PolyU’s second Social Innovation Festival (10DayFest) focused on community involvement in Hong Kong and across Asia, seeking to change the present and enhance the future.
For ten days in October, PolyU’s Jockey Club Innovation Tower played host to activists, innovators and inventors of all kinds. From day-old food to homemade robots, nothing was off-limits at the Social Innovation Festival (10DayFest) held largely in the home of PolyU’s School of Design and Jockey Club Design Institute for Social Innovation (J.C.DISI). Academics, industrial leaders, creative professionals, students and members of the public gathered in the iconic building to exchange ideas and discuss how to apply their creativity to the goal of changing society.
The opening event was officiated by (from left) Mr Leong Cheung, Executive Director, Charities and Community, The Hong Kong Jockey Club; Professor Timothy W. Tong, PolyU President; Mr Wong Kam-sing, Secretary for the Environment; and Dr Joseph Lee, Vice Chairman, The Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Fund.
The theme for this year’s Festival was "Social innovation – Be a practical dreamer", and practicality was certainly the focus first up. At the “Festival Vernissage: Social Gastronomy” event held at the Keith Legg Sports Field on 9 October, J.C.DISI highlighted the issue of food waste, a major problem in developed societies. To show the use to which this unwanted food could be put, 28 teams comprising professional chefs, senior management members of international corporations and members of disadvantaged families joined together to prepare a feast composed entirely of discarded food gathered from local food markets the previous day.
Beyond simply showcasing cooking skills, though, the goal of those gathered was to demonstrate that it is possible to reduce waste while still eating well. Mr Alan Yip, Director of J.C.DISI, said that the event was "exemplary of how we bring together academia, food industry, environmental organizations, social welfare organizations to find innovative solutions to the social issue of food waste".
