This week's virtual conference. Just how would we be coping off-line?

This week we attended an online version of a huge event called Singapore Fintech Festival (SFF) hosted by Singapore's Monetary Authority, which has morphed into much more in recent years by timing it with SWITCH (Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology). We exhibited last year in person with thanks to the Nordic Innovation House (NIH). This year NIH invited us to attend TECHINNOVATION organised by IPI Singapore (stands for Intellectual Property Intermediary), a subsidiary of Enterprise Singapore for promoting tech driven open innovation.

You can watch Sundar Pichai speaking to the SFF audience at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Py8q5KILhg

TECHINNOVATION is a premier technology-industry brokerage event organised by IPI. It brings together international and Singapore technology providers and seekers to explore technology and business collaboration opportunities through open innovation. In its ninth year, it focuses on the matching of industry’s needs to enabling technologies. For 2020 it is a fully digital event that is taking place now, run over 5 days from 7 to 11 December 2020. Exhibitors and attendees across all time zones have been able to participate and network with each other virtually.

The IPI are promoting open innovation as a force for good. In their words:

"Despite the challenges that the Covid-19 pandemic presents, companies are still coming together to create value for their businesses, instead of being solely profit-driven. These collaborations remind us of the massive opportunities that could be generated from open innovation. In a crisis, organisations’ receptiveness to open innovation can help them find new ways to solve pressing problems, build a positive reputation and lay the foundation for future collaborations. Now is the time for Open Innovation."

Over 200 companies have been showcasing a range of innovations across such subjects as SmartCities and Sustainability. This is a good example of how Nolwenture's business development activity and promotion of our consulting, software development and utilisation of our tech base very much helps cross promote our client's across the globe in promoting Finnish expertise, after all Finland aren't high up in the innovation leader board for nothing!

Thanks to Locia for readily agreeing for Nolwenture to showcase CapaCity and demonstrated with what has been achieved with Helsinki for example, which can be utilised in Singapore too. This is a great example where our client has the domain expertise and can make their vision a reality. Locia  have an amazing team of domain experts related to Smart Cities, coupled with Nolwenture’s personnel and the use of our  scalable and localisable Nolwenture Base. Together we have built a baseline product ideal for expansion to Singapore and the ASEAN region, whilst TECHINNOVATE initiates help to find the right local partners.

Nolwenture also showcased our K-12 education solution as we are now exploring go-to-market channels and seeking global partners. Currently the product is undergoing testing with educators and will be launched in the early part of 2021, initially as a free solution to support teachers and pupils during the COVID-19 restrictions.

TECHINNOVATION and SFF SWITCH continue for another couple of days, whilst the booked meetings continue into next week and the ongoing collaboration hopefully blossoms along with the many incubators, accelerators and eco-system relationships, such as GeoWorks from the Singapore Land Authority as utilised by Nolwenture and our client Mogul.

Going forward these virtual events have helped keep momentum and us all connected, and it makes us realise the importance of our work in digital transformation, without which it would have been so much harder to work, stay in contact with friends and family and being kept informed which in turn helps us keep safe. However having seen plenty of presentations this week with slow moderation of Q&A, unmanned booth chats, being tied to 30 minute Zoom calls, too many pre-recorded sessions where obviously interaction was lacking etc. I for one am looking forward to being able to attend these sessions in person again in the future, albeit perhaps we can find a better balance in the future to reduce our carbon footprint and keep having more time with our families.

Vitual booth from November 2020, PhilConstruct.

This time last year! Amazing events thanks to NIH and the Finnish Embassy in Singapore.

Rob Connell, CEO of Nolwenture Oy (Finland) and Nolwenture PTE Ltd (Singapore). [email protected] WhatsApp + 358 505 851 302.