Sandbox Dinner in Singapore
Photo: Kris Hoet
Last Monday, when arriving from Bangkok, I was as always very relaxed when landing in the lion city and passing out of Changi Airport into the clean and relatively quiet streets. It seems like a completely different world, comfortably easy but also a bit superficial, particularly when coming from rather chaotic places like Bangkok. Is this still Asia? Yes, of course. I actually could very well imagine the future of many Asian cities, particularly in China and South East Asia to become like Singapore. Experienced travelers from Malaysia use to say that KL looks like Singapore 20 years ago. I personally like to live here. It is a very multicultural city and there are a variety of interesting talents. Besides, it’s a perfect base to leverage your business into South East Asia, sometimes even China and India.
On Wednesday night, I had the pleasure to host the first official Sandbox Dinner in Singapore and it was a great success. The participants consisted of seven different nationalities and came from a variety of backgrounds - from a researcher at Insead to a social entrepreneur and an investment manager. Interestingly, they all shared an entrepreneurial mind and the aspiration to turn ideas into reality. This common ground made them to connect very well.
The most popular topics of the night were related to entrepreneurship, particularly in Asia. Many seem to believe that there are significant differences between entrepreneurs in Asia and in the West. Even if Singapore is proven to be the most business friendly city in the world, top graduates are mostly forced by cultural norms and their families to become employed at multinational corporations. However, Singapore is actually pushing very hard to encourage young people to be innovative and become entrepreneurs. For example, the government and universities engage in providing venture capital so that already now more than 5% of Singaporean companies are backed by Venture Capital. The education system offers some worldwide unique programmes such as a Master in Technopreneurship and universities often provide free office space and support to startups of all stages. Furthermore, you can incorporate your own business through an online platform in no time and with SDG 1 in capital. So if you are talented, have an idea for a business and live in Singapore, please consider starting your own business. It is probably nowhere as easy as here.
On the 13. April 2009 at 07:24 o'Clock
It was indeed a great sandbox dinner .. I guess ;-). Thank you for making it happen!
On the 13. April 2009 at 09:28 o'Clock
Andi! It was nice meeting you in SG as I didn’t have a chance to talk much with you during a sandbox dinner in Zurich a couple of months back. Hope to see you again soon in the city of garden :):)