The Asian continent needs a Burning Man to be innovative

In response to the new Silicon Valley show on HBO, Elon Musk, paragon of Valley innovation, said:

I really feel like Mike Judge has never been to Burning Man, which is Silicon Valley. If you haven’t been, you just don’t get it.

A bold statement from one of the most important people in Silicon Valley. Burning Man is a massive week-long annual event in the desert of California that celebrates “community, art, radical self-expression, and radical self-reliance”. No money is allowed at Burning Man and it is functionally a temporary barter trade city for a week where people can trade goods and services that they bring to the festival. In 2013, Burning Man saw almost 70,000 people in attendance. The likes of Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, and more tech executives have all attended Burning Man.

This has got us thinking at Tech In Asia. Asia doesn’t have a Burning Man. Yes, we’ve got Startup Asia, Echelon, DEMO ASEAN, BeSUCCESS, Techcrunch Disrupt Beijing, and more. But these are the events that cater directly to the startup ecosystem.

See: Why Asia still has at least 10 years before it leads the tech world

What about an event that can allow people to let loose and explore ideas freely without any inhibition? After all, this is certainly something that Asians need desperately. This is one of the most repressed and conservative continents in the world. And if the theory is true, that innovators need a little space to let loose so they can come up with crazy new ideas, Asian startups are in desperate need of a Burning Man.

Granted, there are plenty of cultural and crowded festivals across the continent. But these festivals are just way too spread out. And seriously, how many startup founders have the time or the interest to go to these events?

And yet, a Burning Man-type event just might be the thing that allows ideas to run free in the minds of Asian founders. On the other hand, maybe the debauchery and reckless abandon of Burning Man isn’t suitable for an Asian mind. Maybe a meditation retreat would actually fit. After all, there are plenty of meditation centers across Asia. And if Burning Man is a place where people can be experimental with their minds and ideas, maybe crazy yoga, kung fu, and meditation could serve a similar purpose in Asia. Any startup founders out there want to sit under an icy waterfall for great ideas?