"The Tokyo Travel Diary" isn't over just yet. Today I want to share with you my experience, attending Tech In Asia for APPICS!
About Tech in Asia
Tech in Asia's conferences are one of the largest tech conferences in the region. It was conceived to connect the tech startup ecosystem in an offline setting, as an extension of our mission to build and serve Asia's tech communities.
"Tech in Asia Tokyo 2017 will open doors for those interested in entering the Japanese market, and for locals searching for global opportunities. They will also dive headfirst into the latest tech happenings, uncover untapped opportunities and reveal what’s yet to come to help you stay ahead of the curve."
Their main conferences take place in Singapore, Jakarta and Tokyo.
Why is Tokyo, Japan an important place to be for Crypto-StartUps?
Japan has become one of the largest countries in terms of trading bitcoin, in the world. The country made a statement that they have no intention to ban the sales of cryptocurrency, but rather they would like to see it become a legitimate industry. In April, Bitcoin became recognized in Japan as an official legal tender. This means that it will be treated like any other form of currency.
"[ICOs are] very good because they democratize venture financing for not only professionals like venture capitalists, but also individuals can participate in exciting projects from start-ups to support."
- Taizo Son (Japanase Billionaire)
That's what I call great progress!
At Tech In Asia I got to get an insight into the Asia market, the largest market for technology, get to know local StartUps in the Crypto-Space, but even beyond that I also found some interesting AI and VR projects.
Exhibition Area
Panel Discussions
The panel I was most excited about of course was the ICO one. This discussion really showed me how far ahead Japan is in terms of futuristic thinking. What I mean is that they don't speak about crypto in a speculative way, but rather view it as unstoppable. The participants discussed how ICO's are beneficial for investors, as well as the Start-Ups. The biggest advantage was recognized as the fact that anyone can easily participate in a token-sale. Not anyone is able to buy stocks and definitely not shares in a company like Facebook or Apple. The way ICO's are structured appeals to the average person and gives anyone a fair chance to become a part of the project. On the other side, for the Start-Ups this is beneficial, because the crowdfunding isn't exclusively about raising capital, but also about directly building a community and engaging with the audience, which combines funding with marketing.
Overall it is a shame that countless fraudulent ICO's are responsible for the bad image, but this happened in the past as well, if you remember the 2000-2001 crash of the "Internet Bubble". Essentially the technology and projects with true value will win over time and so will the real ICO's. As of right now, Japanese investors are still highly interested in ICOs, because they see the long-term benefit and APPICS was conceived very positively!
Pitch Competition
I had a lot of fun watching the pitch competition where Start-Ups would get 5 minutes to pitch investors. It was interesting to see how they structured their pitch and what seemed most important to them.
By far the funniest pitch I have ever seen was from this VR StartUp, presented by CEO Ken. He was acting out everything he said and the funniest part I thought was the team members' pictures, something that would have been unacceptable in Germany for example, but which is "normal humor" in Japan. What was really interesting, how much every Start-Up emphasized the educational background of the team during their pitch. For Japanese investors, the eduction of the team is quite important it seems. Furthermore the way he presented his pitch was more story-telling like than normal, which again is something that is appreciated in Japanese culture.
FUN
The most fun however I had at the different booths, trying out newest tech from VR all the way to AI!
I got to try Virtual Reality Reading for the first time here too!
When I saw the VR stand I had to try it myself and the first one that I tried was actually a children's book, where the characters were animated and respond to your movement.
Later on I got into the more advanced VR training, including a game where you move objects. Virtual Reality as of right now is something we aren't using on a daily basis, yet! But I truly believe after trying it myself that in the next years we will experience the shift from reality to virtual reality and VR will be normal in daily usage. Why? Because often we already are living in a kind of virtual reality, social media! We follow certain pages and lives to live through their lives and feel like we are going through the experience. Now virtual reality goes a step further, letting you become part of a movie, game, story, experience without having to move places.
And finally the ROBOT! For the first time I experienced what it's like, moving a robot through motion and it was fascinating. Once again, I predict that very soon robots will become part of our daily lives and take over most industries, leaving humans with jobs as programmers, creatives and fields where human emotions are needed.
But one things is for sure:
I hope you enjoyed this tour of Tech In Asia - Tokyo 2017
Question OTD: What do you think the world will be like in 100 years, what will be virtual and what reality?
Much love,
Mrs.Steemit