Taiwan Visit Report: Hosting Our First Overseas Event for New Partnerships
Following our visit to NYCU IAPS, the City of Sapporo, the Sapporo Electronics and Industries Cultivation Foundation and the Sapporo Transnational Expansion and Partnership (STEP) hosted our very first overseas event at the Taiwan Design Research Institute (TDRI) on July 3rd.
Having participated in numerous large-scale international events, we aimed for a different approach with this initiative. Rather than focusing on scale, our goal was to create a space where startups and companies could engage in meaningful, face-to-face dialogue. Moving beyond standard technology pitches, the event provided an intimate yet highly productive environment to share the visions of entrepreneurs, understand company roadmaps, and explore what a true partnership can look like.
The venue, TDRI, serves as a symbol of the rich shared history between Japan and Taiwan. The event welcomed participation from semiconductor companies—a key industry in Taiwan—and related human resource development institutions. Furthermore, ten Taiwanese startups and companies took the stage, representing fields that closely align with Sapporo’s strategic sectors: AI, IT, agriculture, biotechnology, healthcare, and food technology.
Each company showcased potentially game-changing technologies, and our team looks forward to welcoming them to Sapporo in the near future.
We extend our deepest gratitude to everyone at NYCU for their immense support in the startup selection process, to our partners at TDRI for providing the venue, and to all the local investors and ecosystem stakeholders who attended. During the event, STEP members also took the stage to present Sapporo’s vision and future prospects.
Although STEP facilitates over 270 business meetings each year, we are not simply a business-matching organization. Our true mission is to connect outstanding overseas companies and technologies with the real, unsolved challenges in Sapporo and Hokkaido, matching them with the right partners to drive progress. We remain committed to working with our remarkable partners, both locally and globally, to advance initiatives that solve real-world challenges.
