SWTokyo Africa@DMM.Africa

Dedicating a weekend for co-creating the future of Africa

When you hear “Africa”, what comes to your mind?

Natural resources and the likes of ‘precious metals’?
Food ingredients of things like chocolate and the likes of raw cacao?
Or maybe more like refugee camps and people being exiled?
Perhaps you are more of the idealist, favoring the picture of the vast deserts.
Or coffee bean plantations.
Would it simply be the untouched mother nature that is vibrant and still full of wild life?
For those that are more keen to the smell of “opportunities”, how about the gold rush itself
- the continent’s abundant population growth and its economic frontiers?
Perhaps for those that are the healers and the compassionate, maybe the chronic diseases, malnutrition, and public health with much room for improvement?
It could very well be the Arts - the treasure-trove that offers one of the world’s most diverse, colorful and dynamic crafts.

There is no right or wrong here, of course.

When you hear Africa, however, do you feel that ounce of potential---in yourself and how you will be the change you envision? If so, how about just a weekend to start?

A small step toward a big goal – so how about making an investment in each other? With people with whom you can share space, time, and your vision for Africa. Welcome to StartupWeekend – you’ve come to the right place.

Theme

Africa
(A pitch must be related to business opportunities in Africa.)

Shape the future of “Africa” with your innovative ideas. Example:
- Kimono made of African fabric/textiles
- Environmental education in vast African savanna
- Fairtrade of indigenous products/ingredients
- Travel apps to/from Africa
- Export/import and sale of Japanese sanitation products
- Real estate and investment agencies
- Recruitment support for African immigrants in Japan
- Online schools specialized in areas such as ethnic dance, ethnic craftsmanship

What is Startup Weekend Tokyo?

Startup Weekends are weekend-long, hands-on experiences where entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs can find out if startup ideas are viable. On average, half of Startup Weekend’s attendees have technical or design backgrounds, the other half have business backgrounds.

Beginning with open mic pitches on Friday, attendees bring their best ideas and inspire others to join their team. Over Saturday and Sunday teams focus on customer development, validating their ideas, practicing LEAN Startup Methodologies and building a minimal viable product. On Sunday evening teams demo their prototypes and receive valuable feedback from a panel of experts.

Coaches

Experts on Africa, start-ups, and venture investments will join the event as coaches to assist the participating aspiring entrepreneurs in refining their business fundamentals and their pitches.

Wataru Ikuta
Director, Tachibana Shouten Ltd | CEO, TACHIBANA INTERNATIONAL PTE LTD

After finishing college in 2000, Wataru joined a trading company where his curiosity in cacao started to seriously grow. There, he became in charge of trading of this main ingredient of chocolate. He then developed cacao business within the company from scratch---he started by talking to his first and preliminary contacts: Africans residing in Japan. Having foreseen this emergence of accelerating cacao demand globally, Wataru moved to Tachibana Shouten Co., Ltd., a company dealing with confectionery ingredients, where launched its new trade department from ground zero. He went on to establish offices in Singapore, Netherland, Ghana while also securing long-term partnerships with producers in African countries such as Ghana, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Congo for his eventual ability to sell cacao to Asian and European markets. In 2015, he established “TACHIBANA INTERNATIONAL PTE LTD” in Singapore as a hub for global market. Now Wataru is lauching a new project, “Chocolate Fund” that will connect small stakeholders and producers in Africa to individual consumers in the Japanese market.

Riho Kawaguchi

Riho has worked as a Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteer in Venin for school health and sanitation. After seeing some serious unemployment in the country, she started a project to solve this social problem: yukata, one type of kimono, made of African fabric. She strives to create what would become a bridge between Japan and Venin via “Yukata made of African Fabric”.

Ichiro Amimori
CEO of the Xenoma Inc

Ichiro is the CEO of the Xenoma Inc. Xenoma develops next-generation smart-suit product called e-skin. He was the former group leader of Someya Bio-Harmonized Electronics Project by the University of Tokyo and JST ERATO. In 1994, Ichiro joined Fuji Film Co., Ltd. There he engaged in new business development while photography negafilms business saw decline. In 2001, he flew to the US and obtained Ph.D from Brown University in 2006. Having resigned from Fiji Film in 2012, Ichiro has been conducting research on “how to connect advanced technology to social values” and the “future relationship between people and the machines” at Sakura Soken Laboratory, Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies at the University of Tokyo, while working as a freelancer to develop new businesses for companies and universities. In November 2015, Ichiro established Xenoma Inc. to put his research into practice. As a person who considers himself positioned right between the Japanese “post-war economic miracle generation and the next”, Ichiro embodies what he adovocates as "Japan Entrepreneurship 2.0”.

Judges

Experts on Africa, start-ups and venture investments will join the event as judges for the proposed ventures.

Chiharu Oyama
CEO of VIVIA JAPAN Inc. and Co-founder of MindNET Technologies Ltd. in Ghana

Chiharu Oyama is an international female entrepreneur with work experience in Tokyo, Bangkok and Ghana. She began her career within the Mizuho financial group, and developed her career as a financial consultant, offering various financial services to high net worth individuals.
During her MBA studies at Nyenrode Business University in the Netherlands, she met a Ghanaian classmate with whom she co-founded MindNET Technologies Ltd. and pre-launchedVIVIA.com.gh, Ghana's first fashion online store a year later. While living and working in Ghana, she was diagnosed with stage-2 cancer, prompting her to move back to Japan for treatment. There, she noticed a huge dependency on chemical medicines ーthe same chemicals that are considered as major causes of cancers today. This realization and the fact that "you are what you eat" ignited her interest in natural foods and medicines.
She then decided to introduce the amazing natural ingredients like Moringa called a "tree of life" for beauty care products and medical treatments she discovered in Ghana to the Japanese market. In October 2015, she officially launched the natural skincare brand JUJUBODY inspired by African Nature. Thereby fulfilling her dream to pass on these wonderful gifts of "magic" from African Nature and blessings of African life.

Darren Menabney
Faculty, Graduate School of Management, GLOBIS University

Darren spent over 20 years in Canada working for the federal government as the Departments of Revenue, Industry, Foreign Affairs, and Defence. His career in government was consistently outward-focused, working to engage business and academia to support the innovation ecosystem in Canada. Darren’s roles covered R&D incentive programs, business development, technology transfer, innovation strategy, building partnerships, and diplomacy. After coming to Japan in 2011 to study at GLOBIS, Darren made a radical career pivot. He now leads global HR programs at a major Japanese multinational. As faculty at GLOBIS, he teaches courses on Business Presentation and Critical Thinking. Darren also works with IDEO U as a coach for the online Storytelling for Influence course.

An opportunity to lead a public outreach program in Canada led to his lifelong interest in becoming a better speaker and presenter. His passion is to help others become better communicators, and to find their own unique styles as presenters.
Darren has a Bachelor’s degree in Astrophysics from the University of Toronto, and an MBA from GLOBIS.

Peter Owans

President and CEO of Phoenix Consulting, Inc

Peter Owans is the President and CEO of Phoenix Consulting, Inc, a corporate training and development subsidiary company of the NetLearning Group. Peter was also the co-founder and former CEO of Phoenix Associates, the premier corporate training and consulting company that was acquired by Benesse Corporation in July 2009. Peter then became a senior executive at both Benesse Corporation and Berlitz Corporation including managing the corporate business segment of Berlitz Japan.
For over 30 years, Peter has been working with major Japanese and foreign multinational corporations such as Goldman Sachs, Apple Japan, Nomura Securities, McKinsey, Takeda Pharma, Fast Retailing and Rakuten in their talent and leadership development, change management and organizational development strategy. He is a graduate of Sophia University, Tokyo and an MBA from Stanford University GSB, California, USA. He is a member of the Association for Talent Development, Global Society for Human Resources Management (GSHRM), Asia Training Network (ATN) and the American Council for Teaching Foreign Languages (ACTFL).

Schedule

14 Oct (Fri)	15 Oct (Sat)	16 Oct (Sun)
06:00pm Registration	09:00am Begin Work	09:00am Begin Work
06:30pm Dinner & Networking	10:00am Facilitation	12:00pm Lunch
07:00pm Welcome speech by facilitator	12:00pm Lunch	03:00pm Presentation Prep & Tech Check
08:00pm Pitch Start	02:00pm Coaching Meetings Start	05:00pm Presentation
08:30pm Discussion and Voting	04:00pm Coaching Meetings Ends	06:45pm Judging & Awards
09:00pm Form Teams	06:30pm Dinner	07:15pm Party
09:30pm End of Day 1	09:00pm End of Day 2	09:00pm End of Day 3

Notice

Event will be held in Japanese and English.
(Facilitator will speak predominantly in Japanese.)

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Call us biased, but we think that there are dozens of reasons why you should come to a Startup Weekend! Since we know your time is valuable, we’ll only list the top eight:

Education:
Startup Weekends are all about learning through the act of creating. Don’t just listen to theory, build your own strategy and test it as you go.

Build your network:
This isn’t just a happy-hour. Startup Weekend attracts your community’s best makers and do-ers. By spending a weekend working to build scalable companies that solve real-world problems, you will build long-lasting relationships and possibly walk away with a job or even an investor.

Co-Founder Dating:
We all know it’s not just about the idea – it’s about the team. Startup Weekend is hands down the best way to find someone you can actually launch a startup with.

Learn a new skill:
Step outside of your comfort zone. With a whole weekend dedicated to letting your creative juices flow, Startup Weekends are perfect opportunities to work on a new platform, learn a new programming language, or just try something different.

Actually launch a business:
Over 36% of Startup Weekend startups are still going strong after 3 months. Roughly 80% of participants plan on continuing working with their team or startup after the weekend.

Get face time with thought leaders:
Local tech and startup leaders participate in Startup Weekends as coaches and judges. Get some one-on-one time with the movers and shakers in your community.

Save money & get stuff:
Startup Weekend cost 9800yen. Your ticket covers seven meals, snack, access to exclusive resources from our sponsors, and of course, all the coffee you can drink.

Join a global community:
Join over 45,000 Startup Weekend alumni, all on a mission to change the world.

Startup Weekend "Text Book" on "1 minute Idea Pitch" by Dave McClure

http://500hats.typepad.com/500blogs/2009/08/your-solution-is-not-my-problem.html
(You will see link to the original Dave McClure text )