The Gift of Giving

What? The social mixer 10x10 (a global initiative that raises money for grassroots charities) was held for the third time in Hong Kong – and we at Prestige were thrilled to be media partner of this effective and motivating Dragon’s Den-style programme for the second year running.

The power of three: The Hong Kongbased charities invited to pitch their projects this year were Free to Run (helps refugees and asylum seekers through sports and education), ImpactHK (supports the homeless and underprivileged) and Teen’s Key (helps teenage sex workers escape and return to studies or employment). Dragon-eye: The three “dragons” – the expert panel who had queries for the charity reps – were Joanna Bowers (director of the moving documentary The Helper), Jeff Shiu (senior managing director at Macquarie Group) and Ross Garvie (head of Infiniti Lab).

Hammer time: The 10x10 auction, led by auctioneer-for-the-night Rollo Gwyn-Jones (member of the inaugural 10x10 Hong Kong committee), contributed to funds raised, with all of the proceeds going directly to the charities.

Broken record: Last year, the event raised more than $300,000 and as we went into the event Stephanie Costelloe, 10x10 Hong Kong Ambassador, wondered out loud if we would reach that high benchmark again. Well we did much better, smashing the previous record to smithereens by raising more than $500,000 in a matter of hours.