HONG KONG, Sept. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Asia Smart App Awards ("ASA") 2020 Presentation Ceremony", organised by the Hong Kong Wireless Technology Industry Association ("WTIA"), was successfully held on 17 September, 2020. Nine winning teams were recognised for earning the prestigious Grand Award, and Gold, Silver, Bronze Awards in three award categories. Among the winners, two applications involving Intelligent Transport won the Gold Awards in two of the award categories and the winning companies are Pokeguide Limited from Hong Kong and Moovit App Global Ltd from Israel. The AR PM created by Visionaries 777 Limited from Hong Kong, on the other hand, won the prestigious Grand Award as well as the Gold Award in the remaining "Business and Commercial" Category.
Hong Kong teams performed remarkably in the ASA 2020. Out of the nine winning teams, five come from Hong Kong, and among them, three (including Pokeguide Limited) pocketed the Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards in the "Public Sector Distinction" Category.
The ASA 2020, organised by the WTIA and sponsored by Create Hong Kong ("CreateHK") of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is the seventh edition of the award scheme. Co-organised by the WTIA and organisations from other 15 Asian regions, the ASA aims to promote the development of smart applications and the business exchanges between the relevant industries in Hong Kong and their counterparts in Asia.
The organiser is honoured to have Mr. Victor Tsang, Head of CreateHK to be the Guest of Honour of the Awards Presentation Ceremony. Mr. Tsang congratulated the winning teams of the ASA 2020 on their achievements and the WTIA for successfully hosting the ASA 2020.
The organiser also invited Ir. Eric Chan, Chief Public Mission Officer of Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company Limited, to announce the winners in the Awards Presentation Ceremony.
On the same occasion, Mr. Roy Law, Chairman of the WTIA said, "The ASA 2020 received a huge number of applications and the overall quality of the applying smart applications is very high as well. The competition amongst the entries was very keen. After rounds of rigorous assessments, nine applications from nearly 150 entries were jointly shortlisted by local industry representatives and judges from other Asia regions to enter into the final judging. The final judging panel composing of 16 industry experts in Asia then collaboratively decided the winners of Gold, Silver and Bronze awards in each category as well as the Grand Award winner, with a view to recognising the participants' innovative ability and efforts to develop the excellent smart applications."
There are three categories in the ASA 2020, namely the "Public Sector Distinction" Category, the "Business and Commercial" Category, as well as the "Lifestyle, Social and Entertainment" Category, each with its own Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards, and a certain number of Certificates of Merit. Hong Kong teams swept five awards among the nine Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards, in competing with other four finalists from other Asian regions. The Grand Award winner was then selected from the Gold Award winner in each category.
The AR PM created by Visionaries 777 Limited from Hong Kong, the Gold Award winner in the category of "Business and Commercial", was privileged to become the Grand Award winner this year. Traditionally, Preventive Maintenance for office spaces, properties and factories is a manual process. The AR PM developed by Visionaries 777 completely replaces paper spreadsheets with AR checklists. In addition, the integration of the indoor navigation technology in the application can, with ease, locate the physical locations of the items to be searched. All collected data can be stored on a cloud platform, where users can easily track the Key Performance Indicators ("KPIs"), search and analyse the maintenance records. Companies using this application can be benefited by the reduction of the labour costs/ expenses as well as the maintenance time.
Another Hong Kong company named "Pokeguide Limited" and an Israeli company named "Moovit App Global Ltd" won the respective Gold Award in the categories of "Public Sector Distinction" and "Lifestyle, Social and Entertainment". Pokeguide's app is a navigation app with advanced routing and walking engine that help users search the best combination of public transportation from subway, bus, minibus, to free shuttle bus when travelling from one location to another. With its built-in functionality of augmented reality (AR), the app can further direct users to reach their destinations. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the app introduces a new function to identify the buildings with confirmed infected cases in its routing engine, so that these buildings can be avoided in the navigation results.
As for Moovit developed by Moovit App Global Ltd, it is an urban mobility app with a mission to simplify urban mobility around the world. Moovit has been trusted by over 840 million users in more than 3,200 cities across 106 countries. It combines information from public transit operators, micro-transit operators and transport authorities with live information from the user communities. The app has integrated data from 300 more mobility service providers including car-sharing, station-based bike share systems, dockless bikes, scooters, mopeds, and carpooling options, etc., and the datasets from 7,500 more transit agencies, in order to provide the users with the best app experience.
The list of the ASA 2020's awardees is as follows:
Public Sector Distinction Category:
Lifestyle, Social and Entertainment Category:
Business and Commercial Category:
*Please also refer to the official website of the ASA 2020 at https://contest2020.bestasiaapp.hk for further details of the awardees and winner list of the Certificate of Merit in each category.
The "Asia Smart App Awards" ("ASA") (formerly known as the "Asian Smartphone App Contest") is organised by the Hong Kong Wireless Technology Industry Association ("WTIA") with the funding support from Create Hong Kong ("CreateHK") of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, to recognise the contribution of the industry players in the smart application industry and to provide a platform for communication between the local smart application practitioners and their counterparts in Asia.
The WTIA is always striving to provide valuable opportunities for industry practitioners in further understanding the potential business opportunities for smart app industry in Asian regions. Currently, the ASA 2020 has joined forces with the co-organisers from Hong Kong, Cambodia (New Participant), Mainland China, India (New Participant), Israel, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar.
Apart from the Awards Presentation Ceremony of the ASA 2020, the WTIA also hosted the Asia Smart App Summit 2020 online earlier on the same day in which the Hong Kong and international speakers from 13 countries and regions joined together to discuss the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on enterprises in the smart app industry and how to transform their business in the future.
For further details of the ASA 2020 and the complete winner list, please visit the website of the ASA 2020 at https://contest2020.bestasiaapp.hk/
Event photo can be download via the following link: https://bit.ly/2FKOyHg
About Hong Kong Wireless Technology Industry Association
The Hong Kong Wireless Technology Industry Association ("WTIA"), established in 2001, is a not-for profit, politically-neutral trade association dedicated to the wireless and mobile industry. The WTIA acts as a platform, an aggregator, and a community for industry professionals to learn and drive emerging wireless and mobile technologies, governance, and standards. It facilitates networking among like-minded professionals, boost interoperability between networks and devices, and strives to help all organisations apply these technologies to existing or new businesses. The WTIA also represents and is supported by digital industries pertaining to mobile such as digital entertainment, digital marketing & media, and start-up sectors. To know more about the WTIA, please visit http://www.hkwtia.org.
About Create Hong Kong
Create Hong Kong ("CreateHK") is a dedicated agency set up by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in June 2009. It is under the Communications and Creative Industries Branch of the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau and dedicated to spearheading the development of creative industries in Hong Kong. Its strategic foci are nurturing talent and facilitating start-ups, exploring markets, and promoting Hong Kong as Asia's creative capital and fostering a creative atmosphere in the community. CreateHK sponsors the Asia Smart App Awards (formerly known as the Asia Smartphone Apps Contest) since its inception in 2012 to promote the development and use of smart apps by Hong Kong creative industries. CreateHK's Website: http://www.createhk.gov.hk.
Disclaimer: Create Hong Kong of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region provides funding support to the project only, and does not otherwise take part in the project. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in these materials/events(or by members of the project team) are those of the project organizers only and do not reflect the views of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Communications and Creative Industries Branch of the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau, Create Hong Kong, the CreateSmart Initiative Secretariat or the CreateSmart Initiative Vetting Committee.
