What day 1 of Tech in Asia Singapore 2016 looked like (PHOTOS)

The rain and grey skies on day 1 of Tech in Asia Singapore 2016 did nothing to dampen the spirits of all 4,000 conference attendees. Trickling in as early as 8.30 am, everyone came excited to start mingling right away.

Missed out on the fun? We’ll take you through a photo-walk of day one, so you can see the conference through our eyes.

Ready? Let’s start.

8:45 am: Turns out, the Tech in Asia crew weren’t the only early birds at registration yesterday.

9:10 am: Before the bulk of the crowd came in, we took the opportunity to grab a morning cuppa to perk us up.

10:00 am: The stage activities began with a big and exciting announcement made in conjunction with KPMG – the launch of KPMG Digital Village to fill a crucial gap in the startup ecosystem.

10:20 am: Without further ado, we jumped straight into one of the highly anticipated fireside chats with Line CEO Takeshi Idezawa. During the hour-long session, he revealed a rare glimpse into their strategy, and his favourite sticker – Choco.

11:30 am: Queues started snaking early in the day for the Startup-Investor Speed Dating, a Tech in Asia conference signature.

12:20 pm: Nobody had to be told twice it was time for lunch!

1:10 pm: The Fintech Stage filled up quickly after everyone grabbed their food. Everyone was eager to see what the six pitching startups at the Fintech Pitch Battle powered by DBS had in store!

2:30 pm: Taking a quick break from the insightful main stage sessions, the walk around Bootstrap Alley uncovered some of the many fascinating startups exhibiting. The number of startups made it difficult to cover all of them in one day – but there’s always day two to get to know them better!

3:20 pm: An afternoon coffee break was in order. Thankfully, Braintree Payments was there to provide a mid-day caffeine boost with their ever-chirpy baristas and aromatic drinks!

4.15 pm: Bumped into the occasional giraffe while we were out and about

5:30 pm: Full house was an understatement for Eduardo Saverin’s engaging talk. Attendees overspilled out of the main hall, and made themselves comfortable on the floor in order to soak up the Facebook co-founder’s experience, tales, as well as advice for entrepreneurs and investors alike.

6:20 pm: Annnd it’s a wrap for day one! Our attendees went off in throngs to the first Night Crawl destination sponsored by Braintree Payments at Vatos.

We hope you had fun catching up with highlights from the first day of Tech in Asia Singapore 2016 – we’ll be back for more! Get ready for more words of wisdom from our main stage speakers, hacks from the expert stages, and that networking goodness for the final day of the conference.

Haven’t had enough? Take a look at what some of our attendees were up to with the hashtag #tiasg2016 on Facebook, Twitter, and our official conference app.