CHINICT China Technology Live On TechWeb TV

"For good or for bad, China is now challenging Silicon Valley's supremacy on two fundamentals which have been establishing Silicon Valley as a global brand for tech innovation and entrepreneurship." That's the provocative take of Franck Nazikian, president of CHINICT.

CHINICT, TechStars in China, is a conference being held in Beijing. InformationWeekTV will be streaming the event live, beginning Wednesday evening, from 6pm Pacific Standard Time onwards. At that time can click here to watch live streaming videos. InformationWeek is a co-sponsor of the event.

CHINICT is billed as the largest conference on China tech innovation & entrepreneurship. This year's edition will mark its sixth annual run. The event aims to showcase the looming technology ascendancy of China, which Nazikian and his colleagues believe is happening in a more under-the-radar manner than most people realize. They characterize it as a "silent yet on-going revolution."

The conference kicks off Thursday with keynotes from some of China's most notable technology entrepreneurs. Featured speakers include: Feng Jun, Founder and CEO of Aigo, who will talk about building a major consumer brand Lien Ze, Co-founder and COO of Wukong, who will speak about competing to become a top mobile search engine; Alan Tawil-Kummerman, chairman of Exmart, on taking mobile application development to the next level.

Other keynoters during the two-day confab include top executives from the Chinese professional network Ushi.cn, anti-virus vendor 360.cn, mobile device portal 3g.cn, and game producer KookyPanda.

On Friday, business and venture-capital tracks are on the agenda. Jane Zhi, the head of Asia Pacific at the London Stock Exchange, will join colleagues from NASDAQ and NYSE-EURONEXT to talk about where to go to get an IPO.

An afternoon session on funding the Chinese tech innovation revolution will feature high-powered reps from Keystone Ventures, Infinity Partners, and Draper Fisher, among others.

In advance of Thursday's show kick-off, we did an short interview with CHINICT president Nazikian, spotlighting his take on Chinese tech ascendancy.

Q. Tell us why you see China challenging Silicon Valley?

A. Tomorrow's Microsoft or Google are on the verge of soon coming from China. The era of the Chinese model of copying technology is over. A silent yet on-going tech revolution from China is under way.

Q. Give us some examples.

A. Some Chinese companies leading this revolution are Tencent and Innovation Works. Tencent generates billions of dollars from Chinese consumers, by selling them virtual goods. That's something no company from the West has managed to do so far.

Innovation Works is led by the former founding president of Google China and best-selling Chinese author Kaifu Lee. The company has raised $100 million to develop the future IT leaders of China.

Q. What about future entrepreneurship opportunities?

A. I created the buzz word "Chinization" to describe the phenomenon I'm seeing. I define Chinization as a societal and business trend whereby China is challenging Silicon Valley supremacy as a hotbed of technology innovation with global impact, as well as becoming a magnet for top-tier entrepreneurs from all over the world.

As the conference unfolds, the companies to which Nazikian will appear on the InformationWeek TV live stream. Tencent's R&D is up on Wednesday evening. Kaifu Lee of Innovation Works is on Thursday.

Again, InformationWeekTV will be streaming the event live beginning Wednesday at 6pm Pacific time onwards; click here to view.

The CHINICT conference site is located here.