A recap of #tiasg2018 through the eyes of our attendees

Tech in Asia Singapore 2018 saw an incredible two days’ worth of insightful talks across our Main Stage and five expert stages. Weren’t there to experience it for yourself? We sieved out some of the social media highlights about #tiasg2018, and here’s what our attendees had to say!

A day before Tech in Asia Singapore 2018, as a prelude to the conference, we partnered Jetstar to make Asia’s first ever inflight conference a reality. The flight featured lightning talks by Jamie Lin, Founding Partner of AppWorks and Aldi Adrian Hartanto, Head of Investments at Mandiri Capital, followed by startup-investor speed dating. Investors were seated along the aisle, and startups sitting in their row were given five minutes to pitch their ideas.

There was even an attendee who went out of his way from Germany to travel to Jakarta, just so he could make it on this unconventional flight! For those who weren’t present, here’s a summary video of what took place.

With Day 0 getting off to a flying start (literally), Day 1 of Tech in Asia Singapore 2018 could only get better with Pebble’s founder Eric Migicovsky kicking off our Main Stage talks in front of a packed hall.

It's fitting that @ericmigi showed up on stage wearing his Pebble. #tiasg2018 pic.twitter.com/rxK5jpPCZ8

— Michael Tegos (@michaeltegos) May 15, 2018

“One of the truisms at YC is the startups don’t die by homicide. They die by suicide. It’s rare for competitors to kill a startup. Oh what if Facebook moves in, or Google makes the same thing. Who cares? Just make your thing.” ericmigi, YC Partner and Pebble founder #tiasg2018

— Agus dan Vivi (@agusdanvivi) May 15, 2018

Meanwhile, exhibitors at Startup Factory were eagerly sharing their solutions and ideas to the crowd. A total of 185 unique startups showcased across two days – check out the overview here.

Stripe’s COO, Claire Hughes Johnson, then took the stage to share about how small businesses are making an impact on the economy.

"It’s a very specific type of small business driving growth ㄧ high growth startups. In Singapore 350,000 jobs were created by startups.” ㄧ @chughesjohnson @stripesingapore #tiasg2018 pic.twitter.com/PqRntVoCYr

— Sana Rahman (@Sana__Rahman) May 15, 2018

Carousell’s CEO also unveiled the launch of CarouPay, a much requested feature by its users.

Classified 4.0 is smart, convenient & community based @thecarousell + integrated payment is finally here! Available next month in Singapore #CarouPay #TIASG2018 pic.twitter.com/choAlQJvtX

— Jenny Xu (@jenniux) May 15, 2018

Garry from Initialized Capital then went on to dish out advice on what he learnt from advising 600 startups.

"great artists ship". brilliant talk by @garrytan to wrap up day one of #tiasg2018. A geniune talk full of personal experiences, advice and insights into minds of founders and VCs. pic.twitter.com/WBsRCumiV8

— Vivek Kalyan (@vivekkalyansk) May 15, 2018

One of the highly-anticipated sessions after Grab’s merger with Uber in Southeast Asia took place on Day 2 as Grab’s Group VP of Marketing, Cheryl Goh, took center stage.

Goh on Grab merging with Uber – “They are very much like Grab – they believe in the same things and driven by the same vision and mission. When you are competing, you don’t really see that.” #TIASG2018

— Shawn Lim (@mediumshawn) May 16, 2018

And when asked about how Grab raised four rounds of funding, all in a year:

On raising four rounds in one year – we were really good track record and a management team that people trusted. It just happened and we also grew operations from one to four countries in that year and with that came more opportunity. @cherylgoh @GrabSG @GrabMY #tiasg2018

— Found. (@found_singapore) May 16, 2018

Meanwhile, it was full house over at the ever-popular Developer & Product Stage.

From prototype to production, keen focus on how GovTech takes this forward with https://t.co/HBV2brjygO. Great presentation by Li HongYi #tiasg2018 pic.twitter.com/96K91JkXPN

— Lisa Goh (@lisagoh) May 16, 2018

From learning how to conduct comprehensive user tests to keeping codes clean, there were many takeaways from the sessions across the two days.

Define these points to measure stickiness: 1. Unit of time 2. Depth of Use 3. Plot your curve 4. Segment audiences #tiasg2018 #productmanagement @tradegecko pic.twitter.com/3OOiS2fWQI

— Marie Hoffman (@marieahoffman) May 16, 2018

Incredible growth powered by goal-driven experimentation. Great stuff, @gojekindonesia! #tiasg2018 pic.twitter.com/UJLWxxsGyp

— Marie Hoffman (@marieahoffman) May 15, 2018

Other expert stages didn’t disappoint as well.

9 steps framework for monetizing #innovation by @Jochen_krauss at #tiasg2018 @techinasia Conference pic.twitter.com/ZpTkhfwYQr

— Jose A. Briones (@Brioneja) May 15, 2018

Enjoyed today’s session at Tech in Asia SG. Gave a talk on how to shorten your sales cycles

h/t @marieahoffman for pic 🙂#tiasg2018 pic.twitter.com/zA7WQYO0Yg

— David Fallarme (@davelocity) May 15, 2018

This year, we decided to shake things up and conducted our Startup 101 Stage Ask Me Anything-style. Questions were submitted through Sli.do and displayed real-time for the speakers to answer.

Plenty of resources and knowledge sharing #tiasg2018 @techinasia @betterdanthis @RJIndia100 #Singapore #startups pic.twitter.com/qTyI1hdPLp

— vijetha shastry (@vijethashastry) May 15, 2018

#tiasg2018 also marked the debut of our Blockchain Stage – we hope you took away tons of learnings from the blockchain pros.

zilliqa: _amritkumar speaking on #scalability and #securesmartcontracts at #tiasg2018 pic.twitter.com/HhtOQBU1b4

— Ciro Immortale (@Ciro_Immortale) May 16, 2018

.@IDC's @jeffXie_IDC's take on #blockchain at an #tiasg2018 panel yesterday: "Regulations should not be treated as a roadblock to blockchain projects. They are there to ensure that the blockchain ecosystem operates in a well-regulated environment." pic.twitter.com/FZLHvOoCaa

— IDC Asia/Pacific (@IDCAP) May 17, 2018

Great speech from Toby, Co Founder of #TenX at #tiasg2018 pic.twitter.com/8QPrZ0X4CI

— Blockchainfirst (@blockchainfirst) May 16, 2018

And finally, the long-awaited Arena pitch battle. Six startups were selected and given five minutes each to impress our panel of judges. Empath, a Japan-based startup that uses AI to identify emotions in the human voice in real time, emerged as the champion.

Startups showcasing their solutions in the Startup Arena.#TIASG2018 #Unliche pic.twitter.com/NiAgdXcii3

— Unliche Analytics (@unliche_mobile) May 16, 2018

Next up: Tech in Asia Tokyo 2018

Now that we’re done and dusted with Tech in Asia Singapore 2018, it’s time for you to mark your calendars for Tech in Asia Tokyo happening this September 20 & 21. We’ve got an early bird unbeatable deal: buy one ticket, and get another free!

Simply fill in your details here, and your unique 1-for-1 code will be sent to your email when ticket sales start in the weeks to come.