How do Chinese innovation pioneers organize for their Day After Tomorrow? Which Day After Tomorrow technologies are they investing in? What are their business models for the Day After Tomorrow?
Our tour will open your eyes to the rich possibilities of the East, shift your perspective and showcase tangible answers to the questions described above. Prepare to be blown away.
This tour is unfortunately over but check the Day After Tomorrow Tour China for September 2018
China is well on its way to becoming one of the top innovation nations in the world. For the last years, top pioneers in China have been outnumbering – and even out-innovating – the top companies in Silicon Valley. Alibaba, Tencent and Youku Tudou are just some of the most well-known examples. But the region is also a true hotbed for fresh and leading edge start-ups and scale-ups like Xiaomi, Didi Chuxing and Lu.com. One of the most striking differences with the West is the scale & speed of their endeavours. Chinese organizations do not just 'Think Big'. They 'Think Huge': beyond their company, beyond their products, their services, their country, their target market, and their competition. We have a lot to learn from their ambition.
Join us on an eye-opening innovation tour to Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Shanghai, three of the fastest growing innovation hubs in the world. Together we'll experience how Chinese organizations are able to innovate on such a mind-blowing scale, which role the government or the national culture have to play in this and what the latest tech and business trends of the East are. This tour will literally turn your perspective upside down.
Read Annick Vandezande's take-aways from the previous Day After Tomorrow Tour - China.
Watch Peter's and Steven's take-aways from the previous Day After Tomorrow Tour - China.
Find the full program of the previous Day After Tomorrow Tour - China here.
Read Peter's take-aways of the 2015 Spirit of the East tour here.
Sunday - Arrival in Beijing, visit the Great Wall, fly to Shenzhen, have dinner.
Monday - Platforms rule the world + Meet the Chinese consumer
Steven is an expert in customer focus in a digital world and in how our customers will behave in the Day After Tomorrow. He is a popular speaker at home and abroad. In his keynote presentations, Steven takes his audience on a journey to the world of modern customer relationships in a clever, enthusiastic and inspiring way. So far, he gave more than 750 keynote presentations, reaching more than 200.000 people in over 30 countries around the world and received several best speaker awards.
He's also the author of multiple international bestselling books including ‘The Conversation Manager’, ‘When Digital Becomes Human’, ‘Customers the Day after Tomorrow’ and ‘The Offer You Can’t Refuse’.
Steven is also one of the leading moderators of the nexxworks community: Mission CX. It's a one-year journey consisting of 10 live Digital Monthly Sessions with international speakers and company cases about customer experience and 24/7 access to a community platform to connect with peers. Discover the full program here!
More about StevenPascal is a sinologist, but more so a die-hard China entrepreneur and keynote speaker. Armed with a degree in Business Engineering from Solvay Business School, Pascal started his career with Alcatel in Shanghai. His keynotes and business advice uncovers patterns for any business person to turn the Chinese innovation train into an opportunity. With a deep understanding of the Chinese business culture, he also knows how to win in China as an entrepreneur selling to Chinese.
Matthew is a well known speaker and writer about WeChat. His opinions regarding WeChat and the China digital ecosystem are regularly featured in global media (BBC, Forbes, The Financial Times, TechinAsia, Campaign Asia, eMarketer). His company China Channel organizes China’s largest WeChat marketing conference series for international companies. He works primarily with international businesses to help form and implement their WeChat platform strategy. Matthew holds 13+ years on the ground entrepreneurial experience in China. Co-host of the China Tech Talk podcast produced together with Technode, China's largest English language tech media. His book 'Building your Business through WeChat' is due for release later this year.
More about MatthewTencent is a Chinese multinational investment holding conglomerate whose subsidiaries specialize in various Internet-related services and products, entertainment, AI and technology both in China and globally. Tencent is the world's biggest investment corporation, one of the largest Internet and technology companies, as well as the largest and most valuable gaming and social media company in the world. Its many services include social network, music, web portals, e-commerce, mobile games, internet services, payment systems, smartphones, and multiplayer online games, which are all among the world's biggest and most successful in their respective categories.
iCarbonX is a company founded by Chinese genomicist Jun Wang, former CEO of Beijing Genomic Institute (BGI), in 2015. iCarbonX combines genomics with other health factors such as metabolites, bacteria and lifestyle choices to create a digitalized form of life.
iCarbonX has raised over $600 million in investment. Tencent Holdings Limited – owner of social-media app WeChat – and Zhongyuan Union Cell & Gene Engineering Corp. invested $200 million in iCarbonX, which made iCarbonX one of only three Chinese healthcare startups with a valuation of more than $1 billion (Unicorn). The company has about 100 employees.
Founded in 2012, UBTECH is a global leading AI and humanoid robotic company. Since 2008, UBTECH has successfully developed consumer humanoid robots, robots for business use and Jimu robot after breakthroughs made in digital servos, the core part of humanoid robots. In 2016, UBTECH Robotics has surpassed 1 billion valuation and became a unicorn startup company.
Being one of the largest retailers in the world and being born in the USA, what's the story of Walmart in China? How is the ecosystem different? What is Walmart globally learning from China? How do they work with the Chinese retail giants?
Tuesday - Technology deepdive: Why Shenzhen is the new Silicon Valley
IngDan leverages the sharing economy model to provide or connect all services needed by intelligent device innovators, ranging from technology to manufacturing, to venture capital and financing, to promotion and marketing, to physical experiencing centers. It is a world connector and now the largest platform from China serving smart device communities worldwide.
Kevin is the director of Vive X and the head of Shenzhen Vive. He set up the Accelerator Operation and spearheads a number of government and academic initiatives in the city of Shenzhen.
Kevin has almost 20 years of technology and entrepreneurial experiences in Hong Kong and China, ranging from Dot Com, Fintech, Entertainment, Investment, New material and Hardware. He is an important figure in crowdfunding in Hong Kong by running one of the first highly successful Kickstarter campaigns based in Hong Kong. His product was covered in ABC, CBS, Fox, Yahoo, TechCrunch and has been distributed in the premium channels of more than 20 countries by hiring no full time employee. He was also a 5 stars winner in the TV reality show of "I'm a boss" in Hong Kong.
Kevin is a Chartered Financial Analyst CFA and received dean lists honor in the MBA program of the University of Oxford. He is an active figure in the Hong Kong and Shenzhen technology and startup communities. He guest-lectured on the topics of technology singularity and entrepreneurship in several EMBA / MBA programs including Columbia University, HKUST, CUHK and HKU. Kevin is also the mentor of many startup companies and programs in Hong Kong.
David Li has been contributing to open source software since 1990. He is a member of Free Software Foundation, committer to Apache projects and board director of ObjectWeb. Over the past 20 years, David has started several open source software projects and contributed to many others. In 2010, he co-founded XinCheJian, the first hackerspace in China to promote hacker/maker culture and open source hardware. In 2011, he co-founded Hacked Matter, a think tank on makers and open innovation. He In the past two years, he has become interested in urban farming and is an enthusiastic proponent of aquaponics, which brings the spirit of open source to farming and gardening. In 2015, he co-founded Maker Collider, a platform to develop next-generation IoT from Maker community. He is also the director of Shenzhen Open Innovation Lab.
More about DavidLocation: Shenzhen Open Innovation Lab
Wednesday - Money Money Money: how does it work in China?
Experience the morning commute in China!
As reported back in October 2016, the government of the city of Hangzhou – home to over 9 million people – collaborated with Alibaba and Foxconn to build the “City Brain” project. The metropolis would be, from that moment forth, at least partly run by an AI that absorbed every last drop of data it could get its virtual hands on.
Launched in 1999, Alibaba.com is the leading platform for global wholesale trade. We serve millions of buyers and suppliers around the world.
Ant Financial is a technology company that brings inclusive financial services to the world. Ant Financial, officially founded in October 2014, originated from Alipay founded in 2004.
Ant Financial is dedicated to bringing the world more equal opportunities through building a technology-driven open ecosystem and working with other financial institutions to support the future financial needs of society.
Geely is a Chinese multinational automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. It sells passenger vehicles under the Geely Auto, Volvo, LYNK & CO, Proton, and Lotus brands and commercial vehicles under the London EV Company and Yuan Cheng New Energy Commercial Vehicle brands.
Thursday - It's not about technology, it's about customer experience
Jiangxi Ai-ways is an Electric Vehicle development, manufacturing, sales, aftersales and energy comprehensive utilization company, with headquarters in Shanghai.
Imagine a world where you can pick up and leave a bike at your convenience. Enter Mobike: a bike sharing service to fulfil urban short trips - anytime, to any legal parking destination - by combining innovation and today’s IoT (Internet of Things) technology. Mobike is green, reduces congestion, and continually strives to improve the quality of city life.
Powered by world-leading AI and NLP technology, Liulishuo offers a personalized and adaptive language learning experience to 50 million learners in 379 cities in China and over 175 countries around the world.
NIO's global headquarters is located in the Shanghai Automobile Innovation Park. The employees at the Shanghai office are primarily responsible for integrated vehicle R&D, manufacturing operations, sales, marketing, and customer service.
The company is a leading provider of travel services including accommodation reservation, transportation ticketing, packaged tours and corporate travel management. Ctrip’s market cap has grown by more than 30 times since its listing on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange in 2003. In 2014, the company’s gross transaction value reached USD24.5 billion and total commission revenue reached USD1.3 billion.
Network dinner in Shanghai
Friday - Chinese Culture
A retail safari experience, powered by Alibaba, about Hema Supermarkets, Starbucks and B&Q.
Gang Lu is the founder and CEO at TechNode.com, a leading China tech media and innovation platform that targets to bridge the Chinese technology sector with the Global market. He wad the guest editor of the world's top web2.0 blog ReadWriteWeb.com. TechNode was known as Mobinode.com, his personal blog, which covered the Internet market news in Asia especially in China and was also voted as the best China Tech Blog in 2007 and 2008.
Gang Lu has MSc, PhD in wireless communications. He is Internet expert, China Internet Strategist, known speaker, co-founder of OpenWeb.Asia Workgroup. OpenWeb.Asia is the first independent workgroup focusing on Asia Internet industry, and is also the organizer of OpenWebAsia conference which is the first truly pan-Asia web technology event bringing together executives, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists from throughout Asia.
With strong academic background in wireless communications, years of research and development experience in mobile industry and international business management in web industry, Gang Lu is very passionate about the Open Web concept and plays very active role in building efficient channels among Asian local markets as well as between Asia web and global industry.
Philippe Snel has been active as a business lawyer in China for more than 10 years and started his China practice in 2001. Since 2004 he is permanently established in Shanghai.
In his daily practice Philippe advises foreign investors with regard to the establishment and development of their businesses in China. Over the years he has developed an extensive knowledge and understanding about the main aspects of business law in China. He’s represented and assisted 100’s of clients in their business transactions in China, ranging from large multinational companies, to family-owned SME’s and private entrepreneurs and investment funds, across a variety of industries. Philippe’s main fields of practice are corporate transactions, commercial contract law and intellectual property and technology transfer. He speaks fluent French, Dutch English and is conversational in German and Mandarin.
More about PhilippeSinnolabs is a China growth accelerator, setup as a Public Private Partnership initiative whose mission is to source and select innovative companies with real China potential, mentor them closely to accelerate their China entry, shorten their learning curve and improve their level of success in China.
Sinnolabs offers a unique growth acceleration program during which selected companies can quickly validate their “chances” of succeeding in China, devise winning strategies and start implementing them, while optimizing their use of resources and investments as well as accessing a strong local network, effective business partners and sources of smart money.
Funded by China Wanxiang Holdings, Wanxiang Blockchain Labs is a non-profit research institution focusing on Blockchain technology. Wanxiang Blockchain Labs provides support for the research, entrepreneurship, developments and applications in the industry. It will also provide reference information for regulatory bodies. Overall, Wanxiang Blockchain Labs dedicate itself to the promotion and application of Blockchain industry, and to explore how the technology will be contributing to the development of the economy and the society.
As the first research organization in China and determines to devote itself to promote the development of blockchain technology globally, Wanxiang Blockchain Labs has been hosting global blockchain summits in China, which have become one of the most influential industrial events in Asia. Through these efforts, participants from various industries have showed great interest in blockchain technology and the known the potential of what it could bring to the world.
"The entire trip to China was an emotional rollercoaster but it ended with a “hell yeah, let’s do this"."