Now in its 19th year, Techventure offers global investors and startup ventures a platform to meet, connect and discuss partnership opportunities, to help advance technology from idea to market.

In a keynote address at the opening of Techventure 2015, Vivian Balakrishnan noted that Singapore’s startup ecosystem has matured, with Techventure as a key component of the landscape, facilitating collaborations and interactions within and between players in the local and global ecosystem – with rising international and local participation each year.

Five years ago, short-track skater Apolo Ohno became the most decorated US athlete in Winter Olympics history, midfielder Andrés Iniesta helped bring Spain its first World Cup title, and GiveForward co-founder Ethan Austin met Zappos founder Tony Hsieh. Lifelong dreams were fulfilled on all accounts. At an event, Austin spoke with Hsieh, one of the leading minds on and practitioners of values-based culture. Not coincidentally, that year marked GiveForward’s first employee hire and its relentless devotion to its culture.

A paper published by researchers from the University of St Andrews and the University of Stirling, suggests banks, venture capitalists and business angels are now being “crowded out” by equity crowdfunding platforms

Equity crowdfunding is quickly becoming a “crucial source” of early stage growth capital, new research suggests.

A paper published by researchers from the University of St Andrews and the University of Stirling, suggests banks, venture capitalists and business angels are now being “crowded out” by equity crowdfunding platforms.

Image: http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk

This week's historic addresses by Pope Francis to the U.S. Congress and the United Nations General Assembly represent a stunning convergence of moral-spiritual and ecological-economic imperatives. The convergence should serve as a clarion call to Silicon Valley that the "ecological debt" Pope Francis cited in his recent encyclical is now due, and we are its primary debtors.

When Australian National University made it back into the top 20 of the QS World University Ranking last week it was widely reported in the mainstream news. Rankings drive the esteem in which a university is held and that drives student demand, especially in the lucrative foreign student market.

But a new ranking, also out last week, the Thomson Reuters’ World’s Most Innovative Universities, got a mention in The Australian but not much elsewhere. Perhaps that’s because it is new, but it might also have failed to register because not a single Australian university made the top 100.

Bridging the gap between the ends of a torn nerve is the latest biomedical trick performed with the help of a 3-D printer.

Additive manufacturing, or 3-D printing, makes it possible to build more customized biomedical implants, and has become a popular way to make dental implants and even windpipes. A new 3-D printed structure meant to “guide” the regrowth and reconnection of the loose ends of an injured nerve suggests that the technique could appeal to neurosurgeons as well.

Entrepreneurs who experience success with their first startup are often amazed to realize that the risks and fears of doing it right the second time go up, rather than down. Encores are tough, especially in the high-risk world of startups, yet every entrepreneur I know can’t wait to start over and do it again. Sometimes their haste or ego causes them to ignore basics, and they fall hard.

Equity crowdfunding platforms are “crowding out” banks, venture capitalists and business angels in the UK, suggests a new paper published by researchers from the University of St Andrews and the University of Stirling and mentioned in the Daily Record and Sunday Mail.

Image: http://www.crowdfundinsider.com

Marathon board meetings are a problem for both members and management. Not only do they consume far too much precious time, they tend to be more of an exercise in education than decision making and strategy.

These lengthy, unproductive sessions come about for several reasons. First, there's often a lack of structure and effective planning. Too often, board members don't have all the most current information they need until they walk in and take a seat, which puts them behind the eight ball when it comes to making informed decisions.

Although it looks glamorous, real entrepreneurship takes hard work and frequent failure.

Fifteen years ago, people would have assumed you were crazy for expressing a desire to become an entrepreneur. But the tables have turned. Today, it has become one of the most respected and intelligent paths to take. I’d go as far as saying it’s saved our economy and continues to move our culture forward.

Dream “jobs” are disappearing fast, and creating your ideal opportunity is the new normal. But a lot of people are getting into entrepreneurship with a blurred perspective, thinking that all you need is passion and work ethic. Those people are in for a rough ride unless they understand a few powerful truths and adopt the proper perspective. You can either play it safe or become successful, but you can’t do both. Entrepreneurship can be a dream come true, but you must know these truths.

For all the collective rush to figure out what innovation is and what doing it means for your business, it really boils down to this: we want to come up with great ideas, be able to predict their value, and figure out what systems need to be in place for us to do so.

Innovation is both an art and a science, but it's the science that brings about tangible returns. It's the science that allows a leader to turn to their crowd of employees -- and partners, and customers -- and present a business challenge that needs solving, with the clear goal of soliciting the crowd's expertise and using their experiences to generate ideas with the potential to succeed.

Lots of companies are in the process of kickstarting – or maybe even re-booting – their innovation efforts. Here you get my take on a few questions related to this topic.

How does an organization go about kick-starting something serious that will genuinely create value? 

Too many organizations do not really know what they are looking for with regards to innovation. There are three key traps here.

Image: https://www.linkedin.com

What makes entrepreneurs tick? While there’s likely no definitive answer, Hiscox Insurance recently released its 7th annual “DNA of an Entrepreneur” report which contains a lot of interesting insights. There is a lot of good news for American entrepreneurs in the report — U.S. small businesses are best in the world when it comes to revenues, profits, and customers.

You spend just as much time, if not more, with the people you work with as you do our families and friends. When it comes to the workplace, understanding your fellow employees, how they think and why they think that way can make communication easier.

Faculty members at the State College of Florida don’t have tenure, but many longtime professors were satisfied with the due process guarantees included in their rolling contracts. But that all changed this week when, seemingly out of the blue, the college’s Board of Trustees -- over opposition from faculty members and administrators alike -- voted to end the continuous contract system and initiate one-year contracts for all newly hired faculty members.

Image: https://www.insidehighered.com

So, DEMO Africa began with much ado yesterday with an angel investor bootcamp…lots of budding and veteran investors in one place with one goal. Figuring out the smartest ways and places to put their capital. Speaking with a few friends, while chatting about the issue of funding and startups, I couldn’t help but noticing that several misconceptions exist about what exactly venture capital (VC) is.

A new Science|Business analysis puts the spotlight on the most innovative clusters in Europe, uncovering what it takes to translate research from bench to bedside and highlighting the crucial need for policy support, innovation pull, and access to finance

Image: http://www.sciencebusiness.net

1."Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

2. "There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth -- not going all the way, and not starting." - Buddha

3. "Be willing to be a beginner every single morning." - Meister Eckhart

I founded my first company when I was 24, and I was definitely puzzled. Apart from business or technology problems posed by the market, I was constantly challenged by my staff and partners. How do I inspire them, and how do I keep them motivated and responsible for their obligations? With my most successful business, the same challenges are aggravated by the hyper growth curve we're on. And guess what? My family experience helped a lot, and here is what I learned.

We experience hundreds of different events every day: positive, negative, and neutral. Yet most of us tend to focus all our attention on the negative. Unfortunately, this holds true for your customers too. Many of you are shaking your heads in agreement since as we all know, the thing people share most readily with their friends are their bad experiences with your service or product.

Evolution has a part to play in this. Way back when, you only survived if you spent a lot of time focusing on the potential threats and bad things around you. Miss a few and you’d become something’s lunch.