On the Edge
Women entrepreneurs lead
economic sustainability Embracing technology and
disruption
Caroline Fong, founder and owner of CoffeeZone
Malaysia, and Kim Lim, co-founder of Picha Project, were
the two invited speakers for ‘Women Entrepreneurs:
Agents of Change’. The two entrepreneurs shared their
stories of success, challenges and lessons learned. While
their businesses were operationally different, they shared
a common goal to promote social inclusivity and
economic sustainability in Malaysia. This is evidenced by
the differently-abled staff members employed by
CoffeeZone and in the 15 marginalised families who have
officially teamed up with Picha Project. Two local technopreneurs discussed the challenges
faced and disruptions triggered while growing their
tech businesses in this session titled ‘Technopreneurs
2K18’. Andrew Ooi, co-founder and managing
director of Inspidea, described how the company
created one of the first locally produced animations
in the early 2000s and how distribution channels
have since evolved. Narishvin Sukumaran, chief
marketing officer at Gameka, spoke of the
challenges he overcame to succeed in the game
development industry.
Enterprises in the digital age
What does it take for companies to survive in the digital age? Christian Edelmann, co-founder and chief technology officer
of dahmakan, and Joel Neoh, founder and chief executive officer of Fave shared their experiences as leaders of successful
web-based startups at an On the Edge talk held by the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Hub. Edelmann emphasised the
importance of handling failure while Neoh warned that, in order to thrive, a company must leverage an ecosystem or an
existing technological infrastructure.
Photo by MONGA
Leadership summit Patient-centric healthcare
A joint initiative by the School of Engineering, the School of IT
and industry partners, the Engineering and IT Leadership (EILP)
Program aims to develop high-achieving students through
challenging activities. Throughout the year, students
participated in talks covering topics like the fourth industrial
revolution, transformative leadership, overcoming cultural
barriers at the workplace, techniques to improve EQ, as well as
a career masterclass by Engineers Australia. The program
culminated with the EILP Leadership Summit, which featured
guest speakers from various backgrounds. Running for its third year, the Malaysian Innovative Healthcare
Symposium underscored the importance of advancing
consumer-centric healthcare innovation with the theme
‘Healthcare 4.0: Closing the Gap between Patients and
Technology’. Renowned experts and thought leaders in the
fields of IT and healthcare discussed how technology could
catalyse sweeping changes in healthcare, and how creativity,
resilience and entrepreneurship play into the healthcare
transformation equation.
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