2024 FBS Summit: Hong Kong confab of family businesses talk about AI, geopolitics, markets

More than 100 of the world’s wealthiest business owners gathered in Hong Kong this weekend, as the city stepped up its appeal to be the Asia-Pacific region’s wealth management and family office hub.

Business owners from the US, Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and mainland China joined their Hong Kong counterparts at the principals-only 2024 Family Business Summit, organised by South China Morning Post and Blue Pool Capital with JPMorgan as the presenting partner.

“Family businesses form the backbone of Asia’s economy, and are a major growth driver for this region,” said the Post’s CEO Catherine So at the Island Shangri-La Hotel.

“As a global news organisation reaching an affluent audience of 35 million monthly … we feel it is incumbent upon us to provide an exclusive forum for prominent family business owners to engage and exchange insights with one another to ensure the sustainable success of these multigenerational empires.”

The one-and-a-half day, closed-door meeting kicked off on Friday with a dinner at the Four Seasons Hotel, where guests were treated to a seven-course menu prepared by the three-Michelin-starred restaurant Lung King Heen.

The first day of the conference was packed with discussion panels featuring some of the top experts in various fields, from artificial intelligence to the South China Sea.