24 February 2022
The School of Communication (SCOM) was pleased to organise the SCOM Talk Series 43 through online live broadcast on 24 February 2022. Mrs May Lam-Kobayashi, Deputy Director of Public Affairs of Swire Properties, was invited as the guest speaker, and shared with over 250 SCOM teachers and students her experiences in corporate communication as well as the vision and future development strategies of Swire Properties. The audience responded enthusiastically.
Mrs Lam, the Deputy Director of Public Affairs of Swire Properties, highlighted the close relationship between Swire Properties and the community. She pointed out that Swire Properties upholds ‘Placemaking’ as its mission and vision in its development projects, with the aim of building communities integrated with everything including facilities for work, leisure, and life, so that residents can take root and enjoy living in the communities. With over 50 years of development, Swire Properties has left footprints in major cities in Mainland China, Hong Kong and the United States, and it now ranks the top and the seventh among property developers in Asia and the world respectively. It proves that the company’s sustainable development concept based on placemaking has earned recognition worldwide. Mrs Lam also believes that art is closely related to modern life. Swire Properties constantly collaborates with artists to design artistic decorations when conducting community planning, demonstrating the company’s philosophy of integrating art and culture into daily life. ‘Please Be Seated’, which is permanently exhibited in Pacific Park, is one of the remarkable examples of such integration.
During the Q&A session, students raised questions enthusiastically. When responding to students’ questions, Mrs. Lam particularly emphasised the importance of coordinating both hardware and software in community development. She pointed out that Swire Properties moves forward with time as technology advances. The company, for example, embraces the concepts of sustainable development and zero power consumption when developing new and existing communities. Mrs Lam said that people is another critical element in community building. Therefore, when designing redevelopment projects, Swire Properties would try its best to communicate with residents and form focus groups to assess the impact of the projects on residents and the environment.
Mrs Lam encouraged students to actively equip themselves, such as by enhancing their language proficiency in Chinese and English, to ready themselves for their future career in corporate communication. She further suggested that the students keep an open mind to both new and old things and think in the shoes of others. With these qualities built up as their assets, once they have mastered the requirements of their jobs in the future workplace, they would certainly be able to excel in the corporate communication industry.
After the talk, students responded that they had a much better understanding of corporate communication in the real life and found themselves having benefited a lot.