Experience quality connections with Speed Dating 3.0 at TIA Singapore 2018

Tech in Asia’s conferences have been around for awhile now, and what a heck of a ride it has been. From our humble beginnings of hosting 870 delegates in 2012, we’ve now expanded to running conferences for over 12,514 tech fans across Singapore, Tokyo and Jakarta. While much has changed, for instance – in our strategies and product offerings, our mission has always remained the same since day one: to build and serve Asia’s tech and startup community.

Throughout the years, we’ve made many changes to meet the needs of our users, such as rebranding our conferences, to expanding stage content, and introducing roundtables to facilitate discussions between industry leaders and attendees. To build diversity and inclusion within the tech ecosystem, we’ve also reached out to women entrepreneurs, students and developer communities to join us at our conferences.

One of the segments we’ve constantly been improving on is Speed Dating – below, we’ll be explaining the adjustments made throughout the years and launching our newest version of Speed Dating at Tech in Asia Singapore 2018 this May 15 & 16.

Speed Dating: How it has evolved

In 2013, we introduced the Startup-Investor Speed Dating segment, and it fast became one of our conference staples. The idea was conceived to meet the needs and demands of startups to connect with established VCs for funding. Up till then, there was no structured way of doing so – startups were largely relying on cold emails or serendipity to reach out to their investors.

Speed Dating 1.0

The first version of Speed Dating was based on a first-come, first-served queueing system. Whoever got in line first during the stipulated pitching time slot stood a higher chance of meeting their preferred investors.

With the guarantee of meeting investors (provided one was early enough), long queues were constantly formed. This was what took place at Tech in Asia Singapore 2015:

Soon, we received feedback that this process wasn’t an efficient use of time. So we did better, and introduced another change in 2016.

Speed Dating 2.0

We began using an online system to facilitate Speed Dating. This would make the queue system redundant, allowing participants to utilise their time more efficiently by networking and building potential partnerships with other attendees.

However, the online system had its own problems as well. Despite startups’ best efforts to research on which investors to meet before booking their slots, several investors felt that the startups they met were not as relevant as they’d hoped. Some startups also felt that the investors they pitched to didn’t seem keen. Understandably, valuable time was wasted in such instances.

Speed Dating 3.0: How it works

We’ve heard your cries for quality connections, so here’s one major change we’re implementing at Tech in Asia Singapore 2018:

Each meeting at Speed Dating will now be curated and matched based on the startup’s compatibility with investors’ criteria.

This means that if there is a mutual match, both startup and investor will be scheduled for a meeting. While startups could have multiple meetings or no meetings arranged, with this curation process in place, it would improve the odds that quality connections are made. With this change, we are confident that Speed Dating will be able to provide greater value for startups and investors.

How you can be involved in Speed Dating

Below is a step-by-step on how startups can be part of Speed Dating:

1. Get a conference pass here.

Get your tickets by March 18 to score 20% off (code: tiasg20). Ticket prices will increase thereafter, don’t say we didn’t warn you 😉

2. Pre-register for Speed Dating by 13 April here.

With the details you submitted, investors will be able to make a more informed decision about which startups they would like to meet.

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3. You will receive an email to submit your list of preferred investors to meet by 18 April.
4. Check your email inbox by 11 May for your scheduled meeting(s).

Ensure you whitelist meetings@tiaconference.com so that you don’t miss any emails!

For more information on the timeline and a detailed explanation on how our new Speed Dating works, head over to the Speed Dating pre-registration site.

See you at Tech in Asia Singapore 2018

With these new changes in place, we’ll deliver more value to both startups and investors by facilitating quality and meaningful connections. We’re constantly speaking to our users and finding out how we can improve, so look forward to having a better experience at Tech in Asia Singapore 2018, this May 15 & 16!

Beyond Speed Dating, you’ll also get to meet senior decision makers, learn from industry experts at our six content stages, meet 250 unique startups at Startup Factory, and more.

Due to overwhelming response, we’ve extended 20 percent off tickets (code:tiasg20), but only till this Sunday, 18 March. Remember, you’d need a conference pass to participate in Startup-Investor Speed Dating. Simply click on the button below to get your tickets, before prices increase next week!