Hong Kong just won Rise, “Asia’s largest” technical conference

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Rise, an annual technology conference whose latest speakers have included executives from Uber (UBER), Alibaba (BABA) and Stripe, said Thursday they would return to the city next year, with plans to stay for the next five years.

Organizers had announced in late 2020 that they would move the event to the Malaysian city of Kuala Lumpur, saying they wanted to look for opportunities in the fast-growing technology scene of Southeast Asia.

At the time, the move raised questions about Hong Kong’s ability to maintain its image as Asia’s leading global business hub, as it still faced the aftermath of the 2019 mass protests. conference then insisted that political turmoil was not part of the decision.

Now, “Hong Kong has won again as Rise’s host city for the next five years,” event organizers said Thursday in a joint statement with the Hong Kong Tourism Board.

Hong Kong has just lost a technology conference against Kuala Lumpur

The event next March will take place in person. Hong Kong Secretary of Commerce and Economic Development Edward Yau stated this as “a testament to Hong Kong’s success in containing the pandemic and keeping the infection rate among the lowest in the world, thus giving confidence to international event organizers who can organize your events here safely. ”

“I’m very excited,” he said in a statement Thursday.

Paddy Cosgrave, co-founder and CEO of Rise, noted in a statement that the event “had grown to what it is today after five years of success in the city.” Rise is considered the largest technology meeting in Asia and attracted some 16,000 attendees and more than 350 speakers at its most recent 2019 conference.

The news comes as Malaysia struggles to contain the Covid-19 pandemic, with the number of known cases doubling every two months, according to CNN’s coronavirus tracker.

The decision also gives Hong Kong a small victory as it continues to face questions about its future as an international hub due to Covid-19’s strict quarantine rules, which are some of the toughest on the planet.

Hong Kong allows Nicole Kidman to skip quarantine, apparently to film for Amazon
In recent months, the city government has faced strong criticism for granting certain exemptions, such as last month which allowed actress Nicole Kidman to skip quarantine. The Oscar winner entered the city in August to film a series for Amazon (AMZN).
In May, officials also received a setback for allowing some top-notch financial executives to apply for exemptions. Critics argued that the policy was elitist, while the government said it should “maintain Hong Kong’s status as an international financial center.” Recently, however, HSBC President Mark Tucker reportedly spent three weeks isolated in the city.

– Hanna Ziady, Diksha Madhok and Carly Walsh contributed to this report.

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