Exploring the themes One Health, Digital Society, and Smart City, the 2018 CityU Digital Business Innovation Festival organized by the MBA Programme kick-started at a lively opening ceremony on 23rd January. Over 30 industry partners and speakers shared their vision on digital business innovations through a range of activities including an App Innovation Contest, Exhibition, SHARP Forum and Symposium. Some 2000 participants attended the five-day festival.
The opening ceremony featured distinguished guests and industry experts delivering keynote speeches on the festival’s key themes. We were honoured to have Professor Way Kuo, President and University Distinguished Professor of CityU; Dr David Chung Wai-keung, Under Secretary, Innovation and Technology Bureau, HKSAR Government; Mr Herman Lam, Chief Executive Officer, Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company Ltd.; Mr Barry Chan, Partner, Financial Services Sector Leader, IBM Global Business Services; Mr Wilson Wong, Director of Advisory, Deloitte; and Dr Witman Hung, JP, Principal Liaison Officer for Hong Kong, The Shenzhen Qianhai Authority as our speakers.
In his opening address Professor Houmin Yan, Dean of the College of Business, emphasized the importance of collaboration across disciplines. "This is a good platform to bring together expertise from different industries, and to share ideas on how to enhance current systems and improve the well-being of the community. The College of Business is committed to teaching and research, which will hopefully positively impact future society.
Professor Kevin Chiang, Director of the MBA Programme and Festival Chair, said that technology advancement and business innovation are inter-related. "These ideas can eventually bring benefits to society, but we need education to facilitate the knowledge discovery and transmission. Bridging education, technology, and business is a critical step leading to continuous improvement of our well-being, social welfare, and the quality of life. It is to this end that the CityU MBA organizes this festival with the three themes of One Health, Digital Society, and Smart City.”
In search of the next disruptive idea, the App Innovation Contest attracted 138 team entries with creative ideas from across Asia, including Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan as well as Hong Kong. Shortlisted teams promoted their ideas through posters at the festival exhibition, and will present their final apps or pitch-ready prototypes at a pitching session in mid-May.
Participants are expected to benefit by joining iOS coding workshops to learn Swift, an intuitive programming language developed by Apple. Teams will also be able to fine-tune their ideas with industry professionals. And scholarships of up to HK$20,000 are on offer to the winning teams.
The 3-day SHARP Forum highlighted the themes of One Health: Mobile Healthcare, Digital Society: Fintech and InsurTech, and Smart City: Digitalisation in Travel Industry. The forum featured presentations from the Hong Kong Hospital Authority and Hong Kong Tourism Board, and contributions from HSBC, General Electric, PwC, Peach Aviation and Connexus Travel. The forum was organized by MBA students with the support of the supervisors and the MBA Office.
Featuring 15 exhibitors from the digital business industry and university academic units, the 2-day exhibition showcased an array of new ideas, digital solutions and applications, including an interactive live virtual reality (VR) demo, augmented reality apps by JetOne Motion and visual recognition application of mobile devices demonstrated in the Technology Experience Zone. Student projects were exhibited in booths hosted by the CityU Apps Lab, Knowledge Transfer Office and Advanced Intelligent Information Systems Research Centre of CityU.
On the last day of the festival, the symposium was held as a key component of the festival finale. Tech leaders from companies such as MTel, MotherApp, Optix Group, Tofugear, WeFi and WeBank demonstrated how VR, AI, and IoT are provoking substantial breakthroughs, creating new customer experiences, and transforming businesses. Leading corporates, such as Adobe and Hutchsion Telecommunications (Hong Kong) Limited, shared their visions of the future.
2018 CityU Digital Business Innovation Festival opened the lines of communication between business, education and technology sectors. Together with engaged industry partners and festival participants, the festival is creating a much needed platform to accelerate the transmission and transformation of knowledge, and the stimulation and application of innovation.