To nurture up-and-coming start-ups to transform ideas for a smart city into reality, The Community Lab by the Technology Parks (“HKSTP”) and a private entity and Hong Kong Science opened at Lee Garden Five recently. The Community Lab connects start-ups with the resources and business networks to provide more opportunities for start-ups to succeed and to support the Smart City Blueprint.
The Executive Director & Chief Operating Officer, and the Chief Financial Officer & Company Secretary from the investment company; together with the Chief Executive Officer of HKSTP and Chief Corporate Development Officer of HKSTP; officiated at the activation ceremony of The Community Lab this afternoon, joined by 40 guests from across the technology, investment, commercial sectors and governmental bodies.
Adhering to the core values of Smart Living, Smart Economy, Smart Mobility and Smart Sustainability, this partnership, between the leading property group and HKSTP, the city’s largest Innovation & Technology (I&T) flagship, aims to build a solid foundation for the I&T ecosystem to manifest start-up potential and business opportunities and empower the Smart City Blueprint of Hong Kong.
As a business incubator in one of Asia’s largest technology innovation ecosystems, HKSTP functions as an innovation powerhouse with its tremendous pool of start-ups; whilst the property firm, with its extensive real estate and retail assets in the Lee Gardens Area, provides an unparalleled testing ground and wide-ranging audience for HKSTP’s tech ventures to test-drive their concepts authentically in the heart of Hong Kong.
The Last-mile Testing Programme (“LMTP”) is the backbone of The Community Lab that offers tech ventures with the ideal real-world environment to put innovations to the test. Potential start-ups for the programme will undergo a well-thought-out selection procedure. The Community Lab provides steadfast support at every stage of their development journey – from examining the proof of concept to launching the pioneering solutions in A fully operational testing ground.
The Executive Director & Chief Operating Officer of the property investment, management and development company stated that they are committed to being one step ahead of others and becoming the testbed for any relevant innovative solutions from HKSTP.
The firm aims to help the start-ups become successful businesses by sharing its own business experiences and its environment for those start-ups to place their application and business cases. After all, their shared vision is to create a smarter living environment for their community, the CEO added.
Meanwhile, the Chief Executive Officer of HKSTP noted that the partnership with the property firm is another exciting demonstration of HKSTP’s ongoing mission to collaborate with industry leaders to accelerate impactful innovation from local and global start-ups.
He noted that the partnering company, as a committed leader in the innovation landscape, adds industry expertise and domain knowledge to the Park’s growing I&T ecosystem. The newly established Community Lab initiative provides an ideal platform to help start-ups succeed, from proof of concept into pioneering solutions fully tested in a real-world environment and uncover a new wave of smart city innovations.
In the future, the Community Lab will host a diverse programme of tech talks, sharing sessions, workshops, proof-of-concept demonstrations and the pitching stage.
