Author: Carla Acosta – Lead Designer
TechSauce Summit 2023: Our experience in Southeast Asia
From August 15-18, 2023, the first Artificial Intelligence Week was held in Bangkok with the support of the UK Embassy in Thailand. Equinox AI Lab represented the UK, with eight other leading AI companies, and was an exhibitor at the innovation and technology event called TechSauce Summit. It was our first experience in Southeast Asia!
“It was a unique opportunity to build valuable relationships and learn about the technology market in Southeast Asia, which is definitely on the rise. Thailand is ready to invest and become a benchmark in 5.0 technologies.”
Alejandro Salamanca – Head of AI and Data Science
The event was held on August 16-17 at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center (QSNCC) in Bangkok’s famous and busy Sukhumvit neighbourhood. The venue was one of the many amazing things we witnessed. It is a space that was renovated from 2019 to 2022, and it stole the attendees’ breath. Its name honours the current king Rama X’s mother, Sirikit. Its areas are spacious, bright and with white and golden sparkles. In addition, it has authentic Thai handicrafts as ornaments on the walls. From the first day, we felt in a completely different world, coming from London.
Pictures taken by the Equinox AI Lab team
Organisation was another virtue worth mentioning. Admission was agile and never felt over-scheduled. Moving on to what concerns us most, technology, we were able to share with startups from Thailand, other companies representing countries such as Poland, Japan, Taiwan and France, and more experienced companies that have carved their way into this industry decades ago, such as CMC from Vietnam.
As we met the startups, we realised that many young entrepreneurs are studying and putting their efforts into building competitive ideas that stand out in the Asian market. One such example is Aigen, which seeks to make AI affordable and accessible to all businesses in Thailand to increase the country’s competitive capabilities. Likewise, we saw recurring themes among these rising stars, such as sustainability, innovation in edible materials, and AI in marketing, healthcare and retail industries.
The digital (and non-digital) experiences took the participants’ attention, including us. Within the app of the event, a Treasure Hunt was designed to collect points throughout the event space. These points could be scanned with a QR or could be seen with AR; furthermore, each participant was given an NFT avatar (in fact, it was our first NFT).
Techsauce summit app screeshot taken by us
Also, experiences such as VR stole the attention of the attendees, zombie games, and balancing experiences. Finally, quadruped robots and drones constantly circulated around the venue, making it a space that seemed out of the planet.
The non-digital experiences also gave us a great surprise. As it is common knowledge, Thai massages are recognised worldwide, and what better way to relax after an intense business talk than to attend a massage on the neck, shoulders and head at the TechSauce Summit?
In addition, they had experiences such as analysing the signature, the wheel of fortune and the lucky number by a specialised Feng Shui consultant; these were definitely new experiences for us.
Pictures taken by the Equinox AI Lab team
In general, we consider this experience completely enriching. We can attest that attending an event like this with a booth is an excellent opportunity to make a lot of contacts that can end in conversions. The event created a superb balance between large, medium and small companies, generating a very promising environment for all. Everyone had opportunities regardless of their size or expertise.
Picture taken by the UK embassy in Thailand
We realised that many companies of diverse industries are at the right maturity level to implement AI in their business processes and strategy, making it a desirable market for our AI and Data Science solutions.
To conclude, we thank everyone who made this event a more enjoyable space for Equinox AI Lab. Thanks to the UK Embassy in Thailand, our booth partners, the people who came with so much enthusiasm to listen to us, and all those who also shared their solutions as we went to their stands. Let’s keep building out-of-this-world solutions. This is just the beginning!
Pd: Thai people are the kindest, and the food is fantastic. We highly recommend visiting this lovely country <3.
Image composed by AI generated images and the magic wand of our designers
Carla Acosta – Lead Designer
EQUINOX
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