The 2016 Wuxi Maker Expo for "Chuangke” was held in the city of Wuxi, Jiangsu province from Nov 11 to 12.

The two-day expo consisted of a string of speeches from entrepreneurs, forums, a startup project fair, and the Multinational Entrepreneurship Competition’s Wuxi station contest.

"Chuangke", Chinese for "makers", are a group of young entrepreneurs setting up businesses with fresh ideas, knowledge and technology.

The 2016 Wuxi Maker Expo for "Chuangke" is held in Wuxi, Jiangsu province from Nov 11 to 12. [Photo provided to bizwnd.gov.cn]

Co-sponsored by the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Science and Technology, the Wuxi government, the Wuxi Innovation Coffee Camp Union and Wuxi Xinwu district, the expo aims to promote the integration between industrialization and innovation as well as the cooperation between south Jiangsu national innovation demonstration zones.

Wuxi Innovation Coffee Camp Union (WICCU) pulled together 30 makerspaces in Wuxi to take part in the expo. A makerspace (also referred to as a hacklab, hackerspace or hackspace) is a community-operated workspace where people with common interests—often in computers, machining, technology, science, digital art or electronic art—can meet, socialize and collaborate.

An investor shares his ideas for a startup during the 2016 Wuxi Maker Expo. [Photo provided to bizwnd.gov.cn]

Nearly a hundred of makers and investors in Wuxi, and other nearby cities, came to the expo for in-depth talks on topics such as opportunities and challenges of internet of things (IoT) and future innovations for south Jiangsu, the value of innovation, as well as the integration between industrialization and innovation in the era of Internet Plus.

There were large numbers of innovation projects on display during the startup project fair, including unmanned aerial vehicles, 3D printing, dining O2O, sewage treatment and intelligent transportation.

Twenty projects selected from more than 150 programs had an opportunity to win the Multinational Entrepreneurship Competition’s Wuxi station contest. And three programs, respectively featuring an on-line shopping website for R&D equipment, graphene research and rehabilitation for hearing loss patients, had the chance to compete in the national final contest.

Wuxi Innovation Cloud Platform sponsored by WICCU is initiated during the 2016 Wuxi Maker Expo. [Photo provided to bizwnd.gov.cn]

Wuxi Innovation Cloud Platform sponsored by WICCU was officially initiated during the expo, which is aimed at showcasing the city’s startup projects, investors and makerspaces. In addition, the 30 makerspaces in the city can set up their own platform to build up their resource base.