HONG KONG, CHINA -- 19 September 2018 - To recognise the remarkable achievements of local licensing and creative industries practitioners, the Asian Licensing Association (ALA) organizes the Hong Kong Licensing Awards 2018 under the sponsorship of Create Hong Kong (CreateHK) of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. 

The Launching Ceremony cum Licensing for Creative Industries Seminar was held today (Monday) at Regal Kowloon Hotel to announce the details. 

ALA is honoured to have Ms. Fiona Lam, Assistant Head of CreateHK as the Guest-of-honour of today's launching ceremony. Other officiating guests are Dr. Toby CHAN, Founding Chairman of ALA, Mr. Danny CHEUNG, Chairman of ALA and board members of ALA. They jointly officiated at a ceremony to officially kick start HKLA 2018. .

The Licensing for Creative Industries Seminar was held immediately after the launching ceremony, with Mr. William Shum, Founder and CEO of Memorigin, Mr. Quentin Wong, General Manager of Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group Limited, and Mr. Li Xiao Hong, Vice General Manager of Fantawild Animation, as the guest speakers.  They shared their experiences in the licensing businesses in Hong Kong and the Mainland.

Ms. Fiona Lam, Assistant Head of CreateHK expressed her gratitude towards ALA at the launching ceremony for organising HKLA again. She also said that the strong collaboration between the creative industries, which have become one of the powerhouses of Hong Kong's economy, and the licensing industry, which has resourceful players in the local market, promises much room for both industries' further development.

Dr. Toby CHAN, Founding Chairman of ALA spoke on the same occasion that the economic benefits brought by the licensing industry has becoming more and more significant. He was grateful that the licensing industry was able (to attain more recognition from the society in recent years.  He also expressed that "we would like to let more people know more about what licensing is and how licensing industry could bring economic benefits to the society."

Mr. Danny CHEUNG, Chairman of ALA, introduced at the launching ceremony the five awards of HKLA 2018, and the new training programs on licensing, which are added in this edition with the funding support from CreateHK. He said the new training programs are dedicated to helping the licensing practitioners grasp the latest information.

"The two training programs to be held on 17 and 20 September 2018 will introduce the design of a style guide and the sales pitching techniques for licensing, the mastery of which is almost a prerequisite for our industry members in their daily licensing work. We invite specialists in these two topics as tutors to teach the participants in the training programs for the latter to skillfully apply the style guide and sales pitching techniques for licensing," said Mr. Cheung."

HKLA 2018 has five awards, namely the Best Property Award, the Best Licensee Award, the Best Promotion Campaign Award, the Best Young Property Award, and the Best New Character Design for Licensing Award.

For the top five finalists of this edition's Best New Character Design for Licensing Award, the organizer will produce free product samples and figurines for their original characters for displaying at the Hong Kong International Licensing Show 2019 (Licensing Show). The organizer will further produce a mascot for the Gold award character for taking part in the Mascot Parade of the Licensing Show.

As for the other four award categories, the entries of their Gold and Merit Award winners will not only be displayed at the Licensing Show, but also at the HKTDC Design Gallery at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Application for HKLA 2018 is open till 10 October 2018. The award presentation ceremony will be held on 8 January 2019. (roc).