Media OutReach
KBTG Techtopia: At World’s Beginning opens the window into the future of humanity, reaffirming that humans and AI, when combined, are the beacon of the new era
BANGKOK, THAILAND – Media OutReach Newswire – 9 September 2025 – KASIKORN Business-Technology Group (KBTG) reinforces its leadership in technology within the region by hosting KBTG Techtopia: At World’s Beginning, the third annual technology conference that brings innovations and creativity together in one place at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center. The event welcomed more than 4,000 participants from diverse industries, supported by leading partners both locally and internationally. The theme of this year’s event, “At World’s Beginning”, reflects a world that is no longer the same, and raised the question of how people and technology can move forward together. Participants were invited to explore new beginnings and ignite hope for creating a better tomorrow by combining the power of humans and emerging technologies, especially AI, to unlock limitless possibilities.
Mr. Ruangroj Poonpol, Group Chairman, KASIKORN Business-Technology Group (KBTG), said, “KBTG Techtopia is an international technology conference that brought together world-class innovations and creativity, supported by leading partners both locally and internationally. This year, the event attracted more than 4,000 participants and was held under the theme “At World’s Beginning” to explore new beginnings and ignite hope for a better tomorrow through the combined power of humans and technology. Currently, AI stands at many crossroads where humans must determine its future, from the arrival of Agentic AI to AI governance and containment, as well as the balance between practical applications and Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), and global collaboration across sectors. Additionally, the conference highlighted the importance of addressing the energy footprint and leveraging AI to reduce inequality to ensure that intelligence is not limited to only the wealthy.”
Another highlight of this year’s event was a recorded conversation between Mr. Ruangroj Poonpol and Dr. Andrew Ng, Managing General Partner of AI Fund. Although Dr. Andrew Ng could not attend in person this year, he shared valuable insights with participants under the topic, “AI’s Next Frontier: Transitioning from Hype to Impact.” Key takeaways included the transition from Gen AI to Agentic AI, which is like having access to a broader set of tools that enables the creation of more complex and useful applications, especially when users understand how to combine these tools effectively. He emphasized that AI will not replace people, but people who use AI will replace those who don’t, particularly for non-technical roles such as finance, law, and management. On the engineering side, AI coding assistants will allow developers to build software faster, accelerate proof of concept development, and reduce costs. Regarding Physical AI and robotics, Dr. Andrew Ng pointed out that practical applications in industries are beginning to emerge, although they have not yet reached the inflection point like large language models (LLMs). He also stressed that it is not too late to start learning AI, and the knowledge gained today will remain relevant in the future. While some aspects may eventually become obsolete, 80-90 percent of what is learned today will still hold value a year from now, giving learners a significant advantage over those who do not learn.
Regarding corporate strategy, emphasis should be placed on employee training, creating sandboxes for new experiments, and selecting high-value use cases that align with the corporate strategy, while maintaining a balance between innovations, governance, and guardrails. Moreover, Dr. Andrew Ng expressed confidence in Thailand’s potential to become a regional leader in AI and pledged continued support for the development of its ecosystem.
The KBTG Techtopia event also featured three main discussion stages, bringing together leading global speakers to debate hot topics and propose solutions through real-world examples. In the morning, attendees listened to various topics from speakers including: Professor Danielle Wood, Director of the Space Enabled Research Group at MIT Media Lab; Mr. Kevin Wei Wang, Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company; and Ms. Cindy Chow, Executive Director and CEO of the Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund. Additionally, the afternoon featured interesting topics ranging from research fields to corporate transformation, future of education, healthtech, and human-centered product design, all in accordance with the event’s theme.
Furthermore, there were numerous activities designed to help ignite inspiration, unlock potential, and expand everyone’s thinking boundaries, including a zone showcasing new, never-before-revealed technologies and innovations from KBTG and leading technology partners, playground workshops offering hands-on training by real experts to build future-ready skills, and a community circle for exchanging ideas with the tech communities in a casual, friendly atmosphere.
Mr. Ruangroj concluded, “KBTG Techtopia is not merely a technology exhibition, but a stage created to spark new ideas and connect people who share a common dream of building a better world with technology. KBTG believes this event will be a new beginning for that world, towards a future filled with hope. KBTG will lead in driving that future through crafting meaningful innovations and continuing to inspire the new generation and entrepreneurs across all sectors.”
Hashtag: #KBTGTechtopia #KBTG #AtWorldsBeginning #AI #AgenticAI #AGI #TechConference
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KASIKORN Business-Technology Group
KBTG is a tech arm of KASIKORNBANK. We never cease to innovate financial applications and beyond. Utilizing our expertise, experience and expansive ecosystem, we are proud to serve millions of customers across the nation and the region.
Media OutReach
The Ocean Connects Us All! Grand Opening of the “Formosa-Hawaii Cultural Festival” Marking the CIP’s 30th Anniversary, Taiwan Joins Hands with Hawaii to Bring Indigenous Culture to the World
Speaking at the opening ceremony, CIP Minister Ljaucu‧Zingrur said that cultural experiences often move people deeply, and that sound policy can turn that emotion into lasting institutions. As the CIP marks its 30th anniversary this year, the opening ceremony of the Formosa-Hawaii Cultural Festival featured a special tribute honoring individuals who have made outstanding contributions to Indigenous affairs. Among these forerunners and partners are those who advocated internationally for the rights of their people, devoted their lives to rescuing endangered Indigenous languages, brought international acclaim to Taiwan through music, dance, and sport, and even those who became guardians of their communities for leading the swift evacuation of an entire village amid a raging storm and rebuilding it in the aftermath. In paying tribute to these unsung heroes, the Minister expressed hope that this honor will be passed on, inspiring more talented citizens to join in advancing Indigenous affairs. He also expressed that this cultural celebration is powerful proof that Indigenous culture is not only flourishing on Taiwan’s own soil, but is also embracing the world with the utmost confidence and openness as it steps onto the international stage.
The festival’s biggest draw is its lineup of top international music and dance performances from across the Pacific, alongside Golden Melody Award-winning stars, paired with a lively, delicious, and fun Austronesian-themed marketplace, together creating the most exuberant summer party of the season! The whole venue is awash in the romance of Aloha. Visitors can savor Hawaiian Kona coffee and Indigenous delicacies in the Austronesian-themed exhibition area, try their hand at Hula dancing and lei making, and enter a daily lucky draw for limited-quantity market vouchers. Families of all ages can spend a leisurely afternoon into the evening enjoying live music while browsing the market stalls, experiencing firsthand the distinctive cultural charm and way of life shared by Taiwan’s Indigenous peoples and Hawaii.
The three-day program offered one highlight after another. During the day, the State of Hawaii Office in Taipei brought in the internationally acclaimed Ke Kai O Kahiki, a dance group known for powerful, masculine hula performances, to showcase the depth of Hawaiian culture. Furthermore, the CIP has invited music and dance troupes from Palau and Tuvalu to share the profound bonds of Pacific heritage. As night falls, Golden Melody Award-winning stars took the stage in succession. On July 31, “The Call of Mountains and Sea” kicked off with performances by Usay Kawlu, Utjung Tjakivalid, and Kasiwa; on August 1, “The Night of Island Sounds” brought Princess Ai and Abao back-to-back; and on August 2, “Aloha Night” closed the festival with a grand finale by Biung and Abus, pouring out the soul of the ocean through the most contemporary electronic beats and rhythms.
The CIP and the State of Hawaii Office in Taipei warmly invited people across Taiwan to bring family and friends to the New Taipei City Citizen Plaza this weekend, to enjoy live music, explore the marketplace, and experience firsthand this not-to-be-missed summer party rich in culture.
Photo: Chairperson Ljaucu Zingrur (Tseng Chih-Yung) of the Indigenous Peoples Council delivered opening remarks at the Aloha Taiwan Cultural Festival, expressing the hope that cultural exchanges between Taiwan and Hawaiʻi will deepen Austronesian cultural connections and help preserve the invaluable cultural heritage of Indigenous peoples.
Hashtag: #CouncilofIndigenousPeoples
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Media OutReach
Truecaller Ads Launches ‘Truecaller Pulse’; An Industry First Declared Intent Media Solution
The Big Idea: Consumer Choice Is the Most Valuable Signal in Modern Advertising
Digital advertising has long relied on inferred signals like browsing history. Truecaller Pulse replaces guesswork with declared choice, allowing brands to ask consumers directly what they want.
When consumers declare their intent, every part of a campaign; planning, targeting, and messaging becomes significantly smarter and more efficient.
Truecaller Pulse: a new category of consumer intelligence transforming real-time declared choice into activation-ready audiences at massive scale
How It Works: Declare. Analyse. Activate.
Embedded within Truecaller’s high-attention, privacy-safe environments and reaching over 500 million active users,
- Declare: Brands deploy interactive ads asking direct questions about purchase plans or preferences.
- Analyse: Responses are converted into signals across Preferences, Discovery, and Purchase Intent.
- Activate: Real-time audience segments enable immediate retargeting with tailored messaging while intent is fresh.
The result is an always-on Continuous Consumer Intelligence Loop with research, audience-building, and media activation unified into a single, self-reinforcing workflow.
Built for the Full Range of a Marketer’s Strategic Needs
- Product Launches — Capture early consumer reactions and validate demand before scaling spend.
- Category Discovery — Surface emerging preferences and whitespace opportunities across segments.
- Competitive Switching — Identify consumers actively in-market for alternatives and win them with precision conquesting.
The platform provides a layered intelligence stack: Pulse Signals for real-time responses, Pulse Insights for regional data, and Pulse Trends for shifting sentiment.
What This Means for the Industry
“Truecaller Pulse gives marketers something extremely valuable: direct consumer answers at unprecedented scale. When consumers tell you what they want, media becomes more precise, campaigns become more efficient, and every marketing decision becomes better informed,” said Hemant Arora, VP & Global Head, Truecaller Ads.
“The intelligence outputs from Truecaller Pulse extend well beyond campaign activation. Pulse Signals deliver real-time declared responses. Pulse Insights surface aggregated intelligence, regional preferences, emerging product trends, category shifts. Pulse Trends reveal what’s changing in consumer sentiment before it shows up in sales data. All of this feeds back into smarter future campaigns,” added Athul Prabhu, Product Director, Truecaller Ads.
With Truecaller Pulse, Truecaller Ads isn’t just adding a feature to its stack, it’s making the case for a new industry standard: to stop inferring intent. Start capturing it.
Hashtag: #Truecaller
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About Truecaller and Truecaller Ads
Truecaller is an essential part of everyday communication for over 500 million active users, with more than a billion downloads since launch and 68 billion spam and fraud calls identified in 2025 alone. The company has been headquartered in Stockholm since 2009 and has been publicly listed on Nasdaq Stockholm since October 2021. Advertising is the primary revenue stream for Truecaller. Truecaller Ads serves over 5 billion impressions every day and is trusted by over 10,000 brands.
Visit 
https://advertisers.truecaller.com for more information.
Anchored by the TIGER framework, CUHK leaps toward new heights of academic excellence and global impact
HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach Newswire – 6 August 2026 – The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) today (6 August) unveiled its new five-year strategic plan, titled “CUHK 2026–2030: Leaping to Greatness” (the “CUHK 2026-2030“), outlining the University’s development priorities and strategic direction for the next five years. With the ambition to create greater impact on humanity and global communities, CUHK adheres to its vision of becoming a first-class comprehensive research university whose scholarly output, bilingual and multicultural education, and community contributions consistently meet global standards of excellence. As a publicly funded university, CUHK will leverage its strengths in talent cultivation, knowledge innovation and global engagement to contribute to the development of China and the Hong Kong SAR in alignment with priorities in the national 15th Five-Year Plan and the city’s first five-year planning.
The “TIGER” action framework of CUHK 2026–2030 forms five interconnected strategic directions. It reflects a united, well-coordinated and actionable commitment from the entire University to progressively realise our vision of “Leaping to Greatness” that symbolises CUHK’s continued evolution to pursue purpose-driven excellence, impact-oriented outcomes and lasting societal contributions with innovation, rigour and responsibility.
The five interconnected strategic pillars in CUHK 2026–2030 include:
- T – Talent Attraction and Development
- I – Institutional Development
- G – Global and Alumni Engagement
- E – Education and Student Experience
- R – Research and Innovation
Embracing the new vision with agility characterised in the spirit of a tiger
In his remarks, Professor Dennis Lo Yuk-ming, Vice-Chancellor and President of CUHK, said: “The five key areas of the Strategic Plan form the ‘TIGER’ action framework that embodies courage, agility and drive, underscoring CUHK’s development vision which will be realised through precise planning and rigorous execution. CUHK will continue to drive breakthroughs in life and health sciences, artificial intelligence (AI), quantum science and other frontier fields, and participate in national scientific research initiatives, leveraging Hong Kong’s unique advantages and position as China’s most international city, with an aim of cultivating world-class talent and new knowledge that benefit the world.”
Aligning with the strategic planning of China and the Hong Kong SAR
Professor Lo said: “CUHK 2026–2030is the first five-year strategic plan formulated since I assumed office in 2025. It marks a major milestone in the University’s development in timely alignment with the five-year planning of China and the Hong Kong SAR. At a time of profound global transformation, technological advances are reshaping the world and redefining the role of universities in society. CUHK has joined the world’s top 20 for the first time in the latest Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings, rising to the 18th place. This is a testament to the University’s progress in the past 63 years signifying our global academic influence.”
Professor John Chai Yat-chiu, Chairman of the CUHK Council; Professor Dennis Lo Yuk-ming, Vice-Chancellor and President of CUHK, Professor Isabella Poon Wai-yin, Provost of CUHK, Professor Anthony Chan Tak-cheung, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Alumni / Community Engagement & Institutional Advancement), Professor Jiang Liwen, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research & External Affairs) and Mr Albert Chow Hing-pong, Vice-President (Administration), together with other members of the University’s senior management, attended the media luncheon today to mark the official launch.
Creating value to benefit humanity
Professor Isabella Poon Wai-yin, Provost of CUHK, introduced the University’s priority areas and said: “In face of global challenges such as the AI revolution, sustainable development and climate change, universities carry an unprecedentedly vital mission. A truly impactful university does not merely respond to the present needs of the era, but will also actively shape the direction of our future. Through interdisciplinary, cross-regional and cross-sector collaborations, we aim to translate CUHK’s deep academic foundation, unique collegiate system and global network into a driving force for social progress and innovation.”
Team spirit of CUHK leadership in co-creating the development blueprint
The formulation of CUHK 2026–2030 was a year-long collaborative effort overseen by the Strategic Plan Steering Committee chaired by Professor Lo with support from the senior management team and consultation from the broad CUHK community, from conceptualisation, drafting to visual design. This multi-faceted collaboration fully demonstrates the team spirit of the CUHK community in propelling the University toward a new chapter. The visual design of the Strategic Plan agenda features circular lines and patterns representing the letters “C” and “U” for CUHK. The concentric-circle motif also symbolises CUHK members coming together like concentric circles, uniting their strengths to work towards common goals. The visual palette centres on the university colours of purple and gold, representing passion and loyalty (purple), alongside perseverance and resolve (gold). For details of the Strategic Plan, please refer to https://www.cuhk2030.cuhk.edu.hk.
Key Initiatives
Establishing the 10th College for postgraduates
CUHK will establish a postgraduate college as its 10th college. This initiative will extend the University’s long-standing collegiate system to the postgraduate community, creating a vibrant, international environment for cross-disciplinary dialogue, holistic development and lifelong networking.
In addition, CUHK will develop flagship international undergraduate programmes and signature schemes embedding innovation, entrepreneurship and concepts of sustainability into the curriculum. It will also strengthen industry-academia collaboration and knowledge transfer to attract and nurture outstanding local and international innovative talents. CUHK will also revitalise its General Education curriculum with national and global perspectives. Moreover, the University will strengthen collaboration with CUHK-Shenzhen and other institutions in the GBA and expand opportunities for exchange and internships abroad to support students’ holistic development and lifelong learning.
Attracting global talent and expanding international impact
CUHK will leverage its strengths as an international research university to attract outstanding students, scholars and researchers from around the world, fostering a diverse and inclusive academic community. Currently, approximately 56% of CUHK’s professors come from outside Hong Kong while the University achieved a perfect score in the QS international faculty ratio indicator, demonstrating its success in attracting top academic talent globally.
This year, applications from non-local students increased by about 20% compared with last year. Applications from regions outside the Chinese Mainland rose even more significantly, by 75%, with most applicants coming from Southeast Asia and the Middle East, reflecting CUHK’s growing international appeal. To attract exceptional students, CUHK launched the Fenghuang Scholarship this year. The scholarship offers outstanding students who achieve excellent results in local and overseas public examinations financial support, together with overseas exchange opportunities. Through this initiative, the University aims to attract high-calibre young talent and nurture future leaders with a global vision, innovative capabilities and a strong sense of social responsibility.
Driving interdisciplinary research to address global challenges
CUHK will seize opportunities arising from the Northern Metropolis, the Hetao Cooperation Zone and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, while focusing on frontier fields including life and health technologies, AI, quantum science and green technology. The University will further integrate into the national research and innovation ecosystem and actively participate in major scientific initiatives spanning space, polar research and deep-sea studies, fostering comprehensive development from Antarctic expeditions and space missions to the translation of world-class innovations.
In recent years, CUHK has been actively demonstrating its research excellence. Notable achievements include the successful launch of CUHK Sat-1, the world’s first AI satellite dedicated to urban sustainable development, and leading the development of the laser heterodyne spectrometer selected for the nation’s Tianwen-3 Mars exploration mission. These accomplishments underscore the University’s pivotal role in supporting national strategic science and technology development. Furthermore, the Hong Kong Centre for Logistics Robotics, an InnoHK centre established by CUHK, founded Hong Kong’s first full-stack embodied intelligence laboratory in 2026 to drive frontier technologies in embodied AI and robotics, further consolidating Hong Kong’s position as an international innovation and technology hub.
Hashtag: #CUHK #2026-2030 #five-year #strategicplan
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About The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Founded in 1963, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is a leading comprehensive research university with a global reputation and world-leading rankings. Located in the heart of Asia, CUHK has a vision and a mission to combine tradition with modernity, and to bring together China and the West. Under the University’s unique collegiate system, the programmes and activities offered by its nine colleges complement the formal curricula by delivering whole-person education and pastoral care. The University has eight faculties: Arts, Business Administration, Education, Engineering, Law, Medicine, Science, and Social Science. Together with the Graduate School, the University offers over 300 undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. All faculties are actively engaged in research in a wide range of disciplines, with an array of research institutes and research centres specialising in interdisciplinary research of the highest quality.
