HWTrek to Host Asia Tour for Hardware Innovators of Internet of Things, Wearable and Robotics Devices

Tour Provides Hardware Creators and SME/SMBs the Opportunity to Visit Prominent Manufacturers and Suppliers in Shenzhen and Beijing, China

We are now accepting applications for HWTrek Asia Innovation Tour 2016, taking place April 25-29 in Shenzhen and Beijing, China with an optional extension to Taiwan, May 2-3. The tour offers hardware Creators and small-medium businesses (SMB) organizations across the globe an opportunity to become better acquainted with the ecosystem of manufacturers and suppliers in Asia, including those that build products for technology leaders such as Apple, Sony, DJI, and Nest.

Let’s get together for a journey to the intersection of innovation and technology. On this trek, industry Expert partners from the manufacturing, supply chain, and retail sectors will share their experience, technology, and knowledge with hardware startups and creators.  On the tour, you will have the opportunity to:

  • Explore the heart of manufacturing: Shenzhen; and the capital of one of the world’s largest consumer electronic markets: Beijing
  • Meet 600+ industry Experts and demo your project in a meetup;
  • Get first hand insights from tier one supply chain Experts: get access to the latest manufacturing technology, processes, and assembly-line walkthroughs to understand how product quality consistency is achieved.
  • Gain insights on the China market from leading market research companies and consumer electronics ecommerce retailers in Beijing;
  • An optional extension trip to Taipei, the hometown of ODMs for world leading brands.

The thought-provoking discussions that sprout along the journey will help you plan for product development and beyond.

Asia-Innovation-Tour-2016-Schedule

A detailed schedule will be provided later to the participants and there will an optional extended tour to Taipei.

HWTrek will award 15 selected creators with airfare sponsorship, local transport between events and visits as well as customized supply chain matching service based on the stage and requirements of your project. You will be given the opportunity to tour facilities and view the assembly lines of some of Asia’s most prominent, billion-dollar manufacturers. In 2014 and 2015, HWTrek led two cohorts of startup participants in visits to YuandongDeli, Innovation Works, JD.com, Xiaomi, and Innoconn in Beijing and HONPE and Sunrex in Shenzhen in addition to many of the leading manufactures and suppliers in Taiwan including Quanta, Wistron, Foxconn, Pronology, Mitac, Qisda, Jorjin Technologies, and Jabil Green Point.

To apply for HWTrek’s Asia Innovation Tour 2016, register as a creator and create a hardware project on the HWTrek platform. You must meet the following criteria for consideration:

  • The application process is open to hardware creators and startup organizations that can present a simple, working prototype of a wearable or Internet of Things hardware device; and
  • This working prototype must fall under one of the following categories: Wearables; Industrial Applications; Sports; Toys / Games; Cameras / Audio & Video; Family / Home Automation; Mobile Device Accessories; Auto; or Health and Science gadget.
  • You are a founder or co-founder of the team.
  • Ensure that your project created on the platform is complete including: project description, photograph, and resource requirements (from design and prototyping to manufacturing and retail services).

The deadline for the application is March 31, 2016. More information about the tour is available at https://www.hwtrek.com/events/asia_innovation_tour_2016-q1.

HWTrek is committed to supporting inventors and small-medium enterprises (SME) at all stages of project development to assist them to connect with the resources they need to design, build, and bring their hardware innovations to market. Asia Innovation Tour is specially designed for hardware creators like you who are ready for pilot production runs to prepare for mass production, or outsourcing a side line of products as an expression of the power of seamless online-to-offline collaboration that is rewiring the making of smart things at the center of manufacturing, Shenzhen.

HWTrek’s cloud-based platform is the first global, complete end-to-end hardware development ecosystem—a one-stop shop—for IoT hardware innovators working to manage their product development, connect with manufacturing and supply chain industry experts, and bring their connected device projects to market. HWTrek now connects more than 5,000 hardware creators and startups that have created 1,370 projects on the platform to 900 trusted manufacturing and supply chain industry experts from Taiwan and Shenzhen to rest of the world—from tier 1 ODMs to small, skilled design houses—who have developed unique programs to assist the creators in pilot production. More than 2,500 inquiries have been successfully bridged with manufacturers and other experts.

The last two cohorts of participants (more than 50) in the tour came from more than 30 cities and 15 countries. A number of the startups are alum of a variety of leading hardware incubators or accelerators including Bolt, Boomtown, BuildIt, Fledge, HARDWARE.co, Highway1, R/GA, Startupbootcamp, StartX, and Techstars. They are award-winning: Best of CES 2014 & 2015, BetaPitch Global, ISPO Award – Product of the Year 2015/16, and many others. They’ve run successful crowdfunding campaigns on Kickstarter and Indiegogo and several have successfully raised funding rounds.

Here are some quotes from past participants:

HWTrek has been instrumental in connecting Blocks to leading manufacturing companies in Asia, superior to any other organizations that offer similar services,” said Serge Didenko, Co-founder of Blocks Wearables (London). “Not only that, they were also incredibly helpful in developing a detailed manufacturing plan with our team. Altogether it has undoubtedly accelerated our delivery time by at least 4 to 6 months.

For us at H+, it was fantastic to come across all kinds of resources from VCs to manufacturers and even entering the Asian market,” said Dhruv Adhia, CTO of H+ Technology, developer of Holus – the world’s first interactive holographic platform and app ecosystem. “These are all mighty tasks and with the help of HWTrek, I feel very confident that it will immensely benefit us.

It has been an amazing experience – visiting some of the biggest manufacturers, meeting investors, and getting insights into the uprising Asian market,” said Felix Kochbeck, CEO and Co-founder of Luuv, maker of mechanical and electronic camera stabilizers. “All of that, together, in a group with other hardware startup founders is priceless. Great connections were made.

HWTrek has been awesome at opening the doors,” said Cameron Turner, Partner Data Scientist with The Data Guild. “We met with CEOs, we met with suppliers, manufacturers, and I look forward to working with HWTrek in the future.

I think HWTrek has been the most amazing trip we’ve taken so far – it’s highly organized, we’ve met many executives and engineers of all the contract manufacturers,” said Yobie Benjamin, Co-founder of Avegant. “I highly recommend to anybody out there who is thinking of building a device, Internet of Things, to be part of HWTrek. Please call these guys, they are amazing.

HWTrek led our first experience in Asia and introduced us to dozens of potential customers and suppliers,” said Steven Stoddard, Co-founder and Director of Operations of CoolChip (Boston). “We even ended up raising money from an angel investor we met on the trip! We’re still working on our first manufacturing agreement, but I would recommend HWTrek to any startup who thinks they might manufacture or sell in Asia someday.

I think it is incredibly useful for any hardware startup facing manufacturing issues––and in the age of crowdfunding, there are multitudes of new startups, including mine, that could really use this kind of exposure,” stated Arlene Ducao, of DuKorp, which makes MindRider Helmet that tracks your mental experience. “The tour is also a great first-hand introduction for any emerging product engineer or designer who wants to learn more about scaling their technology.

This was a very rare opportunity for a startup company like mine to go inside some of the world’s top electronics manufacturers and learn how they can help new product developers,” said Burton Hamner, President of Hydrobee SPC, developer of the Hydrobee personal renewable USB power system. “We were all very impressed by the participation of the top managers of those companies. Finally, the mix of startup companies in the tour was great. I learned quite a lot talking with the other entrepreneurs. The time spent with the other startups is a very valuable component of the tour.

Raph Crouan, Managing Director and Founder of Startupbootcamp IoT (London) noted, “HWTrek gathered an amazing group of talented and passionate hardware entrepreneurs!” “Needless to say, I’d recommend this Asia Tour to anyone interested in grasping the complexity, variety and buzzing Asian hardware ecosystem.

It is an eye-opening tour for us,” added Nattapon Chaimanonart, CEO and Founder of Ultra, Inc. maker of Violet – a UV exposure tracker. “We had a chance to meet a lot of smart people and learn more about what and how they do things.

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About HWTrek (Hardware Trek)

HWTrek is a unique ecosystem where hardware Creators and industry Experts meet and create smart hardware for the future, based in Taiwan and Shenzhen. HWTrek simplifies the hardware creation process by providing online planning and team collaboration tools and direct access to quality manufacturers and industry experts. Learn more about HWTrek: http://www.hwtrek.com or follow @HWTrek.

Contact:

William Andrew Albano, HWTrek
Tel: +886-2-2769-1698 | +886-2-2742-3301
Email: william.albano@hwtrek.com
Skype: william.andrew.albano

Sponsorship opportunities contact:

Cindy Chen, HWTrek
Tel: +86-186-1041-6312
Email.com: cindy.chen@hwtrek.com
Wechat: +86.186.1041.6312

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