Not so long ago in July, T.Ware participated in the 45th Autism Society of America National Conference in Indianapolis, it was a great experience meeting people from all walks of life and to attend a talk by Temple Grandin, and not only did we work hard those few days talking and connecting with people to find out more on how T.Ware can help, we played hard too- One of our big fans got us special tickets to Nascar Race Event! 

Next Wednesday we'll be doing a short interview with our CEO James on the experience in the 45th Autism Society of America National Conference. Stay tuned!

The Asian Entrepreneurship Awards 2014 program was held in Kashiwanoha City, 30 minutes by train from Tokyo. It was the perfect setting for the competition as the city is built on the concept of a Smart City – a model next-generation city that promotes healthy living and the creation of new industries by incorporating the latest technologies, services, and systems, combined with a participatory social experience for residents.

T.Ware presented in the semi-final round, together with participants from Korea, Japan and India, and qualified for the finals. The top 6 teams, besides T.Ware from Singapore, were from Malaysia, India, Thailand, China and Philippines. 

In these few days of sharing and presentations, several key learnings emerged:

• The importance of a network. A strong network helps build mutually beneficial relationships that could accelerate the development process. This could minimize the chance of us reinventing the wheel.
•  A better understanding of the startup environment in other Asian countries. This will definitely go some way in preparing us for T.Ware’s expansion in the future.  
• A better understanding of the difficulties that businesses in other fields face. It’s always good to be aware because lessons and solutions can be applicable across businesses.  
• The importance of believing in our vision, and having the confidence in being an agent of change. Regardless of the business and the stage in which the business is in, all entrepreneurs go through difficult times and testing moments - your belief is what drives you.  

We were confident that we would make it to the finals, but did not expect to win as other teams were really impressive – in both their business models and experiences, as well as in their presentations. We are humbled by the many passionate and successful entrepreneurs in the Asian community, and are proud to be part of this community. It’s great that the T.Ware team’s hard work is being recognized internationally, and we feel really happy that we have been able to make Singapore and NUS proud with this achievement. It will spur us to continue our work to 'bring touch to life'.  We’re not yet over the euphoria, but it’s now back to the grind!

Moving forward, it will be exciting for T.Ware as we will be:

• Ramping up marketing efforts in Japan. It’s an innovative market that’s welcoming and open to new technology, and that’s always very interesting.
•  Hiring personnel in Japan to provide technical support for our amazing Japanese distributor, Space96, and our customers in Japan who have purchased T.Jacket. 
• Using the Kashiwanoha Open Innovation Lab (KOIL) co-working space that we won (with a 2-year lease) as a development branch to work together with research organizations like Keio University and University of Electro-Communications amongst others. This will boost our presence in Japan and the region to do more interesting work, and enable us to reach out to more people given the physical proximity. 
• Looking into possible areas of collaboration with the various parties we have met during the past few days. It’s definitely exciting given all the possibilities and we’re really looking forward to this. 

And most importantly, all of this would not have been possible without the support from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and NUS Enterprise. We’re extremely grateful to Prof Wong Poh Kam for his nomination – your nomination and belief in us has cemented our commitment to ‘bringing touch to life’. We also want to thank Dr Gary Rubin, Mr Wong Sang Wouh and Mr Kristav Childress for their time, and for their generosity in imparting the knowledge and skills they have from their years of experience in business and presentations – these have been invaluable, not just for AEA2014, but also for what lies beyond for T.Ware. 

Last August, T.Ware gave a talk about T.Jacket at Google's Tokyo office! Glad to be part of the movement to use technology in ways that help and touch people's lives. Like Google, we're definitely looking forward to doing more for people, so stay tuned! :)

It was great speaking with everyone who came down during the conference - thanks for dropping by and trying T.Jacket! We hope it will be able to help in some way, and we're really encouraged by the comments we received!

 

We had a really fruitful time sharing T.Jacket at the National Early Childhood Intervention Conference and even managed to accomplish some shopping!

We bought several items (keychain, soap, coin pouch and a t-shirt) from Asia Community Services (ACS). ACS manages the Stepping Stone Centre, a work place for individuals with intellectual disabilities which provides a platform for them to explore and develop their talents in hand-crafts. Collectively, these items are called Special HandS items, and they even have a catalogue.  

We also added to our library shelf with a book written by parents chronicling the family's journey with a daughter who was born deaf. After an operation at a very young age, she now she can hear with the help of a hearing aid. We got the autograph of the little girl (now 8) who bought the book. 

Well, that wraps up our time in Ipoh! We'll be heading to the Annual Autism Society National Conference in Indianapolis next from 23-26 July, so if you'll be there too, do pop by! Looking forward to seeing you! :)