The so-called Mashup Awards have a relatively long history in Japan’s web world, with the 7th event scheduled to be held in Japan next month (here‘s Asiajin’s report on the last event from December 2010).
It has been organized in Japan every year so far, but now the Mashup Awards 7 (MA7) event is coming to Silicon Valley, too: on October 19, there will be some sort of sub-event in Palo Alto called “MA7 Ninja Challenge”.
The organizers explain:
At the event, up to 10 startups interested in the Japanese market will be presenting in front of industry experts in the market to get professional advice.
At this event, developers in the US (including CTOs in startup companies or engineers who are interested in the Japanese market/ Asian market) will give a presentation (pitch) about their products, services or technologies they have developed.
In contrast, for the companies which participate in MA7, the experts who are familiar to the Japanese/Asian markets will participate in this event. Expert advisors will give advice through Q&A of each participant and discuss about how to expand as well as support the product’s growth into the Japanese market . Also, this event becomes a great place to meet developers and partners in Japan.
What’s cool is that the winner of the contest in Palo Alto gets the chance to move to the 2nd Round of the so-called “Mashup Battle” and win MA7 as a whole, too.
The call for presentations ends on October 12. All US-based startups/individuals interested in entering the Ninja Challenge can apply here (in English).
Details of the MA7 Ninja Challenge event:
When: 6:00pm, Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Where: DOCOMO Innovations, Inc.
Map: 3240 Hillview Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94304
Tickets: http://ninjachallenge1.eventbrite.com (the event is free)
More information about MA7 in English can be found here and here.
Serkan Toto