So I just got back from Hong Kong having keynoted at the NextBank FF16 Fintech Finals conference which ran Monday and Tuesday, in partnership with StartmeupHK.
A highlight of the week was a fireside chat with Elon Musk, who appeared before a sold out invitation-only audience which I felt lucky to be invited along to, as well as the whole thing beamed out live to the NextBank conference and online.
I'm sure most of you know who Elon is but, just in case, he was one of the founding team of PayPal who, after eBay bought the firm, went on to create the world's most successful electric car brand, Tesla, as well as other visionary activities around space travel with SpaceX, solar power with SolarCity, and replacing high speed trains with the hyperloop transport system.
You can watch the whole interview if you want (see end of blog entry), but I’d suggest missing the first 20 minutes or so, as it was just a discussion about Tesla cars.
That’s important for Hong Kong as the country is the largest Tesla car market in the world where 2,221 Model S sedans were sold in 2015, making the electric car the top-selling sedan in Hong Kong.
However, talking Tesla was not as illuminating as much as the second half, when Elon expanded some thoughts around technology, space travel and more.
My highlights were summarised in the tweets below:
"All new cars will be self driving within 10-15 years" @elonmusk
— Chris Skinner (@Chris_Skinner) January 26, 2016
"Innovation comes from questioning the way things have been done before" @elonmusk
— Chris Skinner (@Chris_Skinner) January 26, 2016
"Just as elevators used to have drivers, that's how we'll see cars" @elonmusk
— Chris Skinner (@Chris_Skinner) January 26, 2016
"You could easily power the whole of China with solar (power)" @elonmusk
— Chris Skinner (@Chris_Skinner) January 26, 2016
"We'll have the first flights to Mars by 2025" @elonmusk #startmeuphk
— Chris Skinner (@Chris_Skinner) January 26, 2016
"Going to Mars will be dangerous, challenging and difficult. If you want safe and comfortable, Mars isn't it" @elonmusk #startmeuphk
— Chris Skinner (@Chris_Skinner) January 26, 2016
If we could upload our brains to the cloud, "you'd never forget anything" but beware DDoS @elonmusk #startmeuphk
— Chris Skinner (@Chris_Skinner) January 26, 2016
Although I was particularly gratified to see the tweet below afterwards:
What a week @mattldooley! @Chris_Skinner Mon @elonmusk Tues. Who today? #FinTechMafia #PayPalMafia #breakingbanks pic.twitter.com/m27yNiBhU0
— Reedi HK (@reedihk) January 27, 2016
Thanks @ReediHK
Oh and the best moment was seeing the startup pitches from the very early growth visionaries in Hong Kong:
(yes, these are children)
Anyways, if you want to see what Elon had to say in full, spend 40 minutes watching the interview:
Oh, and just in case anyone's wondering who Tony Stark is ...
Chris M Skinner
Chris Skinner is best known as an independent commentator on the financial markets through his blog, TheFinanser.com, as author of the bestselling book Digital Bank, and Chair of the European networking forum the Financial Services Club. He has been voted one of the most influential people in banking by The Financial Brand (as well as one of the best blogs), a FinTech Titan (Next Bank), one of the Fintech Leaders you need to follow (City AM, Deluxe and Jax Finance), as well as one of the Top 40 most influential people in financial technology by the Wall Street Journal's Financial News. To learn more click here...
