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Toa Charm

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(Hong Kong) Finspire – Made History for HK’s Online FinTech Hackathon

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Finspire Hackathon, a fully-online Hackathon, made history for Hong Kong FinTech ecosystem today. It was probably the largest online FinTech hackathon in Hong Kong. “Finspire Hackathon.  We HackForTheFuture”. Hundreds of students and entrepreneurs have actively participated in the Hackathon. Glad to see quite a few CUPP alumni there as well.  3 winners were born today with great FinTech inspirations as what the name of the program is Finspire. Congratulations to the winners and all the participating teams.

This hackathon was held under the cloud of the Coronavirus situation in Hong Kong.  It was encouraging to see that our entrepreneurial spirit did not burn out and continues to shine.  Thank you so much for the organizing team, especially Bobo Wong Tony Chan from Convoy, Harris Chan from Cobo Academy and Thomas Huang from Happyer, for such a great effort and heart to keep our FinTech Ecosystem going.

I am grateful to join Charles Lam, Charleston Sin, Almond Wong, Joseph Chan, Henry Li, Patrick Ho, and Venus Chiu as the judging panel.  Appreciate Convoy Cyberport Microsoft MIT Innovation Node, Happyer, and Cobo Academy for their leadership.

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(Hong Kong) It’s an Urgency to Reskill Everyone with Data Literacy in the Digital Economy

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Many of the offline classes & forums have been canceled or postponed due to the Cornavirus outbreak. Fortunately, technology can keep learning as usual. A group of big data experts has made use of technology to share their experience online on the topic of BigDataLiteracy in the DigitalEconomy.

HKPC together with OpenCertHub organized an online forum on the topic “The Most Wanted Data Technology Talent”. In this decade, AI & Big Data skill will be a necessity for everyone, not just IT & data scientists. We need IQ, EQ & now DQ in order to compete and survive. DQ stands for DataQuotient or DataLiteracy. Every business leader and executive needs to boost their DQ in order to be able to create data-driven business models and monetize their data. It is a common language like English that we use it for our business worldwide. Please refer to my previous article for more. https://lnkd.in/fwqbUff

Reskilling everyone of us to be a CitizenDataScientist has become an urgency in this decade no matter what industry & what position we are in now. Hundreds of audiences from a diverse background has joined the online forum. Glad that they have started aware of this urgency.

Thanks Patrick Tsoi , Daniel Yuen, Andy Kwok, HKPC Edmond Lai, Karen Fung, Desmond Chan, & the audiences joined the forum.

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(KL, Malaysia) Start-ups Momentum Continues under the Coronavirus Outbreak

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I was staying in the 1st 5 stars hotel in Malaysia, Federal Kuala Lumpur, last week while Malaysia had some major changes in political leadership at the same time. However, the start-ups ecosystem there is still growing rapidly.

I have been bringing Hong Kong as well as #GreaterBayArea startups to the rapidly growing ASEAN through Malaysia. More enterprises are open up their doors for startups. In addition, investors from VC & CVC are heating up. The Central bank is preparing to grant a few VirtualBank licenses soon. And more FinTech FinancialInclusion.

Attractive hackathons are coming to KL. Here is a great one for you. All startups worldwide are welcome. The application deadline is March 31, 2020. The City Architecture for Tomorrow Challenge CATCH is organised by Toyota Mobility Foundation and co-developed by Deloitte Future of Mobility Solution Centre, to drive intelligent data-driven, connected solutions towards more efficient, innovative, secure & sustainable cities.  BigData AI SmartCity.

Thanks for MDEC leadership & support. https://www.tmf-catch.org/ https://lnkd.in/fiEnv-z Let me know if you want to know more how to get into this attractive Tech market in SE Asia. There are good opportunities for startups, investors & enterprises. Cheers.

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Traditional Companies Competing in the Digital Economy with Big Data & AI

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Traditional companies can compete well in the DigitalEconomy if they can reskill & empower their employees with BigData capabilities & DataLiteracy.  Adsale, a leading exhibition services company in Asia, is a great example.

My team & I have conducted a 2 days big data workshop to Adsale’s 60+ employees from top to middle mgt, from sales to ops. The learning culture of Adsale is what I admired the most. A traditional company has the practice to keep innovating & learning every year, from DesignThinking, to BigData & AI. Big Data is an enabler but an innovative culture is the key for any big data project success. In today’s digital era, every company needs to be DataDriven & every employee needs to be CitizenDataScientist in order to have the right to compete.

We talked about the core concepts, applications, monetization, platform, cases, implementation, challenge, org issues, prioritization, governance & more. I also invited big data startups LivelyImpact ClareAI Luna2 Radica to share their innovations & IT veteran Andrew Ling to share his experience as CIO of several major traditional companies. All these discussions were fruitful & practical.

Thanks to all guests, Adsale’s mgt & their teammates, my partner Ivan Ng for their active participation.

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My Top Ten Linkedin Posts in 2019

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The year of 2019 has only a few days left. I would like to thank all of the contributors to the innovation & technology industry in HongKong, Macau, mainland China especially GBA and Asia especially SEA in 2019. Together, we have made Asia as one of the most empowering platforms for local and international startups to grow & one of the most valuable sources for enterprises & investors to look for innovation and investment opportunities in the world.

Here are my 2019 top ten posts in LinkedIn. Really appreciate to all involved for your trust & support to me. CUHK AILAB AEF HKX IBM SIEMENS HKIB Cyberport HKSTP ASTRI INVESTHK GS1HK HKPC HKMA FHKI HSBC HKT MDEC ADAX DEPA INNOSPACE PingAn MasterCard Convoy TownGas NewWorld JardineRestaurant JOBMARKET MTRC CCB ChowTaiFook ADSALE ITB OGCIO FSTB IFTA AMTD Deloitte KPMG ACCA HKICPA 6BIZ KORNERSTONE TRAINOCATE Tencent AliPayHK HKTDC Booth Polsky DnB OpenCertHub Raspect Posify Quikec CityU HKUST UChicago CMU LivelyImpact, Macau’s MUST UMAC MCityU IFS AMCM & the list goes on.

Let’s ride on the great momentum that we have created in 2019 & grow it even more in 2020. In the meantime, wish you have a Merry Christmas & a happy, successful & safe year in 2020. Cheers.

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Do You Want to Start a Successful & Impactful Tech Venture?

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Two world-leading universities, Chinese University of HK CUHK & University of Chicago, joined hands to empower tech entrepreneurs researchers scientists startups students to launch their ventures through a 8-week long  DeepTechVentureLaunch program in HK.

The program organizer, CUHK Business School & UniversityofChicago Polsky Centre have been receiving great support from the innovation & technology ecosystem in HK. Thanks to our strategic partners HKSTP   Albert Wong,  #Cyberport Peter Yan,  #Alibaba  AEF Cindy Chow & ChicagoBooth Angels Network Brian Tsui; Tech Mentorship Partner ASTRI Hugh Chow; Industry Mentorship Partner FHKI StartupCouncil Jason Chiu; Tech Partner AWS Ahim Kho; & supporting orgs.

Apart from classes taught by top professors & industry leaders, we have the leading tech entrepreneurs from HK Jason ChiuCherryPicks, OneDegree, Stanley Sy Sanomics, Tim Lee QFPAY to be our head coaches, together with experienced coaches/mentors, to guide our program participants. Appreciate all their support.

The program is now OPEN for application. FinTech BioTech AI Robotics IoT and all TECH are welcome. Do u want to launch a successful & impactful tech venture? Don’t miss this chance.

Webpage https://lnkd.in/favfW7T

Leaflet https://lnkd.in/fNwNVfQ

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Hong Kong FinTech Startups Shine in HK ETNET FinTech Awards

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ETNET FinTech Awards 2019 was done beautifully in the Hong Kong Exchanges HKEX Connect Hall on Jan 17, 2020. A new breed of Hong Kong FinTech stars were born. As one of the judges for this Awards, I would like to congratulate to all the winners and participants.

Big thank to FS Paul Chan ETNET See Salome Ada Chow Cyberport Peter Yan Eric Chan Charles Lam Queenie Chang HKSTP George Tee, Charles Mok Deloitte Peter Koo FCPA,CA,AICPA,CPA (Aust),CIA,CFE,CISA,CISM,CGEIT PWC Dick Fong KPMG Anson Bailey (eMBA) EY Peter Chan InvestHK King Leung Vincent So Maaike Steinebach and many other FinTech Ecosystem enablers to make it happened.

We now have over 600 FinTech startups in HK and raised over US$1 billion which is higher than many countries and cities in Asia. Proud of you all. Keep it going. Covergo Wesurance Wizpresso FundPark Pecutus Transwap HeyCoins EarthChannel PolyDigi IxFinTech Portfo Prive Quantifeed & incumbent winners like HSBC BOC DBS HangSengBank. Keep it up teams:Victor Yip, Benjamin Wong, Eddie RONG, Adam Lau ,Wai Kong Wong, Curtis Chan, Irene OL Wong (黃愛玲), Anson Suen, Eddie Chang, Natalie Fong, Calvin Cheng, CFA, Daniel Chan, Jaff Lau, Ada LAM, Winny So, Noel Yick & more.

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Winning Tips for 2020 HKICT Awards’ Participants (also other key startup competitions)

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300+ participants of HKICTAwards 2020 joined a briefing session organized by OGCIO &  HKPC. Competition judges & award winners have shared their experience. Thanks Sunny Lee Kingsley Wong Agnes Mak & Dr. Chris Leung.

Almost 50%  participants are their first time joining HKICT Awards. The speakers’ sharings were very useful to them. I am the Chief Judge of the FinTech Award & have experience in hundreds of worldwide competitions. Let me share some thoughts here.

My key messages are:

1. Mindset: The participants are all winners already as this process will facilitate them to learn from the judges, participants, etc.

2. Critical Thinking: Get someone outside your comfort zone to challenge you. If you’re a corp, get startups & investors to critically review yours & vice versa.

3. Hockey Stick: BusinessModel solving a big pain point with scalability & explosiveness as a hockey stick

4. Team Mix: Do u have a good mix of domain, biz mind, entrepreneur, technologist, finance expert in your team?

5. WoW: Do u have a WoW in your innovation? How unique is it?

6. KYJ: Know Your Judges. Different judges have different appetites. Predict what they ask.

Then, Practise & Rehearse more. Join local, mainland & international hackathon accelerator pitching to learn more.

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Hong Kong FinTech Startups Shine in 2020 Asian Financial Forum (AFF)

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AFF2020 AsianFinancialForum in Hong Kong was powered by lots of FinTech this year. Recalled that AFF had not much on FinTech 4 years ago. Our Cyberport team working with HKTDC made this happened. We are so grateful that FinTech is now a core part of the AFF every year.

More importantly, a number of FinTech startups started 4 years ago & now they became key players in the financial services industry. Covergo  Wesurance  InsurTech Farseer FinancialIntelligence Transwap Remittance HeyCoins DigitalCash EarthChannel RegTech DigitalTransaction Blockchain PolyDigi CyberSecurity IxFinTech WealthTech NexChange Platform Gini Neat GekkoLab & more.  Keep it up teams Tomas Holub Stanley King Lun Chan Benjamin Wong Eddie RONG Adam Lau Wai Kong Wong Ian Huang Curtis Chan Irene OL Wong (黃愛玲) Juwan Lee Natalie Fong & more.

Thanks for Cyberport Chairman Dr. George Lam, CEO Peter Yan FinTech Head Charles Lam have been giving lots of support to the FinTech ecosystem in HK. From >50 FinTech startups 4 years ago, Cyberport has nearly 400 now & a few more hundreds around in HK. A few are Unicorns already such as WeLab TNG. Thanks to InvestHK King Leung, HKMA Nelson Chow, HKSTP George Tee, DIT Ivan Yip & more.

More can be found here https://lnkd.in/ffPv7cg

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(Shanghai) Expand Your Big Data Innovations to Shanghai, China

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For AI and BigData startups, here is a great opportunity for you to further strengthen your innovations and fit them and expand into mainland China.

B4B Challenge 2020 B4BChallenge, a competition-cum-training program organised by B4B Limited to connect industries with start-ups and talents through an intensive 6-week mentorship program headed by Big Data gurus Herbert Chia and Dr. CHARM Toa. The finalists will be able to join an intensive Energiser Week in Shanghai, learn from the experts and enterprises there, and potentially find customers and partners for biz in China and Asia.

B4B Challenge 2020 is the 4th consecutive year of the competition. This year, under the theme of X-Ecosystem Digitisation, we will recruit from the cream of the cream i.e. the best AI and big startups in the region.

Apply now at: https://lnkd.in/fMGYNcP

For details, please visit www.b4bchallenge.com and https://lnkd.in/fwGBiir

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