Five years ago, launching a tech conference during a global lockdown might’ve seemed delusional. Dr. Lu Gang calls it “stupid enough,” but the result, BEYOND Expo, is anything but. Against a backdrop of shuttered borders and empty exhibition halls, Lu didn’t just push ahead; he built a stage for Asia’s technological identity to finally perform, not as a supporting act, but as the main event.
BEYOND wasn’t born out of convenience. It was a counter-punch to a persistent imbalance. Asia, rich with innovation in robotics, AI, mobility, and biotech, lacked a unifying platform. USA had CES and SXSW. Europe had Slush and IFA. Asia? Fragmented, regionally siloed, and globally underrepresented. Lu saw this gap firsthand – founders with world-class ideas were treated as footnotes at global expos, buried among exhibitors, their stories lost in translation, both literally and figuratively.
He chose Macau. Not because it was a tech hub, but because it wasn’t. Culturally and linguistically neutral ground. Grand hotels. Efficient infrastructure. A place you could sell as Asia’s Vegas. And for Lu, it was more than geographic convenience. It was symbolism. A clean slate for a clean break from foreign legacy formats that never really fit Asia’s voice anyway.
When we sat down with him, Lu was unfiltered, casually peeling back the layers of his vision like someone who’s spent years explaining why it matters and still hasn’t run out of reasons. “There’s no platform that reorganizes Asian innovation for a global audience,” he said. “You go to CES or Web Summit and the most exciting founders from Asia are just… missing. They’re in the crowd, not on stage.”
The ambition isn’t subtle. BEYOND wants to be where the next big thing isn’t just shown off – it’s unveiled, discussed, and celebrated. A place where Plaud, a rising hardware startup with AI chops, gets more than a 3×3 booth on a back wall. “He’s a superstar,” Lu said of the founder. “But if he went to CES, he’d just be another exhibitor.”
There’s a wild idealism to it all, but it’s grounded in grit. Building a cross-border tech expo in Asia means navigating linguistic hurdles, cultural nuance, and vastly different industrial priorities. Korea, Japan, China, and Southeast Asia don’t naturally sync. Getting them to share a stage, let alone a conversation, takes more than ambition. It takes trust. And Lu has been earning it by showing up consistently for 5 years – and arguably the toughest 5 years in recent history.
BEYOND isn’t just a parade of booths. It’s become known for its parties, its loosened-tie vibe, the mingling of founders and media poolside after panels. Lu laughs about it, but there’s strategy here. “People come for the day show,” he said, “but they stay for the experience. The real conversations happen after hours.”
In its fifth year, BEYOND is growing up fast. International media are taking notice. More exhibitors are treating it as their product launch platform. There’s momentum, and Lu knows what to do with it. He wants BEYOND to become the destination in Asia where new tech gets unveiled first. Think CES, but in a region where hardware is king and software isn’t the only storyline.
The cultural shift is overdue. Silicon Valley has long dictated the pulse of tech, but the future? It’s being prototyped in Shenzhen, Seoul, Tokyo. Asia’s startup scenes aren’t just growing, they’re diverging, forming identities shaped by local needs and global reach. BEYOND is trying to harness that chaos, give it choreography, and let the rest of the world watch.
He’s already fielding interest from Brazil, Japan, the UAE. Each wants their own BEYOND. Not to copy, but to collaborate. It’s flattering. Overwhelming too. “We’re still a small team,” Lu said. “But we’re thinking about it.” There’s no rush. Scale too fast and you lose the soul. But the demand is telling: the world doesn’t want another CES. It wants a fresh script.
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