One of Asia’s biggest entrepreneurial communities is coming to Montreal.

In under a year, Startup Salad, itself a startup, has become Asia’s biggest startup event organizer with the goal of helping people jumpstart their ideas into startups. They are responsible for events in more than 50 cities to date in China, Thailand, Korea, and more recently the US by way of San Francisco. But they hadn’t organized an event in Canada until now.

Alex Hua, who runs the Asia-Pacific Youth Entrepreneurship Foundation, got in contact with Startup Salad about organizing a Canadian event because he felt the two organizations’ philosophies aligned.

“Our foundation’s mission is actually to create a cross-border entrepreneurial ecosystem for young Canadian entrepreneurs to better understand and explore the potential opportunities across the pacific,” Hua told MTLinTECh. “The significance of organizing this Startup Salad is to provide the top winners the opportunity to get their ideas funded if they win, and also probably win a trip to China. Startup Salad has a very big network with all the top Chinese investors and VCs as well as incubators and accelerators.”

It’s significant because it will be the first time two [startup] organizations across the pacific ocean have collaborated together.

The weekend will start off with open mic pitches, where participants will pitch their ideas to try to recruit others to join their team. Over the next two days, the newly formed teams will focus on validating their ideas with on-site mentors, experienced entrepreneurs and industry experts in the tech field. On Sunday, the teams will present to a panel of judges, experienced investors who will give feedback.

In addition to the 52-hour events in different cities, Startup Salad also organizes a big conference once a year in Shenzhen where their headquarters are located.

“Shenzhen is basically considered to be the Silicon Valley of China with all the big tech companies. That’s why every year they organize a conference there. It could also be a good opportunity for Canadian startups to go and present their ideas.”

Startup Salad Montreal edition will be taking place May 5th-7th, 2017. Follow the event on Facebook for updates on prizes and location.