Web Summit’s Rise conference to debut in Hong Kong

Europe’s largest meeting of tech minds, Web Summit, is heading to Hong Kong, having been rebranded as Asia’s inaugural Rise conference.

Paddy Cosgrave launched Web Summit in Dublin, Ireland, in 2010. Last year, it was attended by more than 20,000 people, and past speakers have included tech celebs such as the founders of Tesla and Netflix – Elon Musk and Reed Hastings, respectively – as well as executives from global mega-brands Google, Apple and Facebook.

Among the 200 speakers at the Hong Kong event will be 9Gag co-founder and chief executive Ray Chan; president of Google for Work Amit Singh; and Matt Mason, chief content officer of the controversial filesharing service BitTorrent.

Throughout the event, the hottest 40 of the 500 or so Asian start-ups in attendance will battle it out to be crowned Rise’s Best Start-up: entrepreneurs will pitch their ideas on stage before investor panels comprised of tech media and business executives.

“This is basically a matchmaking service,” says Cosgrave. “We introduce journalists, start-ups, venture capitalists and other attendees to others they might be interested in.”

The organisers also use attendee profiles to devise seating plans conducive to creating business connections.

Hong Kong, Cosgrave says, was the natural choice for the team’s first venture in Asia as it has one of the highest number of start-ups per capita in the region and is at the centre of Asia’s financial growth.

Tickets for the two-day event, on July 31 and August 1, cost US$515 per person for early birds or US$1,200 for late bookers.

For details, visit riseconf.com.