The 12th Social Enterprise Summit is remarkably held with the theme “Designing for Happiness”

HONG KONG, CHINA
-�Media OutReach - 26
November 2019 - An unconventional all-inclusive grand opening of the 12th
Social Enterprise Summit (SES 2019) was held on 21 November, 2019 at the Hong
Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. The three-day international symposium has
successfully hosted dialogues with over 80 respected social innovation leaders
from 16 countries and regions on 4 main discussion tracks, namely “Designing
Happy Business”, “Designing Good Finance”, “Designing for Social Inclusion” and
“Collaborating for Happiness”.

Rebecca CHOY YUNG, Chair of the Organising Committee of
Social Enterprise Summit (Front row, left 4) and the officiating guests
uplifted colourful balls that represented happiness during the grand opening of
the 12th Social Enterprise Summit.

“Our goal is to formulate effective
strategies contributing to people’s well-being and social advancement through
social innovation designs that are practical, scalable and sustainable”, said
Rebecca CHOY YUNG, Chair of the SES Organising Committee formed by 20
organisations from multiple sectors across the civic societies. “Happiness is
not a feeling, it symbolises the embrace of new mind-set, patience and
perseverance to overcome challenges living in today’s context with happiness as
the universal goal”, added Mrs. Yung.

Thematic session One
on the opening day, “The Case of CSV: Turning the Pain Points of Stakeholders
into Business and Growth Opportunities”, has released the initial findings from
the latest research on case studies of local and overseas business. This session
invited Louise PULFORD, Executive Director of SIX (Social Innovation Exchange)
from the UK as one of the panel speakers, and Ada WONG, Chairperson of MaD
(Make a Different) and Convenor of GoodLab Foundation, to respond to the panel
discussion.

“Overcoming
Challenges with Cross-sector Wisdom”, the second thematic session of the opening
day, has set out a longer-term vision for social innovators to re-imagine and
re-connect on civic agenda to seek ideas and solutions that will reduce
divisions and embrace diversity and inclusion. The discussion was led by
Francis NGAI, Founder of Social Ventures Hong Kong with panellists from
different sectors and audience participations.

Day Two of the
international symposium included stimulating parallel sessions over 4 discussion
tracks, namely “Designing Happy Business” — examining business mission, models
and eco-systems; “Designing Good Finance” — looking into SDG goals, social
finance and game changing financial models; “Designing for Social Inclusion” —
diving into the world of People of Difference, ReWirement and New Inclusive
Power; “Collaborating for Happiness” — taking on the wider perspectives of
unlocking talents, technology driven social innovations and an Academic Forum
on Platform Co-operativisim in the age of Industrial Revolution 4.0.

On the last day, the
well-attended Asian-wide Young Entrepreneurs Roundtable with two workshops have
marked a satisfactory “Happy Saturday” of the international symposium. This year’s symposium was
concluded with an interactive session titled “Young Social Innovators
Showcase”, which saw six successful young social innovators, including Louisa
MAK, former Miss Hong Kong and Non-Executive Director of Adventurous Global
Schools; Danny WANG, Founding Chairman of Adventurous Global Schools Charity
and Founder and Managing Director of Full Circle Education Group; Judy KONG,
Chief Executive of InspiringHK Sports Foundation; Herman CHAN, Co-Founder of
Eldpathy; Eddie RONG, Co-Founder of HEYCOINS; and Andrew TSUI, Co-Founder of
Rooftop Republic, came together to share their own successful experiences and
journeys.

Interactions between
speakers and delegates occurred throughout SES 2019 including a polling on “My
Future Agenda for Hong Kong” on Day One. “The poll result showed that ‘rebuild
trust between people/sectors’ is the top 1 future agenda for Hong Kong; ‘more
people participation in formulating policies to shape the future of Hong Kong’
is the second; ‘preserve Hong Kong’s global status, identity and connection’ is
the third” said Rebecca CHOY YUNG, Chair of the Organising Committee of Social
Enterprise Summit. “The lively discussions in the past three days represent a
real shot in the arms for the development of social enterprises and plausible
advancement of some of the social initiatives. I sincerely hope that the
society and emerging social innovators will be able to uphold the theme of this
year — Designing for Happiness”, added Mrs Yung.

In addition, Prof
Erwin HUANG, Member of the Organising Committee of Social Enterprise Summit,
led a “My Happy Action” pledge with all the participants during the closing
ceremony, to encourage them and their networks to commit to a Happy Action for
the people around them, to pass on the ideas gained from SES and spread
happiness and kindness to the community.

About Social Enterprise Summit

Social Enterprise
Summit (SES) is a cross-sector platform on social innovation and social
entrepreneurship. The flagship International Symposium builds on the
experiences of over 80 speakers from 16 locations to inspire, innovate, connect
and collaborate with delegates from the civic society, businesses, governments
and academic sectors from Hong Kong, China, the Asia Pacific region and beyond
to advance positive societal changes.

2019 Theme: “Designing for Happiness”

The thread of
seamless cross-sector collaborations and initiatives focus on the adoption of
design thinking approaches to create a happier society for all. The
International Symposium will examine the subject through 4 lenses: Designing
Happy Business, Designing Good Finance, Designing for Social Inclusion and
Collaborating for Happiness.

Community engagement
activities are held in seven different districts including Central and Western
Distrcit, Kwai Tsing, Kwun Tong, Sham Shui Po, Southern District, Wong Tai Sin
and Yuen Long in Hong Kong during the year to expand the participation beyond
the conference rooms.

Official Website:
http://www.ses.org.hk

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/SocialEnterpriseSummit/

Linkedin:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/sesummit/

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/ses_socialinnovation/