IoT Open Innovation Partners Yokohama (ITOP Yokohama), the city’s innovation platform for IoT, big data, AI, and robotics, has several exciting developments coming up in the first months of 2019.

In early January, the 10th Yokohama Venture Pitch will announce the winning companies that will give on-stage presentations at the pitch event to be held at PACIFICO Yokohama on February 14. Audience registration will also begin in mid-January. The event will give promising startups and SMEs in Yokohama the opportunity to showcase their innovative products and business models to potential funders, supporters, and the wider business community. In early January, ITOP Yokohama will also announce the awardees of their annual project grants, a program that awards up to 1,000,000 JPY to pilot projects, events/seminars and research projects initiated by ITOP members in one of ITOP’s areas of interest.

ITOP Yokohama will also launch a new scheme to train retiring engineers, former engineers looking for a career change, and other interested individuals with a background in systems engineering to become coaches and advisors who can contribute to the further development of Yokohama’s IT/IoT community. These engineers will go through 2 months of training in coaching and other interpersonal skills, followed by field experience in training/coaching at local companies. The participants of the “Engineer Step-up Project” are expected to share their wealth of skills with the next generation of engineers and help local SMEs install IT/IoT systems in their operations. Participants will be selected by January and training will begin the following month.

Learn more: Information Technology in Yokohama