Month: March 2016

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.. SaKuRa..!!!

Getting pumped for our annual Hanami at Ueno, details below; as with years past we will target the Same Location and set 03.30 as Confirmed Date based on Forecast via JMA.

As always we look forward to welcome members from partner community groups, for a Full Day And Evening of “Sakura Smiles”, this is the ultimate ‘Out Of Office’ activity for all players across the ecosystem to make valuable connections, spend some quality time with old friends and enjoy a few priceless moments of magic thanks to Mother Nature!

Date: Wednesday, March 30, 2016
Location: Ueno Koen :: Street View
Running Time: 10:00 – 22:00
Register Here for Updates

Agenda:
10:00 – 12:00: Happy Hour.. @_@
12:00 – 17:00: Happy Hour, Part 2
17:00 – 22:00: Really.Happy.Hour!

Note: this is pot-luck style, so please pack along your own food and ‘beverages’ with a little extra to share. By all means, of course, please do feel free to bring along a few colleagues too = promising TSUper hAPPy times in the park for everyone.. 😀

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Meanwhile, thrilled to share this Special Promo Code #MOMOROCKS for a limited number of discount passes for Pioneers Asia, running in partnership with the Nikkei, on March 23rd at Happo-en. [Update: Srsly Great event – Massive Congrats to All involved!]

Also, mark your calendar for April 13th as we join this combined chambers of commerce event hosting Cool Japan Fund and Tokyo Otaku Mode at the Canadian Embassy.

Special Thanks to all who managed to attend our Send Love to Tohoku event, despite winter typhoon like conditions, we’ll file a separate update report on that worthy effort.

– MoMo Tokyo Team

We are joining together with members from a dozen networks in the Tokyo community for a Full Day, And Evening, at Ueno Koen. This is the ultimate ‘Out Of Office’ activity for all players across the ecosystem to make valuable connections, spend some quality time with old friends and enjoy a few priceless moments of magic thanks to Mother Nature.

See FaceBook Event Here: https://www.facebook.com/tokyostartupsunited

We have a great lineup of partners and thrilled to welcome more groups to join the fun; forecasting plenty of “Sakura Smiles” and Yozakura Evening Networking to the sounds of shakuhachi and shamisen powered by umeshu and super-friendly folks..

Date: Tuesday, March 31st, 2015*
Location: Ueno Koen :: MAP**
Running Time: 10:00 – 22:00
Register for Updates
* Final weather confirm day before (Plan-B if required, April 3rd)
** Targeted in park location, see Google Street view maps [1][2]

Agenda:
10:00 – 12:00: Happy Hour.. @_@
12:00 – 17:00: Happy Hour, Part 2
17:00 – 22:00: Super.Happy.Hour!

Note: this is pot-luck style, so please pack along your own food and ‘beverages’ with a little extra to share. By all means, of course, bring along a few colleagues too: we look forward to see everyone – Smiling – there soon!

01Booster http://01booster.com
Akihabara News http://www.akihabaranews.com
Canadian Chamber of Commerce http://www.cccj.or.jp
Conyac https://conyac.cc
Disrupting Japan http://www.disruptingjapan.com
DoorKeeper http://www.doorkeeper.jp
Japan Today http://www.japantoday.com
Japan Venture Show http://japanventureshow.com
Justa https://justa.io
Mobile Monday Tokyo http://www.mobilemonday.jp
Tokyo Cheapo http://tokyocheapo.com
Tokyo Startups United https://www.facebook.com/tokyostartupsunited

Big Thanks to All who made it out for our Going Global event last month 😀

As we’re headed into the ‘official’ 1st day of spring this week, it’s time to get geared-up for our annual MoMo Yozakura Hanami action!! Indeed, Ueno Koen will be blooming again soon.. since it’s really up to mother nature, lets target *around March 31st for starters – Register Here for updates – and we’ll confirm final ‘best’ timing asap.. 😎

Date: Monday, *March 31st = Confirmed!
Time: 17:00 to 22:30
Location: Ueno Koen :: Map

Also wanted to note, for those who need a specific date locked into their schedules, the Tokyo Startups United group is thrilled to join at Happo-En Hanami on the evening of March 27th = an awesome venue and party plan. Meanwhile, the always amazing
Android Bazaar and Conference is coming up on March 21st – and – the First evAr Startup Weekend Tokyo Alumni event runs April 2nd. See you ‘out there’ again soon!

— MoMo Tokyo Team

Update: We’re Thrilled to Welcome Everyone From Bar Android – YATTA!

Yessss… it’s that time again (already) as the cherry blossoms are blooming and spring is In The Air! Since mother nature seems in a bit of a hurry this year, we will have our annual MoMo Tokyo Hanami at Ueno Park on Monday APRIL 1st (no foolin!)

The target location is same area as last year – See Map – we’re looking forward to join everyone for big smiles and cheers. Please be sure to bring along your own food and ‘beverages’ of choice, with some extras to share pot-luck style for friends and family. We’ll stake out the spot early and Be There All Day, up until last train, Join Us Anytime!

Fingers crossed on the weather; hopefully the timing will be just perfect for Sakura Fubuki so we can catch some falling petals for good luck the rest of this year.. 😀

— MoMo Tokyo Team

Post Event Update:

Gosh.. now that was a classic MoMo Tokyo gathering! Many Thanks to all who made it out for fun & games.. we polished-off two kegs of creamy smooth Moretti draft and had roving TV camera crews filming all the action that made broadcast nationwide!

We’re working on the next event plan now and look forward to see everyone again soon. Meanwhile, trust folks take a well-earned Golden Week vacation break = Cheers.

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Hanami season is coming up quick and we’re looking forward to bring all the Tokyo tech community together for Sakura Under the Stars on evening of April 5th. UENO Koen is a huge public space with 1,000 cherry trees getting ready to bloom = Lets Go to the Park!

Please Register Here +Share this invite with friends & co-workers as All Are Welcome.

We’re thrilled to welcome some very special guests for a little Angry Bird Cherry Blossom fun gaming action with groovy prizes on-hand for the lucky and talented players.. 😎

Suggest people pack their preferred food goodies – or, maybe order some pizza – and naturally a few extra beverages, along with warm wear and happy hearts for this rare opportunity to really enjoy the great outdoors. Now You know – You Gotta Go!

Date: Thursday, April 5th
Time: 17:00 to 22:30
Location: Ueno Koen :: Map
Offer: 1,000 JPY for 2-drinks :: Cheers to Ikon Euro Pubs

Important Update: April 3rd

– We are all set for Yozakura Hanami = April 5th at UENO Park!
– Please Do Register Here for exact location info provided Thurs.
– We will stake out the spot in the morning & forward all details
(targeted near baseball field, See This Map, with Big MoMo Flag)
– Angry Birds will supply Custom Onigiri and Fun Game Play.. 😎

 

Smartphone/tablet competition – Rules:
The person presenting the highest score on his or her device on either of the following levels will be rewarded:
– Level 1-11 on the Cherry Blossom episode of Angry Birds Seasons
– Level 2-8 on Angry Birds Space
The high scores can be created before or during the event. A high score made using a device of the organizers at the event is also valid in the competition.

Real slingshot competition – Rules:
The players use a real slingshot to hit targets. The people who have hit all targets will participate in a raffle to win cool Angry Birds goodies.

We look forward to see you all again soon for a Great Event!

Special Thanks to Bar Android, ICA Japan, MCN-Inc and Servecorp.

— MoMo Tokyo Team

Post-Event Update:
What a great evening we had on Monday night! The weather was 10×10 for a roof top patio gathering and we had a great line-up of presentations with some really super people out for a Zesty Margarita Mobile Monday.. 😎

If you missed-out (for Shame!), we have the presentations posted Here, sadly there is no video of the groovy air guitar set by Team Taito. At any rate there was a whole lotta Poken going on and, for those truly savvy at mingling, we were honored to welcome key players from AdMob who were in the house – Scoop – with their latest hire.. Congrats!

Looking forward to our next event – in late July – lets just say it’s gonna be “Big” and we’ll be sure to shoot all the details your way soon.

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Ok folks, our upcoming event on May 18th will be an exciting Demo Night styled evening – featuring lightning round of show and tell presentations with plenty of interaction afterwards – under the stars on the roof top patio at Zest in Ebisu, so be sure to mark the calendar and tell your colleagues!

We have confirmed speakers coming from Taito to air guitar with their Wii-like Chokkan Games, Find!Tokyo will show-off it’s recently released mega iPhone app. while the good folks from Poken will be High 5’ing around with their groovy Pandas and both MoCoTea and Pikkle will demo their mobile sns services. So, we’ll have something for everybody!

Sponsored by: Jonckers Translation & Engineering and Robert Leonard Consulting

Date: Monday, 18 May 2009 :: 18:30 – 23:00
Venue: Ebisu Zest Cantina — GMAP
Admission: ¥1,000 with Advance Registration – OR – ¥2,000 at the door
Complimentary drink ticket for the first 100 pre-registered guests!

18:30 – Doors Open
19:30 – Presentations
20:30 – Networking
22:30 – Last Call
23:00 – Close

Our next event is set for March 16th at the Designing Studio with a couple of great presentations and mega mixer afterwards at the Wired Cafe. Considering the ‘current economic situation’, see this fantastic keynote by Anssi Vanjoki for MoMo Peer Awards at MWC in Barcelona, we are inspired and agreed – these are the times when winners are made.. 😎

A few notes of interest: We are thrilled to announce our co-op on related industry upcoming events with the Inter-Embassy Mobile Forum and the good folks at AdTech. We have added links here for our FaceBook and Linkedin groups while the new MoMo Ambassador team is hard at work planning our next event targeted for May 18th. See you all again soon!

Special Guest Speakers

Kazuhiko Ishii – General Manager APAC – scanR Inc. .PDF
Kazuhiko Ishii is General Manager of scanR Inc. Asia Pacific Operation. Ishii is responsible for all operation in Asia Ishii has extensive telecommunications sales and business experience within the Japanese and Asia Pacific regions. He previously served as General Manager of Openwave Systems KK. Prior to Openwave Systems, he was President of Premier Global Service, North Asia, SEVEN Networks Inc.’s Regional Vice President of Asia Pacific, and General Manager of Japan operation. Ishii has additionally held various senior executive manager positions at Phone.com Inc., Nihon Cisco Systems K.K., Hewlett-Packard, and StrataCom Inc. Ishii holds a B.S. from Science University of Tokyo 1985, Applied Mathematics.

Shuusuke Isoda, Media Service Planning Div., KDDI Corp. .PPT
The ‘au Box’ service was launched by KDDI late last year allowing subscribers to easily connect their keitai with the fixed-line internet to buy, transfer and enjoy music and video contents. With around 1.3 million songs and 5,000 videos on LISMO now available for download and playback on the device, or their TV set, users can also pull content recorded on CDs and forward to compatible au mobile phones as well. Customers with the ‘Hikari-one TV service’ also have access to various forms of video content such as multi-channel broadcasts. Isoda-san will walk us through the product and service on this perfect example of fixed-mobile convergence in action!

Sponsored by:
Robert Leonard Consulting and Jonckers Translation & Engineering

Date: Monday, 16 March 2009 :: 18:30 – 22:30
Venue: KDDI Designing Studio — GMAP
Admission: ¥1,000 with Advance Registration – OR – ¥2,000 at the door
Complimentary drink ticket for the firstst 200 pre-registered guests!

18:30 – Doors Open
19:00 – Welcome/introduction
19:15 – First presentation
19:45 – Second presentation
20:15 – Q & A
20:30 – Networking
22:00 – Last Call
22:30 – Close

By all accounts the MoMo Tokyo 2008 Peer Awards held on Monday evening was a fantastic event and we would like to thank everyone involved for making it one of our best gatherings ever. Honorable mentions for two surprise guest speakers are also in order; Nina Norlund, former biz dev. mgr at HP Bazaar, who helped us get the MoMo Tokyo chapter rolling and Faraz Syed, CEO of Mobile Complete, a past winner at MobileMonday 2007 Global Peer Awards. Hearty congrats are in order for the winners (see below) and huge respect to all the candidate companies who stepped-up to participate. Here’s the event video – Enjoy!

We would like to pass along a very special thanks to our esteemed judges; Stephan Burke from Mobile Content Networks, Yurie Horita from Impress R&D, Hitomi Murakami from Seikei University, Masaaki Suga from Cybird Ventures and Martyn Williams from IDG News as well as Patrick Bray from GeoVector who served admirably as our MC for the night. We would also like to offer our most sincere gratitude to the great people at Shinsei Bank who provided an awesome venue, the folks at Infinita who built our groovy mobile voting site and finally, of course, everyone who attended. Whew.. Yoroshiku!

Congrats to these candidates now headed to the Global Peer Awards.

Academic: Students in an accredited University program

Mobile Krishna Winner!
http://www.mocolab.net
Raju Vijay Anand is a student at the International University of Japan, and a member of the Mobile Consumer Lab, who aims to provide security and information through mobile to tourists in India. It involves hypertags and the creation of a mobile eco-system that includes NGO’s and private security services. It is planning to provide a solution to protect the privacy and safety of tourists in India.

Start-ups: Recently founded with early-stage financing

StarGame’s Corporation Winner!
http://www.stargames.co.jp
StarGame’s is a Start-up company which will feature their service called as J2B translator. With this service, CPs can get a BREW application from a Java application full automatically.

Emerging: Operating between Series A & B funding
J-Magic Inc. Winner!
http://www.j-magic.co.jp
J-Magic is the mobile media company based on Image Sensing technology. Within 10 months, the company’s mobile service called “Kao-cheki!” was used by over 85million users. “Kao-cheki!” is an entertainment service that tells celebrities who looks similar to you. You can only take a photo with camera phone, send it to “Kao-cheki!” by e-mail(MMS) and get the result. Not only faces but logos, buildings, products and various objects can be recognized by J-Magic’s Image Sensing platform. J-Magic is now opening up new way of search!

Note; we’ll announce details for our April event soon – stay tuned.. 😎

日本語版
MoMoers had a super time during the last two mixer events, and it was truly great to see so many attendees and meet with such a wide range of mobile-savvy folks. Now it’s time to get back down to business! While we certainly plan to hold those ‘open-to-all’ evenings several more times throughout 2007, our next event is reserved for people working in the mobile community only in an effort to focus on our core audience.

We have arranged for two Tokyo-based VCs to present an overview of their operations and discuss what they are looking for when they are approached by start-ups for funding. This “get the money to meet the talent”-theme evening should certainly result in some interesting conversations and new connections for everyone concerned. So mark your calendar for 19 March at KDDI’s fabulous Designing Studio, Harajuku, and please RSVP so we can prepare enough food for the post-presentation networking session in the 5th floor Wired Cafe.

Michael Korver – Co-founding Partner – Global Venture Capital
Global Venture CapitalMichael was born and raised in Tokyo and first developed his insider’s perspective on Asian business from his experience as an analyst at the Nomura Research Institute in Tokyo from 1983 until 1986 – where he first met Hirokazu-san, GVC’s other managing partner – and as an international transactions lawyer with Richards & O’Neil in New York and Tokyo from 1987 until 1993. Since 1993, Michael has worked as an international business consultant, corporate lawyer, venture capitalist and entrepreneur in Tokyo. GVC’s partners have been active in entrepreneurship, venture capital and private equity globally for over 20 years.

Masaaki Suga – Vice President – CYBIRD Investment Partners
CYBIRD Investment PartnersMasaaki Suga joined CIP in January 2007. Earlier, he resided in Vancouver, Canada, and managed a number of projects in which he helped companies and products in North America to enter into the Japan and Asia market. Previously he worked for Macromedia (Adobe Systems) to run product and marketing division of server side products in Japan. Masaaki received an MBA from McGill University, Montreal Canada. CYBIRD Investment Partners Inc. (CIP) is a capital investment management company and 100% owned by CYBIRD Holdings Co., Ltd. CIP manages CYBIRD Plus Mobile Fund, the first mobile focused fund in Japan.

Sponsored by:
Robert Leonard Consulting and Jonckers Translation & Engineering

Date: Monday, 19 March 2007
Venue: KDDI Designing Studio GMAP
18:30 – Doors Open
19:00 – Welcome/introduction
19:15 – First presentation
19:30 – Second presentation
19:45 – Q & A
20:00 – Networking
22:00 – Last Call

日本語版

MoMo-ers who attended last month’s event at the MTV Studio Cafe will agree that it was the perfect space for hosting Mobile Monday, so we’re thrilled to announce we’ll be back there on 27 March with another stellar line up! It’s no secret that mobile music has become the killer content of choice and we’ve booked a pair of industry giants — MTV Japan and KDDI’s Lismo — to present their music strategy and mobile content plans.

We look forward to seeing one and all out again for yet another fantastic evening of mobile mingling! And if you can’t be at the cafe in Harajuku in person then remember to log on to this site as we’ll stream the event live to the web as well..!!

Admission:
FREE with registration (below) — OR — pay JPY1,000 at the door

Guest presenters:

Yu Sasamoto – President – MTV Japan .PPT N/A
MTV Japan mobile has been active on the official menu of the Big Three Japanese carriers for several years now, offering a mix of free and fee-based services. In October 2004, MTV and KDDI started a free advertising-sponsored show linking MTV programming and wireless content.

Katsuhiro Kouzuki – Contents Media Business Div – KDDI – .PDF HERE
KDDI’s “Listen Mobile Service,” or LISMO, is a new music service suite that enables au mobile phones and fixed-line PCs to seamlessly interact with one another. LISMO’s “Music Port,” a PC music management application that allows au mobile phones and PCs to share music, enables music download from the DuoMusic Store (a new music downloading site created especially for PC), the back-up of EZ Chaku-Uta Full to a PC, and the transfer of files from CD to PC. Watch video here [Win media].

Sponsored by:
Morgan Lewis & Bockius and Jonckers Translation & Engineering

Date: Monday, 27 March 2006 || 19:00 – 23:00
Venue: MTV Studio Cafe — GMAP
Admission: Free with registration below — OR — JPY1,000 at the door
Complimentary drink for first 200 guests — a la carte food menu available

18:30 – Doors Open
19:00 – Welcome/introduction
19:15 – First presentation
19:30 – Second presentation
19:45 – Open forum/Q&A
20:00 – Networking
23:00 – Last call

Registration is now closed. See you on Monday!