vietnam 3 weeks later. The event at THE DESK, who thankfully hosted the World Innovations Forum, had a significant impact on us and the ecosystem in Cambodia.
Our first visit to Vietnam was at a charity event from an already old friend from previous visits. His family is helping disadvantaged people, mostly women who are helping others. A very inspiring event with very moving examples of their work. It also shows that Vietnam is on its fast rise upwards where people make a lot of money but probably sooner than in other societies give back to those in need. In general, it was a great start meeting with all the people we met before. Since we are not a stiff and programmatic organization but people that love to work with people, friendships come more naturally. We believe it is what is needed to create impact rather than the impact on a report for donors.
Our first seven accelerator flights have been before our work in emerging countries and were attended mostly by entrepreneurs from developed countries. The only exception was Flight 4, which was a spontaneous “Refugee Accelerator.” There we tried to help entrepreneurial refugees from Syria and Afghanistan to start their own business in Berlin, Germany, and instead of seeking jobs creating jobs. The result was four companies created, and two years later, 36 jobs created plus one going back and now helping entrepreneurs in Afghanistan to start their own business.
A new and very strategic partnership was formed with the Innovation Capital Management group that joined our global WIForum Innovation Capital Network. It’s the first investors’ group we have on board. The common ground is to make investments into startups in emerging countries much more accessible and to attract foreign investors by offering standardized stock purchase agreements in the English language with a notarized translation into the local language. The ICN project is still in the making but will be rolled out globally in 2020. Local investor groups from the countries we work in, such as Angel groups or venture capital firms, can join and collaborate on a framework that allows cross country investments, as long as the respective Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy for private equity exits ts in the respective country.
Another important partnership signed Marita with the SunChan Incubator with multiple locations in Vietnam. The idea is to help the organization adapt our new Innopreneurs Academy Program, an accelerator framework that allows the partners to work with a full-blown business model through a much-extended program, including corporate innovators and mid-market businesses. The signing happened during the TechFest in Halong Bay.
At the end of our stay, we visited a fantastic TechFest 2019 in the beautiful Halong Bay in northern Vietnam. We performed several workshops, gave keynotes, and conducted lots of meetings.
It was a pleasure and honor to meet the Minister for Science and Technology, Tran Van Tung, during the event and together on one of the podium discussions. You feel the ambition and energy of the country all the way to the top political ranks, very different than most other Southeast Asian countries. You literally feel the energy in Vietnam.
