The Difference That is Invent Singapore

This was written by Guest Contributor, Abhinav Jain.

Never thought in just one day I’ll be learning things which will put me miles ahead to realize my dream of a greener world. 7 hours on a weekend, amazing talks and discussions by prominent speakers, a knowledge-hungry audience and diligent planning and effort of the organizers – that was all it took (plus some) for Invent 09 Singapore conference to become a prominent conference for budding entrepreneurs and inventors.

With the courtesy of SGEntrepreneurs (who selected me in one of their competitions), I managed to attend the conference on the beautiful morning of 24th October 09.

We all were welcomed by Ms Frieda Loh at Ngee Ann Kongsi auditorium. The conference started with the arrival of guest-of-honor Mr. Iswaran, followed by a welcome remark by Dr Ting Choon Meng and a speech by Mr Iswaran.

The first keynote speech on “Innovation through Collaboration” was delivered by Dr Gideon Tolkowsky, critiquing the do’s and don’t for a startup break. Everyone gathered for a panel discussion on “Challenges in Collaborative innovation” with panelists Dr Ting, Dr Tolkowsky and Mr Tan Kai Hoe and moderated by Prof. Desai.

The Workshops

The discussion carried on to the delicious lunch where everyone savoured the food for body and thoughts and interacted with each other. An after-lunch highlight was an intense round of workshops conducted by experts to choose from. The workshops to choose from were –

Workshop 1: “Innovation and Creativity” by Dr Kirpal Singh
Workshop 2: “Intellectual Property and branding” by Jörg Dietze and Ng Kim Tean
Workshop 3: “Fuel for your fire: How to fund your idea into success” by Pierre Hennes, Steven Fang and Mirza Saad
Workshop 4: “Developing profitable products in the medical devices and instruments sector” by Alexander Gosling and Dr Lim Ser Yong

I found myself excited on the content of workshop 3 and was blown away by the amount and quality of information the experts shared upon. It was an unequivocal opportunity for an aspiring entrepreneur like me and made me aware of many ingenious thoughts related to getting your idea kick started. After the workshops, everyone gathered to thank the sponsors and the speakers and a token of appreciation was presented to them by Prof Desai. Workshop officially ended with a closing speech of Dr Kirpal Singh, however the participants could be seen sticking around, mingling and networking for quite a while.

Unique Learning Journey

Overall, the kind of knowledge and learning I took back home was more then I could anticipate from a conference. Many times I might end up attending a conference or a seminar designed for very young entrepreneurs or contrary to it would end up in a talk meant for seasoned entrepreneurs. However, Invent Singapore 09 bridged the knowledge gap between having an idea and getting it onto feet, where I would find myself being lost.

Some Thoughts and Takeaways

I managed to jot down some of thoughts and information shared during the conference and hope some of the readers who were unable to attend the conference would find it equally interesting. The thoughts are compiled in form of phrases or punch lines and most of them reflect what the speakers had to say (however, there is always something ‘lost in translation’). My personal comments are preceded by “~~”. So, here we go,

“In Singapore, the business or innovation is not based on ‘cost’ but in terms of ‘value’ it generate.”

“One of the focus of the Govt and industry here is on alternative energy (solar and its R&D)”