Sparkling Songster

A song or piece of music may consist of the art, singer, melody, arrangement, content, beat, lyrics, backing, production, setting and audience. Plus dashes of oomph and verve. When all these come together just right, the song gains a special spark (vs standard commercial music which tends to focus on production as a tool of marketing).

After featuring two Indonesian YouTubers in our previous music post, next up is another compatriot of theirs, Fatin Majidi, in a cover of Mirai E. The spark: likely recorded using the selfie camera of a phone (hence the low-res and non-standard aspect ratio), the diction is clear, as is the audio recording and rendition.

Props to the enterprising youngsters from an unheralded part of the world (and the techies at YouTube) for bringing a bit of cheer to the world.

Validation & Acceleration

Have a business idea you wish to follow up on? 'Idea' here refers to concept plus method of execution. Like in selling lemonade (concept) and stand design, location, signage, lemonade/water/sweetener mix, how to attract attention, pricing, sourcing of lemons etc (method), You can jump straight in or you could go through a mentored process. These coming weeks, you can validate your ideas in person at KL, CJ or PG. After which or alternatively, proceed to acceleration: fintech | emergingtech | fintech.

Pick of Events (W4-Mar-2019)

General
Link Hustlerpreneurs @ KL tix
Link Blockchainpreneurs @ KL

Link Womenpreneurs @ KL
Link LinkedIn Meetup @ KL
Link SocMed Meetup @ KL

Link UX/UI/CX Design @ KL
Link Experian Journey @ KL
Link Stay Relevant @ PG tix

Arts

Link Poetry Supper Club @ KL
Link Art of Filmmaking @ KL tix
Link Tukar Tangan @ KL post image
Link Women's Day Party @ KL
Link Art & Cuisine @ KL

Link #MeToo Meetup @ KL

Link Hushed Reading @ KL
Link Furry Friendsters @ KL tix

Around The Region
Link Art Basel @ HK
Link Proptech Hack @ HK tix
Link Speed Dating @ TW tix
Link Future of Transport @ SG
Link Talend Databricks @ SG

Link Hungry Pomelo @ BKK

Link Vitamin or Painkiller @ JKT

Link Late Nite Fintech @ JKT tix

YC | Zeroth

YC and Zeroth are holding their demo day(s) starting tomorrow [Mon, 18 Mar 2019] in SF & Tokyo respectively. A sample of startups:

YC Winter 2019 via YC has to-date listed 50 out of 200+ startups in this batch

• InsideSherpa - Simulate working in top firms like KPMG
• Cherry - Give e-perks to staff: Uber, Lyft, Netflix subscriptions etc
• Bensen - Just say 'burger' to order burger, no swiping needed
• Taali - Lotus seeds: the new health food
• AuraVision - Retrofit footfall analytics into existing store cameras

Zeroth AI 2019 via batches 1-4

• SpoonShot - Food taste AI: eg finding a link between Nutella & soy sauce
• RumbleMonkey - Allow players to stake money in one-on-one e-sports
• MikeLegal - Use AI to trawl through trade mark documents
• Etymo - AI search engine [try typing 'machine learning']
• Sharpsense - Use AI to analyse IoT data for critical events

Bonus 1: AI Startups 1 2 rise of the bots

• JudeDeck - Create your own royalty-free music using AI
• Phrasee - Generate marketing copy using AI
• Distributed - Scale developer teams like you would scale cloud computing
• Trax - Check supermarket shelves (stock outs etc) using computer vision vid
• MindTrace - Use webcam to gauge emotion, eye movement, for mktg/ud

Bonus 2: AI Like

• We tried searching for online demos of AI, but found none
• Instead, we stumbled upon these AI-like programs
• They (likely) use programmed logic, tables, tree search and/or look-ahead
• But no self-learning as required for AI. Still, a bit of SNSFW fun:
• Mitsuku - Chat bot chat via the box at the bottom right of the screen
• GamesForTheBrain - Checkers click from and to positions, no dragging
• Chess.com - Chess clean, modern UI

Footnotes

• Our startup lists are largely pitched at technical people/industry insiders, the general public may not find them too interesting, given the terse descriptions.
• To illustrate how there could be more to a short description, in YC's list above, InsideSherpa proposes freshies could gain the experience of working for, say, Elon Musk, without actually being hired by Elon Musk. It might also go towards realising Jack Ma's advice [2015] of 'when starting out, find a good boss to work for, as he/she will give you a good foundation for your career' on a scalable, virtual basis. This is a new perspective in graduate training.
• Another example is Cherry which proposes Uber/Lyft subscriptions (among others) as perks. Thus, instead of giving staff a company car, an intermediate perk could be to give a ride subscription. This in turn hints at the possibility of a market-driven, non-coercive, tax-deductible, private sector lever (out of many possibilities) for e-mobility.

Ed Perfect

Hanin Dhiya

Chelsea Angelica

Indonesian YouTubers Hanin Dhiya and Chelsea Angelica covers. Ed Sheeran's Perfect. Ed in KL in April.

Cat Concerto

The Cat Concerto
Sixteen years old Yannie Tan rolls with Tom and Jerry's The Cat Concerto, winner of the 1947 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. The piece being played, Hungarian Rhapsody No.2, opens this weekend's Sibelius concert. [Note: the music is slower paced than our usual highlights but the tempo picks up a third of the way in when Jerry, the mouse, makes his appearance.]

The Unanswered Question
On a more meditative note, in The Quest for a New World concert at month's end, the opening act is The Unanswered Question where the violins are said to represent serenity; the trumpet, questions; and flutes, answers. Have a watch at this short piece, for in it, perhaps the suggestion, at certain times and in certain matters, questions beget more questions, and ultimately the answer could be serenity.

Other Music Events
Link Colours of Music @ Sunway
Link The World in Songs @ UCSI
Link The Nutcracker @ Bentley
Link Chamber Concert @ KLCC
Link Master & Prodigies @ SA
Link Sunny Side Up @ KLPAC
Link Viva La Music @ INTI

RegTech Ecosystem

The World Cup comes around (the next one is Qatar 2022), and in keeping up with the times, tech savvy bookies embrace ewallets. To head off easy betting via ewallets, the regulators ask ewallet operators to carry out due diligence to identify bookies and betting transactions.

But how? Say, you, a long-time casual punter in all manner of games, saw this coming. You built a suite of data analysis tools to suss out typical betting amounts and patterns. The ewallet operators do not have in-depth knowledge of bootleg betting, so they turn to you to quickly ramp up their due diligence. This is RegTech.


Pick of Events (W3-Mar-2019)

General
Link RegTech Ecosystem @ KL tix
Link Machine Learning @ KL tix
Link Innovation Summit @ KL
Link Scientific Hustling @ KL
Link Online to Offline @ KL tix
Link Grow Your Blog @ KL
Link Fussy Clients @ KL

Arts
Link Bring Your Own Poem @ KL
Link Unicorn Design @ KL vid

Link Traders Market @ KL

Link Book Sharing @ KL
Link Pulp Fiction @ BKK
Link Finding Happiness @ SG vid

Around The Region
Link Bayesian Networks @ SG
Link Amoeba Indigo @ JKT
Link Sustainable Palm Oil @ JKT

Friendster → MySpace → Facebook → [?]

Landscape
[Image credit: Statista] Facebook's closest functional competitor, Google+, is closing down April 2nd 2019. Facebook itself is mulling pivoting towards messaging. Perhaps going back to the pre-Friendster days of IRC and ICQ, or towards the all-in-one WeChat.

Challengers
Thus, there might be room for a new community space to be the successor of Friendster, MySpace and Facebook. Surprisingly, there seems to no challengers in the horizon, no startups taking on Facebook directly (though indirectly there are Whatsapp, Instagram (both fb properties), Twitter, Snapchat, LinkedIn, YouTube, WeChat, Weibo, QQ, TikTok, Reddit etc - plus a few startups listed at the bottom of this post).

User Experience
Facebook is a formidable player, with its capital, cashflow, reach, audience, infrastructure and patent portfolio. But its front-end could do with some improvements, if any budding startups are interested:

• User Defined Newsfeed Tabs - one each for work, family, friends, news etc
• No Algorithms - All posts are shown, like in Twitter, no algorithmic curation
• User Controlled Muting - Eg. for this page, show me at most 3 posts a day
• Free Posts Limit - After, say, 10 free posts a day, a page has to pay for more
• No Silo - Admins/users may allow threads/content to be google searchable
• Noted - A neutral reaction that is not like, love, haha, wow, sad or angry

Character

• Twitter - Thoughts
• Instagram - Photos
• Snapchat - Secret photos
• LinkedIn - Work
• Spotify -Music
• Reddit - Discussion
• Whatsapp - Messaging / chatting
• Facebook - Community / news / outreach
• YouTube - Creative / entertainment / learning
• Email - Correspondence / notices
• Internet - Information
• Google - Search

Social Media Startups

• Ello - Community of artists
• MeWe - No ads, no data for sale
• 23snaps - Your photos remain yours
• Vero - No algorithms, no data mining
• Gab - Zero censorship Twitter
• Freindica - DIY social network
• Openbook - Open source, ad free, no tracking
• Nextdoor - Neighbourhood focused
• FamilyWall - Family focused
• Untappd - Beer focused could be nasilemak, laksa, thosai

SXSW & HelloTomorrow

SXSW 2019 converges interactive, film and music [Mar 8-17 @ Austin]. Hello Tomorrow 2019 explores the future [March 14-15 @ Paris]. Sample pitching startups:

SXSW 2019 Pitch Finalists via

• Boost - Microbiome: a social network of useful microbes
• Lucidity - BusinessInsider and DigiDay award winner for AdTech vid
• Stroly - DIY maps: map-based social media sample
• Pilosa - Speedup access to massive datasets via a bitmap index
• Obsess - Capture a physical store in VR, literal offline-to-online vid
• Zibiro - Balance scale: balance as a health metric
• LinkDyn - Robots that are highly touch sensitive, for delicate work
• ObjectBox - Super-fast, object-orientated database for IoT & mobiles
• CargoX - Cut bill of lading processing from 10 days to 20 seconds
• Migo - All-one-one transport app: rides, bikes, cabs, rentals, transit

Hello Tomorrow 2019 Global Challenge Finalists via

• SkyPull - Kite-drone hybrid to harness high attitude winds for power vid
• Insightness - Efficient computer vision for smartglasses and robots vid
• GreenBlu - Green desalination: energy efficient, zero brine pollution
• Hionos - Use airline avionics to power drones: beyond line of sight flying etc
• Simplicty - 3D bonding: make a shoe in 10 steps instead of 80
• Ampaire - Retrofit airplanes with electric propulsion
• Neetera - Use sub-terahertz radar to measure pulse, breathing remotely
• NiveauUp - EV lithium-ion battery charging that is 10x faster
• Open Cosmos - Space mission management software
• Darwin - Use AI to build AI

Pick of Events (W2-Mar-2019) • additions
For the 'Mobility Tech' event, try promocode MOBILEIND via

General
Link Movie Recommender @ KL
Link BioEntrepreneurship @ KL
Link Korea Startup Pitch @ KL tix
Link Mobility Tech @ KL tix also
Link Productive Teams @ KL
Link Freelancer Meetup @ KL
Link Digital Forensics @ KL
Link Exceptional CX @ KL
Link Snapchat CSO @ KL tix •
Link Magical Moment @ KL tix •
Link Starting from Zero @ CJ also •
Link Ecommerce for Women @ PG •

Arts
Link Grant Applications @ KL tix
Link Chocolate Tasting @ KL
Link World Poetry Day @ KL
Link Hemoglobin Call @ KL
Link Artists Meetup @ PG
Link Green Lunch @ SG
Link Urban Design @ SG

Link Film & TV Market @ HK

Around The Region
Link PropTech Redefines @ HK
Link Tree Compensation @ HK
Link CN-HK-MO Bay @ HK
Link Free Open Source @ SG
Link FoodTech Ecosystem @ SG
Link Tough as Nails @ BKK
Link Manage by Gamification @ JKT

Synthetic IQ

The title is a wordplay of 'Artificial Intelligence'. Say, you want to program a robot to make a cat purr. Two possible ways this could be done. [Image: MIT's Mini Cheetah]

Programmed Logic
In a traditional 'programmer' way, one could manually code:

• Wave right hand at the cat,  if cat purrs, then success.
• If not, issue audio 'hey kitty kitty', If cat purrs, then success.
• If not, blink at the cat, if cat purrs then success...and so on.

This method is rigorous but laborious and rigid.

Artificial Intelligence

Another way is to let the robot program itself automatically. Put it in front of a cat (or many cats one after another) and give it an objective: get a purr from the cat. The robot then does these by itself:

• Wave right hand. remember if the cat purrs or not.
• Issue audio 'hey kitty kitty', remember if the cat purrs or not.
• Blink at the cat, remember if the cat purrs or not.
• Continue with all possible actions, remember the results.

After many iterations, and playing with many cats, the robot may acquire an 'artificial intelligence' on how to make a cat purr. The robot could also do more advanced stuff like detecting a faint purr and assigning a score to that, or on seeing the cat turn and walk away, note that too.

AI Events
1) The items shown at YouTube's and Facebook's landing pages are likely AI powered recommendations. Find out more about recommendations next Sat, 16-Mar-19 @ KL.  

2) Deloitte & TechInAsia are holding a corporate briefing on AI on Thu, 14-Mar-19 @ KL.

3) Explore how AI and 5G might work together this Tue, 5-Mar-19 @ HK.

4) Elon Musk says AI could be more dangerous than nuclear bombs on the premise that it could turn rogue without anyone noticing and not being able to hit the 'off' button before it it is too late. Ethics of AI are discussed next Tue, 12-Mar-19 @ SG.

Indie Travel

WiT Indie 2019 is an event and experience designed to empower tours & activities operators and providers, independents, creatives and startups in the digital age. [Fri, 15 Mar 2019, 9am-6pm @ Penang | prog | tix MYR 200 USD 50 | 19 Mar 2019 @ Kuching tix].

Topics

• Bird's Eye View of The Travel Universe - AccorHotels
• The Booming Tours & Activities Sector - BeMyGuest
• Marketing to The Chinese Traveller - BrandStory
• Building a Brand for Indie Business - Triquetra
• Getting Your Experience Business Discovered - Rezgo
• Make Payments Your Priority - TrustMyTravel
• The Power of Social Videos - Facebook
• Data Driven Digital Advertising - Sojern
• Topsy Turvy World of Indie Hospitality - D-Edge
• Indies are Doing It for Themselves - Yotel
• Tools for Independent Hoteliers - IdeaWeaver
• Hard Knocks & Lessons - Vidi
• Love & Money: How to Do Both - BananaMana
• A Master Storytelller - Puteri Gunung Ledang

Wired Music

Wired Music Week is a dedicated gathering of music professionals ranging from aspiring artists, talent managers and promoters, to music enthusiasts. [Thu-Sun, Mar 7-10 2019 @ Zouk, KL | site | conf | fest | tix MYR 305 | USD 75].

Topics sample | abbreviated titles and presenters

• Secrets on How to Get Signed - Revealed Recordings
• Breaking into The Music Scene - Plural Asia
• Launchpad Music - Focusrite & Novation
• Artificial Intelligence in Music - Musiio
• Social Media X-Ray - Moon Jelly
• Between Vocals & Songwriting - VocalKitchen
• Mobile Music Streaming - Kanjian
• Reinventing The Music Event - Peatix
• The Business Model of Record Labels - Warner
• Future of Music Distribution - MusicPressAsia
• A Music Production Workshop - Ableton
• Turn Emotion into Energy - Dimatik video

Pick of Events (W1-Mar-2019)

General
Link Industrial IoT @ KL
Link Influencer Gathering @ KL

Link Retaining Audiences @ KL

Link Solar Drinks @ KL
Link Data Security @ KL tix
Link Data Privacy @ KL
Link Open Data @ KL
Link Halal Expo @ PG tix
Link Halal Pitch @ CJ
Link Snapchat AR @ CJ info
Link Ecommerce Tips @ CJ

Women

Link Fearless Females @ SG
Link Future is Female @ SG
Link Werking Women @ SG tix
Link She Loves Data @ ID
Link She Means Business @ HK
Link Women of Influence @ HK
Link Women's Fiesta @ KL
Link Women's Bazaar @ KL

Arts
Link Night Out Painting @ KL
Link Culture Spark @ KL
Link Design Week @ SG

Sarawak
Link Startup Ecosystem @ KC
Link Digital Transform @ KC tix
Link Content Creation @ KC

Around The Region
Link Quantum Computing @ SG
Link Distributed OS @ SG
Link Mega Port City @ SG
Link Founders Meetup @ SG
Link Raising A Trillion @ HK
Link Work in Progress @ HK
Link Blockchain Week @ HK
Link Batam Startup Festival @ ID
Link Minimum Viable Product @ ID

Patent Competition

IPHatch™ invites companies and startups to a competition to commercialise a slate of 10+ patents. A briefing will be held this Thursday, 28-Feb-2019, 4pm-5:30pm @ HK [ site slow | tix | via ]. Among the patents are:

• US8682608 - Camera that recognises behaviour
• US8204747 - Camera that recognises emotion
• US9235268 - Multiple smartphones, one workspace image
• US8477035 - Wearable heartbeat monitor with central monitoring
• US9954927 - In a giant screen, allocate each window to one user
• US8180176 - Un-tilt an tilted image captured by a wearable, drone etc
• US9204050 - Superimpose real-time information on images

Pick of Events (W4+Feb-2019) also

General
Link Entrepreneur Spirit @ CJ tix
Link Developing Exports @ KK
Link Home Food Industry @ KL
Link Lean In Open Day @ KL
Link Roasting Battle @ KL info
Link Be The Change @ KL

Around The Region
Link Ecommerce Intelligence @ SG
Link Importance of Logistics @ SG
Link Expanding to China @ SG
Link Energy for Mobility @ SG
Link Ladies Networking @ SG
Link Mox Demo Day @ SG
Link AI in Retail @ HK

---

Bonus: Asean Ricebowl 2019 Winners via sample

• ID TaniHub - Best foodtech/agriculture
• MY MTEP - Best ecosystem initiative
• PH Revolution - Startup of The Year
• SG UnificationEngine - Best IoT
• TH AIS - Best accelerator or incubator see below
• VN Abivin - Best logistics or supply chain

Bonus: AIS Startups sample

• FourLeaf - Digital menu, ordering, kitchen and payment system
• FoodStory - Ditto, plus food trucks and deliveries
• Digio - Mobile ID card reader for transactions that need verification
• InfoFed360 - VR viewer that is integrated with Google Street View 1 2 3
• Bento - Thai Shopify that includes chatbot and fulfilment
• Pastelapps - Soften, round and pastelize the standard, stark smartphone UI

Tricolour Startups

[Video: Chloe Stafler covers Tous les garçons et les filles (all the boys and girls)]. France had the biggest startup presence at the recently concluded CES 2019, even more than host country United States. France (315 startups), US (293), South Korea (107). Sample:

French Startups

• LoftOrbital - Space satellites as a service: regular launches & all payloads
• NeuralCat - Bot that teaches other bots conversation (vs human made data)
• Qonto - Neobank for SMEs that gets back to you in 15 minutes or less
• Shadow - After servers, place the PC in the cloud: portable, pay as you use
• LiFiMax - Light based WiFi: faster, no leakage to neighbours, no EM pollution
• UrbanCanopee - Instant, green, mini-forests for the concrete jungle
• Hari&Co - Chickpea burgers, red bean burgers, green lentil meatballs
• Metronaut - For musicians, the accompanying orchestra is an app

Alita: Security Angel

ISC-WG Findings Report Launch A better data security is to have no user data, thus nothing to be pilfered, hacked or misused. But if data is collected, security is essential. MDEC, together with LGMS, CSM and AsiaCyberX, and after discussions with CISOs, CTOs and CIOs, is hosting an event to launch a cybersecurity report with findings on:

• Challenges
• Use cases
• Best practices
• Solutions

The launch is followed by a viewing of cyberpunk action film Alita: Battle Angel. [Fri, 22 Feb 2019, 3pm-8:30pm @ Paradigm Mall, Kelana Jaya | tix | movie | also]

Pick of Events (W4-Feb-2019)
1) If posts are shared via whatsapp etc, best to include a link back to the source or calendata.com. Posts are often updated after posting and are optimally experienced at source via a desktop browser. 2) Indonesia is given its own section this week due to a bumper lineup of events. Garuda flexes its wings.

General
Link Deep Learning @ KL
Link Startup Showcase @ KL
Link Corporate Coffee @ KL
Link Entrepreneurs Day @ KL tix
Link Digital Industrial @ KL tix
Link Ewallet Buzz @ KL
Link Energy Chat @ KL info
Link Founderpreneurs @ KL
Link Economic Outlook @ KL
Link Blogger Taxation @ KL
Link Doing Good Index @ KL
Link Logistics Fulfilment @ KL tix
Link LeapSprint Incubator @ PG
Link How to Be A Designer @ PG
Link Unifi SME Biznet @ IP

Arts
Link Food Reviews Reviewed @ KL
Link How to Get Sponsorship @ KL
Link Politically Incorrect @ KL
Link Called To The Bar @ KL
Link Indoor Drifting @ KL
Link Boisterous Brahms @ PG vid
Link India Arts Festival @ HK
 
Around The Region
Link Future of Work @ SG
Link Angel Investing @ SG
Link Learning Festival @ SG
Link SG-SE Innovation @ SG
Link Chief Data Officer @ SG
Link WeWork Friday @ SG
Link Fitness Social @ SG
Link Startup Kickoff @ TP

Indonesia
Link Media Incubator @ JKT
Link Payments Meetup @ JKT
Link Fintech Meetup @ JKT
Link CTO Meetup @ JKT
Link Strategic Design @ JKT
Link Start Upgrade @ JKT
Link Kudo Nodeflux @ JKT
Link Founders Valley @ JKT
Link Nero Atelier @ JKT
Link Agile GoJek @ JKT
Link Trilogy Tech @ JKT info
Link Dine In or Out @ JKT
Link New Wave Banking @ JKT
Link Craft Branding @ JKT

Photonic Computing

The post title refers to Lightmatter's photonic computing [the use of light instead of electricity for computing, like the use of optical fibre instead of copper wire for data transmission] while the video shows an Endeavour Robotics police robot taking on a K9. Lightmatter and Endeavour are among our pick of startups from Boston and Tokyo:

Boston

• Lightmatter - Photonic computing because silicon is down to 10 atoms
• Endeavour - After swords & guns, next are robots (and drones) at the front
• Inrupt - Tim Berners-Lee's new web to replace the siloed, data slurping one
• PA - Avoid jerky autonomous drive caused by unpredictable pedestrians
• Dust Identity - Security tag items by sprinkling them with nano diamonds
• Lendbuzz - Second chance for borrowers turned away by banks
• Gradifi - Help your staff pay his/her study loan as a perk

Tokyo

• Ozon - Smart ring that does gesture input, alerts, e-keys and e-wallet
• Aeronext - Radical new drone design that is vertical and gravity oriented
• BaseTrack - Russian self-driving that is much simpler, uses virtual tracks
• Pireco - Iris recognition for animals, like thumbprints for humans
• Mui - Display that looks like natural wood vs the standard black panel
• EnviRate - Rate the environment instead of restaurants, eco mapping
• GPU Eater - Cloud that runs on GPUs instead of CPUs, for faster ML

Pedestrian Boulevards

Kuala Lumpur City Hall has proposed a conversion of a busy street in downtown Kuala Lumpur into a pedestrianised, car-free one. Here are some examples of pedestrian boulevards from around the world.

Alfresco dining in a courtyard @ Carnaby Street, London photo

Leafy, meandering boulevard @ Queen Street Mall, Brisbane. photo

Clean, no-kerb design (minimal road is still needed for fire engines etc) @ Cat Street, Tokyo photo

Neon, nightlife destination @ Lan Kwai Fong, Hong Kong photo

Coffee conversations under the shade of palm trees @ Lincoln Road, Miami photo

Random Notes

• Based on US experience, for greater chances of success, a pedestrianised street should be managed like a mall: good store/tenant mix, non-gentrification, marketing & promotion, ample parking and/or connectivity, street-level vibrancy, regular upgrades etc.
  <newline>
• Petaling Street (Chinatown) is already pedestrianised but it is perhaps a case study of what not to do: a maze of booths selling touristy kitsch while its original, old-school shops fade away. Jalan Alor, another candidate for pedestrianisation is already self-pedestrianised, by new, tourist focused eateries while its older, local street food moves into the background.
  <newline>
• On the other hand, pedestrianisation may provide opportunities for new businesses: new retail, micro mobility (e-scooters, e-trishaws etc), food carts (vs food trucks), portable food, local products, retail and activity incubators, pop-up stores, street art and events.

The Accessible City

Malaysia Urban Forum 2019 is a key platform to discuss the implementation of the New Urban Agenda & the urban dimension of Sustainable Development Goals. MUF2019 is an open gathering at the national level that fosters the exchange of views and experiences in urban challenges and opportunities. [Mon-Tue, 18-19 Feb 2019 @ KLCC site | agenda | tix gratis].

Activities & Topics sample

• The Accessible City - UN Habitat
• The Resilient City - DBKL
• The Age Friendly City - PLANMalaysia
• The Circular City - Monash
• BiodiverCity - ERE
• Designing Cities 4.0 - MIGHT
• Dynamic Urban Governance - CLC
• Municipal Finance for Better Cities - World Bank
• Green Technology Financing - GreenTech
• Green Bond Market - RAM
• Wealth from Not Wasting - IBR Asia
• Digital Analytics & Urban Planning - Berkshire
• Rethinking Affordable Housing - Khazanah
• Urban Observatory - PLANMalaysia [pdf]
• Pedestrian and Bicycle Masterplan - DBKL
• Art in The City - Ecocentric Transition
• Urban Farming - DBKL
• Urban Culture - Rainforest Fringe
• Visit to Bukit Bintang & Jalan Alor - Urbanice 
• Visit to TRX & Site Viewing at Upper Deck - Urbanice

Tokenized Visa

Mobile World Congress is the world's largest exhibition for the mobile industry, and incorporates a thought-leadership conference featuring prominent executives representing global mobile operators, device manufacturers, technology providers, vendors, and content owners. [25-28 Feb, 2019 @ ES site]. Sample:

Conference topics

• eSIM: soon in phones, wearables, IoTs, computers - GSMA
• Blockchain SIM: sign and encrypt IoT data at source - Ubirch
• Tokenization: machine-to-machine commerce - Visa post title
• The Great Enabler: connectivity - SmartDubai, IOC, Huawei
• Traditional watch brands: digital payments trend setter - Timex
• Digital evolution of wearable payments - Tappy | vid
• Building a global mobile bank - N26 | vid | vid

Mobile Awards Nominees

• Unicom - A telco takes on the scammers
• Night Sight - Google's night vision phone
• ABBYY - Smartphone document scanning and OCR
• BleeWatch - Smartwatch for the deaf (eg buzz on fire alarm)
• CarFit - Diagnose health of a vehicle from vibrations (from engine etc)

Footnotes

• Finally, a telco steps forward to take on phone scammers.
• The rest seem to be just gadgets but if you look closely, they are all sense (sight, hearing, touch) multipliers. Future possibilities.

Pick of Events (W3-Feb-2019)

General
Link Tech Venture Capital @ KL info
Link Transcendent Fintech @ KL tix
Link Microsoft x Google @ KL
Link Startup Financing @ KL tix
Link The Gig Economy @ KL tix
Link Tiger Lair Pitching @ KL
Link Navarro vs Merkel @ KC info
Link Hargapedia Satellite @ PJ tix

Data
Link False Results from False Data @ KL
Link Make Data Sing @ KL tix
Link Data Experiments @ JKT

Arts
Link Saloma & Ramlee @ KL vid
Link Sally & Harry @ SG
Link Michelin Street Food @ SG tix

Urban Farm Startups

Startups in Urban Farming Want to grow your own vege at home but the garden space has been paved over for the car or you have only a balcony or small yard?. Yearn to grow your own food like how your forebears had done for thousands of years? Looking for a past time that does not involve squinting at a screen? The co-founder of everyday.com.my (folded into LivingSocial) might just have a solution for you [Thu, 14 Feb 2019, 11am-1pm @ KL tix].

FarmTech & AgriTech Startups 1 2

• Gotham Greens - Fresh produce even in freezing winter post image
• BrightFarms - Hydrophonic greenhouse in Series D
• AeroFarm - Fast Company's Most Innovative
• SkyGreens - Tropical rotating vertical farm img
• Bowery -  Precision, post-organic farming, invested by Alphabet
• Plenty - 350x faster than conventional agriculture, invested by Softbank
• Plantagon - Agriculture + Architecture = Agritecture

Pick of Events (W2-Feb-2019)

General
Link Prosperous HR @ KL
Link Lelong Commerce @ KL
Link Decoding Data @ KL tix
Link Young Lawyers @ JB tix

Arts
Link The Better Angels @ KL
Link Slow Talkers @ KL
Link MY Gastronomy @ KL
Link Step Forward @ KL tix

Link Kthxbye Concert @ KL tix
Link Spring Cello @ KL vid

Around The Region
Link Bali Ricebowl @ ID 1 2
Link Agile McKinsey @ JKT
Link Techies CNY @ HK
Link Google CNY @ SG

Gatecrash Only ...don't
Link Financial Hacks @ JKT tix
Link Logistics Blockchain @ SG
Link Education Revamp @ PTJ
Link Jom Funding @ KL alt
Link Young Economists @ KL
Link Google Quick Lab @ KL
Link Intro to Drawing @ KL

The Future of Micro Mobility

Startup Grind Global Conference 2019 features a stellar lineup of speakers including the top execs of YC, LinkedIn, Airbnb, Stripe, ClassPass, Box, Opendoor, Sequoia, Lime and Indiegogo, and senior execs from Google, Facebook and Slack. Happening Feb 12-13 @ Redwoord, CA. [ site | agenda | tix USD 455 ]. Topics include:

• The Future of Micro Mobility - Lime post title
• Riding The Headwinds - Stripe
• Essential Startup Advice - YC
• From Basement to $18B Exit - Qualtrics
• Substance over Speed - Airtable
• Turn Story into Product - NBCUniversal
• Making Unsexy Sexy - General Catalyst

Latest Mobility News

• Chile - E-bus fleet built by BYD | Yutong, financed by Ene | Engie
• Europe - No marketing of legacy cars by 2025, no selling by 2030
• Ural - Russian e-bike challenger, comes with sidecar
• Véligo - E-bike rental by the month vs hourly bike sharing
• E-cargobikes - Make rising ecommerce deliveries greener
• Wright Electric - Partners EasyJet for possible first e-flights
• Formula E - Leaving F1 in fumes post video

Pick of Events (W1-Feb-2019)

This Week
Link Ruby GoJek @ JKT
Link Success Metrics @ JKT
Link Thrive Thursday @ JKT tix
Link Data Tracking @ JKT
Link Tech Incubator @ HK
Link China Consumers @ HK
Link Positive News @ HK
Link Drone Hackathon @ HK
Link Pathbreaking Robots @ CJ
Link Apple WatchOS 5 @ KK info

Next Week
Link SpaceTech Mobility @ SG
Link Get Published @ SG
Link Digital F&B @ JKT