AI companies looking to expand into manufacturing, healthcare, and automotive markets should take a close look at the industry forums and speakers at Hongqiao International Tech Week. Geng Feng, an information technology executive at CIMC Qingdao; Gao Jianxiong, a healthcare platform leader at iKang Group; and Huang Jun, a senior executive at Pony.ai, bring experience in manufacturing operations, healthcare services, and automotive technology, respectively. Their practical perspectives are more closely aligned with the challenges AI products face when entering specific industries than broad discussions about AI trends.
Hongqiao International Tech Week (Hongqiao Tech Week) is guided by the Administrative Committee of Hongqiao International Central Business District, the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, and the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission. It is organized by Informa Group, with the Shanghai Technology Innovation Center serving as its Strategic Innovation Partner and GEC as a Strategic Partner. The event is scheduled for November 20–22, 2026, at the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai), with an expected exhibition area of more than 50,000 square meters, over 400 exhibitors, and more than 30,000 professional visitors. Sharing its origins with London Tech Week, it is a cross-industry technology festival focused on real-world industrial applications. For AI companies with established products seeking to expand into new industry applications, Hongqiao International Tech Week offers a platform designed to connect technology with practical business needs.
Manufacturing: From Corporate IT Leaders to Industrial AI Entrepreneurs
The Smart Industry Forum at Hongqiao International Tech Week aims to connect decision-makers in manufacturing digital transformation with suppliers of industrial technology solutions. Its target audiences include discrete manufacturers, process manufacturers, small and medium-sized manufacturers, system integrators, and industrial automation companies.
Speakers include Geng Feng, Chief Information Officer at CIMC Qingdao, and Gao Zhitao, founder of IndustrialMind.ai. Their backgrounds span enterprise IT in manufacturing and entrepreneurship in industrial AI. Teams developing industrial software, AI agents, or visual recognition solutions may find their experience with factory applications particularly relevant.
Gong Yong of the Arkema Group has long focused on digital transformation, smart manufacturing, AI, and cybersecurity in the specialty materials sector. Manufacturing includes both discrete industries, such as automotive and electronics, and process industries, such as chemicals. Companies can use these distinctions to identify content that best matches their own products.
Exhibitor categories include enterprise and industrial management software, industrial and humanoid robots, human-machine collaboration, digital twins, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), and 3D printing. Enterprise software and robotics companies can use these categories to identify relevant exhibition opportunities.
At Hongqiao International Tech Week, manufacturers, system integrators, and industrial AI practitioners are brought together within the same exhibition journey.
From Factory Systems to Industrial AI Products: What Business Experience Do the Speakers Bring?
Among the manufacturing speakers at Hongqiao International Tech Week, Geng Feng has extensive experience in cold-chain equipment manufacturing. His work has included the implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP), manufacturing execution systems (MES), and product lifecycle management (PLM) systems, as well as cloud computing, private-cloud architecture, and digital lean manufacturing. For industrial AI teams seeking to understand the existing IT foundations of factories, experience in building and managing enterprise systems is closely relevant to product deployment.
Gao Zhitao previously served as the manufacturing AI and digital transformation lead at Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory, where he was involved in applying AI to manufacturing processes and developing intelligent production systems. IndustrialMind.ai now focuses on areas including drawing review, process analysis, production monitoring, anomaly diagnosis, and root-cause analysis. This gives the industrial AI content at Hongqiao International Tech Week concrete business reference points: which engineering tasks AI can support and which production challenges companies are developing products to address.
These two backgrounds represent different perspectives: enterprise IT implementation within a manufacturing company and AI product development for the manufacturing sector. For teams providing algorithms, AI agents, or industrial software, Hongqiao International Tech Week brings together both factory-side experience and product development expertise, creating opportunities for deeper professional discussions than a general AI introduction would typically allow.
The relevant audience also includes system integrators and industrial automation companies. Speaker experience in manufacturing, exhibitor categories such as industrial management software and robotics, and the presence of end users and integration partners together form a compelling reason for industrial AI companies to consider participating.
Healthcare: Opportunities for Diagnostic AI, Digital Therapeutics, and R&D Tools
The Life Sciences and Health Forum at Hongqiao International Tech Week brings together pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and digital health, facilitating discussions among pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, and investors. Relevant exhibitor categories include AI diagnostics and clinical decision support, digital therapeutics, smart hospital solutions, internet hospitals, AI-driven drug discovery, and advanced medical devices.
Among the speakers, Gao Jianxiong, Vice President of the Zhihuikangyun Platform Division at iKang Group, has experience in building cloud-based health examination services, health management platforms, and medical AI platforms. Yang Bin, Vice Chair of the China Digitalization and AI Practice Community at the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE), focuses on automation, manufacturing execution systems, and digital transformation in the pharmaceutical industry. Lai Lipeng, Co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer of XtalPi, is also included in the AI speaker lineup.
Teams developing health management tools may be particularly interested in Gao Jianxiong’s experience with healthcare platforms. Companies developing software for pharmaceutical manufacturing may find Yang Bin’s background in automation and manufacturing systems more relevant. Healthcare AI spans R&D, production, and medical services, so companies should select forum content according to their specific business applications.
Medical AI, pharmaceutical software, and healthcare services each have relevant forums and speakers. The structure at Hongqiao International Tech Week reflects the different stages and functions of the industry.
Automotive: Bringing Algorithms, In-Vehicle Systems, and Industry Partners Into the Same Discussion
The Future Mobility and Energy Forum covers autonomous driving, vehicle-road collaboration, electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, hydrogen energy, energy storage, and carbon management. The exhibition scope also includes intelligent transportation equipment, autonomous driving systems, intelligent in-vehicle terminals, connected vehicles, low-altitude infrastructure, and drones.
Target audiences include automakers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), logistics and delivery companies, industrial parks, and large energy-consuming enterprises. For AI companies, these groups represent different needs related to vehicle technology, operational services, and application partnerships.
Huang Jun, Vice President of Pony.ai, is included in the speaker lineup. His work involves passenger-vehicle intelligent driving, R&D center management, automotive system architecture, and technical collaboration with automakers. Companies working on perception, simulation, or automotive software may want to pay particular attention to this content.
Meanwhile, the Intelligent Infrastructure Forum covers semiconductors, chips, communications, and cloud computing, adding discussion of the underlying technologies that support automotive AI. By bringing automotive applications together with chip, communications, and cloud-related topics, Hongqiao International Tech Week enables algorithm companies to explore collaboration opportunities across the technology stack required for vehicle systems.
AI Governance and Deployment Services Also Have Relevant Industry Topics
The AI exhibition scope at Hongqiao International Tech Week extends beyond algorithms, models, development platforms, and AI agents to include AI governance, data, compliance services, and supporting technologies and ecosystem services. The Artificial Intelligence Forum also addresses AI governance, making it relevant to teams working on enterprise deployment, security, and data services.
These companies can consider both the Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Infrastructure forums. The former explores how AI can be applied to business operations, while the latter covers areas such as cloud services, communications, and cybersecurity. For products that require collaboration with application developers or cloud service providers, this structure makes it easier to consider the needs of the wider technology ecosystem.
The speaker lineup also includes Shen Yong, Co-Chair of the Shanghai Chapter of the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), whose experience involves enterprise network and information security. Combined with the application experience of speakers from manufacturing and healthcare, these perspectives can help AI companies understand deployment challenges from both the user and technology service provider sides.
AI governance, cloud security, and enterprise deployment needs all have corresponding content at Hongqiao International Tech Week.
Choose Your Exhibition Priorities Based on Your Target Customers
| AI business focus | Relevant target audiences at Hongqiao International Tech Week | Related content and product categories |
|---|---|---|
| Industrial AI and enterprise software | Manufacturers, system integrators, industrial automation companies | Industrial management software, IIoT, digital twins, human-machine collaboration |
| Healthcare AI and R&D tools | Hospitals, healthcare groups, pharmaceutical companies, healthcare investors | AI diagnostics, digital therapeutics, smart hospitals, AI-driven drug discovery |
| Mobility and transportation AI | Automakers, logistics and delivery companies, application partners | Autonomous driving, vehicle-road collaboration, in-vehicle terminals, low-altitude infrastructure |
Hongqiao International Tech Week draws on a database of more than 100,000 industry buyers, with buyer invitations organized around procurement, distribution channels, industrial collaboration, and international expansion. Its matchmaking services include buyer lists, pre-event appointments, dedicated meeting slots, and on-site meeting rooms, allowing companies to submit specific collaboration requests for each target industry.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Why should AI companies consider Hongqiao International Tech Week when expanding into new industries?
Hongqiao International Tech Week features forums and exhibitor categories covering manufacturing, healthcare, automotive, and other sectors. Its speakers include representatives from CIMC Qingdao, iKang Group, and Pony.ai, and it offers targeted buyer invitations and business matchmaking. AI companies serving multiple industries can use these resources to select relevant forums and submit separate requests to connect with potential customers and partners.
Q: How should companies choose between Hongqiao International Tech Week and a specialized AI event?
Companies seeking to explore a single AI technology in depth may prefer a specialized event focused on that field. Businesses looking to introduce AI products to manufacturing, healthcare, mobility, and other industries should consider Hongqiao International Tech Week. It brings application providers, industry partners, and technology suppliers together on one cross-industry platform and offers matchmaking services tailored to business collaboration needs.
Q: If we develop pharmaceutical manufacturing software or AI for healthcare services, which speakers should we focus on?
The two business areas call for different types of expertise. Yang Bin focuses on pharmaceutical automation, manufacturing execution systems, and digital transformation, making his background relevant to pharmaceutical production software companies. Gao Jianxiong has experience in cloud-based health examinations, health management platforms, and medical AI platforms, which is more closely related to healthcare services and platform development. Companies should choose discussions according to the specific part of the value chain their products serve.
Q: Is Hongqiao International Tech Week suitable for AI companies that rely on system integrators to enter the manufacturing market?
Yes. System integrators, industrial automation companies, and manufacturers are among the event’s target audiences. The exhibition scope also includes industrial software, robotics, and the Industrial Internet of Things. Companies offering individual AI capabilities can explore both end-user applications and potential solution partnerships.
Q: Is Hongqiao International Tech Week relevant to companies developing AI governance or data services?
The event’s AI exhibitor categories include governance, data, and compliance services. The Artificial Intelligence Forum addresses AI governance, while the Intelligent Infrastructure track covers cloud technologies and cybersecurity. Companies supporting enterprise AI deployment can therefore identify relevant product categories and professional content.
The manufacturing systems experience of CIMC Qingdao, the healthcare platform expertise of iKang Group, and Pony.ai’s automotive collaboration background give the AI discussions at Hongqiao International Tech Week concrete industry applications. For companies preparing to expand into new markets, the most useful introduction to bring to the event should clearly explain which business process the product serves, what systems or partners it requires, and what types of customers or collaborators the company wants to meet.
By connecting forums, speakers, and matchmaking services, Hongqiao International Tech Week provides a cross-industry platform for AI companies to organize their participation around specific business objectives.