Covering End-to-End In-Person

SMEs and Startup Events Dominate the Push to a Great Finish in the Healthcare Industry

Right after a punishing 6-week, 8-country business trip to the EU to meet people and organisations, it was right back in Asia, where two very different events demonstrated Access-2-Healthcare’s range in supporting various areas of the Healthcare ecosystem. While we usually do not attend MEDICA,, the month of October to November had numerous events in Healthcare, and a couple of years of Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet has driven many people to meet in these in-person events.

One event, the MedLab Asia & Asia Health 2022 – Bangkok, Thailand (live in-person edition) brought the latest laboratory products and technologies to the South Asian market and featured them at IMPACT Exhibition Centre between 19 – 21 October 2022. Retailers, suppliers, distributors and healthcare professionals alike met with their peers and clients to exhibit and browse a wide range of medical instruments, devices and services. The trade fair had more than 300+ booths, with numerous valuable insights that are shaping the growing market, and meetings with exhibitors, influencers and specialised press, product pavilions and in-person demos. Relatively, it is a small trade fair, but we like it because there’s time to talk, engage and set the framework for potential partnerships. There were some trade enterprises present as well, especially from the EU, who is more willing to explore the Asia Pacific markets of late. The focus for this year for myself, is size, or lack thereof: small analysers, small footprint ones, easy-to-manage consumables. There were some great items from the non-IVD sector too.

The Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology (SWITCH) Experience features two components; a year-long programme of innovation-centric community events and opportunities starting from July 2022, as well as the signature Flagship Event from 25–28 October 2022 at Resorts World Convention Centre, Singapore. Part of SWITCH was the Slingshot competition. SLINGSHOT 2022 attracted applications from over 3,600 startups across more than 150 countries. From there, the Top 250 Global Startups were invited to join the Virtual Corporate Mixer and put forward their best elevator pitch to move on to the next round. Through rigorous evaluation, the Top 50 Global Startups were shortlisted and flew to Singapore for a curated Physical Immersion filled with dealmaking and networking opportunities with corporates and investors from their respective industries. I was honored to participate as an in-person judge for the Healthcare/Life Sciences track.