T-Edge Conference 2018, which is organized by the China New Media Development Zone and TMTPost Media Group, kicked off in southern Beijing’s Daxing district on Dec 14.

This year’s conference centers on New Consumption, New Technology and New World and invited innovators and tech thinkers from all over the world to share their views.

According to the organizer, it attracted more than 5,000 industrial pioneers and over 150 influential figures in innovation to attend, such as Wall Street legendary VC investor Harry Edelson,  Brett King, author of Bank 3.0 and founder of US-based mobile financial service provider MovenBank, US theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate Kip Stephen Thorne, and Wang Jian, chairman of the Alibaba Group Technical Committee.

Other leading innovators include Pierre S. du Pont, successor of one of the most legendary American families, Indian film-maker Prasad Shetty, IBM Thought Leader Paolo Sironi, Guo Jinyi, co-founder of Luckin Coffee, electric carmaker Xpeng Motors Chairman and CEO He Xiaopeng and Li Shipeng, co-president of iFlyTek Research.

The celebrities will discuss topics such as entertainment, retail, consumption, artificial intelligence, digital transformation, finance technology and biomedicine at summits and forums during the three-day event.

An awards ceremony, part of the event, was held to honor innovations worldwide on Dec 16.

In addition to summits and roundtable discussions, the three-day event also brought cutting-edge technologies and solutions at the exhibition and experience zone, where visitors could experience a smart lifestyle and try on intelligent devices.

The conference, initiated five years ago, is an annual gathering of innovators across the globe. It has given more than 600 leading innovators from 30-plus countries a platform to share their ideas and helped some 200 enterprises to explore business opportunities. About 60,000 visitors showed up at this year’s event.

The conference is also part of a nine-month campaign launched by the China New Media Development Zone to promote innovation and entrepreneurship.

About 20 themed activities ranging from project matchmaking to road shows were staged to support innovation and startups in the past nine months.

As one of the organizers, China New Media Development Zone in Daxing has witnessed rapid growth in recent years. It is home to more than 4,000 firms and has developed an industrial layout featuring scientific innovation, culture and creativity, and digital economy.

Daxing district has rolled out a group of policies to encourage emerging industries, aiming to develop itself into a highland of economic growth driven by innovation in South Beijing.