Robotics x Tokyo -- Jan 2025 Meetup + MegaPanel! 🤖💡❤️

⭐ Important Update (2025.01.15) ⭐
We are terribly sorry to announce that, due to various personal reasons and scheduling conflicts, three of our guest speakers have had to bow out of this event. Thus, we will be changing the event slightly in order to extend and flesh out the first panel discussion, now entitled 'Building a Robotics Community in Japan'. Thank you so much for your patience and understanding 🙇🏻‍♂️ We can't wait to see you there ✌🏼

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Please make sure to register for required venue access here!
https://venturecafetokyo.org/sessions/road2-globalgathering2025-building-a-robotics-ecosystem-in-japan/
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Welcome back, everyone! We are thrilled to hit the ground running in 2025 with our first (big) Meetup event of the year!

On the evening of January 16th, we will host robotics community leaders, technical experts, and Venture Café Tokyo's Executive Director for an extended, exciting panel discussion centered around 'Building a Robotics Community in Japan'!

Japan’s robotics industry has continued to blossom in recent years as a key trendsetter for other markets. Rather than be content to operate in silos, come meet and listen to a few individuals who have worked to bring together various traditional robotics companies, start-ups, and even hobbyists for the benefit of the industry.

Naturally, such community building can be difficult, but very rewarding. Various ideas, backgrounds, and experiences sometimes clash and sometimes coalesce. We will explore examples of these challenges, including some contradictory views within the robotics industry

For example: given the recent explosion of GenAI / LLM applications, work is underway to combine these tools with physical manifestations in order to birth ever smarter, expressive, and capable robots. We plan to discuss, debate, and delight as we ponder the question of whether this convergence of Robotics x AI will lead to utopia, dystopia, or something in-between...

Furthermore, we'll touch on other current trends, fads, and drivers of hype. Both skeptics and early adopters will enjoy!

✌🏻❤️🤖

SCHEDULE

• 6:00pm -- casual free networking (1hr)
• 7:00pm -- panel - Building a Robotics Community in Japan (1hr)
  - Kaori Rei (AI Founders' Mindset) -- moderator
  - Ilya Kulyatin (Tokyo AI)
  - Ryusuke Komura (Venture Café Tokyo)
  - Mike Sudano (Robotics x Tokyo)
  - Nicolas Chow Chin Sung (Astroscale)
• 8:00pm -- audience + remote Q&A (30m)
• 8:30pm -- more networking + wrap-up (30m)
• 9:00pm -- end of event / leave venue​