by Andrew Jang – Alumni of Alpha Innovation Contest 2019 (from Nanjin, China)
I remember that day, it was June 17th, 2019, My wife and I took our child outing in Bu Lao Village, Pukou, Nanjing. I received an email from the Alpha Incubation Group of Australia, saying that the project we registered for the Alpha Innovation Contest was selected. We need to provide more relevant information about our project. To my surprise, there was a WeChat account at the bottom of the email.
I immediately added the WeChat account of the person in charge of the Alpha Innovation Contest, and started chatting.
I originally thought that we were going to participate in the roadshow of the Contest in Shenzhen, the sub venue of the competition. Later, I learned that all registered projects must first pass the preliminary screening, and the selected mainland projects have the opportunity to participate in the final contest in Australia. Fortunately, the “Valued Image Platform” project not only passed the preliminary screening, but also was selected to participate in the First Round compitition.
Because we are not in Australia, the first round presentation needs to be conducted online. We need to provide an English PPT video. We haven’t done this before, but there is no software in China that we can’t find. So we downloaded a video software and tried it a few times. Finally, we have done it successfully according to the requirements. A person speaking to the screen is not as nervous as speaking to the judges and the audience, but the PPT must be in English, after all, English is not our mother tongue, plus I didn’t use English language to present our project before. This is the first challenge that the Alpha Innovation Contest gave us. Yet, we did it!
The good news came, the Alpha Innovation Organizing Committee informed us that the project has entered the final list. The final competition would be held in the main venue of the Alpha Contest -Perth, Western Australia.
For going abroad, I should be very familiar with it. After all, I have been working in a foreign company, and I used to travel a lot. I think it’s a simple thing, plus the Alpha Organizing Committee has provided us with various entry precautions, including air tickets and visa to Australia. I booked the ticket first. It was only two weeks before departure that I realized that I had not submitted a visa application to Australia. I immediately submitted my e-visa application online. The day before departure, my visa had not been approved. It was a great pity to have missed the opportunity to go to Australia to participate in the Contest.
Nevertheless, we have been following the progress of the Alpha Contest. In the end, our project, as the representative of more than 30 registered projects of Mainland China, was honoured to be awarded the “Outstanding Project” of Alpha Innovation Contest 2019.
The Alpha 2019 Contest is over, but we learned that the Alpha Incubation Group will continue to hold the Alpha Innovation Contest in August 2020, and we can’t wait to register for the competition. And this time we will make sure to apply for a visa to Australia in advance.
We have worked hard for more than two years on Valued Image Platform. To outsiders, our business has been tepid and I know it as a founder. But the fact is, our project has been progressing. In terms of attractions, by the end of 2019, in addition to a few traditional 5A attractions, we have started the business in the playground. If there are no major accidents, we should enter the two largest Chinese playground systems with imaging technology solutions. In addition, the AI video solution for attractions will also be piloted.
In terms of event photography, there are not many franchisees, but we have obtained the original resources of printing equipment manufacturers to provide event printing solutions. There is a market in southern China that is just needed. Our proposed solution should move the hearts of high-end event printing markets. These will bear fruit in the first half of 2020.
By August 20, we should be ready for the Alpha 2020 Innovation Contest. Australia, here we come!
