RISE Conference 2018 wraps up in style – Hong Kong

by Hopalooper

6 years ago

RISE Conference, Asia’s largest tech and startup conference wraps up its 2018 edition in style this evening at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. The conference saw around 15,000 participants from more than 100 countries this year. RISE Conference is produced by the team behind Web Summit, which is Europe’s largest technology conference.

We bring you some quick highlights from the conference:

The Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Carrie Lam called for Innovation and technology development with no compromises as opposed to politics. She also assured those who visit Hong Kong in the next four years will have an energetic leader.

Grab’s co-founder Hooi Ling Tan reassures that the market and ride-hailing remains competitive despite Uber’s exit in Southeast Asia.

Co-founder of Canva, Cameron Adams spots the vibrant Asian startup scene as he debuts at RISE with an amazing lineup of speeches. “There is always new problems to solve, new social dynamics and new people. In mentoring a few startups at RISE I realise they were all from different countries and culture and they are discovering problems and trying to solve it together at RISE”

Good news for the developer community as Brad Smith, President and Chief Legal Officer of Microsoft has expressed positivity about GITHub acquisition. He also answered some important questions on cyber attacks, digital skills divide and the dearth of broadband in remote and developing countries.

Co-host of RISE and tech startup evangelist, Casey Lau calls Hong Kong the most international city and the best destination for RISEConf. “People here are friendly and speak English. There is convenience and accessibility with taxis, subways, octopus and 24-hrs restaurants. Hong Kong also has one of the most coveted skylines in the world”, he says.

Daimler Chairman Dieter Zetsche calls artificial intelligence the next big thing if it ins’t already and says it will be the most important tool in almost everything companies will do in future.

The Co-founder and Chief Executive of 9GAG, Ray Chan, left the audience in awe when he told how companies could make their ideas go viral. “To make the audience want to share your content, you can do either of these – ‘make me laugh’, ‘surprise me’, ‘this is me’, and ‘give me hope’,” quipped Chan.

Line CEO Takeshi Idezawa says we see cryptocurrencies as a new challenge and that the market is about to grow in a big way.