TechCrunch China 2016

Congrats to another successfully held TechCrunch China in Beijing, and it was such an honour for me to be the host of the 2-day conference with a group of astonishingly intelligent and game changing speakers/founders from various industries.

It reminded me of the fun time when I was working in the startup/tech scene a few years ago in Hong Kong, the starting point of 3D printing. Now, 3D printing is already used to help save lives; making body organs.

I was particularly interested in Virtual Reality development globally, the future of Artificial Intelligence and the rising of environmental conscious startups in China. So far, VR is mostly used in entertainment industries such as gaming and movies. One day soon, I hope it could aid us in ways which can really minimize our time spent on imagining or guessing; for example, online shopping. (Ok…I mean not just that…but it is one important area! :p)

The return of biking in China, especially in Beijing took me off guard. People are interested in biking again due to a lifestyle it stands for; a healthy and stylish one. Also, people tend to go for bikes due to the heavy traffic in Beijing. One day, maybe Beijing can be somehow similar to Copenhagen in Denmark. Yet, I don’t think that day will come soon if the air pollution and urban planning problems remain unsolved. (Check out MoBike)

As an entrepreneur myself, it was educating for me to meet the Venture Capitalists (Figurehead Kaifu Lee was the keynote speaker) who are the leaders in the industry. Besides talking big numbers, I definitely learnt good facts and future pointers from their experiences. This was also the first time I was working without a script and had to freestyle when the speaker couldn’t show up on time due to traffic, or when the judges needed 15 more minutes to decide on the startup competition result. How challenging and exciting! Can’t wait for the next one.

P.S The audience chose the same winner to the startup competition at the conference as the investors did (shocking?!). Congratulations to Ruff for winning the RMB 1,000,000 contest prize!!!

For more info, please visit TechCrunch China’s official website:

https://techcrunch.com/event-info/techcrunch-beijing-2016/

Li Kaifu

With one of China’s legendary musician & startup investor: Huang Shujun

P.S.

Thanks to those who came to me after the event and praised me for doing a good job. Your kind words meant a lot to me.

It was also the first time I took an emcee job without a script and had to manage a few obstacles that were new to me. Can’t wait to tackle more challenges in 2017!