HONG KONG SAR - Media OutReach - 23 November2020 - The 13th Social Enterprise Summit(SES 2020) concluded successfully today, after three days of strong onlineengagement. COVID-19 not only highlights the value of social innovation itunderscores the value of each and every one in our community.  Increasingly corporations and investors areprioritizing social impact as a core business strategy for growth andsustainable development. Social enterprises instill solid social values andinnovative ideas into the ecosystem while creating changes in the privatesector over time.

This year's call for action "Envision Citizens' InnovationTowards 2030" was announced at the Concluding Session. Participants weregiven a list of words and were asked to select one that best described the kindof society they would like to see in ten years' time. The most frequentlychosen word was "Empower".

At the closing ceremony, Mrs Rebecca CHOY YUNG, Chair of theOrganising Committee of the Social Enterprise Summit said "SES is becoming asocial innovation movement where cross sector change makers gather collectivepower to combat the increasingly unpredictable worldly challenges.  Participants were eager to establish strongernetworks and many resolves to taking action while adopting a long-term vision.".

The concluding session was titled "Yesterday's Heritage;Today's Transformation; Tomorrow's DYNAMIC INNOVATION". It was hosted by TonyHUNG, artist and Founder of Travel Kind (HK), with other speakers including RenWAN, Co-founder of JupYeah (HK), Rap CHAN, Co-founder and Illustrator ofDustykid (HK). They curated the session as a narrative with a script tellingthe story behind various initiatives for social good. Each story spoke of asocial innovator's mission, explained the targeted social impact of their work,and showed how "taking action" could create dynamic changes throughcollective power. Moreover, fivestudent groups shared their award-winning social innovation projects to theaudience.

On Saturday morning, the Asia Youth Entrepreneurship Exchangeopened with a moderated Panel Discussion between six renowned social innovatorsfrom across Asia, namely Anya LIM, Co-Founder and Managing Director of ANTHILLFabric Gallery (Philippines), David CHRISTIAN, Founder and CEO of Evo & Co(Indonesia), John MAK, Co-founder of MM Community (Myanmar), Peter PARK,Founder of Angelswing (Korea), Somsak BOOKAM, Founder and CEO of Local Alike(Thailand), and Yi LUO, Founder of Lao Tu (Mainland China). They were joined bysix young changemakers from Hong Kong, namely Eric CHEUNG, Co-Founder ofDyelicious, Peann TAM, Co-Founder and Business Development Director ofEco-Greenergy, Himphen HUI, Co-founder of Collaction, Lawrence LUI, Co-founderand Executive Director of Longevity Design House, Eva WONG, Co-founder of WEDOGLOBAL, and Tsz Wai LOONG, Chief Executive of the Land Education Foundation.Each local social entrepreneur paired up with a regional counterpart and theydiscussed issues and shared stories across the important areas of rethinkingsustainable fashion and textiles, innovating eco-friendly consumables,promoting civic engagement through community crowdsourcing, developingtechnology for human and urban resilience, building inclusive communitiesthrough cultural tourism, and reimagining urban-rural cultural connections.

The three-day SES 2020 online International Symposiumbrought together over 80 speakers from 15 locations to contribute to thirteenseminars, two thematic sessions, a workshop, a keynote speech, a policydialogue, an exchange session, and a concluding session. Four sub-themes werefeatured in parallel sessions, namely "Community Empowerment","Digital Social Innovation", "Sustainability and Business",and "Education Innovation". Meanwhile, an online social innovationexhibition showcased the latest work and the most recent accomplishments of theSocial Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Fund, including the newbatch of intermediaries, the Food Support Flagship Project, the first"Pay-for-Success" project, etc. A series of short films on socialinnovation and stories about Hong Kong social innovators were also shown tohelp participants learn more about social innovation initiatives. The socialinnovation exhibition is open for one month until 18 December. Register here  https://bit.ly/SES2020Reg to visit the online exhibition.

About Social Enterprise Summit

Social Enterprise Summit (SES) is a cross-sector platform to inspireand empower social innovation and social entrepreneurship. The flagshipInternational Symposium builds on the experiences of over 80 speakers from 15locations to inspire, innovate, connect and collaborate with delegates from thecivic society, businesses, government and academic sectors from Hong Kong,China; Asia Pacific region and beyond to advance positive societal changes.

2020Theme: "new normal · collective power" ︱ 19-21. 11. 2020 ︱ Online ︱

Theturn of the decade 2020 begins with a pandemic affecting people around theworld, raising attention to health and changing the way people work, study,commute or socialise. Everyone in our society will require some shifts to comeout of the current situations. Collective efforts are needed to re-focus onfostering mutually reinforcing solutions, continuous communication towardscommon agendas and making swift decisions based on current data andmeasurement. This International Symposium will examine the process through 4thematic tracks: Community Empowerment, Digital Social Innovation,Sustainability and Business as well as Education Innovation.

Community engagementactivities are held in eight different districts in Hong Kong during the yearto expand the participation and reach beyond the conference rooms, applyingknowledge, social entrepreneurship and innovative mindsets to various day today life settings.

Official Website: https://ses.org.hk

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