The Asian Entrepreneur speaks with Popp Polpat and Djoann Fai about DrinkEntrepreneurs Bangkok.
In your own words what is Drink Entrepreneurs?
We are a social business ecosystem accelerator.
We are monthly social event that gather passionate entrepreneurs, coders, designers, investors, corporate managers and media around a drink. It’s where different parts of the business ecosystem meet and talk together!
We desire to connect professionals locally at our event, but also to connect them to a global network of other DrinkEntrepreneurs events in over 40+ cities around the world such as San Francisco, Paris, London and more, also in Asia such as, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and more to come.
With beers and networking events, bringing the professionals to the top, sharing their best practices regardless of their status, position, and country of origin, leveraging the business ecosystems to the next level.
There are two running models for DrinkEntrepreneurs:
1) Monthly event: Every month we move from venue to venue (Co-working space, Startup Accelerators, Clubs, etc.) to gather number of professionals together on a night to share their business perspectives, meet with new people and have fun!
2) Networking part of other event: We partner with other events, seminars, conferences, workshops to assure them a successful networking part of their event.
For example, this September, we are organizing the Networking After Party of ECHELON 2014, the Asia’s largest Tech Conference with over 700+ investors and Tech founders. Again, the aim of our event is to enable participants of the conference to network in a more fun and informal way, around a beer.
Why did you start DrinkEntrepreneurs in Bangkok?
We think “NOW” is a perfect time to kick-off startups in Bangkok. With a very dynamic and supportive ecosystem; Bangkok got it all: financial resources as VC funds, business mentorship programs, startup seminars and competition, co working spaces, startup accelerators and more. DrinkEntrepreneurs is a social business ecosystem accelerator that will bring startups to the next level.
How does DrinkEntrepreneurs unique compare to other networking event?
There is a lot of existing networking events in Bangkok, but mostly they are focusing on a group of people with similar speciality (event for coders, event for designers, or event for just entrepreneurs).
We believe what is missing is a networking event that gather and connect variety of type of professionals together such as entrepreneurs, investors, programmers, designers, corporate manager, media, and etc. Therefore, we created DrinkEntrepreneurs – Bangkok.
We do not consider other events as our competitor; we consider them as our partners because they share the same goal, leveraging the whole business ecosystem to grow. We also co-organize events with them where DrinkEntrepreneurs organized the networking part of the event.
Can you describe the advantages of people who come to DrinkEntrepreneurs?
Apart from good-price beverages, free taxi to the venue, free gift bags for all participants that are covered by our sponsors (BIG thanks to our sponsors), the two main axes of our event value proposition are to create CONNECTIONS and OPPORTUNITIES.
The first advantage is that DrinkEntrepreneurs connect people from different specialties and background. Because we believe it is important to connect all part of a business ecosystem and ensure that people meet who they should meet.
Secondly, DrinkEntrepreneurs always invite influencers to our event; they are C-level entrepreneurs, corporate managers, and founders, who already are successful. This group of people is usually unreachable. However, with great food, great venue, great people and their willingness to share and give back to the community, we are grateful to have them in every single event. Moreover, we also connect them up with their potential partners during the event.
What kind of feedback did you get for DrinkEntrepreneurs so far?
We created 4 events in 4 different venues in the past few months. Only 50 people showed up at our first event. Then, the number grew very fast to 200+ and 350+ for our 2nd and 3rd event, respectively, with over 20-30 C-level participants (CEO, MD, CTO, CMO, etc.) joining every event. These numbers show how Bangkok startup ecosystem is dynamic and how connecting each part of business ecosystem is important.
Trying to connect all the events and meetups of coders, investors, media and corporate managers gave us insightful overview of the current business ecosystem state. We are now looking for ways to leverage on what we learn so far to connect more people and create even better event every month.
When is the next DrinkEntrepreneurs?
For our next event in Bangkok, we are proud to announce that DrinkEntrepreneurs – Bangkok is now partnering with ECHELON 2014, the Asia’s largest Tech Conference. DrinkEntrepreneurs – Bangkok will be a host for Networking After Party for ECHELON both days on the 18th and 19th of September.
Here are the details:
No. of participants: 700 participants
Participants: Tech C-level (CEO, MD, CTO, CMO, Investors, Startups, and etc.) from many countries (Singapore, Japan, Korea, USA, UK, Thailand, and more)
Location & Time:
18th of September: Kudeta Bangkok, Sathorn Square Building – 39th & 40th floors 98 North Sathorn Road
19th of September: Ocean Bangkok, 7 soi Sukhumvit 33, Sukhumvit road Klongton-Nua, Wattana, Bangkok
As we are expanding around the world, we are open for more partners and sponsors who share the same vision of accelerating the business ecosystem in each city around the world.
Biography of the organisers:
Popp Polpat S.: Graduated from Chulalongkorn Business School, Marketing major. Currently working at Rocket Internet GmbH, Lazada SEA, as Regional Online Marketing Manager.
Djoann Fal: Graduated from ESCP Europe Management School, Entrepreneurship major. Former of Rocket Internet GmbH, Lazada SEA.
