On October 25, 2015, ‘The Fusion, Innovation and Social Values: Global Youth Innovation Leadership Summit’ was held at Yingjie Overseas Exchange Center at Peking University (PKU), the organizers of which were PKU, Xtecher, iCAN and the People’s Government of Qingdao.
Many Chinese local entrepreneurs attended the Leadership Summit and shared their unique perspectives as well as experiences about innovation, creativity, entrepreneurial drives and their own way to set up a new business.
Qi Zongchao, the Founder of Xtecher which was a unique communication platform for innovators to show and share their talented ideas online, gave an opening speech and shared his insights into science, technology and innovation with the audience. Mr. Qi attached great importance to the power of technology; He mentioned that driven by the demands for innovation heavily, local government and many investors applauded for the arise of young entrepreneurs with great business plan and the willing to change people’s life. Mr. Qi also stated that in many developed countries such as U.S., U.K. and Japan, science and technology were highly commercialized and were accessible to people’s daily lives; China, under that circumstances, should not lag behind forever and must step into the same stage in the near future. At the end of his speech, Mr. Qi said, “We ought to create the proper environment for young entrepreneurs to put their Chinese Dream into reality and to make a difference, and we should also put in the hard work it takes for China to become a powerful country by the development of technology and science, during which process innovation should be paid special attention. “
Following Mr. Qi’s speech, Dr. Lu Zhiyang gave a speech to share an innovative and entrepreneurial program he has founded in the past, the World Classroom. Considering Chinese government’s emphasis on entrepreneurs and innovation, educators in China were looking for the best way to foster the entrepreneurial attitude and innovative mindset of students in China. Dr. Lu wished to make a different in Chinese higher education system, and his idea came from the recognition he owned towards the importance of international perspective. Dr. Lu said that international perspective was not only learned from books but also gained through the interactions, communications, and conflicts with foreign people and districts in reality. Therefore, in order to make a difference in high education, schools needed to change its ordinary way of teaching, which provided the room for Dr. Lu to propose his unique project, The World Classroom, which may enable students from various universities around the world to virtually take the class together simultaneously. World Classroom had been running for eight years already and Dr. Lu mentioned that this innovative project was a unique channel for students to gain international perspectives and to learn from their peers in different parts of the world.
During later session of the summit, many young entrepreneurs went to the stage and spoke out their perspectives towards innovation and entrepreneurship. In addition, the leaders also expressed their gratitude to the firms, venture capital funds as well as Chinese government who supported those young entrepreneur both in finance and policy. The Leadership Summit successfully ended latter the day, which helped to cultivate a positive entrepreneurial environment on campus.
Written by Yi He
Edited by Li Ruoxue
