As the global start-up movement Slush debuts in Singapore on 20 September 2016 the full agenda, with the overarching themes, has been released. The themes intend to show what the world could look like in 2026. Entrepreneurs will go on stage at the Resorts World Convention Center in Sentosa to share their stories of their struggles before the success.
Organised in partnership with Techventure (as part of the new ‘Tech Week’ concept that brings together partners in the technology, innovation and enterprise ecosystem in a series of complementary events in Singapore) the event offers a mix of talks, fireside chats and panel discussions by tech veterans and newcomers from Asia and the world.
Future Stage – a Window Into Tomorrow
The Future Stage will feature exciting talks on topics covering unmanned vehicles, the future of Asia, how big companies respond to the startup revolution and the future’s talent management, just to mention a few.
Live Stage – Kopi Chats And Inspiration
Our Live Stage will bring you the true Singapore spirit in the form of a cosy coffee shop – or how we call it here in Singapore, kopi tiam. Entrepreneurs will gather around the coffee table to talk about their journeys, share their challenges and celebrate their successes. Some of the speakers include Darius Cheung, Co-Founder & CEO at 99.co, Pieter Walraven, former Founder at Pie, which was sold to Google, Hugh Mason, Co-Founder of JFDI, the first accelerator in Singapore, Suresh Shankar, Founder of Crayon with a successful startup exit under his belt, Prakash Somosundram, Founder of Pealo and Vice-Chairman of ACE (Action Community for Entrepreneurship), Hossan Leong, Founder of Double Confirm, Pranoti Nagarkar, the brains behind the famous automatic roti machine Rotimatic, and Titan Lee, Growth Hacker who led some of Singapore’s most successful crowdfunding campaigns.
These chats will be broadcasted to our international viewers through Facebook Live!
Pitching Stage – Learn From Start-ups in Action
Out of over 600 applications reaching more than 800 Co-Founders, 30 exciting start-ups will clear their way to our Pitching Stage. In collaboration with Channel NewsAsia and Start-up Sauna, Slush Pitching Competition will see the top start-ups pitch to the jury of investors and serial entrepreneurs. The finalists will move to the Future Stage for a chance to charm the big audience. Observe how seasoned seed-stage companies pitch to raise funding and secure the best funding opportunities in Asia.
In-between the rounds, as reversed pitching, showcase rounds lead investors will actually get on stage to pitch to start-ups they’ve invested in.
Get to Know the Who’s Who of the Tech And Start-up World
Under this theme over 60 start-up demo booths bring you the most exciting line-up of companies from near and far. You can learn of the latest technology developments from participating companies such as Stripe, L’Oréal Research and Innovation, and Rusventure. Companies from all over the world are joining Slush Singapore.
As Slush Singapore brings together start-up ventures and entrepreneurs with international investors, executives and media the following speakers represent the Nordic region:
Peter Vesterbacka
Mr Vesterbacka is best known as the Mighty Eagle at Rovio Entertainment Ltd. As Rovio’s brand ambassador and Chief Marketing Officer, he led Angry Birds into a multi-billion dollar franchise. Peter has been active with start-up companies for years and he is the founder of MobileMonday, ConnectedDay, Some Bazaar and Slush conference.
He likes to describe himself as one of the Angry Birds, the one with the balls!
Lauri Järvilehto
CEO of Lightneer Inc, a company with the goal of making learning accessible and engaging to everybody around the world, with the incorporation of learning games.
He is also the founder and chairman of Filosofian Akatemia (The Academy of Philosophy). The Academy of Philosophy focuses on high quality academic research and bridging the gap between academia and businesses by producing high quality executive training based on cutting edge science.
Previously, Lauri worked at Rovio, to research and develop a framework for educational games and digital solutions.
Evon Soderlund
Evon was born in a small remote village in Malaysia. Together with her little sister Eva, she was brought up by their grandparents, while their mother was away working. Along the way of being an immigrant in Finland struggling to find jobs and learning the language, she has become a founder and CEO of Huone Events Hotel. She has become a mother and gone through all the hardship of being an entrepreneur and a mom at the same time. She has managed to build a super team with her husband Jussi, both as a family and business partners. Evon’s story is now a part of “Taivas & Helvetti” book. In 2014 Evon was recognized as the most valuable entrepreneur of the year. She has also become one of the faces of SISU 2015 and her SISU story is being told in the book under the same name.
Andreas Ehn
Andreas is a board member and angel investor in several companies, and he is frequently hired as an advisor by promising start-ups, venture capital funds and corporates. Previously he was Spotify’s first employee and chief technology officer (CTO), where he brought together the world-class tech team that designed and built the platform and product for the music service. Before that he worked for the Swedish online-gaming company Stardoll. He is Wrapp’s co-founder and was its CTO until recently.
Iiro Lindborg
Mr Lindborg joined Rolls-Royce in 2005 and held various roles including Development Project Manager and Technical Product Manager, previous to his current role as General Manager of Remote and Autonomous Operations. Iiro holds a degree in ‘Automation and Electrical Engineering’ from Vaasa University of Applied Sciences.
During his time at Rolls-Royce, Iiro has worked on the development of Propulsion, Steering Gear and Waterjet Control Solutions. He has also run the development of Future Bridge and Unmanned Vessel Remote Operations Center concepts. In his current role he leads the Remote and Autonomous Operations business of Rolls-Royce Marine.
Topi Litmanen
Mr Litmanen is the Chief Educational Scientist at CLANED. He holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from University of Helsinki, and he is a globally recognized expert in learning research and digital learning environment development.
Slush Singapore 2016 Themes
Creating our future
Is self-fulfilling prophecy an illusion or a phenomenon? Entrepreneurs and inventors have a tendency to turn their vision into reality. Innovators are often the ones that connect the dots together. Technology is the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, and over time, humans develop a relationship with these technologies that help them solve their problems. However, today’s solution may become tomorrow’s problem. Sustainability is the key to forming building a virtuous ecosystem to achieve prosperity and growth. What is the future you want to build, and how do you play a part in it?
The mind of an entrepreneur
In the world of entrepreneurship, the fear of failure and the drive to succeed are constantly present. Nine out of ten start-ups fail, but failure still has a lot of stigmas and negative connotations, even though successful serial entrepreneurs often fail several times before succeeding. At the same time, mindfulness and self-development are becoming more and more popular in the start-up scene. At Slush Singapore 2016, we want to embrace the hardships of life as learning experiences, and encourage people to share their solutions to coping with stress, struggle and social pressure. Seeing hard times as a natural part of entrepreneurial life can help us to embrace darkness.
The worlds is changing
Technology has changed the way the world works. A garage inventor no longer needs the finance of a big company to deliver a product. Funds can be raised by potential customers who pre-order the product on a crowdfunding site. Big corporates are investing in start-ups that may become their competitors. Google provides free services to its consumers, yet it is profitable enough to lose nearly $2 billion on risky ventures. What is happening?
Re-inventing education
Some jobs that exist today did not exist 10 years ago. Some jobs that existed 20 years ago, no longer exist today. Our existing education system was designed to cater the needs of the industrial period. Is it still relevant today? Since the world is changing, what are the skill sets we need to survive the future? How do we make ourselves valuable in the new world? With the power of the Internet, we now have access to unlimited knowledge and information beyond our imagination. Are we capable of discerning the truths in this new world where it is easy to fabricate lies with technology? How can we make use of the resources we have today to learn and adapt to this new world that did not exist 30 years ago?
Slush Singapore, is an anchor event under the inaugural Singapore Week of Innovation & TeCHnology (SWITCH) The movement’s objective is to form an entrepreneurial community to help start-ups succeed globally.
Read more in the ScandAsia feature:
Finnish ‘Slush’ front runner event debuts in Singapore