Event Calendar

13 June 2023
EdTech Innovations Salon 2023

Funded by the Innovation and Technology Commission, The Knowledge Transfer Sub-office (the Office) of The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK) held the ‘EdTech Innovations Salon 2023’ on 13 June, which drew the participation of over 400 stakeholders from the education, government sector and industry.
 
The event showcased a total of 23 latest educational technologies (EdTech) and innovations developed by the University and professionals from the EdTech industry. The participants had the opportunity to experience the latest educational technologies based on three specific themes: (1) Educational technology for languages, music and sport; (2) AI and metaverse; and (3) Green and health technologies. The event also served as a platform for professionals and educators to exchange ideas and enhance communication, facilitating the co-creation of a sustainable ecosystem for the theme in Hong Kong through interactive forums. This full-day event was covered by 25 local media.
 
Following the event, the Office collected feedback from the participants through an online post-event evaluation form. The response rate was 21.6%. 

Exhibition 

Most participants were impressed by the interactive and informative exhibition showing the latest educational applications and their setups. A total of 23 projects were exhibited, including 15 award-winning innovations developed by the University and 8 EdTech solutions from professional industry partners. The exhibition created an environment of a science museum and the majority of participants thoroughly enjoyed the demonstrations and actively engaged in interactive discussions on-site. Some of the innovations are shown below. 

Audio-Tactile Chinese Characters: Bringing Multisensory & Novel Learning Experience to People with Visual Impairment and with Special Needs
Reimagining Music Learning with e-Orch
Learningverse - A 3D Metaverse for Online Collaborative Learning
Integrated Intelligent Intervention (3i)-Learning System
Lighten Dementia Game Set (Donut, Tea Bag, Fly)
Nano-Sensor System for Meat and Seafood Monitoring
   
Other Exhibit Photos

Sharing Sessions

The one-day forum covered a range of topics on new technologies and their applications in education. The morning sessions consisted of 5 speeches that shared successful internationally awarded inventions. In the afternoon, 3 breakout sessions were held, featuring 16 presentations that focused on sharing innovations in education, discussing the I&T culture, challenges related to patents, and more.
 
The participants found good enjoyment in the forum and sharing sessions, which served as an impressive platform for them to acquire new ideas and gain insights into EdTech applications. Notably, some of the attendees shared the following notes during the event and provided their feedback in the post-event questionnaires:
 
From educators/school leaders:
  • The event provided opportunities for educators to learn about the last trends, tools, and best practices in EdTech. It outlined to us the standard of valuable EdTech.
  • It created us, the educators, a platform to meet and connect with other professionals and stay informed with up-to-date technological solutions, especially in a less sales-oriented situation.
  • Apart from simply purchases of market-available products, the event opened us with opportunities to explore new ways of collaboration to build customised projects.
  • From a secondary school principal: “The event today offered a forward-looking and professional platform for promoting novel EdTech development, emphasizing the need to advance and improve the quality of education.”

From community leaders:
  • Such an occasion was a source of inspiration for educators and technologists, providing them with new ideas and perspectives on technology-informing teaching and learning. This can lead to increased motivation and creativity in Education.
  • Appreciated a lot on the interactive demonstration of the EdTech showcases. It is so inspiring to cultivate new tech applications in education.
  • From an NGO leader: “A very impressive showcase of the latest application in technology to make a better place for learning and living.”

From tech companies:
  • The EdTech Innovation Salon provides good opportunities for different stakeholders in the field of education and technology development to mix-and-match the education and technology innovations. It is great to have EdUHK taking the lead in fostering academia and industry collaborations.
  • A good occasion for gathering the stakeholders for building up an EdTech innovation and industry ecosystem!
  • From an EdTech solution consultant company: “We believe EdTech will have a great societal and economic impact on Hong Kong and the rest of the world in the coming decades.”

From others providing comments on specific areas:
  • For Educational technology for languages, music and sports education:
  1. This event provided the EdTech researchers and developers with a valuable platform to meet different potential users from the industries. This helps to expand our research vision. We have exchanged more than our contacts through social media communication platforms and now we are discussing our further collaboration with both school representatives and potential industry partners.
  2. A lot of audiences gave suggestions on applying the showcasing of music-tech and sport-tech for inclusive education. The elderly are also an important market.
  3. Some commented that a good design for addressing user needs and user experience at different ages is critical for language tech.
  • For AI and Metaverse for education:
  1. Good to learn the metaverse platform showcase with a patented technology of using an ordinary computer and an ordinary built-in camera for animating an avatar in a virtual world. Appreciated a lot on the low-cost feature!
  2. Many audiences anticipated the launch of more AI products for the education industry.
  • For Green and Health technologies for education:
  1. The realization of the micro-plastics test process as a rapid lab test equipment will drive an innovative advancement to protect our environment and our health. The patented invention is advancing a manual lab process to an IoT-compatible test platform. Anticipating such kind of innovative approach!
  2. Good to learn the demonstrated green-tech and health-tech for reducing food waste, upcycling waste residuals, and supporting physical and mental training for dementia and SEN clients.    
  • For IP planning for EdTech:
  1. Questions that came from the audience included authorship of AI-generated content, IP licensing for EdTech involving Art-tech and Music-tech, the recent trends in tech development for education applications, and the transfer of copyrights.
       
       

Post-event Analysis

Overall, the Salon was a successful event that brought together 408 attendees from the targeted sectors. The event received over 590 registration and the attendance rate remained at 69%. Most of the attendees were attracted by the sharing topics, exhibition and speakers (Figure 1).
 
Figure 1. The reasons of participants decided to register the Salon 2023

Referring to the sources of participants, almost 70% of participants joined the event through invitations, while the remaining learned about it through referrals (19.1%) and social media (10.6%) (Figure 2). The analysis suggests that direct marketing aimed at the target audience would be the most effective method for promoting future events.
Figure 2. Sources of the participants

Most of the respondents expressed satisfaction with the schedule of the event and the format of the conference. Additionally, a majority of the attendees found the event location was easily accessible. They also provided positive feedback on the sharing topics, exhibition and networking opportunities (Figure 3). In fact, over 90% of the participants found that the event enhanced their knowledge of EdTech and about 87.5% of the respondents expressed their interest in attending future events held by the Office, as well as recommending them to others.
Figure 3. The overall satisfaction of the Salon 2023 

We welcome your feedback to continually build up the EdTech Innovations Ecosystem for Hong Kong. If you have any comments and suggestions, please feel free to send to kt@eduhk.hk.
 
*Disclaimer
Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this report/event (or by members of the project team) do not reflect the views of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Innovation and Technology Commission or the Vetting Committee of the General Support Programme of the Innovation and Technology Fund.