The 16th edition of Beijing Tech Hive wrapped up on Sunday night. The latest version of this weekend startup accelerator focused on a 48-hour video workshop and saw the debut of seven videos from the participating teams in a competitive presentation on Sunday night.
The prizes, given out for “best video concept” and “best video execution”, were modest by comparison to other iterations of Tech Hive that have featured a sizable bit of angel funding for the winning business pitch. The two winning teams this time around received pairs of VINCI smart headphones.
The event kicked off Saturday morning with presentations from a number of local film and video talents who stuck around for the rest of the weekend to provide mentorship for the group of entrepreneurs that were in attendance. Guidelines to script writing and feedback on concepts, shooting and editing were provided by the mentors.
They included Stone Yu, a freelance filmmaker, Jennifer Liao, an independent producer of documentaries and short films and Jim Fields, Founder and Managing Director of Relay LTD, whose presentation proved an entertaining jumping off point for the weekend.
The idea is that great video can now be made using little more than an iPhone and a laptop. It’s in the concept and the script that companies find an elegant way to communicate technology to the layperson and convey the personality of a brand.
The business ideas of the entrepreneurs participating in Tech Hive’s video workshop weekend touched on a number of sectors. They included AsiaHub, a centralized trade platform connecting Chinese merchants with buyers in Brazil, Kajin Health, a facilitator of confidential online therapy and counseling in Chinese, and Rikai Labs, a builder of language learning WeChat applications.
Because this version of Beijing Tech Hive was less about business planning and more about video production, the participants were encouraged to look for ways to leverage the video medium to reach investors and a viral audience.
The resulting videos, if not big on budget and production values, were big on effort. And the two winners showed a courageous streak, with two videos that were touching and funny but were not necessarily about a brand promise.
All the participants received feedback on their videos from William Bao Bean, investment partner at SOSV, Jim Fields and Andy Mok, the organizer of Beijing Tech Hive.
The experience of the weekend and creating the video was summed up best by Vishesh Nargotra, co-founder of mexBT and one of the participants in Beijing Tech Hive: “Having made the video and had this experience, the business feels alive now.”
(Top photo from bigyahu via Flickr)
