Nurturing Entrepreneurship

DreamCatchers 2015

DreamCatchers is HKU's newly launched Entrepreneurship series, providing a hub to inspire and nurture innovation and entrepreneurship, with forums, mixers, events, courses, marketplaces, co-workspaces and portal, covering all tech, biz, social, cultural and media spheres. It is cross-sector and inter-generational, for alumni and students with passion and determination to innovate and change the world.

The inaugural event, jointly organized by the Development and Alumni Affairs Office (DAAO), Technology Transfer Office (TTO), Centre of Development and Resources for Students (CEDARS) and Journalism and Media Studies Centre (JMSC),  was held on May 31, 2015, where 67 speakers shared their experience on start-ups. Panel speakers included Mr Leong Cheung (張亮), Executive Director, Charities and Community, The Hong Kong Jockey Club; Mr Jason Chiu (趙子翹), CEO, The Cherrypicks; and Mr Antony Leung (梁錦松), CEO, Nan Fung Group. The keynote in the afternoon was delivered by Mr Pony Ma (馬化騰), Founder, Chairman and CEO of Tencent. The forum was attended by 1,000 delegates.
 

Entrepreneurship Academy

The popular workshop series co-organized by the Technology Transfer Office (TTO) and School of Business since 2010 on entrepreneurship was held from February to April 2015. The eight sessions cover a range of topics that focus on the skills necessary for building your first business for your research innovations:

• Innovation and Entrepreneurship - Turning Ideas into Reality
• The Making of a Business - A Network Perspective
• The 5 Dynamics of Entrepreneurship
• Know How to Count - A Crushed Course in Accounting Basics
• Creating Startup Success - Business Model Design and Entrepreneurial Leadership
• Transforming Technologists into Entrepreneurs Do you have what it takes to become an entrepreneur?
• Entrepreneurs in Action - How to Put Everything Together and Get it Started, with Limited Resources
• Intellectual Property Protection for Creative Ideas, Innovative Inventions and Emerging Technologies

In response to high demand, this was the first time enrollment had been extended to undergraduate students, in addition to postgraduate students and researchers. There was a substantial increase in the number of attendees and over 110 people on average attended each of the ten meetings held. Apart from the workshops, TTO provides support to the participants and alumni to have networking opportunities with early stage entrepreneurs and access to CoCoon, an open co-working space for entrepreneurs.