NIA took Thai startups to Austria

7 June 2018 Startups

The National Innovation Agency (Public Organization) or NIA took a group of potential Thai startups to join Govtech Pioneers and to showcase their innovations during Pioneer’18 event, which took place during 20-27 May, 2018, at Palais Wertheim, Vienna, Austria.

The activity was to provide opportunity for Thai startups and enhance their capabilities to meet the global market.

Govtech Pioneers is an international conference held for the exchange and sharing of knowledge of startups from all over the world. The conference was a part of Pioneers’18 but would take place one day prior to the main event. There were two main activities: forum and pitching.

During the forums, there were speakers from private and public sectors, as well as startups to share their knowledge, experience and ideas in collaborating with the government agencies by using technology and blockchain. One of the key points of the forum are to reduce gap between government agencies and the general public, enhance effective communication, and increase government’s efficiency,

One interesting example was Estonia which took the ideas from Finland and Sweden to develop e-ID (signage) which allows its people who live in overseas to join the election. Another case is from South America which speaker talked about technology integration to develop waste management and transportation system. In the future, Palo Alto will become Autonomous Intersection city where cars and vehicles can communicate among one another without the need of traffic lights or signage. At present, the city has developed the ‘PaloAlto311’ application which shows real-time cadence or empty parking space. These ideas can be applied in Thailand.

Pioneers’18 showcased exhibition booths of startup-related agencies and startups from all over the world. This year, it was held under the theme ‘Blurred Frontiers’. The activities comprised of workshops, networking, pitching, conference exhibition and two stages. The event took place at the centuries-old Hoftburg Palace.

After the event, NIA had invited representatives from Pioneers’ 18 to come to Thailand as guest speakers during GovTech Transformation, to take place in September 2018 in Bangkok, Thailand.