Our Circle event, Technology That Works! will be held on Tuesday, 11th September 2018.
With our first Circle Event of the new season coming up, we’d like to take this opportunity to thank our the experts who will guide us through Technology That Works!
They are:
Dervla Louli, Compare Retreats
Dervla Louli is the Founder of Compare Retreats, the booking portal and online publication for the world’s leading luxury wellness retreats. She was formerly the Digital Editor of Hong Kong Tatler, the Director of Integrated Content at Edipresse Media Asia, the Managing Editor of Sassy Media Group, and a regular freelance writer for the fashion pages of South China Morning Post.
She has moderated events at The British Chamber of Commerce, Hong Kong University and Swire Hotels, and spoken about luxury publishing at Goldman Sachs’ International Luxury Conference.
Dervla has a Master’s in Finance from Trinity College and a Bachelor’s Degree in Business and Law. She is a member of the Global Shaper Community, part of the World Economic Forum and a certified yoga teacher.
Elaine Ann, Kaizor Innovation
Elaine Ann is the Founder and Director of Kaizor Innovation, a strategic innovation consultancy that helps companies strategize, research, and define innovative products and services for the China market. Born and raised in Hong Kong and having lived in the U.S for 12 years, Elaine’s bilingual, bi-cultural and international background helps companies understand and strategize new product and services for the China market.
She is a veteran of the early dot-com era in the mid 90’s having lived and worked in the U.S. for 12 years. She has worked for companies such as Razorfish, Philips Design, Henry Dreyfuss in New York, Silicon Valley and San Francisco and has designed the User Experiences of some of the very early Internet/technology businesses such as Schwab.com, Intuit’s Quicken, the first Philips MP3 player and Philips Networked Home etc. in the 90’s.
She is currently the Honorary Project Director for the Centre of Entrepreneurship of the Chinese University and is in the Cyberport Expert Network mentoring Tech Startups on User/Customer-Centric Innovation and User Experience (UX) as well as mentor at The Cage of Lane Crawford Joyce Group, Blueprint and Cocoon. Elaine is also on the Advisory Committee and taught at two of the major design schools in Hong Kong: the Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Design and the Hong Kong Design Institute. She also teaches the Executive Masters in Innovation Leadership at PolyU School of Design and MBAs at HKUST on Lifestyle Innovation. In 2014, she setup the WOW-X User Experience Bootcamp to train up both Startups and Designers bridging to Angel Investors: wowx.kaizor.com. And in 2015, organised the UX China Tour www.chinauxtour2015.com visting 18 Chinese companies in 5 China cities including Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, WeChat etc.
She is currently one of the core organisers of IxDAHK Interaction Designers Association of Hong Kong.
Elaine graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a BFA in Visual Communication Design and Masters in Interaction Design. She is also an EMBA alumni of the Cheung Kong Business School (Beijing) and Stanford Executive Education Design Thinking Bootcamp’s alumni.
Elisa Harca, Red Ant Asia
Elisa Harca is the co-founder of Red Ant Asia, which she established in Hong Kong and Shanghai over 6 years ago. Red Ant Asia works with retailers to use digital marketing and technology to build their profiles in Asia, with a specific focus on China. The company has 40 FTEs and is independently owned.
Clients include: Yoox, Lane Crawford, Shiseido, Mango, LUSH, Moncler, Samsonite, Balmain, TRIWA, Charlotte Tilbury, Whittard, Botkier etc.
Elisa is the Vice Chair of the British Chamber Retail Committee, a Non-Executive Director of a fast growing food and beverage company, and a regular contributor to key industry publications such as: Retail in Asia, Jing Daily, WGSN etc.
Elisa has more than 16 years marketing experience working across disciplines and continents. Entrepreneurial at heart, Elisa set-up a fashion company whilst living in New York called Styleaholics, uniting independent fashion designers with international female DJs.
Elisa has a 1st Class HONS Bsc in Business & Administration Studies. Elisa is well connected in the technology and lifestyle sectors in Hong Kong, Shanghai, London and New York. She also recently qualified as an aerial yoga instructor and is an avid wake surfer.
Nicole Graham, Bauhinia Solutions
Nicole Graham is Hong Kong’s leading expert in virtual support. Following a successful career as an Executive Assistant to C-Suite Execs, and then as a corporate Learning & Development / HR Development Manager, and Facilitator, Nicole has been a driver in using technology to improve work efficiency and provide training.
Starting out teaching business owners how to use their computer software, and freelancing as a Virtual Assistant, Nicole has developed Bauhinia Solutions into a boutique business support agency. As Hong Kong based business specialists, admin professionals, and virtual assistants Nicole’s team offer part-time remote support to coaches, consultants, entrepreneurs, and service-oriented teams. Nicole leads a team of employees in Hong Kong, Australia and the UK. They have supported and driven growth remotely for more than 100 clients globally since 2007.
As a Certified Online Business Manager and Virtual Support Professional, Nicole has tried, tested and used a range of online tools to support her clients, her business as well as build her team. At Bauhinia Solutions, their main tools are Teamwork, G-Suite, Dropbox, Xero, Slack, Apoggee HR, Hubspot CRM, Zoom and WordPress. Other systems they use to support their clients include WooCommerce, Square Space, Wave Accounting, Canva, Buffer, Contactually, MailChimp, AWeber, Active Campaign, Asana and Doodle. They also use various hosting platforms, WordPress plugins, and social media platforms. Nicole is using various Learning Management Systems, Sales Funnels and WordPress Membership Plugins for various consulting projects.
Sophie Nazer, Next Chapter
Sophia is passionate about entrepreneurship and using digital strategy to create great relationships between businesses and their audience. Starting off her digital journey by assisting in teaching coding classes for kids and refugees, Sophia soon discovered her passion for digital marketing and communications. Now she is focused on how to best utilise web design and digital marketing to improve businesses and expand opportunities for other people.
Sophia began teaching herself how to code by building a website based on her beloved pugs and then learned how to use digital marketing to improve traffic to her site and expand onto e-commerce sales and marketing as well as consulting with external partners.
Sophia now works to help campaigns refine their message and construct their pre-launch marketing strategy. She also looks after Next Chapter digital marketing strategy and digital development while maintaining Next Chapter’s events, social media and digital communications.
