Oct 15, 2012
Art Space@Helutrans, Tanjong Pagar Distripark
39, Keppel Road, Singapore 089065
Dress Code: Casual (It’s a warehouse)
9.00-9.10 Opening
9.10-10.00 Innovation: So What’s The Secret Sauce?
Is there a secret formula for innovation? Is it about the right team? How do you create the right environment for innovation. We ask a panel of experts to share their views on what are the crucial ingredients that differentiate great companies from good.
Opening Volley:
Rod Cuthbert, Interim Chairman, Rome2Rio
Panel:
Adrian Currie, Board Management Member, Priceline Group
Rajnish Kapur, Chief Innovation & Customer Experience Officer, MakeMyTrip
Stephan Ekbergh, CEO, Travelstart
Prof Adrian David Cheok, Professor, Keio University Graduate School of Media Design, Tokyo, Japan
Kingsley Wood, Business Development, Asia Pacific, Amazon Asia-Pacific Resources
Arun Verma, Techology & Innovation, AirAsia
10.00-10.15 State of Play: Asia in Perspective
Douglas Quinby, Senior Analyst, PhoCusWright
10.15-11.00 Innovation Across Asia, Part 1
Our handpicked experts curate the latest trends and pick their bets in each of their markets across the region, in 10 minutes each.
Australia: Timothy Hughes, Vice President Marketing, Agoda
China: Melissa Yang, CTO, Tujia.com
Japan: Ken Mishima, General Manager, Expedia East Asia
Taiwan: Morris Sim, CEO & Co-founder, Circos Brand Karma
11.00-11.20 Break
11.20-11.40 The Exit Story
Every entrepreneur dreams of an exit. Fritz Demopoulos, now CEO, Queen’s Road Capital, not only dreamt it, but did it when the Chinese travel search site he built with two co-founders, Qunar, was acquired by Baidu for US$306 million. In this session, the former CEO of Qunar tells his story, from idea to exit, and the lessons you can take from it.
11.40-12.40 Innovation Across Asia, Part 2
Our handpicked experts curate the latest trends and pick their bets in each of their markets across the region, in 10 minutes each.
Thailand/Vietnam: Brett Henry, Vice President, Commercial and Marketing, Abacus International
Korea: Chris Lee, Living Social Escapes Asia
Indonesia: Yansen Kamto, CEO, Kibar Kreasi
India: Ram Badrinathan, CEO, GLOBALThen
Middle East: Hichame Assi, Head Of International Strategy & Online Marketing, Hotelscombined.com
12.40-14.30 Lunch, followed by Concurrent Bootcamps (Grab your lunch, power up and join one of two bootcamps that will run from 13.00-14.20)
13.00-14.20 Bootcamp 1: Travel For Starters
Keen to do a travel start-up but don’t know about the industry? Or you’ve just started a travel business and now find yourself in a quandary because you didn’t know there’s so much you didn’t? Here’s the session for you. Experts will give you the low-down about the travel business, how it works, why it works or why it doesn’t, and where the opportunities are?
Led by:
Valyn Perini, CEO, Open Travel
Timothy O’Neil-Dunne, Managing Partner, T2Impact
With Anil Damodaran, Head of Mobile, Consumer Solutions and Customer Enablement, Abacus International; Alex Kremer, Flextrip; Frank Lin, myALN, China; and Filip Filipov, VaultPAD
13.00-14.20 Bootcamp 2: Customer Acquisition and Monetisation
So you have lift-off. Executed your idea that will change the world. But now how do you acquire customers and monetize? This is the critical stage where most start-ups fumble. In this session, learn from those who’ve done it where the demand generators are, what’s worked, what hasn’t and how do you start building up your revenue streams?
Run by:
Fritz Demopoulos, CEO, Queen’s Road Capital
Kei Shibata, CEO, Venture Republic, Japan
with Denise Peng, Executive Vice President, Qunar, China
Back to the Main Bootcamp
14.30-15.10 THack@WIT Showcase
Meet the developers who took part in our THack@WIT and their solutions
Kevin May, Editor, Tnooz
15.10-15.30 I Dream of Africa
Once upon a time, entrepreneur Stephan Ekbergh moved from Sweden to Africa where he started an online travel agency, Travelstart. Today he dreams of owning Africa. In this session, he talks about starting a business in emerging markets and shares insights about a new market that needs to be tapped more fully by destinations in Asia.
15.30-16.00 What A Difference A Year Makes
Catch-up time with the finalists of last year’s WIT Start-Up Pitch.
Ian Cumming, Founder, GetFlight, Australia
Winnie Tan, CEO, Travelogy.com, Singapore
Tudor Coman, Co-founder, Flocations
Alex Kremer, COO & Co-founder, Flextrip
16.00-16.20 Break
16.20-17.15 WIT Start-Up Pitch
Start-ups pitch their ideas to our panel of investors and mentors. Finalists go on to the Grand Finals at the WIT Conference, Oct 16-17.
Judging Panel
Co-chairs:
Fritz Demopoulos, CEO, Queen’s Road Capital, Hong Kong
Kei Shibata, CEO, Venture Republic, Japan
Judges:
Adrian Currie, Board Management Member, Priceline Group
Brett Henry, Vice President, Commercial and Marketing, Abacus International
Hugh Mason, CEO, JFDI.asia
Kurt Knackstedt, ACTE Angel Investors Lounge
Martin Symes, Chairman, Wego
Stephan Ekbergh, CEO, Travelstart
Timothy O’Neil Dunne, CEO, Vaultpad
Valyn Perini, CEO, OpenTravel Alliance
Prof Adrian David Cheok, Professor, Keio University Graduate School of Media Design, Tokyo, Japan
17.15 onwards The Museum of Mistakes and How to Avoid Being An Exhibit
Do you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur, what are the most common mistakes made by entrepreneurs and how can you avoid making them? An audience engagement session that will help you answer those questions.
Co-Facilitator: Don Birch
Announcement of Finalists for WIT Start-Up Pitch
18.30-20.30 Appy Hour, hosted by WIT and Tnooz, sponsored by Abacus International (Same venue, so you don’t have to go anywhere)
