On Tuesday 9^th October 2018, over eighty XMUM students attended the sharing sessions of this year’s innovation-themed road show and public talk series: “China Internet+ Competition – Theory Must Not Be Divorced from Practice.” This innovation-themed event was one of the activities for 2018 Overseas Entrepreneurship and Innovation Week, an initiative by National Development and Reform Commission of the People's Republic of China and China Association for Science and Technology, hosted by the Office of Research and Innovation, Xiamen University Malaysia.

The road show provides opportunities for students to pitch their products and services to expert audience. This was to prepare them for the finals of two international competitions, “The 4^th China College Students Internet+ Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition” and “The International College Students’ Entrepreneurship Invitational Competition 2018.”

The events featured the following experts:

Expert Audience

Mr Ouyang Zichao

Ouyang Zichao is the founding partner of Pershing Capital. He has extensive investment experience in the fields of e-commerce industry chain, life service and mobile marketing. Mr Ouyang has maintained outstanding performance during his years of investment. He is an innovative entrepreneurial tutor and a distinguished teacher of many well-known universities – such as Xiamen University, China. He has successfully played a leading role in many investment projects, including Home King.

Innovation Advisor

Prof Dr Zheng Jin-Cheng

Professor Zheng Jin-Cheng is honoured as Distinguished Professor of Minjiang Scholar’s Program at Xiamen University China in view of his contribution and commitment to the field of Physics. He is now serving as the advisor to the Office of Research and Innovation (ORI), Xiamen University Malaysia; and mentor for TusStar Incubator Malaysia. Professor Zheng has published more than 140 peer-reviewed articles in SCI journals with total citations of more than 3700. 

In the public talk event, speaker Ouyang Zichao began the talk by sharing the significance of Internet+ Competition to college students in China and all over the world. The competition has become China’s largest and most influential platform for promoting innovation and entrepreneurship among college students, and a world-class landmark event in higher education.

“It is possible for every college student to really build a company. I wish you have the confidence. It is a very exciting process,” Ouyang told the audience.

In the second part of his speech, Ouyang reiterated that there is a huge gap between college education and real business world. He gave the audience several examples of business theory and strategy in college text books that would not be employed in real world business prospectus.

“It is important to submit business plans that connect to investors’ interests in real venture capital world,” commented Ouyang, when asked about the tips to win a gold award in the finals of Internet+ Competition.

Competition finalists posing with experts before presenting their innovative products.