HONG KONG,CHINA - Media OutReach - 19 September 2018 - To recognise the remarkable achievements of locallicensing and creative industries practitioners, the Asian LicensingAssociation (ALA) organizes the Hong Kong Licensing Awards 2018 under thesponsorship of Create Hong Kong (CreateHK) of the Government of the Hong KongSpecial Administrative Region. The Launching Ceremony cum Licensing forCreative Industries Seminar was held today (Monday) at Regal Kowloon Hotel toannounce the details. 

ALA is honoured to have Ms. FionaLam, Assistant Head of CreateHK as the Guest-of-honour of today's launching ceremony. Otherofficiating guests are Dr. Toby CHAN, Founding Chairman of ALA, Mr. DannyCHEUNG, Chairman of ALA and board members of ALA. They jointly officiated at aceremony to officially kick start HKLA 2018. .

The Licensing for CreativeIndustries Seminar was held immediately after the launching ceremony, with Mr.William Shum, Founder and CEO of Memorigin, Mr. Quentin Wong, General Managerof Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group Limited, and Mr. Li Xiao Hong, Vice GeneralManager of Fantawild Animation, as the guest speakers.  They shared their experiences in the licensingbusinesses in Hong Kong and the Mainland.

Ms. Fiona Lam, Assistant Head ofCreateHK expressed her gratitude towards ALA at the launching ceremony fororganising HKLA again. She also said that the strong collaboration between thecreative industries, which have become one of the powerhouses of Hong Kong's economy, and the licensingindustry, which has resourceful players in the local market, promises much roomfor both industries' furtherdevelopment.

Dr. Toby CHAN, Founding Chairman ofALA spoke on the same occasion that the economic benefits brought by thelicensing industry has becoming more and more significant. He was grateful thatthe licensing industry was able (to attain more recognition from the society inrecent years.  He also expressed that "we would like to let more peopleknow more about what licensing is and how licensing industry could bringeconomic benefits to the society."

Mr. Danny CHEUNG, Chairman of ALA,introduced at the launching ceremony the five awards of HKLA 2018, and the newtraining programs on licensing, which are added in this edition with thefunding support from CreateHK. He said the new training programs are dedicatedto helping the licensing practitioners grasp the latest information.

"The two training programs to be heldon 17 and 20 September 2018 will introduce the design of a style guide and thesales pitching techniques for licensing, the mastery of which is almost aprerequisite for our industry members in their daily licensing work. We invitespecialists in these two topics as tutors to teach the participants in thetraining programs for the latter to skillfully apply the style guide and salespitching techniques for licensing," said Mr. Cheung."

HKLA 2018 has five awards, namelythe Best Property Award, the Best Licensee Award, the Best Promotion CampaignAward, the Best Young Property Award, and the Best New Character Design forLicensing Award.

For the top five finalists of thisedition's Best NewCharacter Design for Licensing Award, the organizer will produce free productsamples and figurines for their original characters for displaying at the HongKong International Licensing Show 2019 (Licensing Show). The organizer willfurther produce a mascot for the Gold award character for taking part in theMascot Parade of the Licensing Show.

As for the other four awardcategories, the entries of their Gold and Merit Award winners will not only bedisplayed at the Licensing Show, but also at the HKTDC Design Gallery at theHong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Application for HKLA 2018 is opentill 10 October 2018. The award presentation ceremony will be held on 8 January2019.

For further information on HKLA 2018and download of the application forms, please visit: https://www.hklicensingawards.hk.