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Angie Lau
By Jordan Pettiford, JCamp Class of 2021
It takes 10 minutes or 600 seconds for one data file, or block, to be added to Bitcoin’s blockchain. For a newer and lighter coin, like Ethereum, the block time is closer to 13 seconds. For AAJA member Angie Lau, the path to building her own technology news company took years.
Growing up in Canada after moving from Hong Kong, she always assumed her parents made the move solely for her education. But they had also relocated for another reason.
“I was supposed to be the firstborn son of a firstborn son of a firstborn son of a firstborn son, four generations of firstborn sons,” she says. “I broke the record, and not in a good way.”
While being the first girl in a long line of boys wasn’t what Lau’s family initially hoped for, it taught her a lesson she never forgot.
“Because I wasn’t a boy, I am so much more. You don’t let other people define you,” Lau adds.
Eventually, it came time to decide what to do with her voice.
Lau had interests in science, math, history, and English, but she didn’t want to be relegated to one area. An English teacher posed a question that would shape the next several years of her life. Journalism, he asked, had she ever considered it? “It just spoke to me,” Lau says. Journalism was a path where she could use her unique interests and voice to create something new.
As a student, Lau dove into the long hours and late nights of the business and began to look for resources to hone her craft. In the process, she found AAJA, and joining felt “like drinking water after a long haul through the desert.”
AAJA became a place of “community” and “camaraderie” for Lau, but it was also where she began to build her legacy of innovation. She was elected AAJA Asia president and mentored students through JCamp, calling the experience “my tiny, tiny, tiny little contribution to legacy.”
Having worked her way to becoming an anchor for Bloomberg TV, Lau saw an opportunity to use her skills and create something of her own. In 2018, she founded Forkast.News to make new technologies easier to understand.
Forkast’s coverage focuses on blockchain, cryptocurrency, and other emerging technology. “What is so exciting [about blockchain] is it’s decentralized,” Lau says. “There is no one central authority that can shut down or shut down access. Suddenly, that freedom and that liberty [is] afforded to people, both in information and financial transactions.”
Forkast’s focus on blockchain aims to inform the average person on how the technology of the future fits into their lives — something Lau started thinking more about after the birth of her son. “The world around him is changing faster than anyone can understand,” Lau says. “How can I help?”
The company’s goal is to help viewers become “tech-able” — a term that Lau says means the ability to create and innovate with new technologies. She hopes future generations will continue to build upon that innovation.
“We really depend on you,” she adds.
It takes 10 minutes or 600 seconds for one data file, or block, to be added to Bitcoin’s blockchain. For a newer and lighter coin, like Ethereum, the block time is closer to 13 seconds. For AAJA member Angie Lau, the path to building her own technology news company took years.
Growing up in Canada after moving from Hong Kong, she always assumed her parents made the move solely for her education. But they had also relocated for another reason.
“I was supposed to be the firstborn son of a firstborn son of a firstborn son of a firstborn son, four generations of firstborn sons,” she says. “I broke the record, and not in a good way.”
While being the first girl in a long line of boys wasn’t what Lau’s family initially hoped for, it taught her a lesson she never forgot.
“Because I wasn’t a boy, I am so much more. You don’t let other people define you,” Lau adds.
Eventually, it came time to decide what to do with her voice.
Lau had interests in science, math, history, and English, but she didn’t want to be relegated to one area. An English teacher posed a question that would shape the next several years of her life. Journalism, he asked, had she ever considered it? “It just spoke to me,” Lau says. Journalism was a path where she could use her unique interests and voice to create something new.
As a student, Lau dove into the long hours and late nights of the business and began to look for resources to hone her craft. In the process, she found AAJA, and joining felt “like drinking water after a long haul through the desert.”
AAJA became a place of “community” and “camaraderie” for Lau, but it was also where she began to build her legacy of innovation. She was elected AAJA Asia president and mentored students through JCamp, calling the experience “my tiny, tiny, tiny little contribution to legacy.”
Having worked her way to becoming an anchor for Bloomberg TV, Lau saw an opportunity to use her skills and create something of her own. In 2018, she founded Forkast.News to make new technologies easier to understand.
Forkast’s coverage focuses on blockchain, cryptocurrency, and other emerging technology. “What is so exciting [about blockchain] is it’s decentralized,” Lau says. “There is no one central authority that can shut down or shut down access. Suddenly, that freedom and that liberty [is] afforded to people, both in information and financial transactions.”
Forkast’s focus on blockchain aims to inform the average person on how the technology of the future fits into their lives — something Lau started thinking more about after the birth of her son. “The world around him is changing faster than anyone can understand,” Lau says. “How can I help?”
The company’s goal is to help viewers become “tech-able” — a term that Lau says means the ability to create and innovate with new technologies. She hopes future generations will continue to build upon that innovation.
“We really depend on you,” she adds.
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