People & Purpose Theatre

Community Making: Creating a Culture for Social and Economic Value Creation

Day 2 : 15:50 – 16:40

What if communities can be creatively made, not just places? As “software” takes centre stage in urban development, how can local stakeholders work together to create more vibrant and inclusive neighbourhoods? This panel will take reference from Hong Kong’s evolving Sham Shui Po and Kwun Tong districts and explore the role businesses can play to catalyse and quantify social impact in the heartlands of their operations.

Learnings

  • How Community making acts as a complementary approach to placemaking to respond to neighbourhood-specific development needs and challenges
  • What are the possible ways to measure and showcase the extent to which the community making efforts have been successful from the lens of district economy
  • Can a “balanced scorecard” be designed to reimagine how urban renewal and town planning can rejuvenate communities

Post-event Actions

  • Personal reflection: what should your relationship with your neighbourhood look like? Are you aware of the existing community networks or resources within your neighbourhood and how can we make the best use of them?
  • Organization reflection: how can a place-based approach be applied as a sustainable business strategy to rejuvenate a neighbourhood?

Speakers

Florence Cheng

Head of Impact Strategy / Co-Founder

​​Florence Cheng is the Head of Impact Strategy at Social Ventures Hong Kong (SVhk) and Co-Founder of COSMOS, its corporate impact consultancy arm. She is an experienced social leader dedicated to driving business and community partnerships, including the Community Resilience Fund (award-winning bridging loan facility for social enterprises) and Business with Purpose (an impact movement to advance businesses as a force for good).

 

Adam Heuman

Vice President, Global Development & Communications

Adam is the Vice President of Global Development and Communications for EMpower, a foundation that partners with local organisations to enable marginalised young people to transform their lives and communities. He brings over 20 years of experience working in international development, including on education, livelihoods, and health. Adam is passionate about shifting power, resources, and decision-making towards locally led organisations and young communities.

He is a reformed MBA, who left behind a previous specialisation in change management and work with consultancies such as McKinsey & Co.

My Sustainability Goals for 2023:

I hope to raise the profile of local organisations in Asia who are providing solutions for marginalised young people.

Samuel Kwong

General Manager – ESG

Samuel KWONG is the General Manager – ESG of Chinachem Group with over 25 years of experience in sustainability with multinational conglomerates covering businesses including sports & entertainment, food & beverages, aviation, hospitality, real estate, retail, shipping & infrastructure developments. He is a director of HKIQEP, past Chairman of CIWEM HK & former director of HKGBC & HKBEC. Sam is an engineer by training with bachelor and master degrees from The University of Hong Kong and a master degree of environmental engineering from ENTPE, France, MBA degree from the Chinese University Hong Kong and a degree of laws from the University of London.

Karen Lee

Project Manager I (Spatial)

Karen is a chartered town planner and project manager specialising in urban integration and city management strategies. Before joining JCDISI she was the technical manager for the Elizabeth Line project in the UK and the Walk DVRC project HK.

Karen’s keen interest in human-centric design sees her leading a number of participatory co-design projects focusing on design for well-being and creating shared value through cross-sector collaborations, including Transitional Social Housing, reinventing open space through the Intergenerational Play Space design concept, health and wellbeing of children living in Subdivided Unit, community planning for an age-friendly community and transformation of the Residential Child Care Services with NGOs. She has a Masters in Urban Regeneration, Masters in Public Administration and PgD in Innovation and Design Thinking.

My Sustainability Goals for 2023:

The discussion on ESG to move beyond benchmarking and towards business as mutual and being a good neighbour.

Vera Wu

Deputy Director – Mainland Business Operation

Vera Wu is Deputy Director – Mainland Business Operation, Hang Lung Properties, where she is responsible for formulating and executing development strategies and overseeing project operations. She possesses over 20 years of experience in corporate communications, marketing, property leasing and management.

My Sustainability Goals for 2023:

To incorporate sustainability in placemaking initiatives for creating compelling spaces for all of our stakeholders in Hong Kong and mainland China.

Supported by

With thanks to