RISE, Asia’s biggest tech conference moves from Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur. My vision of speaking at RISE has come closer home.
December 3, 2020
HONG KONG: A major Asia-focused tech conference announced today it is ditching Hong Kong in favour of Malaysia in a fresh blow to the Chinese financial hub’s push to attract tech talent.
The annual RISE Conference brings together CEOs, start-ups and investors and has been held in Hong Kong over the last five years.
But organisers said they would move their annual conference to Kuala Lumpur in 2022.
“Hosting RISE in Kuala Lumpur is going to expand the event into an exciting region of Southeast Asia,” Casey Lau, co-host of RISE said in a statement.
The decision comes as major tech firms fret over the accelerating crackdown by Beijing on dissent in Hong Kong after last year’s huge and sometimes violent democracy protests.
In June, Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law that grants authorities significant powers to access company servers and networks.
The crackdown prompted the US to declare Hong Kong no longer sufficiently autonomous from authoritarian China, which blocks access to many of the world’s top tech companies.
After the law was enacted, major tech companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter said they were suspending requests from the Hong Kong government and law enforcement authorities for information on users.
Plans for an underwater data cable between Los Angeles and Hong Kong were also scrapped after the US government expressed fears China might steal data from it.
RISE made no mention of Hong Kong’s rapidly changing political situation in its statement explaining the move.
“We look for the best homes to host our events and secure long term deals with cities,” a company spokesperson told AFP.
RISE, Asia’s biggest tech conference moves from Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur. My vision of speaking at RISE has come closer to my two homes in Kuala Lumpur and even Hong Kong.
Biodata of Robert Chaen
Founder of Robren Mega EMall, Robren Services, ChangeU, CEO-Celebrity Whisperer, Asia’s #1 Change Expert, and the Father of Asian FireWalking
Robert Chaen is an International Keynote Speaker, writer, researcher, and change expert. He is famously known as the "CEO-Celebrity Whisperer”. Through 1-on-1 coaching, CEOs & celebrities whisper their issues and secrets to Robert, and Robert whispers back the best success secrets about business strategies, change tools, office politics & staff issues, and personal branding.
He has transformed CEOs and managers in Coca-Cola China, TVB Hong Kong, Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong Airport Services, VADS, TM, Public Bank, , 300+ MSC CEOs in S.E. Asia's Silicon Valley, etc.
He is the EKing of EMalls, the Founder of Robren Mega EMall, the World’s First Parallel Universe EMall Chian, with 100 City Mega EMalls opening in 2021-2023 (fb.com/MegaEMalls).
He is widely considered as one of the top International Platform Keynote Speakers for Resorts World Genting Senior Management Conference (Manila), 7-Eleven HK, Samsung, Coca-Cola China Mini-MBA @Tsing Hua University, Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong Jockey Club. He has interviewed PM Tun Dr Mahathir, Datuk Kamarudin (Chairman of AirAsia), Siti Nurhaliza, and other CEOs, Entrepreneurs and Influencers.
He has been widely featured in TVB, AWSJ, CNBC, SCMP, The Star, and Sin Chew. As “The Father of Asian FireWalking”, he coached TVB celebrities (Ekin Cheng Yee-Kin) to walk on 650°C fire; and raised HK$68M in the world’s 1st and only live TV Charity FireWalk (TVB Tung Wah Charity Show). If Robert can coach you to walk on 650⁰C fire, he can inspire you to be the best.
Originally based in Hong Kong for 20+ years, he had worked with top Branding/Ad agencies at J Walter Thompson and Leo Burnett, and was a certified FranklinCovey (7 Habits) in USA, and NLP MasterCoach (USA). His warmth is known to soften the most hardened, resistant skeptics.
Due to an ongoing paranormal encounter of the Angelic kind, he has been an Angel Whisperer 25 minutes before his late wife Brenda José crossed over on 23rd December 2013. Since then she has been sending him countless afterlife signs and he has written many articles and an EBook on his whisperings about The Afterlife and beyond from Angel Brenda.
Updated: 2nd August 2020.
