Why IVS Became a "10,000-Person Offline Meetup": CEO Toshiaki Shimakawa on Its History, the Design of Side Events, and How Participants Can Make the Most of It

Shimakawa originally aimed to become a researcher. He majored in biology at university and, while enrolled in graduate school at Osaka University, did molecular biology research at RIKEN. He was weighing whether to continue as a researcher or to get involved in founding or managing a company, such as a biotech venture, but he felt that progress in research and biotech was slow. Looking at the researchers around him, he sometimes thought, "They're 40 or 50 and still only at this stage?" So he decided to look at IT startups, where things move faster, and as a student he joined IVS as volunteer staff.

That experience gave him connections in the startup world, and he was invited to join a venture capital firm as an investment associate. About two months after joining, he became involved in launching the Japanese subsidiary of the live-streaming app "17LIVE." He says he did everything, from company registration procedures and drafting contracts to sales calls to talent agencies. He was there for just under three years, and by the end he headed the corporate planning office, overseeing finances such as the balance sheet and P&L. When the organization had grown to just under 200 people and revenue had reached several billion yen, he judged that his role was complete, and he now focuses on investment work at a VC and on running IVS. When the moderator expressed surprise at the path "from volunteer staff to CEO," Shimakawa recalled that he never imagined it would turn out that way; he had joined on a whim.

IVS began in 2007. Its predecessor was an event called NILS, and the first IVS was launched by three members. At the time, there was almost no place—no ecosystem, in other words—for startup executives to share know-how. So, aiming to create a place where executives could properly share information and knowledge with one another, it started at a scale of about 50 people.

Most of the participants were entrepreneurs and investors from Tokyo, but everyone was busy. To ensure that everyone set aside time for each other, the organizers deliberately held it outside Tokyo. In the early days it was often held in Miyazaki or Kyoto, and afterward it continued to be held twice a year at offsite locations outside Tokyo. Until the pandemic, it was entirely invitation-only, with fewer than 1,000 attendees. It was also held overseas, including in Taiwan.

Shimakawa took over as the third CEO in 2020, and the COVID-19 pandemic began right after. Since in-person events were no longer possible, the 2020 edition was held fully online, and the next one was tried as a hybrid. Even so, he says participants wanted in-person interaction. Traditionally, IVS had rented out an entire floor of hotel banquet halls, but believing that crowded spaces should be avoided, the organizers chose an open-air, camp-like format. The 2021 edition held in Nasu, Tochigi Prefecture, was a small event with fewer than 500 people; it was well received for its camp-like feel, but being in September, it was extremely cold. They also experienced a postponement.

At the following edition in Naha, Okinawa, they also held "IVS Crypto," focused on Web3 and crypto, and the scale jumped to around 2,000 people. Shimakawa says he was surprised that inquiries about attending kept pouring in.

The turning point was the Kyoto edition. Shimakawa said it was the following year, 2022, and from this edition they ended the fully invitation-only format so that anyone could attend by buying a ticket. The trigger was the government's announcement of the "Five-Year Startup Development Plan." The members discussed what IVS should demonstrate to society and the startup industry, and concluded that there were two axes to work on. One is the "horizontal axis" of increasing the number of entrepreneurs and broadening the base. The other is the "vertical axis" of creating unicorns, which means having overseas investors participate and making it a place where Japanese entrepreneurs can expand abroad and raise funds from overseas. As a result of this discussion, they decided to open IVS up.

The organizers thought that around 6,000 attendees would be a great result, but actual attendance reached 10,000. He says a Nikkei article featured a graph showing growth from 500 to 2,000 to 10,000. As Shimakawa remembers it, attendance passed 10,000 on the second day of the event, and he says he was surprised that so many people were interested in startups. The large-scale Kyoto edition has now continued for three years, including this year.

As the scale grows, the purpose of the event changes too. According to Shimakawa, IVS used to be "a place you couldn't go even if you wanted to," attended by successful executives who were invited. At a scale of 500 or under 1,000 people, it is easy to have in-depth conversations. But when moving to a scale of 10,000, Shimakawa says he told people internally that "networking is impossible with 10,000 people." It becomes like a battlefield, and you can't meet the people you're looking for. So he thought it was necessary to simultaneously build in mechanisms for meeting the people you want to meet, and they implemented several measures. Among them, side events were a particular hit.

Side events are events that IVS participants hold on their own initiative by renting a venue somewhere in Kyoto. The IVS organizers help with promotion and with directing attendees, and IVS participants visit them. Around 200 to 300 side events are held during the three-day event. During the day, people enjoy sessions and other content at the main venue, and at night, by attending side events finely divided by purpose, they can connect with the kinds of people they want to meet. Shimakawa believes that this mechanism being embraced, with the whole city becoming something like an IVS venue, has become a new defining feature.

When the moderator asked whether this was a DAO-like idea that came precisely from having hosted crypto-focused IVS events, Shimakawa explained that the way events and conferences are made resembles media. In the traditional invitation-only IVS and many other events, someone like an editor-in-chief designs the content of every session and raises the quality. If you compare it to media, it is closer to a magazine.

In contrast, he says that internally they describe the current IVS as aiming to be something like social media. On YouTube, users upload content of mixed quality, but the high-quality content survives. In the same way, IVS provides only the mechanisms that allow participants to create content, tells them that good things will happen if they use them, and has spread this as part of the culture. As a result, he says, there is now an atmosphere of "at IVS, you do side events."

Most side events are themed networking gatherings, such as "Calling all AI entrepreneurs" or "Calling everyone in the space industry." There are also a certain number of activity-based events. For example, he has heard that an event where you go running with investors while bouncing ideas off them is quite tough because you run out of breath. There are also distinctly Kyoto-style events, such as one-on-ones at a temple. Shimakawa says participants keep coming up with new content one after another through their own ingenuity.

This year, as a new trend, events calling themselves "side conferences" have appeared. Their distinguishing feature is that their scale and quality are a notch higher. While regular side events average around 100 participants each, side conferences are held at a scale of about 500 people, and the session lineups are quite impressive. Shimakawa said that although he had anticipated this from the beginning, he can now feel it actually happening. He says there is a lot of content he himself would like to attend.

The list of side events can be viewed on the official IVS website. In addition, all side events are aggregated in "4S (Force)," the system used this time for pass registration and ticket purchases. He says that searching there lets you find all of them without missing any.

The moderator asked whether this level of excitement could really come just from having an impressive lineup of speakers. Shimakawa's answer was that a good event is one where "participants naturally end up on the organizing side." Events with a long lineup of speakers inevitably feel passive from the participant's point of view, tending toward a "we're here to learn" format. IVS wants participants to actively become the ones making things happen, and deliberately designs room for them to take initiative and spaces for self-expression. Shimakawa believes this is one of the major factors behind the excitement.

Compared with other events in Japan, IVS has an overwhelmingly large number of entrepreneur and VC participants. The organizers communicate with them in particular, telling them in advance that they want them to use these mechanisms to make things happen themselves. He says a cycle has formed in which people who find this fun move to the side of making things happen. The plans and initiatives are updated each time, but there is a faint but spreading recognition that "IVS is a place where that kind of thing happens." As a result, even before the event, momentum gradually builds as people prepare, thinking "It's IVS, so I need to do something," and Shimakawa says it has become something everyone builds and energizes together.

The benchmarks Shimakawa cites internally are Comiket and Burning Man in the United States. Comiket is a place where people can present their own works and express themselves. There are mechanisms that allow many people to contribute—including entertaining those around them as cosplayers—and there is an atmosphere of participants enjoying it together. Shimakawa thinks this aspect is close to the philosophy of IVS.

Burning Man is an event held for about a week in the Nevada desert. As Shimakawa explains it, around 50,000 to 100,000 people gather in an empty desert and build a city in one week. The world feels like "Mad Max": participants live in tents and camper vans, and artists create giant artworks. What Shimakawa finds interesting is the rule that during the event, monetary transactions are prohibited in that city, and people live by bartering and sharing. There is a worldview and set of ground rules in which people give each other what they have brought, and a culture emerges from that.

The Nasu edition was themed precisely around Burning Man. The startup industry is often called a "village." So they thought that if they actually made the village real, people might discover good ways of relating to one another, and they gathered participants in Nasu. They spent time together from morning to night, creating a place with no escape. Making communities and villages real is one of the things Shimakawa wants to do.

Shimakawa said that he is sometimes asked whether IVS is a conference or a community, but he thinks of it as an "offline meetup." Most people in the startup world use X. If you go to IVS, you can meet many of the people you always interact with on X, actually meet face to face—"Oh, so that's them"—and go home with promises to do something together next time. He says that is the kind of atmosphere it has.

Another feature of IVS is that the line between organizers and participants is blurry, and many people help out. According to Shimakawa, IVS has only about five full-time employees. Although there are members involved on a contract basis, on event days the staff numbers around 300. From the planning and preparation stages, entrepreneurs, VC members, employees of startup support companies, and others have become established as core members and help out. Trusted members get involved as volunteers, and they become the initial spark that creates the excitement. Shimakawa said that this staff and organizer community may be the biggest source of all.

As for how to enjoy IVS, what Shimakawa recommends most is moving to the side of making things happen, such as by hosting a side event. However, noting that this might be a little difficult at this point, he listed preparations for general participants in chronological order.

First, decide which side events to attend and book them before you go. At the time of recording, about 330 side event applications had already been received, and the organizers were reviewing and approving them one by one. He says there may ultimately be 400 to 500. Because there are so many, it is important to look through them first and register in advance. On the nights of the event, you'll be making the rounds of side events, and many people hop between them, so he suggests booking on the assumption that you'll visit two or three a night.

Next, find people to attend with. IVS runs a campaign in which people post on social media with a hashtag announcing their attendance. When you post, friends raise their hands one after another saying "I'm going too." It is recommended to form a group with those people and exchange information in advance, since you can send each other side event information and discuss where to go. Because a huge amount of content floods in all at once at IVS, Shimakawa described attending as an "information war," and said it is very good to have companions who help each other. When the moderator said it sounds like going to Fuji Rock, Shimakawa agreed, saying that moving around together—going together, grabbing a meal somewhere—is a great approach.

This year's overall theme, as far as can be made out from the subtitles, is "Reshape Japan with Global Minds." The idea is to reexamine Japan's startup industry from a global perspective. According to Shimakawa, the Five-Year Startup Development Plan is entering its second half, and it is time to act with an eye toward what to do in the second half and whether to extend it another five years. In the United States, the situation is fluctuating greatly under the Trump administration, and as the world shifts significantly, where Japan positions itself becomes important. He says the intent of the theme is for key figures in Japan's startup scene to be able to discuss these points.

He says the stages were designed "quite sharply." As theme-specific stages, there are AI, deep tech, and entertainment stages. Entrepreneurs and investors from around the world take the stage on the "Global" stage, while the "Japan" stage deals with regional and local contexts. There are also "Seed" and "Growth" stages, the latter for startups around the IPO stage, so people can choose content according to their own situation and business phase. There are about 280 sessions. Shimakawa recommended looking through them in advance and blocking time on your calendar, since there are bound to be sessions you want to hear. He says that alone will give you the latest information in the startup industry.

As for why the themes were chosen, Shimakawa explained that in addition to AI and deep tech being current trends, they emphasized areas where Japan has the potential to win globally: deep tech in the sense of research and technology, and entertainment, which creates IP. Food and others could also be candidates, but areas like AI are ones IVS has covered in the past, so they strengthened them. When the moderator pointed out that the themes are close to those advocated by the national and local governments, Shimakawa replied that the broad currents and strategies inevitably converge. There is also a structure in which money flows from the government, and capitalist dynamics are at work, so his view is that overall it will probably turn out that way.

The highlight every year is the pitch event "LaunchPad." This time, 15 companies will take the stage. Shimakawa himself says that when he attended as volunteer staff, watching LaunchPad made him feel that startups are interesting. Each presenter has six minutes, and the organizers mentor the presenters on their pitches many times in advance. They put a great deal of effort into refinement, such as "this part is hard to understand, so it's better to explain it this way" or "this order is easier to follow." There are other pitch events in Japan, but Shimakawa said he can confidently say theirs is the highest in quality. He especially wants first-time IVS attendees to see it.

The venue is the main hall, which holds 2,000 people. In the past, entry was sometimes restricted and people couldn't get in, but Shimakawa expects that won't happen this year.

A distinctive feature of LaunchPad is that there is no Q&A time. For that reason, the organizers strongly require that the six-minute pitch leave nothing unclear. He says they tell presenters to make the pitch understandable just from watching it, so that the business model or market potential doesn't fail to come across. That is why, Shimakawa explains, the pitches are easy to follow.

Regarding the previous year's winner (whose name is unclear in the subtitles), Shimakawa praised them for having a sharp philosophy and the quick wit of a true entrepreneur. He thinks what led to the win was that they deliberately did things other presenters rarely do, doing one or two things differently from the others to leave a mark, and carrying it through to the end. He recalled that before going on stage, they had said "it's either win, or not even come close and fail to place," and that they decided to go with that and saw it through. Other presenters plan similar strategies, deciding on their story and presentation by considering their own business, the other presenters, and the lineup of judges.

When asked about memorable episodes, Shimakawa cited reports that arrive later from entrepreneurs who attended. He says he occasionally hears things like "we closed a funding round thanks to IVS" or "we were able to hire a CMO." Shimakawa says running IVS is "brutally hard." Bringing together an enormous amount of content and people and overseeing operations so that no accidents happen is truly difficult. Even so, he goes this far for the sake of entrepreneurs, and when the entrepreneurs he values most report results, it makes him feel it was worth doing.

Speaking from the organizers' side, he also said that because everyone, including the volunteer members, builds it together, the after-party and the moment of having pulled it off together stay with him. As adults, it is hard to make friends, and relationships are usually work connections. He says one of the greatest joys of IVS is that friendships beyond those relationships take root, and members who take part often tell him so too.

Finally, Shimakawa emphasized that, in addition to the rich sessions and pitches, what IVS stands for is having participants "take home tangible benefits." Since most participants are in business, IVS has built various mechanisms into the event to help them maximize results directly tied to their own businesses, such as fundraising, sales, and hiring. He said that as the event approaches, he would like to compile these initiatives and how to use them in Notion or similar and distribute them to participants.

Shimakawa estimates that just learning how to use them in advance and putting them into practice could yield tangible benefits of several million to tens of millions of yen. Rather than getting excited like at a festival and leaving it at that, since people are spending time and money to come, he wants them to take the initiative and take home tangible benefits so they can recoup that investment. He closed by saying, "Make the most of IVS."