Your Institute’s Annual Ball was held on the 6^th of October this year at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre.  The event also marked the graduation ceremony of the first IIM Diploma in Business Administration cohort.  

Our Guest of Honour was Frederick Ma, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development.  

Dr. Dominic Wong, Hon. President, led the IIM Council in welcoming Frederick Ma,
our Guest of Honour, and accompanied him to the Ball Room.

In his congratulatory address to the Institute and the diploma graduates, Mr. Ma ascribed Hong Kong SAR’s success for the last few years to the “leadership, vision and competence of the top layer of directors and management professionals” in our business organizations and industrial enterprises.  And he commended the Institute as “well placed to help us develop the professional executives and managers we need for Hong Kong to stay ahead in the world economy.”

Frederick Ma addressing the IIM Guests, Members and Graduates

As a continuation of the Institute's great tradition, our Guest of Honour, Frederick Ma, was admitted Hon. Fellow of the Institute.

Frederick Ma receiving his Hon. Fellow certificate from Hon. President,
accompanied by Chairman Prof. Dr. Maurice Teo

Your Institute’s efforts in providing a seamless full/part-time education and development ladder for members and the public continued to bear fruit.  This year our first batch of IIM Diploma in Business Administration students, a total of 43, got graduated and each received his/her diploma from the hands of our Guest of Honour.  Each and every graduate also won the individual congratulations from our Hon. President and Chairman. 

A Group Photo was taken with the IIM Council, Advisory Board, and Hong Kong Committee
members after the Diploma Graduation ceremony.

Dinner followed immediately after the Graduation Ceremony.  Entertainment and social exchange among guests continued as food was being served.  Our two familiar MC’s: Dr. Irene Lau and Dr. Joseph Tsui (also Membership Director of IIM Council) outperformed their previous years’ level in invigorating the party and attracting the attention of all those present. 

Table prize draws, ball-room dancing performance, magic show (by the way, you won’t believe it if you were absent, the amateur magician was in fact the husband of Margaret Mag, one of your Institute’s two administrative secretaries), lucky draw, etc. kept attracting guests’ interest throughout the night.

A touching moment was the surprise announcement of your Institute’s appreciation of the long service (having served the Institute for 10 years!) of our two Administrative Secretaries – Florence Ho and Margaret Mag.  Hon. President Dr. Dominic Wong and Chairman Prof. Dr. Maurice representing the IIM Council presented each a memento made of real gold to express the Institute’s thanks to the two ladies. 

The programmed activities of the Annual Ball function were all satisfactorily completed near midnight.  The IIM Council on behalf of the Institute wishes to take this opportunity to thank all those who were present in that evening for their participative support, all the companies and individuals who have so generously donated valuable gifts for table prizes and the lucky draw; the advertising sponsors of the souvenir program; and last but of course not the least, the Annual Ball Organizing Committee, under the able leadership of the Ball Chairman Manics Tsang.

We look forward to seeing you all coming to our Annual Ball 2008 function!