On 16 June 2023, the Alumni Affairs Office (AAO), Knowledge Transfer and Entrepreneurship Office (KTEO), and the Industrial Centre (IC) jointly hosted the seminar “Connecting Alumni for Successful PolyVentures”. Having adopted a hybrid mode, the event brought together PolyU start-up founders to share their experiences of utilising comprehensive resources to break through and cultivate market competitiveness on the entrepreneurial journey. It had around 100 in-person and online participants from the PolyU community.
Dr Miranda Lou, Executive Vice President of PolyU, kicked off the seminar by analysing how the University’s unique entrepreneurship ecosystem drives entrepreneurship milestones through resource investment. It plays a key role in leading alumni to achieve their entrepreneurial aspirations as pioneers.
Following Dr Lou’s keynote speech, a panel discussion was moderated by Mr Kelvin Wong, Director of KTEO. The panellists, including the three PolyU start-up founders and Dr Wai Hon-wah, Director of IC, provided valuable insights into the opportunities and challenges of entrepreneurship.
Mr Lam Wun-chi, Co-founder and CEO of Spaceship, shared his unconventional career journey from nursing to logistics. Having emphasised the importance of “trial and error”, he pointed out that there was no certain right way in entrepreneurship. He encouraged alumni to be proactive in experiencing things around them and to strive to respond to challenges swiftly.
Mr Chris Shum, Founder and Chief Financial Officer of Asiabots, focused on business opportunities. He believed that insight into business value was particularly important, and the best solution was always to review everything while doing so. He also expressed his views on the impact of technology on the competitiveness of innovative enterprises.
Mr Declan Leung Chun-hin, Co-founder of Plaper (HK), who embarked on the entrepreneurial journey after joining an innovation and technology competition when he was an undergraduate, specified that successful entrepreneurship required more than just funding, but also good industrial partners and the ability to seize opportunities.
All three alumni panellists expressed their gratitude for PolyU’s entrepreneurial support. The financial resources, hardware facilities and business networks propped up the accomplishment of their ideas and made their entrepreneurial dreams come true. In relation to this, Dr Wai highlighted IC’s latest development and the state-of-the-art equipment available, as well as introduced the “PolyU InnoHub IC Support Program”, which is a membership scheme supporting PolyU start-ups.
In view of PolyU’s commitment to driving innovation and promoting entrepreneurship, AAO will continue to hold events that connect alumni to build a mutually beneficial network. We look forward to joining hands with more and more graduates for the prosperous development of our “PolyU Entrepreneurship Alumni NetworK”.
