Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HKPU) was the location for a new Asia Pacific-wide initiative entitled EngNow: 360 degree Leadership Training held in September in Hong Kong.
Held over four days, this exciting event consisted of:
- An inter-Region Speak Out for Engineering (SOFE) competition
- A design competition for university student showcasing prototypes for solutions for the visually impaired
- A Young Leadership Conference where esteemed members of the worldwide engineering and entrepreneurial community took part in forums, lectures and debates on leadership for today’s developing engineering generation.
EngNow was hosted by Institution of Mechanical Engineers North East Asia Region (NEAR), and jointly organised by South East Asia Region (SEAR), Southern Asia Region (SAR), Oceania Region (OR), the British Consulate-General, and Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HKPU).
EngNow was launched during a ceremony at the British Consulate General, attended by Paul Lynch, Deputy Head of Mission and throughout the four days the event featured an impressive community of senior executives and business leaders from around the world.
The event also attracted accomplished academics and young members, who came together to discuss and promote the values and challenges of leadership and the developing roles of world-class engineers.
Institution Fellow Professor Stuart Cameron MBE, Chair of the EngNow Steering Committee, says that the young engineers who attended benefited enormously through involvement with their peers, as well as with high profile engineering leaders.
“The Hong Kong event was very successful, mainly due to the hard work of our volunteers in the region, together with the significant involvement by local companies both as sponsors and as speakers in the event itself. We plan to hold EngNow on a biennial basis,” he explains.
The EngNow concept was born 18 months ago and, naturally, there were a number of organisational issues to deal with. Stuart is clearly immensely proud of the achievements of all involved.
“The greatest challenge,” he says, “was the overall co-ordination in terms of location, speakers and sponsors. In this, the Operating Committee did a fantastic job. Special thanks go to our Young Members, who worked tirelessly over the entire event as guides and compares, meeting the needs of the guest speakers, and carrying out numerous other responsibilities. Had a professional organisation run the conference, I believe they would not have come anywhere close to the high quality event we achieved.”
EngNow Programme Champion and Institution of Mechanical Engineers NEAR Chair, WK Chow, discusses some of the aims of the conference, and his feelings about the event’s success and potential impact.
“Our intent was to make the Young Leadership Conference unique. We came up with the idea of doing a 360 degree leadership survey from three distinct groups. These were: developing engineers, industry captains, and big corporations. The results of this helped us shape the content of the conference. Through this the younger participants were able to learn, discuss and interact with outstanding engineering professionals, successful entrepreneurs and business people, to help develop their ability to think innovatively and creatively.”
WK continues:
“The conference outcomes far exceeded my expectations. I was totally gripped by the candid interactions between panellists and delegates at each forum. Based on the positive feedback collected at the Gala Dinner (which took place at the close of the event) and complimentary emails received thus far, it appears that we have successfully portrayed the Institution as the cradle for future engineering leaders, setting attendees on course to pursue their career goals.”
Speak Out for Engineering (SOFE)
EngNow featured this day-long competition on 14th September, which was aimed at Affiliate and Associate members of the Institution.
Open to all Young Members (that is, Affiliate, Associate and those who have been professionally registered for ten years of less), Speak Out for Engineering tests participants’ ability to communicate mechanical engineering subjects effectively.
Competitors give a 20 minute oral presentation on a subject relating to mechanical engineering, followed by 10 minutes for discussion and questions from a panel of judges.
As Teddy Chan, who organised the EngNow SOFE competition explains:
“The EngNow SOFE contestants were all the winners from their respective regions from North East Asia, South East Asia, Southern Asia and Oceania. Each delivered an extraordinarily high quality of presentation, and handled questions from the panel of judges extremely well. The panel included Mr Edmund Leung SBS OBE JP past Chair of the Institution’s Hong Kong Branch, and Ms Eva Kwong, Executive Director of Human Resources, West Kowloon Cultural District Authority. The five judges had quite a challenge to decide the winners and finally announced two champions and one runner-up. It’s safe to say that the judges, contestants and audience all gained a great deal from participating in this important competition.”
Design Competition: ‘Transforming Lives’
This competition, which took place on 15th September, invited entrants to use their talent and creative thinking to produce a prototype for an innovative solution to problems faced by people with moderate or severe visual impairment, or blindness.
Eleven teams from across the Asia Pacific Regions submitted their prototypes, which ranged from a text-to-Braille reading glove, to a liquid-level indicator on a cup, to a multi-purpose walking stick with in-built GPS.
NaviSense, a navigational system for visually impaired and blind people, emerged as the champion. The team behind this came from University Teknologi Mara, in Malaysia.
The two runners up came from Chitkara University and Delhi Technological University, while the winner of ‘most popular design’ was for a prototype of a bag that housed a separate compartment specifically for a white cane) created by a team from Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Members of the Hong Kong Society for the Blind were invited to the competition to test out each working prototype.
Young Leadership Conference
On 16th and 17th September, the EngNow Young Leadership Conference took place in the Chen Studio Theatre and the Jockey Club Auditorium, both within the HKPU.
A series of speeches, lectures and chaired forums took place, many of them featuring groups of eminent leaders from a range of business backgrounds and engineering sectors, as well as dignitaries from academia and accomplished Young Member representatives.
The sessions that took place included ‘View for Leaders: How Different and How Common We Are’, chaired by Ir Edmund Leung, Chief Officer, KCRC, and past Chair of the Institution’s Hong Kong Branch. In this the vastly experienced panel discussed the salient characteristics and qualities of a leader, locally and internationally.
Another popular forum was ‘Future Engineering Leaders – What Does it Mean?’ chaired by Professor Po-Chi Wu. The panellists in this forum represented the diversity of young leaders who are already making a difference, shaping the future of engineering to improve our world.
The EngNow conference was closed with a short presentation by Professor Alan Lau, EngNow Programme Manager, followed by an extravagant and well-attended gala dinner.
During the gaga dinner the keynote speech was given by Carrie Lam, Chief Secretary for Administration for the Hong Kong Government. Guests also enjoyed a highly skilled lion dancing performance and a traditional Chinese orchestra and drum performance: a fitting end to four days of stimulating debates and competition.
In conclusion, the Institution would like to thank the leaders, eminent businesspeople and professional experts, as well as the many sponsors, who helped to make this event such a great success.
As for future plans to hold a repeat event, Stuart Cameron comments:
“The main criteria for deciding the location for the 2015 event, at the next International Strategy Board, are that: the event can again feature a combination of SOFE, a design competition and a Young Leadership Conference; there is a cluster of young members; good contacts exist with local industry for sponsors and discussion panel members; there is an international airport hub.”
For more information on the EngNow competition, please visit the EngNow pages on Near You.
If you’re interested in the SOFE competition, please visit our SOFE information pages online.
Interested in the activities that our international volunteer network runs? Our Near You pages will tell you everything you need to know.
