CREATIVE COLLISION 2023: The view from event hosts
The fourth edition of CREATIVE COLLISION gathered close to 200 changemakers for a whole day of fun, learning, and discussions on creating shared value in late March. What to bring back in our organisations to drive impact? Hear from our different hosts during the day.
A social experiment to fight the fragmentation
Christie Lai, Co-Founder of 2041 Hong Kong, who traveled to Antarctica as a student and is now an ambassador for climate action, led a social experiment to help changemakers make new connections. She is sharing here her takeaways:
“The icebreaker was designed around breaking stereotypes and building connections with those of similar passion, by introducing different team roles and SDG goals that they are most passionate about. We all agreed that the social innovation space in Hong Kong needs more support and that meaningful partnerships that could be built through this experience are key to pushing the momentum in this field“.
Disruptor Dialogue, leading with purpose
This year, our disrupters – Juliana Lam, Founder & President, INNOTIER and Justin Yeung, Co-Founder, 2041 Hong Kong – touched on different points:
- No failure, only learning: innovation is only possible where company culture allows mistake and failure.
- Reflection or passion? Driving impact requires both of them.
- Sustainability is not expensive if you look at costs that are today supported by society or the environment.
- To build the future leaders’ generation, companies have to trust young professionals, invite them to speak up and innovate, and create the conditions for constructive feedback.
Impact Auction, the highway to scale
Our signature session shed light on 5 impact-driven startups evolving in various industries, from construction to food, including biodiversity, waste, or technology. Shervin Sharghy, Impact Auction 2021 alumnus and founder of EcoBricks, came back this year as a host. He walked us through his successes and challenges since the last Impact Auction. “Money does talk, an impact venture has to make sense financially in order to scale“, Shervin said.
Exec Labs, the power of collective intelligence
The human-centric design workshop, hosted by our strategic partner PALO IT Hong Kong, gathered a mixed team of participants eager to roll their sleeves and come up with ideas for Deloitte Hong Kong, Citi, and bbase Design Group to feed back into their companies.
Fabrice Bayon, Strategy & Impact Director, PALO IT Hong Kong, was impressed by the positive energy: “Participants challenged themselves and were sometimes aligned, sometimes not. This is how collective intelligence works! Teams also found interactions and links between ideas, which was a signal that they were in a systemic thinking mode. When they were challenged by other teams, it was a little bit overwhelming… like if they were in front of stakeholders presenting innovative solutions. Welcome to the real world!“. In the end, each team was able to find solutions and even roadmaps to cope with corporate challenges.
Immersive Tour, dive into the community
Our partner Kaifong Tour curated the Immersive Tour, a walking discovery of Kwun Tong. Luke Tam, Co-founder & Community Engagement Director of Kaifong Tour, says:
“Through facilitated observation, dialogues and activities, the Immersive Tour helped the participants to interact with the Kwun Tong neighbourhood and build empathy towards the local stakeholders. The Immersive Tour demonstrated various forms of cross-sector collaboration projects at Kwun Tong. It also inspired participants to understand that user engagement is a critical factor in successful partnerships. The key to building impactful partnerships is to develop meaningful connections with stakeholders. “
Hack Your Habits track, disruption at your doorstep
Many time travel fictions show how worried humans are about radically changing the present by doing something small in the past. However, only a few of us believe we can radically change the future by doing something small in the present.
Dr. Margaret Burnett, Programme Director for Sustainability Leadership and Governance in the CCSG at The University of Hong Kong, walked the participants through habits, the building blocks of our lifestyle. By deconstructing them to adopt new ones, “it’s the cumulative effect, a lot of small changes is very impactful“.
Mental Well-Being, be well, do well
Krithika Kalyan, Director – Strategic Development, Health (Asia), AXA shared her impression, after moderating the interactive session powered by our Mind Health partner AXA:
“It was my first time at Creative Collision. I was blown away by the amazing energy and passion of the participants. We came away with a lot of great ideas and pertinent insights that are invaluable in crafting solutions for Gen Z and the “Silver-Hair” segment“.
The diversity of participants, who come from different industries and businesses, different age groups, and who have had vastly different experiences, makes CREATIVE COLLISION different from other events, interesting and inclusive. It means that everyone has something to share and something to learn, no matter what their background, student or CEO.
Photos by Vincent Tsoi, We Image Productions
