The first workshop of Entrepreneurship Academy 2016 was presented by Prof. Paul Cheung, Director of Technology Transfer Office. He began the talk by pointing that companies nowadays have difficulties to innovate and the traditional businesses have to face many challenges. The first example he shared is the pebble watch and he showed how a start-up company raises money. He mentioned that the government has placed increasing support on innovation and technology development in Hong Kong. In the 2016 policy address, the Chief Executive announced HK$2 billion fund to support applied mid-stream research; HK$2 billion for Innovation and Technology Venture Fund, HK$500 million for innovation and technology fund for better living and $200 million to support ITC start-ups at Cyberport. Prof. Cheung stressed that development of technology advancement has changed our lives and he used YouTube and Alibaba as the examples to show how the technological advancement has changed the way of doing business. 

In the second part of the workshop, Prof. Cheung explained what is “Entrepreneur” and “Technopreneur” - entrepreneurs who use technology as a driving force to create innovative business. He emphasized the difference between entrepreneurs and managers and only a small number of starting-up companies become successful. He concluded the workshop with the key to be a good innovator and Innovation and Entrepreneurship are inseparable.