On February 22nd, 2022, the Kansai University students and the US students in the online Business Camp welcomed the students from Clemson University (US) again to join them. In the session, Prof. Benson Ong from Nanyang Polytechnic (Singapore) gave a special lecture on entrepreneurship, focusing on Singapore's start-up eco-system and what to expect when starting a business. The students learned how the Singapore government supports and encourages entrepreneurship in the country, as well as the attitude the people in Singapore have toward it. Prof. Ong also addressed the issues of failing during entrepreneurial pursuit by showing a video detailing how one started his business and came across challenges along the way. Analyzing how one entrepreneur managed the challenges provided the participants an opportunity to think about what is important when pursuing entrepreneurship.

 

 

In the other half of the session, the participants were joined by another guest speaker, Ms. Mari Matsuzaki from Shibuya Startup Support, which supports start-up companies to develop their business in Japan. Ms. Matsuzaki introduced how they support Japanese startup companies, pointed out some issues for global business to enter Japanese market,  and emphasized the importance of networking to connect with other inventors and fellow entrepreneurs. Her lecture focused on "Circular Economy" and explained what it is, how it works, and the difference between linear economy, reuse economy, and circular economy. Students were also able to learn more about other global startup businesses, from which they got some inspirations for their products they have been working on in this program.

 

 

Each session concluded with Q&A in which students asked some questions to the speakers. They will continue working on their product in teams tomorrow.