Lift China 2015

A big thank you for having participated in Lift China 2015 and for making it such a great success! It was a real pleasure meeting you all. We really hope that you enjoyed the experience and left inspired and nurtured with new contacts and tools to help you further your ventures.

You can find the full report with videos on our website and all of the pictures of the event on our Flickr page. We will update it as we receive more, so make sure to check it out!

After a first successful event in 2014, Lift hosted the second edition of Lift China in partnership with swissnex China.

Held in Shanghai, Lift China has brought together innovators, entrepreneurs, artists and pioneers from China and abroad to exchange on digital technologies. This one-day event featured inspiring talks, interactive masterclasses and workshops, as well as an exhibition. The conference ended with an evening dedicated to innovation.

In the following days, we have moved to Shenzhen to participate in the Maker Faire, which was a great success for our project Data Canvas: Sense Your City and a fantastic platform to meet Chinese makers.

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Lift China One-Day Conference - Shanghai - June 17

The first part of Lift China took place in Shanghai. Designed as an exclusive one-day conference, it included a special blend of activities to foster creativity and collaboration among participants. Discover our speakers below and check out our full program for a better idea of what happened!

Meet The Speakers

Lift China is first and foremost a selection of great speakers and workshop leaders, who are both experts in their fields but also inspiring people who know how to share their passions. Here is the list of the confirmed speakers.

Shuo (Paul) Yang

Principal Engineer, designer of onboard SDK system at DJI

Angela Schoellig

Head of the Dynamic Systems Lab, University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies

Olivier Glauser

Startup investor, Co-Founder of Shankai Sports, China’s leading sports management and media company

Yaohui Jin

Prof. of the State Key Lab of Advanced Optical Communication Systems and Networks, Jiao Tong University

Bo Gao

Researcher, Associate Professor at the Design & Innovation College, Tongji University

Fei Jun

Artist / Designer / Educator, founder of Interactive Beijing

Leigh-Anne Russell

Entrepreneur, co-founder of Nestworks, enabling products and services that improve the lives of the disadvantaged

Lei Zheng

Associate Professor and Assistant Dean at the School of International Relations and Public Affairs, Fudan University

Serena Cangiano

Researcher at SUPSI, coordinator of the Master of Advanced Studies in Interaction Design

Kasper Fangel Skov

Audio Designer, winner of the Data Canvas: Sense Your City Lift Grand Prize

Verina Cristie

Researcher in Computational Fluid Dynamics Visualization at Future Cities Lab, Singapore

Fabio Franchino

Computational designer and a founding partner at ToDo, an interaction design studio

Pius Leuba

Architect, designer and sustainability consultant, Environmental Design associate prof. at TongJi University

May Lee

Dean, School of Entrepreneurship and Management, ShanghaiTech University; Entrepreneur

Jun Zhang

Assistant Professor, School of Design, Hunan University

Miaosen Gong

Co-coordinator of DESIS-China network (The Network on Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability in China)

Liu Chunlei

Founder of Shanghai Minhang Qingyue Environmental Protection Information Technology Service Center

Lift China Injections at the Maker Faire + Maker Tour - Shenzhen - June 19-21

For the second part of Lift China, we moved to Shenzhen for the weekend of the Maker Faire to show some of our work among other amazing exhibitors. One the biggest events about maker culture in China, the Maker Faire is the place to be if you are interested in entrepreneurship, technological innovation, grassroots communities, hacking and making electronics, etc. In collaboration with SEEED Studio, our electronic equipment sponsor, we presented the international initiative Data Canvas: Sense Your City.

After last year's great success, we have decided to feature once more a special discovery trip for Swiss and European entrepreneurs and investors into the Chinese makers ecosystem. In parallel to our other activities, international makers went on a tour of hackerspaces, universities, startup accelerators, electronics markets and community spaces where the young and bright innovators of Shanghai and Shenzhen are creating the most inventive products.

Lift Interactive Design Exhibition - Data Canvas: Sense Your City - Shanghai + Shenzhen - June 17 + June 19-21

To empower citizens to sense and make sense of their environment, Lift, swissnex San Francisco and Gray Area created a DIY sensor network to measure pollution, dust, light, sound, temperature, and humidity. We created an interactive map, opened the data, and asked our communities to use them to narrate the stories of the 7 selected cities.

Over the course of four months across three continents, we engaged over 120k people and got to know more than 700 people who participated in our workshops and events. 98 citizens assembled and deployed sensors on their residences, offices, universities and local hackerspaces, and 340 people exchanged ideas online.

With the help of an international Jury, we reviewed 34 amazing submissions by 62 creators from around the world, and chose six finalists from five countries. The winners of the challenge will be exhibited during Lift China in an interactive format.

Discover these amazing pieces in Shanghai and Shenzhen, and continue the conversation about the cities of the future with us.

Venue

Power Station of Art

Lift China has been hosted once again in the beautiful building of the Power Station of Art. As this place is very well cooled during the summer, it is advised to take a light jacket or sweatshirt with you.