At Mercari in Tokyo, the ElevenLabs creative community explored voice, video and music, then took on a hands-on challenge: create a short video addressing career and hiring challenges in Japan.
Participants explored voice, video and music tools, then used ElevenCreative to communicate a career or hiring problem.
Solo builders and teams had 60 minutes to create a short video, with a focus on clarity, relevance and creative execution.
Cognisor AI, Creators Circuit, TIU Impact Next, Mercari and volunteers helped bring the session together.
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The context
I hosted a hands-on creative AI session at Mercari in Tokyo, bringing creators and developers together around career and hiring challenges in Japan. The format moved from tool exploration to a timed build and a community showcase.
Why it matters
The session connected practical AI experimentation with a shared problem and a reason for people to collaborate.
A look at how AI changes career planning, and why Peer Portal connects a career profile, readiness insights, resumes, project evidence and opportunity discovery in one continuing journey.
Key points
Start with career direction and readiness rather than treating every job application as an isolated task.
Connect a career profile with resumes, portfolios and project evidence so preparation has a clear purpose.
Bring opportunity discovery and applications into the same journey, while keeping learning and growth in view.
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The context
This article explores how career planning changes when AI reshapes both the work people do and the evidence employers look for. Peer Portal is the product context: a continuing journey that connects self-understanding, preparation and opportunity.
Why it matters
The central argument is that career support works better as an ongoing process than as a single document or job search.
The first Peer Portal product demo introduces a connected workspace for career direction, AI guidance, resumes, portfolios, job discovery and applications in Japan and beyond.
Key points
Career direction and readiness provide context for the next step in a person’s preparation.
AI guidance, resume work and portfolio evidence sit alongside the discovery of relevant opportunities.
The product brings job discovery and applications into a connected workspace for talent in Japan and beyond.
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The context
The first Peer Portal demonstration presents the product through the questions a person asks while building a career: where do I fit, what should I prepare and what can I apply for next? The emphasis is on how the parts connect.
Why it matters
The demo makes the relationship between career direction, preparation and relevant opportunities easier to understand.
Introducing an AI career platform that connects fit, preparation, applications and growth for emerging talent.
Key points
Introduce the platform through a person’s career needs, from understanding fit to taking action.
Connect preparation tools with job discovery instead of presenting them as unrelated features.
Build on the longer career-opportunity focus that began with Ujjibon in Bangladesh.
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The context
Peer Portal’s launch introduction brings the career platform into public view. It describes a product intended to connect career fit, preparation, applications and longer-term growth for students and emerging talent.
Why it matters
This is the public launch chapter of the product journey, with the original announcement available for context.
An invitation to build autonomous AI systems that can act on real-world challenges, with technical and creative tracks. The published schedule has conflicting dates; check the organizer’s current event page for details.
Key points
Invite builders to focus on practical problems and explain how an autonomous system could address them.
Offer technical and creative tracks so different skills can contribute to the challenge.
Connect the Osaka invitation with the wider Impact Series and its community of builders and mentors.
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The context
The Osaka announcement extends the Impact Series into another Japanese innovation community. Its stated theme is autonomous AI systems that can act on real-world challenges, with room for both technical building and creative communication.
Why it matters
This record preserves the announcement. Refer to the organizer’s event page for the final schedule and results.
A reflection on five years working around careers and opportunity, from Bangladesh to Japan, and the questions students face as AI changes how we learn, apply and work.
Key points
Consider how AI changes learning, applying for roles and the skills people need to demonstrate.
Treat career uncertainty as a product and guidance problem that deserves practical support.
Connect the earlier Ujjibon chapter with the career technology work now expressed through Peer Portal.
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The context
The reflection connects my experience working on careers and youth opportunity in Bangladesh and Japan with the questions students now face around AI. The focus is on preparation, direction and the confidence to take a useful next step.
Why it matters
The reflection explains why career support and readiness are central to the products I build.
Signing off as president of TIU Impact Next after building a student community from the ground up. A reflection on collaboration, university support, startup connections and the people who made it possible.
Founded in April 2024; presidency concluded in August 2026.
Key points
Founded a space for students to find collaborators, develop ideas and connect with mentors.
Combined community leadership with events, a web platform and relationships across the startup ecosystem.
Recognized the students, university supporters and collaborators who made the work possible, then handed on the presidency.
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The context
This handover reflection closes my presidency of TIU Impact Next, the student innovation community I founded at Tokyo International University. It looks back at the relationships and collaborative work that helped students engage with entrepreneurship beyond the classroom.
Why it matters
The lasting contribution is a community and a platform for the next group of student builders.
An invitation from IndustryNect to share the journey of building an AI company, and a reflection on connecting Bangladesh’s talented builders with opportunity, exposure and support.
Key points
Share the path from a creative and community background into AI engineering and entrepreneurship.
Discuss how talented builders benefit from exposure, collaboration and support around their work.
Connect the Bangladesh and Japan chapters of the Cognisor AI journey.
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The context
IndustryNect invited me to share the experience of building an AI company and the importance of connecting Bangladeshi builders with wider opportunities. The post follows the founder journey from an idea into a venture.
Why it matters
The invitation creates a place to discuss the conditions around entrepreneurship as well as the technology itself.
AI Ideathon 2026 brought together learning, building and pitching. A workshop with Feifan Zheng explored taking a hackathon prototype toward a deployable AI product.
Look beyond the demo and consider the work needed to take a prototype into a usable product.
Connect technical learning with feedback from an experienced builder and workshop speaker.
Place the workshop inside a wider ideathon journey of learning, building and pitching.
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The context
The second AI Ideathon workshop featured Feifan Zheng and focused on what comes after an impressive prototype. The session linked the energy of a hackathon with the practical question of developing an AI product people can deploy and use.
Why it matters
A short build can be a starting point for continued product development and better technical decisions.
Thanking Sujan S., Katsutoshi Tabata and Ryuju Saito for supporting emerging AI leaders during AI Ideathon 2026, including a conversation around pitching and investment readiness.
Key points
Give builders an opportunity to consider how they explain the problem, product and next step.
Connect technical experimentation with the expectations around pitching and venture development.
Recognize the people contributing time, perspective and encouragement to the ideathon community.
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The context
During AI Ideathon 2026, the conversation extended from making a prototype to explaining its potential. This post thanks Sujan S., Katsutoshi Tabata and Ryuju Saito for supporting emerging AI leaders around pitching and investment readiness.
Why it matters
The session gave builders another perspective on communicating the value and next steps of their work.
