Tyovan Ari Widagdo: ASES Summit 2013 at Stanford University
Tyovan Ari Widagdo
ASES SUMMIT 2013
STANFORD UNIVERSITY
Tyovan Ari Widagdo was selected for attending ASES Summit (Asia-Pacific Student Entrepreneurship Society – Stanford University) which took place 3 – 9 March 2013 at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, USA. He was chosen among approximately 300 applicants from around the world in an extremely competitive applicant process. Tyovan was one of the delegates representing Indonesia, especially BINUS University.
ASES (Asia-Pacific Student Entrepreneurship Society) is a college student organization whose mission is to educate and network the future leaders in business, technology and the Asia‐Pacific in order to foster a global entrepreneurship society. Founded by Stanford students, ASES is connected to the heart of Silicon Valley, the worldwide leader in high-tech entrepreneurship and innovation. Through Summit, ASES fosters a global network of college students interested in Entrepreneurship.
He shared his experience during the summit.
Day 1 – 3 March
First day of the summit, all participants introduced their respective country delegates as well as country presentation. As representative from Indonesia, I presented about the development of entrepreneurship in Indonesia, business potential and its investment especially in tech start-up.
Day 2 – 4 March
The participants gathered in CISX Auditorium where Prof. Richard Dasher (Director of US Technology Management Center) shared his view about the importance of entrepreneurship in global context. Next session was a discussion forum called Young Entrepreneurs Panel, which brought young entrepreneur panelists with companies in Silicon Valley as speakers: Zachary Bookman (CEO and Founder, Delphi Solutions), Alex Selig (CEO and Founder, Symphonic Audio Technologies Corp), Kyle Wong (Founder, Pixlee) and Ricky Yean (Founder, Crowdbooster). They shared their entrepreneurship experience in Silicon Valley, how they meet with venture capitalist, build networking, etc. After lunch, the participants had workshop about Design Thinking; how to create a new innovative product using design thinking method.
After the workshop, the participants formed a Pitch Group, where the participants work in a group to create an innovative product in order to solve a real problem. I joined a group along with delegates from India, China and Singapore. We were assigned to solve a problem in Technology Disturbing Economics.
Last session of the day, we met Professor Andrew Ng (Co-Founder of Coursera) for a keynote lecture “The Online Revolution: Education for Everyone”. Coursera is a social entrepreneurship company that partners with the top universities in the world to offer courses online for anyone to take – for free. It awarded as “Best New Start-Up 2012”. Professor Andrew Ng explained that online education will transform the future by giving everyone in the world access to the best professors in the best universities in the world for free.
Day 3 – 5 March
On Tuesday morning, we had sharing experience from Geoff Donaker (COO Yelp) and Mireille Cronin Mather (Executive Director at Foundation for Sustainable Development). Geoff shared his working experience in tech business area while Mireille discussed about global social entrepreneurship.
Tina Seelig (Executive Director, Stanford Technology Ventures Program) presented an interesting workshop ‘InGenius: Levers for Unlocking Creativity’ about unleashing creative thinking using a set of tools she created. During dinner session, I had a conversation with Tina about the venture development in Indonesia and she’s very interested about entrepreneurship in developing countries, including Indonesia.
Day 4 – 6 March
After breakfast, we prepared our Pitch Group assignment to be presented on Friday. Later, we went to Arrilaga Wellness Room where Sohui Lee (Lecturer, Program in Writing and Rhetoric, Stanford) explained how to use good pitching techniques.
We had a company visit to NeuroSky, a start-up whose main products utilize brainwave technology. Simply put, it translates brainwaves into action. I tried one of their products, a headset look-alike, which can control an object using our mind. I was able to float a ball by merely thinking about it!
The following session was a discussion panel with Gideon Yu (President and Co-Ownder of San Fransisco 49ers). He is former CFO of Facebook who was responsible for bringing its corporate valuation to US$ 15 billion. Gideon Yu shared his knowledge and experience in developing non-tech industries, such as professional sports using technology.
Day 5 – 7 March
It was the most anticipated day! A company visit to Googleplex. We were taken for a tour around Google Campus – they call it Google Campus as the environment has a campus feel. We also had a chance to try the latest innovative product from Google: Google Glass.
Back to Stanford Campus, we had a keynote lecture delivered by Adam D’Angelo (CEO and Co-Founder of Quora, Former CTO of Facebook). He shared his story about how he joined Facebook, then quit and set a tech start-up, namely Quora.
Day 6 – 8 March
On Friday, the participants had a special discussion panel with special speaker: Guy Kawasaki (Venture Capitalist, Best-selling Author, former Apple Chief Evangelist). Known as an expert-experienced Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist, Guy shared his knowledge about the art of enchantment and start-up development in Silicon Valley.
As mentioned before, we had a Pitch Group Competition. All groups presented their assignment in front of judges. They gave many inputs to every assignment and I learnt a lot from this competition.
Day 7 – 9 March
Last day of the summit, the participants had a tour around San Francisco. It was truly a great experience during the ASES Summit 2013. I discovered a lot of new things and knowledge which I wish to share with my fellow BINUSIANs. Thank you BINUS for this wonderful journey!
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