Startup Thailand and National Innovation Agency presents Echelon Thailand 2017 CONFERENCE: 15-16 MAY 2017 | C ASEAN

Echelon Thailand 2017, the biggest tech conference to be held in Thailand is breaking the ASEAN boundaries by bringing in the best start-ups and large business companies together from the Southeast Asia region. This year, the tech market is hungry for innovation, and Echelon has once again included Thailand into the fold, continuing to build and integrate the Southeast Asian market together.

"There is much renewed interest in the Thailand market due to Chinese investors and involvement in creating and pushing for innovation. Together, we are starting to see interesting startups being created that makes better sense for the Southeast Asia market rather than purely for the Thailand market," said Thaddeus Koh, Co-Founder, e27.

Thailand is seeing a growth in the start-up scene with this year's support from National Innovation Agency (NIA), that has a vision to develop Thailand as an "ASEAN Start-up Hub", spending Bt1.2 billion this year on driving the start-up ecosystem nationwide. The National Innovation Agency was established by the Ministry of Science and Technology and is an autonomous agency to facilitate innovation development in Thailand.

According to NIA director Pun-Arj Chairatana, the purpose behind developing the country as an ASEAN Start-up Hub is to create branding that will act as a springboard for broader start-up hub status in the region. Echelon is one of the platforms that NIA has decided to partner with to jump start the innovative program, with start-up hubs being a major player in transforming the ASEAN region into a modern, digital society.

Echelon Thailand is organised by e27, a digital insight, connections, talent and funding platform and power-packed two- day conference set to empower entrepreneurs with the tools to build and grow their companies across Southeast Asia and beyond. The conference is held on 15-16 May at C asean, and is set to host over 1,500 attendees consisting of digital professionals, students, startup founders, investors and corporate representatives from over 20 countries. e27 is supported by National Innovation Agency (NIA), GoodShift Ventures, InVent, Krungsri Finnovate, 500 Startups, Techstars and many more.

"The platform (e27.co) that we have created for our e27 community gives rise to value creation and business matching opportunity throughout the entire year. Also with NIA coming into the scene, we see huge support from the various governments in the region to push for innovation and technology adoption for the corporates and SMEs," Thaddeus added.

To cater to a diverse crowd, the venue will be divided into four different spaces to explore:

• Future Stage (main stage): inspirational talks from industry disruptors and culminating in a showcase of founders representing innovative ideas from across Thailand and the region before competing on the global stage in June at Echelon Asia Summit (e27.co/echelon/asia) in Singapore.

• Startup Academy: Business 101s with other early-stage startup founders, powered by Techstars

• VentureCon: an investor-exclusive track powered by GoodShift Ventures for intimate discussions on theses and strategies from Angel, to Seed and Series A and

• Corporate Innovation: A morning track powered by 500 Startups dedicated to corporate representatives looking to integrate innovation into the core of their business to stay relevant in line with Thailand 4.0 and regional smart city initiatives.

Speakers will and content Highlights will include:

Insights: Over 70 speakers from Thailand, Singapore, China, Indonesia, Japan, and more, including

• Grace Yun Xia, Senior Director, Corporate Strategy and Investment, Tencent, on Advanced Technologies and Business Models in China that SEA Can Learn From

• Ariya (Bi) Banomyong, Managing Director, LINE Thailand

• Thaddeus Koh, Co-founder, e27 on growth of a boundary-less startup community to complete the Southeast Asia brand

• Dr. Karndee Leopairote, Managing Director, C asean, on Building Up Thailand's Competitive Advantage in Southeast Asia

• Moo Natavudh, CEO / Venture Partner, Ookbee / 500 TukTuks on Scaling Ookbee through User Generated Content and Digital Content Monetisation

• Simon Anquetil, Founder and Chairman, GoodShift Ventures on Impact Investments: Theses & Strategy

• Arnaud Bonzom, Director of Corporate Innovation, 500 Startups

• Koichi Saito of KK Fund, and Mameaw Sapprasert of 500 Startups, Michael Smith Jr of SeedPlus, and Champ Suthipongchai of Creative Ventures on handling seed funds, analysing opportunities, and making profitable decisions, and get insights that you can use to help you grow your investments.

• Dr John Leslie Millar MB ChB, Chief Strategic Development Officer, Ananda Development Public Co. Ltd

Connections: Tracks powered by GoodShift Ventures, TechStars, and 500 Startups who will connect you globally to over 15,000 founders and investors.

Funding: TOP100 Fight Club makes its next stop in Thailand, and we're on the hunt for Asia's most promising startups! Not in Bangkok? Join Echelon Connect, powered by AsiaStartups, to be matched with over 100 active investors from across Asia Pacific all year round!

Details:

Conference

C Asean, Cyber World Tower, 10th floor, 302 Ratchada, Huai Khwang, Bangkok 10310

• MRT: Thailand Cultural Center (Turn right from Exit 1. Cyber World Tower is a 5 minutes walk)

• Date: May 15-16, 2017

• Time: 0800 - 1800

• Delegate, Startup, Investor and Corporate Passes available at e27.co/echelon/thailand/registerLimited at the door passes available

Please see full agenda and speakers on this link: https://e27.co/echelon/thailand/agenda

• ข่าว Echelon Asia Summit