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SIE Fund aims to facilitate cross-sector collaboration to help build an ecosystem for nurturing social entrepreneurs and incubating innovative ideas to support poverty relief in Hong Kong. Mrs Patricia Lau, Deputy Head of Efficiency Unit of the SAR Government, was invited to speak at the Foundation Philanthropy Roundtable 2014 organised recently by the socially oriented consultancy firm Asia Value Advisors. On behalf of the secretariat of the SIE Fund Task Force, Mrs Lau shared with decision makers of corporate and private foundations the objectives and funding principles of SIE Fund. The Fund’s objective of building sustainable platforms of cross-sector collaboration for greater social impacts captured the interest of the audience.

The 2014 Social Enterprise Summit was held from 3rd to 5th of November. Being one of the sponsor organisations, SIE Fund seized the opportunity to invite speakers of the event to speak in two sharing sessions held on 3rd and 5th of November.  Ms Catherine Bracy (Director of Community Organising, Code for America, US), Mr Karl Sittle (Concept and Consultancy, PowerAge, Switzerland), Dr Scott Sherman (Executive Director, Transformative Action Institute, US) and Ms Suzanne Rodrigues (Project Manager, Fundacão EPD, Portugal) shared their experiences in application of IT, engaging the aged, nurturing young social entrepreneurs and empowering the socially deprived respectively.  The sharing sessions were well received by the audience which included social innovators and civil servants of related fields.

A roundtable discussion was also held on 5th November and deans of business schools or their representatives were invited to exchange views with Dr Sherman, Mrs Yvette Yeh Fung (Chair, The Yeh Family Philanthropy) and Task Force Chairperson Professor Stephen Cheung on teaching social entrepreneurship in universities.