Online and Offline Worlds
Earlier while Dr Eric Lau was watching a live boxing match and leaving comments on the Internet, he came upon his students and they soon realized they spoke the same language. Dr Lau enjoys interacting with students as their peer and welcomes being addressed as Eric or by his social media nickname Lau Bob. 'I'm active on multiple social media platforms with my accounts open to all my students,' says Dr Lau. 'We communicate often, which helps narrow the gap between us.' The professor makes friends on his personal platforms and seeks updates on new trends to keep up with the young generation.
In addition to contributing in the academic field, Dr Lau is also committed to public service, shouldering responsibilities in many different positions. To name a few, he was a censor of the Office for Film, Newspaper and Article Administration, an adjudicator of the Obscene Articles Tribunal, and is currently a member of various committees under the Communications Authority and Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department. Dr Lau has also been serving as the chairman of the preparatory committee of the annual event Farmfest since 2008. For over a decade, he has been paying efforts to spice up the event through social media. Apart from helping farmers promote their products, he also shares his experience in the classroom and has even invited students to participate in the activities, giving them opportunities to let their creative juices flow.
In the face of the epidemic, Farmfest 2021 was held online, with promotion done mainly via social media. Four students in Hotel and Sustainable Tourism Management joined Dr Lau in organizing the event and earned his praise. 'I marvelled at their impressive performance when they did live broadcasts with an artiste. Their social media posts, such as those calling for carbon reduction, contained rich content and prominent messages,' he acclaims. The students' online promotion campaign received recognition and brought them the Silver award in the Public Health, Safety and Awareness (including Charity) sector of the Digital Media Awards 2021, defeating competitors from the mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Dr Lau is now planning to involve more students in the next edition and further encourage the use of social media in their publicity campaign.
The down-to-earth teacher also applies the marketing concepts he teaches in his daily life by, for example, filing a complaint when he encounters an employee offering incompetent service. 'Perhaps I'm too involved, but I can't see the prospects of Hong Kong’s service industry if I, as a teacher of marketing services, weren't that involved,' he explains. Thanks to Dr Lau's persistence, when one of the 'targets' of his complaints realized that he was a university lecturer, the company actually invited him to give a lecture to its staff to explain how frontline services are closely related to a company’s operations. On another occasion, the professor even turned himself into a mystery customer by invitation, in which he deliberately arranged a dispute on a flight. He wrote and directed the scene, and acted it out together with a passenger he invited for the purpose of testing the flight attendants' response and adaptability. Dr Lau speaks of this unforgettable experience with a grin: 'Finally, the incident was handled by the captain!' He believes that the airline should have worked out an enhancement plan to improve their frontline service.
This mystery customer is also a filming enthusiast who, from time to time, uploads his videos on social media. 'Out of curiosity, I enrolled in a TV production and directing course offered by a TV station while studying in university,' says Dr Lau. 'Back then I even bagged an award with the short film I made.' From studying to teaching, Dr Lau has always had the intrepidity to take an extra step forward to make things happen. 'I was an introvert when I was young, but as I grew up I realized that a bystander would only miss out on good opportunities,' he continues. He once wrote an article on the topic 'A thousand-mile journey begins with a single step', which later became an inspirational quote for his students. 'To realize your dream, you must take the first step,' he affirms sincerely.
