Sum Wong’s EventXtra app takes the hard work out of organising networking events

The secret of designing a successful app is having a creative idea and working on it with a good team, says Sum Wong, the 26-year-old co-founder and chief executive of EventXtra. The company simplifies the way networking events are organised by inventing mobile apps to streamline the process.

EventXtra has its roots in 2010, when Wong took part in an exchange visit to Beijing’s Tsinghua University, during his second year studying computer sciences at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST).

“At Tsinghua University, I met many students who were super-crazy about mobile apps. That triggered the desire to code my first app,” Wong says.  His faith in his talent was justified when he won the gold award in the 2011 World Telecommunication and Information Society Day contest with a mobile app to help children learn English words.

One year later, Wong took another exchange tour to the US, organised by the HKUST. “The exchange tours were valuable experiences for me,” says Wong. “They opened my horizons to other cultures, and gave me the inspiration to realise my goals.”

Wong’s passion for apps was boosted again during an English lesson in his second year at university. During the first lesson, the students were asked to introduce themselves. Wong shared his track record in mobile apps, and a classmate approached him with an idea afterwards.

“This gentleman from the mainland invited me to join his start-up to write travel-related mobile apps,” says Wong. “I agreed immediately, because this allowed me to prove my ability in writing commercial apps. I began to take freelance work after that, too.”