In November, we did an exciting Urekaweekend on the theme of social enterprise. The Urekaweekend was hosted by UCTI APIIT in Technology Park. The space was a blast to work in as they had many glass breakout rooms for the participants to split out into working groups.
Joining us for this weekend were a number of students from UCTI studying everything from business to electrical engineering professionalsfrom near and far also took time to join in – some came from as far as Penang. It was by far one of the most diverse of crowds so far. Our youngest participant, Sidd, was 15! More than sixty people attended.
What is social enterprise? We look at it as social mission driven organizations which apply market-based strategies to achieve a social purpose. We reached out to Ashoka, a global association of social entrepreneurs, and invited Alexis Ditkowsky to share about some of the most innovative social enterprises she has encountered.
Ngai Yuen from Kakiseni/Carrefour also took time to meet all of the teams personally. She listened listening to what they had planned and helped coach them on developing their social ideas. One of the teams working on a household energy recapture device took the opportunity to ask for a key component to their prototype – a bicycle. They received a brand spanking new one thanks to Ngai Yuen and Carrefour! Dan Ciambrone, the team lead, has used his project to apply to 7 universities, including MIT.
The third speaker was a real treat. Jamal is an amazing spoken word poet who recited a couple of poems from his repertoire. He talked where he got the inspiration for his poems and how they relate to pitching your project.
Winners
At the end of each Urekaweekend, we provide a micro-investment for the top teams to continue their projects. We had a hard time coming to a decision because there were so many projects that deserve love. Here are the projects we thought shone the brightest:
- Expn$e: an innovative iPhone application to help people better keep track of their expenses
- Social Edutainment Quizzes: a Facebook-based study game for SPM students
- Hybrid Life: an energy recapture device that uses rainwater to charge an iPod
Read more about some of the interesting projects at Urekaweekend here.
