Finance News World

NanJing, China – October 29, 2026 – More than 100 entrepreneurs, researchers, and investors gathered in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing on Oct. 24 for an innovation festival built around artificial intelligence, startups and cross-city business links across the Yangtze River Delta.

The Nanjing Metropolitan Area “New Quality Productive Forces” Innovation Carnival, which also hosted the finals of the OPC Super Individual Challenge, was held at the Alibaba Center in Nanjing. Organizers said the event combined a startup pitch contest, exhibitions, panel discussions and investor networking.

The festival was organized by the Nanjing Youth University Student Makers Chamber of Commerce and FlowCeler, with co-sponsorship from OpenCSG, Alibaba Center Nanjing, Token Computing Tech, Apothéose,Yisend and Bank of Ningbo, Nanjing Branch. It drew support from the youth entrepreneur chambers of cities including Zhenjiang, Huai’an, Chuzhou, Wuhu and Ma’anshan.

Chen Rong, vice chairman of the Nanjing Federation of Industry and Commerce, said at the opening that young entrepreneurs should “dare to be pioneers” and move from “innovation and creativity to market effectiveness.” He said the federation would continue to channel technology, industry and talent resources toward youth entrepreneurship.

Wang Jinjun, a member of the party committee of the Nanjing General Chamber of Commerce and chairman of Zhonghui Group, described the event as a new attempt to help young people build AI businesses, creating an ecosystem that combines competition, exhibition, sales, conferences and talks to help student projects move “from the arena to the market.”

Zhen Gu, founder and chief industry research officer of Apothéose, co-organizer of Forbes China Emerging Industry Influence Awards, delivered remarks at the ceremony. He said China’s tech innovation landscape is transforming, with lightweight, high-growth “super-individual” innovators emerging as fresh drivers for regional industrial upgrade. The Forbes-backed evaluation system focuses on technical barriers, viable business models and tangible industrial value, seeking to identify promising AI and hard-tech startups and back their growth.

In keynote speeches, executives and academics discussed how artificial intelligence is reshaping industry. Li Yin, Jiangsu general manager of Alibaba Cloud’s strategy development department, outlined the company’s strategy. Wang Junbo, a professor at Southeast University and a scientist ranked among the world’s top 2 percent by Stanford University, described a framework for moving AI from the cloud to terminal devices. Bu Ziming, from Ningbo Bank’s Nanjing branch, introduced an AI service aimed at small and medium-sized enterprises. Wang Lei, founder of Nanjing ChessRock Intelligence, showed how a lean team built an AI hardware terminal.

The competition featured 12 hard-technology projects spanning AI marketing and intelligent manufacturing. Three panel discussions were held concurrently at the event, namely From Model Capability to Scene Power: The Last Mile of AI Landing, Super Individual: Opportunities, Capabilities and Boundaries for OPC Entrepreneurs, and New Trends in M&A and Investment for New‑Quality Productive Forces. Peng Jin, CEO of Token Computing Tech and a PhD in deep-learning algorithms from Harbin Institute of Technology, systematically introduced the company’s development positioning and core business directions. Going forward, Token Computing Tech will continue to refine its product and service system centering on lexical-unit computing power. Balancing computing-power stability, invocation flexibility and cost controllability, the system can cater to diverse development scenarios including AI application development, vertical model fine-tuning and agent R&D, and deliver differentiated computing-power support for sci-tech innovation projects at different stages.

During the event, sub-forums including the 1st Chairmen’s Meeting of the Nanjing Metropolitan Area Young Entrepreneurs Chamber of Commerce and the 3rd New-Quality Productivity M&A, Investment and Financing Trade Fair (Nanjing Audition Exchange) were held concurrently, enabling targeted resource matching among multiple parties and advancing industrial collaboration.

For early-stage lean startup teams, insufficient computing power, lack of high-quality models, difficulty securing implementation scenarios, and limited access to capital channels often stand as major hurdles on their entrepreneurial journey.On the day of the event, the Nanjing Metropolitan Area Ultra-Early-Stage Entrepreneur Support Program and the National University Hard-Tech Entrepreneur Community were launched simultaneously. These initiatives build a co-creation industrial community for young entrepreneurs, extending empowerment beyond a one-off event into sustained, long-term support.

Attendees used NFC-enabled badges to access the agenda and claim digital identities, and an electronic-music after-party closed the day. One entrepreneur said the loose format let participants “really talk projects through” over music.

In fact, behind this set of “formats” lies a redesign of the very essence of sci-tech exchange. Hewei Li, Founder of FlowCeler and initiator of the conference, said that unlike conventional conferences, the event pursues “simplicity” and “flexibility” in both on-site experience and agenda design. It aims to build an exclusive space where young entrepreneurs are willing to participate and stay. A series of complementary sessions and cross-space networking together form a multi-layered, human-centered sci-tech ecosystem. The team plans to roll out activities in more diverse venues going forward, and continue co-creating sci-tech events that balance youth appeal and industrial value.

About FlowCeler：

FlowCeler is a globally leading acceleration platform for the hard-tech industry, committed to walking alongside founders on their journey to becoming great entrepreneurs.

Media Contact
Company Name: Jiangsu FlowCeler Technology Co., Ltd.
Contact Person: Harvey Lee
Email: Send Email
City: NanJing
Country: China
Website: www.flowceler.com