In our last post about RISE, we shared one of the biggest personalities of the event and what he said: Gary Vaynerchuk of Vaynermedia, who stole the day with his talk on the importance of EQ. But there were hundreds of speakers and many other memorable personalities during the 3-day event. This is the who’s who and who said what of RISE Hong Kong last week, brought to you by the organizers of #RISEconf & writers Dylan Kelly and Anna O'Hare.
RISE Day 1 - July 11
Having seen a rockstar game developer, an array of drones and much more, RISE Day One came to a close. Here are just some of the highlights, including picks from CNBC, who were catching some of RISE's speakers on the ground in Hong Kong.
The cult hero 
Min-Liang Tan’s gaming company, Razer, inspires devotion – fans have been known to get the brand’s logo tattooed on themselves. Min-Liang talked about how to keep you community engaged, and we grabbed him after his talk to get him to answer questions that up and coming startups had.
Making wearables wearable
“The vision for wearables is always to make devices that don’t look like wearable tech,” said Misfit CEO Sonny Vu on Centre Stage. We caught Sonny after his talk and put our startups’ questions to him.
Taxi turf wars
Grab have introduced a real-time data analytics system, which they hope will help them match consumer display and demand. Co-Founder Tan Hooi Ling talked about the new system and how to get ahead in a particularly crowded marketplace.
Think locally
As Microsoft’s Executive Vice President of Business Development, Peggy Johnson is in charge of cutting deals for one of the world’s bona fide behemoths. In conversation with The Wall Street Journal’s Yun-Hee Kim on Centre Stage, she encouraged startups to solve local problems first before attempting to address global needs.
A sustainable future
Ambarish Mitra is CEO of unicorn Blippar – an augmented-reality advertising company which allows people unlock digital experiences from the physical world. He gave a Centre Stage talk on how AI can fit into a vision for a sustainable future.
Credit: The post Cult heroes and taxi turf wars: It’s Tuesday’s RISE highlights appeared first on RISE | HONG KONG 2017.
RISE Day Two had plenty to live up to after the prior day's opener, but didn’t disappoint. Day Two highlights, included big names from Facebook and Twitter, the Indian Marvel, and one of Time’s most influential.
The joy of organisation
Marie is an organisational consultant who is leading the charge against clutter – she was named as one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential in 2015. She gave a Centre Stage talk on how to cut all that’s unnecessary from your life and how organisation can make you happy. Marie once showed CNBC’s Akiko Fujita how to pack her suitcase by rolling her clothes and throwing out things that do not ‘spark joy’. Watch it here.
Franchise tag on me
Holly Liu founded mobile gaming company Kabam in 2006 and has helped lead the company to $400 million in revenue and unicorn status. As mobile gaming looks to redefine its core model, Holly chatted about the move to a franchise-based system.
I feel a billion is in the air
Facebook building for its next billion users and looking at building services to reach the next wave of people coming online. Director of Global Product Partnerships Ime Archibong told Centre Stage how.
Pole position in Indonesia
After a $500 million investment and launch late last year, Mataharimall are in prime position to capitalise on the potential of Indonesian e-commerce. CEO Hadi Wenas told us why.
Onto the next one
Twitter has conquered the west and become a leading social media player in most of its major territories. Will they be able to do the same in Asia? VP Asia Pacific & Middle East North Africa Rishi Jaitly talked it out on Centre Stage.
Rise Day 3 - July 13
RISE came to an end after three incredible days of legendary networking and inspirational talks. 8,144 people from 88 countries around the world came along. Here’s what attendees saw on day three of RISE.
Changing the way the world moves
Following the morning’s announcement of a new $3.5 billion funding round, Uber’s Head of Asia operations Allen Penn took to Centre Stage to discuss their progress in the Asia market.
Part VC, part lawyer and part psychology counsellor
Closing the stage were two powerhouses in the world of tech investment: GGV Capital Managing Partner Jenny Lee and 500 Startups Founder Dave McClure. They discussed how investing is so much more than parting with money.
The Humin face of Tinder
Tinder’s acquisition of Humin showed that the dating app was stepping in a new direction, away from pure dating and towards general contacts management. The move put Ankur Jain in the role of Vice President Of Product. Chloe Cho of ChannelNews Asia talked to Ankur about how the partnership is going.
How not to get screwed in a venture financing
Matt Barrie, the force behind Freelancer, offered up his boldest tips for startups in this exclusive presentation to the Startup University audience. He took an unpopular yet insightful stance on how startups should be raising funds and staying afloat.
We have a PITCH winner
Mytaxiindia absolutely rocked it and were announced as winners of PITCH. We managed to grab the team just after they found out they won. Check out our interview with them.
Making a BREAKTHROUGH
BREAKTHROUGH is RISE's startup competition especially for unfunded Hong Kong startups. After a number of tough rounds, MedEXO came out victorious. RISE is hoping for big things from them – last year’s winner Goxip went from zero to $1.62 million in funding.Credit: The post Uber, 500 Startups and GGV Capital: It’s RISE Day Three highlights by writer Anna O'Hare appeared first on RISE | HONG KONG 2017.
CNBC’s RISE highlights
CNBC were on the ground throughout RISE, looking for that next big tech story. Here’s a selection of their interviews during the event:
Drones for good
EHang Co-Founder Derrick Xiong talked how the company is partnering with United Therapeutics to use unmanned aerial vehicles for delivering organs from production facilities to hospitals for transplantation. Check his interview with CNBC here.
Relax, telecoms
Messaging drives data demand in India – that benefits both telecoms and mobile messaging, explained Kavin Bharti Mittal, Founder and CEO of Hike. Here he is with CNBC.
Right back where we started
The term fintech was essentially coined to describe tech companies who have moved into financial services, reckons Neal Cross, Chief Innovation Officer at DBS. Catch his chat with CNBC.
Drones on demand
SwarmX CEO Pulkit Jaiswal told us about the firm’s fully autonomous drone operation platform that keeps drones charged and ready to execute missions on-demand. Here he is with CNBC.
Drone users and creativity
Aerial technology is increasingly being used in real life scenarios, a drastic change from previous years when it was just hobbyists. That’s what Michael Perry, Director of Strategic Partnerships at DJI, told CNBC.
The Indian Marvel
Graphic India’s Sharad Devarajan shares his mission is to create a superhero character that is culturally Indian but globally relevant. See his CNBC interview here.
People power
Any good Chinese startup will see dozens of copycats spring up, so ZhenFund’s Anna Fang only backs a startup with a strong founder. Watch CNBC talk it over with Anna here.
Lightweight champion of the world
Zero Zero Robotics’ MQ Wang shared the features of the Hover Camera, a lightweight drone which provides eight minutes of air time with a full charge. Catch his interview with CNBC here.
Credit: The post The charge against clutter and Facebook’s next billion: It’s RISE Day Two highlights is written by writer Dylan Kelly and appeared first on RISE | HONG KONG 2017.
We’ve got more coverage of RISE and all the big news to come out of RISE. Stay tuned!
About RISE Conference
Brought to Asia by the organizers of Websummit, RISE currently holds the title of the largest and most well-attended startup conference in Southeast Asia. Hosted annually in Hong Kong & targeting 15,000 attendees this year, it also features a Night Summit with “legendary networking” on the streets of Hong Kong after dark. It is also well-known for its Alpha packages targeting startups and some great discounts for women attendees to boost women in tech.
Note from the organizers: As of this year (2017) RISE is no longer a singular conference but rather home to many independent conferences. Each with its own stage, schedule, exhibition area, workshops and networking events. For example, digital marketers attended PandaConf as their conference within RISE and SaaS will also be at SaaS Monster conference within RISE. These conferences alone constitute the largest global gathering in the industries. Attendees gained access to many conferences hosted within RISE, and were able to learn about every major industry that involves technology. (Credit: RISE Conference)
After a $500 million investment and launch late last year, Mataharimall are in prime position to capitalise on the potential of Indonesian e-commerce. CEO Hadi Wenas told us why.
Twitter has conquered the west and become a leading social media player in most of its major territories. Will they be able to do the same in Asia? VP Asia Pacific & Middle East North Africa Rishi Jaitly talked it out on Centre Stage.
