Hong Kong is preparing to build one of the most ambitious development projects in its modern history.
The Northern Metropolis is not simply another real estate project. It is a statement about the future of the city. It is meant to connect Hong Kong more deeply with Shenzhen, expand our innovation and technology capacity, and give the next generation a new engine of opportunity.
The plans are bold. New land. New research hubs. New university spaces. New technology zones. New cross-border connections.
But as we break ground on the physical infrastructure of this next chapter, we need to ask a deeper question.
What is the soul of this new innovation city?
Because buildings alone do not create innovation.
Laboratories alone do not create companies.
Policies alone do not create founders.
A city becomes innovative when its young people believe they are allowed to build.
That belief is the missing layer.
For too long, Hong Kong has trained its brightest young people toward narrow definitions of success. Study hard. Get into the right school. Enter finance, law, medicine, consulting. These paths are valuable, but they cannot be the only ones we celebrate.
The next generation needs to believe that great companies can come out of Hong Kong, and that they do not need to wait for permission to start one.
I know this because I have lived both sides of that story.
Growing up in Hong Kong, I imagined many futures. I could study dinosaurs. I could become an astronaut. I could build things that did not yet exist. Somewhere along the way, many of us learn to shrink our imagination. We learn to perform. We learn to compete. We learn to optimize for the safest path.
Then I discovered hackathons.
Hackathons changed how I understood learning, technology, and myself. They showed me that a small team of students could take an idea and turn it into something real in a single weekend. They showed me that building was not reserved for people with titles, funding, or permission.
Building was something anyone could start.
That is the culture we need to bring to Hong Kong.
This year, SeaHacks Hong Kong is more than a hackathon. It is a signal.
We are bringing together students, founders, engineers, educators, and global technology leaders who believe Hong Kong can become a builder city. We are bringing people like John Whaley, founder of Inception Studio, and Quincy Larson, founder of freeCodeCamp, into the same room as Hong Kong's next generation of builders.
Their presence matters not because celebrity speakers create ecosystems, but because stories create permission.
When a young person meets someone who has built a global company or a movement, the distance between “someone like them” and “someone like me” becomes smaller.
That is how culture changes.
A student attends. They build. They ship. They start something. They become the person who inspires the next student.
This is how ecosystems compound.
We are entering a new technological era. AI labs in China and the West are racing to build more powerful models, but the application layer remains wide open. The question is no longer who builds the strongest foundation model. It is who will use these tools to solve real problems in education, healthcare, finance, logistics, manufacturing, and everyday life.
Hong Kong should not watch this transformation from the sidelines.
We are uniquely positioned. We sit between East and West. We are next to Shenzhen, one of the most dynamic hardware ecosystems in the world. We have world-class universities, ambitious students, and industries ready for transformation.
But potential is not enough.
We need a culture that turns potential into action.
This is why SeaHacks matters.
A hackathon may look like a weekend event, but at its best, it is a cultural engine. It compresses entrepreneurship into a short, intense, joyful environment. Teams form. Problems get named. Tools get tried. Prototypes get built. Feedback gets heard.
Most importantly, it teaches people to see themselves as builders.
That identity shift is powerful.
Hong Kong does not just need more innovation policy. It needs more people who wake up and think, “I can build something.” It needs more founders who see Hong Kong not as a place to leave, but as a place to build from.
The Northern Metropolis can provide the shell.
But the builder community must provide the soul.
If we get this right, Hong Kong's next chapter will be measured not by square meters developed, but by the number of young people who discover their agency. By the teams that form, the products that ship, the companies that launch, the culture that spreads.
We are not just running an event. We are building a pipeline of founders, and the heartbeat that the Northern Metropolis will need.
The future of Hong Kong will not be written by concrete alone.
It will be written by people.
By students who decide to build their first project.
By mentors who give them courage.
By founders who return to share what they know.
By communities that make ambition feel normal.
The Northern Metropolis is breaking ground.
Now we must build the culture that brings it to life.
Let's give Hong Kong's innovation future its soul.
One builder.
One company.
One hackathon at a time.