A Day at the 2022 Japan-U.S. Innovation Awards Symposium
On July 14th, the Japan Society of Northern California and the Stanford University US–Asia Technology Management Center reintroduced the Japan-U.S. Innovation Award Symposium for the year of 2022. It was the first in-person Innovation Award event, which recognizes the best of innovation and entrepreneurship, since the pandemic lockdown. This event focuses on cutting-edge technology from American and Japanese companies that have achieved a high-level of innovation for the year. The purpose of the award ceremony is to bring to light the new technological advances across the Pacific Ocean that are building U.S. and Japan relations through tech and business.
This year’s keynote speakers were Cal Henderson, Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer of Slack, and Radhika Krishnan, Global Chief Product Officer at Hitachi Vantara. Both speakers explained their personal experiences and future endeavors with their innovations in tech, as well as how they overcame some challenges they faced this year. Krishnan shared her story of being a pioneer of women in tech and encouraged the audience to promote women in STEM organizations. It was great to see everyone in the audience being so intrigued and attentive during both of their presentations. Henderson touched on how his platform Slack transformed the “working from home” method of communication to such a productive, efficient environment. This platform holds true to his testimony, being one of the many users of Slack. Overall, it was great to dive deep into some of the influential stories shared from our 2022 tech trailblazers.
As for the 2022 recipients of the SunBridge Emerging Leader awards, Matei Zaharia, CTO of Databricks and Daisuke Tanaka, COO of TIER IV, were granted the well-deserved awards for their innovations in tech. Databricks is an AI platform for data warehouse and data lakes to simplify and democratize. Their headquarters are local in San Francisco, with offices around the world and hundreds of global partners. Tier IV is one of the first self-driving automative cars, with AI functionality providing safe and efficient travel. Tier IV’s original headquarters are in Tokyo, making it a perfect opportunity to share creations across the world. Both companies have strong ties with organizations in the US and Japan and promote innovation across the world and major companies.
Finally, there were five different showcase companies that also had the opportunity to present their technological advances on stage. These companies were also stationed at personal booths to answer questions one-on-one with guests. The companies CureApp, GITAI, Kyoto Fusioneering, Telexistence, and WARPSPACE were selected to be honored for their contributions to the tech industry. All companies focus on using artificial intelligence in undiscovered technology, such as: robotics, satellite technology, and healthcare systems. It was very cool to listen to their missions and inquire more about their companies one-on-one at their respective booths.
All of this excitement was held at the Frances C. Arrillaga Alumni Center at Stanford University. The event lasted from 12 to 5 pm, with an after party VIP reception. There was time for networking in between and, after the keynote speaker presentations, there were lots of food and beverages to enjoy. It was so nice to be back in person for the symposium, and extremely jaw-dropping of the technological advancements society is capable of uncovering. I’m super excited to go back next year, with more curiosity of what’s to come!
