North America Forum 2021

 

Report on Regional Caucus of the Americas 2021

2:00pm-3:40pm (EDT), Tuesday, June 8, 2021

Zoom Meeting

The 2021 Regional Caucus of the Americas was held from 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm on June 8, 2021 virtually via Zoom meeting. 33 board members and members from 15 associations in North and Latin America attended. Mark Staublin, Chairman, NUSHKBA and Arthur Chan, National Chair, HKCBA welcomed participants from US, Canada and Latin America as well as HKTDC colleagues for joining the virtual regional caucus. Mark also highlighted the value of HKBA network and benefits for being a HKBA member.

After a short self-introduction by each participant, Ralph Chow, Regional Director, Americas, HKTDC updated the members on the COVID situation and vaccination progress in Hong Kong. He highlighted that some major HKTDC events had gone virtual due to the pandemic and he hoped that physical events could resume by later this year or early next year. He also introduced the Asia Summit on Global Health (ASGH), Asia’s thought-leadership conference on health innovation and investment and gave an update on 2021 HK Forum including tentative program and the election of Federation’s officers, where the vice chairmanship would be selected from the Americas. Lastly, he thanked all members for their support during the past 7 years of his term.

Alexandria Sham, Honorary Treasurer, Federation of Hong Kong Business Associations Worldwide gave an update on her recent virtual meeting with other Federation’s officers that kickstarted the planning of 2021 HK Forum. She also reminded members to take advantage of virtual events organised by different chapters to network with other HKBA members around the world. She encouraged members to join Federation’s LinkedIn and WhatsApp groups to stay updated on the latest market intelligence and business opportunities offered by the Hong Kong platform.

Several chapters reported that amid COVID-19, they have been organizing multiple webinars and the results were quite encouraging. Arthur and Henry of HKAA briefed members on how Canada and US chapters were organized and what made their virtual events successful. Wilson of HKASC, Cory of HKANC and Fion of HKBAN also shared that experience in organizing virtual CNY gala and charity events which could be considered for the future.

The Caucus was adjourned at 3:40 pm (EDT).