Three Asian cities in three weeks – Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul.
Slush and Startup Sauna organize around thirty local events in Europe and Russia every year. This fall it was time to take over also the Asian hotspots for startups.
Slush and Startup Sauna travelled around the continent and hosted events in different cities. The aim was to bring investors, companies and media to get together at Slush in November and to make Helsinki more accessible for Asian companies. The Head of International Operations at Slush, Martin Talvari, was amazed by the response Slush got in Asia.
Martin, how was the event in Tokyo?
”I think Tokyo was exceptionally great, because we managed to organize a perfect benchmark event, including the Open Network Labs who provided us the space, UI design company Goodpatch, the Finnish Embassy in Tokyo and Finnair. The representative of Finnair surprised the audience with his good Japanese and great sense of humour.
We also had the most amazing judges for the pitching competition from GungHo, Gumi, Gree and Rovio. There were also people in the audience from DeNa. The feeling was very warm.”
What happened in Seoul?
”Korea was big in volume: we hosted five events in one week. At the universities they really realized what they gain by coming to Slush. Seoul was a perfect match for Slush because we have great supporters there, including Samsung, Kotra and D.Camp.”
What was the best thing about your stay in Hong Kong?
”It is the perfect soft landing place when you are about to enter the Chinese market and overall in Asia. It is a very international city.
We were hosted by Cyberport, which is a creative digital community that is nurturing information and communication technology startups and entrepreneurs in the Asia-Pacific region. The plan is to have the Slush Hong Kong there, big time!”
Next year Slush and Startup Sauna are planning to head to Shanghai, Beijing, Jakarta, Daegu and Singapore. Stay tuned Asia!
And for our Finnish speakers, check out the article in Helsingin Sanomat about yesterday’s London event.
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