Regular Club meeting was held at Regal on October 27. We kicked off the meeting with activity reports from the previous weeks. Most significantly, President Elect Jason helped us to refresh our memories of our participation in End Polio Walkathon and Carnival on October 22.
We then welcomed Dr Laura Lo, an Associate Vice President at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) and Chairman of HK Tech 300 Incubation Subcommittee. She is no stranger to members of our Club; she is not only a good friend and colleague of our Rotarian Fei, but also a good friend and scouting colleague of President Eliza’s brother. She came to talk to us about tech and innovation in Hong Kong, and specifically about HK Tech 300, an entrepreneurship program organized by CityU to encourage young minds to take their first steps to become entrepreneurs. Eligible participants receive some training before applying for HK$100k seed funding. After this initial funding period, eligible participants compete for angel funding, up to HK$1 million. Anyone affiliated with CityU is eligible to enter this program, including the general public who enters into licensing agreements to deploy intellectual property developed by CityU’s academics. Dr Lo admitted that while most of the projects under the program are not destined to become the next Google or Microsoft, the program encourages innovation, builds a local ecosystem connecting scientists, entrepreneurs and funders, and nurtures a pool of future leaders by giving them space to grow, room to fail, and opportunities to flourish. Dr. Lo ended her presentation by inviting Rotarians to become mentors to young entrepreneurs.