The two-day event brought together 38,000 attendees and 720 international exhibitors, alongside the launch of Data Centre World Tokyo 2027

SINGAPORE, Oct. 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Tech Week Singapore 2026 brought together 38,000 technology leaders, industry experts, and professionals from across the region to explore the systems and innovations driving the next era of AI, quantum computing and other emerging technologies. Against this backdrop, CloserStill Media announced its partnership with Nano-Opt Media, Inc. (NOM) to launch Data Centre World Tokyo 2027 to be unveiled here.

Held at Sands Expo & Convention Centre from 29–30 September, the 12th edition of the award-winning event welcomed 38,000 participants and 720 international exhibitors across five co-located shows. Key moments included an opening address by Mr Tan Kiat How, Senior Minister of State for Digital Development and Information; the first OCP Southeast Asia Tech Day at Data Centre World Asia; and the launch of Data Centre World Tokyo 2027.

Opening Ceremony

Mr Tan Kiat How, Senior Minister of State for Digital Development and Information, delivered the opening address on the Mainstage at Tech Week Singapore 2026. Please find the full speech pointers here.

This was followed by a Minister’s Tour showcasing the most innovative companies and technologies across Tech Week Singapore’s co-located shows.

Key Highlights

Five flagship co-located shows took place across Tech Week Singapore, including Cloud & AI Infrastructure, DevOps Live, Cyber Security World, Big Data & AI World, and Data Centre World. Together, the shows featured over 250 keynotes and panel sessions across the two-day programme.

The Live Vehicle Cyber Hackathon (Geely Global Automotive Cybersecurity Challenge) took place at Cyber Security World Asia across both days, challenging participants to identify and test potential vulnerabilities in designated connected-vehicle systems.

An Exclusive STDCT Tour @ NUS was hosted on 28 September 2026, giving participants a first-hand look at how next-generation technologies are being tested, validated and benchmarked in a live tropical operating environment to support more sustainable data centre operations. The tour welcomed 40 participants on-site.

OCP Southeast Asia Tech Day was hosted at Data Centre World Asia for the first time. Themed “Architecting Inference: The OCP Path from Token Demand to Data Centre Design”, the programme discussed the infrastructure that will power Southeast Asia’s AI inference workloads through 2030 – built from the top down and grounded in open compute principles.

15 dedicated luncheons were held across the two-day programme, reflecting growing demand for high-value networking opportunities alongside the event’s exhibitions and conference agenda.

Data Centre World Tokyo 2027
CloserStill Media has partnered with Nano-Opt Media, Inc. (NOM) to launch Data Centre World Tokyo 2027, which was officially unveiled at Tech Night 2026. The event will take place for the first time in Japan on 7–8 December 2027 at Makuhari Messe, with the Japan Data Center Council (JDCC) as the supporting partner.

Andy Kiwanuka, Managing Director, Asia Pacific, CloserStill Media, delivered a welcome address at the launch, highlighting the significance of expanding Tech Week’s regional footprint across Asia.

“Our theme for Tech Week Singapore 2026 is ‘The Infrastructure Era’. It reflects a shift we observe across Asia. AI, Cloud and the Digital Economy are creating extraordinary opportunities, but turning that ambition into reality takes infrastructure and more importantly, stakeholders working together,”said Andy Kiwanuka, Managing Director, Asia Pacific, CloserStill Media.”With this, we are officially launching Data Centre World Tokyo. With Japan being one of the region’s most compelling data centre markets, demand is growing rapidly, and the market is forecast to almost double to more than US$32 billion by 2028. As investment accelerates, the industry needs a platform to make connections, share practical ideas and help build what comes next. That is what we intend Data Centre World Tokyo to be.”

The Tokyo edition will connect CloserStill Media’s global Data Centre World network with NOM’s established IT and digital infrastructure community in Japan, bringing together international expertise and Japanese technology and experience.

Exhibitor applications are now open, with opportunities available across data centre design and construction, power and energy, cooling, networking, cloud, security, operations, facilities and sustainability.

Tech Week Singapore 2027
As technology continues to evolve at an unprecedented pace, 2027 will bring new breakthroughs, emerging technologies and shifting priorities for businesses. Against this backdrop, Tech Week Singapore will continue to provide a platform for the industry to look beyond the technologies of today.

Tech Week Singapore 2027 is set to return from 13–14 October 2027 at Sands Expo & Convention Centre, continuing to serve as Asia’s premier platform for industry-defining conversations shaping the future of digital transformation.

Please find all post-event press assets HERE. Please find all event images HERE.

END

PR Newswire is the official media partner for Tech Week Singapore.

About CloserStill Media
CloserStill Media specialises in producing high-value, content-driven events that foster professional communities across Business Technologies, Healthcare, and Future Transport and Infrastructure sectors. CloserStill Media’s portfolio includes the acclaimed Tech Week Singapore, featuring popular events such as Cloud & AI Infrastructure and Data Centre World Asia.

Headquartered in London with 10 global offices, CloserStill Media operates with a robust team of 800 professionals across Singapore, the U.K., USA, Germany, and Spain. The company is recognised for its industry leadership, having won more exhibition awards than any other including accolades such as Best Exhibition, Best Event Launch, and Best Brand Expansion.

For more information, visit www.closerstillmedia.com.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/tech-week-singapore-2026-spotlights-the-infrastructure-powering-asias-next-digital-frontier-302896940.html

SOURCE CloserStill Media

Voted by L&D professionals, the award caps a year in which AhaSlides went all in on game-based learning, with more training games on the way

SINGAPORE, Oct. 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — AhaSlides, the interactive presentation platform used by more than 4 million presenters across 142,000+ organisations and 24 million+ participants, has been named a winner of the 2026 Training Magazine Network Choice Awards in the Gamification & Game-Based Learning category.

The Choice Awards are the only crowd-sourced solution provider awards in Learning & Development. Winners are chosen by Training Magazine Network’s 100,000+ members: the trainers, instructional designers, learners and L&D leaders who use these tools every day. This year, 2,207 voters cast 11,692 votes for 296 companies across seven categories between April 28 and June 30, 2026. Winners were ranked on total votes and a weighted score for effectiveness. Training magazine Editor/Publisher Lorri Freifeld announced the results on September 29, 2026.

Built for the attention span trainers actually face

Focused attention on a screen has fallen from 2.5 minutes to around 47 seconds over two decades (Dr Gloria Mark, UC Irvine). Trainers feel that drop in every session. AhaSlides’ answer is to make participation the default: learners answer, compete, vote and react live from their phones, and the trainer sees what landed in real time.

On AhaSlides, 80.9% of audiences actively engage with presentations, and 44.6% engage with every interactive slide (AhaSlides platform data).

A year of building for facilitated training

Every release this year comes back to one goal: make engagement in training easier for trainers. Getting a group to participate shouldn’t take hours of prep or a background in game design.

AhaSlides now has more than 30 ready-made interactive activities that a trainer can drop into a session and facilitate right away. They range from pure fun to serious skills training. Duck Race gives a group a quick, light-hearted break between learning blocks. Calm does the opposite: a full-screen breathing pause with a guided lead-in and ambient sound, so a trainer can settle the group before a heavy topic or after an intense session. At the serious end, Draw on Image lets a medical trainer share an ultrasound image and have nurses mark directly on it to show what they see. More are added every month.

The next one is Escape Room, a new training game shipping to all AhaSlides users in October 2026. Teams race the clock to find clues hidden in a scene and solve their way out, applying what they’ve learned to escape. It started as the winning entry at AhaSlides’ September 2026 hackathon, taking both 1st place and Most Loved.

Beyond the live session

Making engagement easier also means less work around the session. This year AhaSlides made its reports better, so trainers can see more clearly how learners did and what landed after a session, and launched surveys, so they can gather feedback before and after training. Next on the roadmap is self-paced e-learning, so learners can keep going between live sessions.

What they’re saying

“We’re grateful for this one, because trainers voted for it,” said Dave Bui, CEO of AhaSlides. “Our job is to make engagement easy: a trainer shouldn’t have to design a game from scratch to get a room involved. That’s why we’ve spent this year building ready-made ways to play and compete. Escape Room, which our own team built and voted their favourite at our September hackathon, launches this month. And because learning doesn’t stop when the session ends, self-paced learning is next.”

Trainers who use AhaSlides see the same thing. “Game-based learning works when the game isn’t the point. Participation is,” said Kassy LaBorie, keynote speaker, author and engagement expert, and recipient of ATD’s 2026 Talent Development Outstanding Professional Award. “AhaSlides gives me incredibly creative ways to invite people into the experience, and every time I use it, the crowd goes wild.”

About AhaSlides

AhaSlides is on a mission to save the world from sleepy meetings, boring training and tuned-out teams, one engaging slide at a time. It’s the easiest way to turn sleepy slides into engaging experiences with quizzes, polls, word clouds and training games. From global companies to small classrooms and conference halls, AhaSlides is used by more than 4 million presenters in 142,000+ organisations, reaching 24 million+ participants. Try it free at ahaslides.com.

About the Training Magazine Network Choice Awards

The Training Magazine Network Choice Awards recognise the solution providers that L&D professionals rate most highly, based on votes from Training Magazine Network’s 100,000+ members. The full list of winners is available at trainingmagnetwork.com, and Training magazine’s announcement is at trainingmag.com.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ahaslides-wins-2026-training-magazine-network-choice-award-for-gamification–game-based-learning-302896949.html

SOURCE AhaSlides

Shade-tolerant ABC modules and a flush-mount design unlock around 53% more capacity than tendered on one of Melbourne’s most complex roofs.

MELBOURNE, Australia, Oct. 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Next Green Group (NGG) has delivered a 1.3 MW rooftop solar system at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre (MSAC) using AIKO’s Comet series All Back Contact (ABC) modules.

The completed system increased capacity by more than 50% compared with the original 850 kW tender, converting the venue’s distinctive curved roof into a major renewable energy asset.

MSAC is managed by the State Sport Centres Trust and welcomes more than two million visitors each year. The venue has hosted more than 40 international events, including the aquatic events of the 2006 Commonwealth Games, and operates a mix of pools, sports courts, stadiums, fitness spaces and associated building services.

The solar system, owned and operated by the State Electricity Commission (SEC) under an agreement with the Trust, began operating in September. It is expected to generate more than 1 GWh of renewable electricity each year, supplying around one-quarter of MSAC’s electricity needs.

Innovative ABC Technology Overcomes Structural and Shading Challenges

MSAC’s roof presented a difficult design challenge. Tower structures and cables cast shadows across much of its surface, while the roof geometry and structural constraints limited the use of a conventional tilted array.

A conventional design that avoided shaded roof areas was modelled at approximately 800 kW. After carefully assessing the roof geometry, shading profile and structural loads, NGG selected AIKO Comet ABC modules for their power density, low module weight and certified partial-shading performance.

AIKO’s ABC cell architecture is designed to reduce the impact of partial shading, enabling designers to capture more value from roof sections that might otherwise be excluded. TÜV Rheinland has certified the modules Class A for partial shading resistance. This allowed NGG to work with the unavoidable shade, lifting system capacity to 1.3 MW, approximately 60% above the conventional design.

To preserve MSAC’s iconic curved roofline, NGG installed a flush-mount system rather than a standard tilted array. The design reduced the clearance gaps required between tilted rows, allowing more modules to be installed across the available roof area while maintaining the building’s visual integrity.

Before installation, NGG trialled mounting on the sharpest curves and conducted comprehensive wind and dead-load tests to ensure structural safety. The final installation comprises 2,016 AIKO mono-glass modules secured across approximately four kilometres of rail.

At 28 kg per module, the AIKO Comet panels offered a high power-to-weight ratio for the project’s structural constraints. The array adds approximately 56 tonnes of module weight to the roof, significantly less than a conventional system of equivalent capacity.

“At MSAC, every square metre had to earn its place,” said Thomas Bywater, Head of AIKO Australia & New Zealand.

“This project shows how ABC technology can help EPCs and asset owners increase solar capacity on rooftops where conventional approaches may be constrained by shading, roof geometry or structural limits.”

More Energy and Cost Savings for the Community

MSAC has a substantial and consistent electricity demand. Its 10 multi-sport stadiums, 10 aquatic areas and more than 30 individual courts require energy for pumps, water treatment, heating and cooling, ventilation, lighting, scoreboards and other operational systems.

The solar system will help meet this demand by supplying electricity to the centre’s pools, spa and sauna, along with the scoreboards serving its 10 indoor basketball courts. Its daytime operating profile also supports the use of on-site solar generation to reduce reliance on grid-supplied electricity.

The Victorian Government estimates the system will generate more than 1 GWh of renewable electricity annually and save the venue around $70,000 each year. Announcing the project, Minister for Energy and Resources Jaclyn Symes said the SEC was helping cut energy bills at the places Victorians use every day, from schools to sporting centres.

“MSAC required a design that responded to its roof geometry, shading and structural constraints rather than treating them as reasons to reduce system capacity,” said Nathaniel Galindo, Executive General Manager – Integrated Energy Solutions, Next Green Group.

“By combining detailed engineering with AIKO’s ABC module technology, we were able to make more of the available roof area while maintaining the building’s safety and visual integrity.”

Partnership Drives Engineering Excellence

Next Green Group served as the primary contractor, designing, building and now maintaining the system under a five-year maintenance agreement. With over 14 years of industry experience and more than 15,000 energy projects delivered nationwide, NGG brought a methodical, engineering-driven approach to every stage of the project.

A room near the main switchboard that previously housed MSAC’s 20-year-old gas cogeneration unit was repurposed to accommodate nine 110 kW GoodWe HT Series inverters and the PV distribution board. The former cogeneration unit is being redeployed on an agricultural farm, while the room it occupied now houses MSAC’s new renewable energy system.

The project was delivered in close coordination with MSAC and the State Sport Centres Trust to manage the structural requirements, preserve the building’s appearance and minimise disruption to an active public venue. It reflects NGG’s specialisation in large commercial and industrial sites, including active public venues with high energy demands like aquatic centres.

Accelerating Australia’s C&I Solar Transition

The MSAC project reflects a wider opportunity across Australia’s commercial, industrial and public-sector building stock. The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis estimates that commercial and industrial rooftops have close to 40 GW of technical solar potential, compared with 5.6 GW currently installed.

While many large facilities have significant roof areas and daytime energy demand, the practical potential for rooftop solar is often reduced by factors such as roof geometry, structural loading, shading, heritage or aesthetic considerations. Unlocking more of that potential will take a more tailored approach, one that tackles roof challenges to deliver greater generation and energy-cost savings.

The MSAC case demonstrates how AIKO’s All Back Contact technology can improve project feasibility and economics where conventional layouts fall short. It also highlights the value of EPCs’ design and engineering expertise and their local understanding of Australian structural standards, grid-connection requirements and the practical demands of a high-traffic public venue.

AIKO and Next Green Group are working to turn more of Australia’s commercial roof space into productive energy assets, making the benefits of renewable energy available to more businesses, public facilities and community organisations and accelerating the nation’s energy transition.

For more information on the MSAC solar project, see the official Victorian Government media release: SEC Makes Savings Splash at MSAC

References

IEEFA, Unlocking the clean energy potential of Australian business rooftops, June 2026. ieefa.orgTÜV Rheinland Certificate of Conformity, Partial Shading Resistance Class A, tested according to 2 PfG 2926/01.23. Registration No. AK 50633875 0001, Report No. CN243P92 001, issued 6 June 2024. Available on request.

About AIKO Energy Australia & New Zealand

AIKO is a global solar technology company specialising in All Back Contact (ABC) cells and modules. Rated Tier 1 by BloombergNEF, AIKO has delivered more than 170 GW cumulative of solar products worldwide. Its ABC technology achieves module efficiencies of up to 25.2%, among the highest in mass production, delivering more energy, reliability and safety from every square metre of roof. With a strong local presence in Australia and New Zealand, AIKO works closely with leading EPCs, installers and distributors to deliver durable, high-performance solar for residential, commercial and industrial rooftops.

About Next Green Group

Next Green Group is a vertically integrated energy partner for Australian businesses, organisations and communities. Next Green Group designs, builds, and maintains solar and battery systems up to the megawatt scale, specialising in large commercial and industrial sites. This expertise extends to complex local government facilities and public venues, such as aquatic centres. Through its retail energy arm, NGG also provides access to the wholesale electricity market. With 14 years of industry experience, over 15,000 projects delivered, 25,000 customers supported nationwide, and more than $100 million saved in total energy costs, Next Green Group is a trusted partner in Australia’s clean energy transition.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/aiko-and-next-green-group-power-melbourne-sports-and-aquatic-centre-with-1-3-mw-rooftop-solar-system-302896969.html

SOURCE Aiko