singapore entrepreneurship challenge post event impact report

Singapore Entrepreneurship

Challenge 2012

Post-Event Impact Report

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Top: Cheers of the Singapore Entrepreneurship Challenge Organizing Committee

Top & Left: Singapore Entrepreneurship

Challenge 2012 Supporters and Sponsors

Student Affairs Office

Alumni Affairs Office

The Singapore Entrepreneurship Challenge (or “SEC”) is a first-of-its-kind 2-week case challenge, held

from 13th to 25th August 2012. Organized by AIESEC NTU with the full support of Nanyang

Technopreneurship Center (or “NTC”), in conjunction with the Entrepreneurship & Innovation Week 2012,

SEC has attracted and developed intensely of more than 150 youths from all over Singapore who are

passionate about leading changes, via solving real-life challenges faced by local start-ups. SEC created a

rigorous learning environment through a case challenge, dialogues and exchange sessions where

participants had the opportunities to network with over 20 distinguished entrepreneurs, academic

professors and professional consultants in their respective fields.

The event theme of Singapore Entrepreneurship Challenge was sustainable entrepreneurship. Featuring 4

social enterprises - Buy1Give1, EcoTravel, Pytheas Infosys and Zinicat, with a strong focus on making the

businesses sustainable while doing good to the society, SEC created a platform for youths to improvise

real business solutions for social start-ups and to be innovative.

Singapore Entrepreneurship Challenge has witnessed active participation from over 150 delegates, from

Singapore's local universities, in the Launch Conference on 16 August; over 120 delegates to partake in

the Workshops & Pitching Sessions on 18 August; and 30 finalists to present their innovative business

solutions in the Grand Finalé on 25 August. Over the course of the 2-week case challenge and 1-day Start-

up Talent Search on 13 August, local delegates and the NTU student body had the opportunities to

interact with 7 representatives from the 4 start-up partners, 22 start-ups in an exhibition fair, 5 panel

discussion speakers, 7 workshop speakers and 2 external judges who are industrial and academic leaders.

The rest of this report seeks to provide a more extensive coverage of the SEC event executed and present

the feedback from case participants, Launch Conference observers and externals. Photographs have been

added to provide a visual representation of the event.

This report is jointly brought to you by the Singapore Entrepreneurship Challenge Organizing Committee .

SINGAPORE ENTREPRENEURSHIP CASE CHALLENGE Standout, Empower Others, Change Lives

INTRODUCTION AND THEME

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Singapore Entrepreneurship Challenge consists of Start-up Talent Search, SEC Launch Conference,

Workshop & Pitching Sessions, and SEC Grand Finalé. The bellow is a general timeline of the events.


EVENT DATES AND OVERVIEW

August 13th, Monday Start-up Talent Search

August 16th, Thursday Singapore Entrepreneurship Challenge Launch Conference

August 18th, Saturday Workshops and Pitching Sessions

August 25th, Saturday Singapore Entrepreneurship Challenge Grand Finalé

The Start-up Talent Search was an opportunity for the local start-ups to showcase their company’s vision,

mission, culture and products to the students, as well as target potential interns or employees among the

passionate and entrepreneurial student population. This exhibition cum career fair was held by over 50

representatives from 22 start-ups, in a high-human-traffic area and it received a constant influx of

talented students to visit the booths.

It aimed to create the awareness to the students of start-ups and their businesses through an interactive

road show and provide the former with the chance to further network and engage with the latter.

Indeed, it has achieved its purpose, as one of the participating start-ups has responded in the email:-

“We want to portray the fact that, as entrepreneurs, what you can do is only limited by your own

imaginations” to the students. – Mr. Miyavi Lin, Brand Molecule

START-UP TALENT SEARCH AUGUST 13TH, MONDAY PLAZA @ SOUTH SPINE, NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

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Above: exhibitors talking to students and students signing up for Singapore Entrepreneurship Challenge Launch Conference.

The SEC Launch Conference represents one of the most highly anticipated events in SEC, serving as a

platform for the sharing of resources in terms of knowledge, experience and innovation, among the

corporate, youth and academia of Singapore. It attracted and educated more than 150 highly potential

youth and corporate representatives through a vigorous Panel dialogue on working in a start-up.


SEC LAUNCH CONFERENCE AUGUST 15TH, THURSDAY AUDITORIUM, NANYANG EXECUTIVE CENTRE, NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

The SEC Launch Conference also served as the formal opening of

the SEC Case Challenge Competition to the pre-registered student

contestants Case Participants via the highly-interactive

Brainstorming Sessions with four local start-ups (the “Case

Partners”) who provide their real-life business challenges for the

Case Participants to solve. The sessions created a forum for the

Case Partners and Participants to discuss more on the businesses,

the cases, the challenges and restrictions faced; and to start the

primitive brainstorming together. It helped the Case Participants

to understand more about what they were to solve and to start

immediately with an information injection.

Titled as “Life at a Start-up: Should YOU decide to work at a Startup after graduation?”, the Panel

dialogue was powered by the real-life experiences from start-up founders, employees and career

professionals. It explored with the audience on the alternative career choice in start-ups, shared the good

and bad about working there and being an entrepreneur; and highlighted the considerations the

audience should go through before choosing to work at a start-up or starting up their own business. Our

prestigious Panellists include renowned corporate and industrialists, such as Ms. Grace Sai from the Hub

Singapore, Ms. Bhavani Prakash from Eco WALK the Talk and Mr. Scott Bales from Movenbank.

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Above left: Speech by the Guest-of-Honour, Prof. Hooi from NTC, NTU Above right: Panel dialogue with 5 outstanding small enterprise owners

Right: Brainstorming with the representative from ZiniCat, one of the Case Partners


WORKSHOPS AND PITCHING SESSIONS AUGUST 18TH, SATURDAY NANYANG TECHNOPRENEURSHIP CENTER, NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

Ultimately, the Workshops and Pitching Sessions serves as the Semi-Final and Case Participants competed

vigorously for qualification into the Grand Finalé. Different from normal case competitions, this event was

also designed in a way to start with mutual learning and case-solving process for the Case Participants

through various Workshops conducted by seasoned industrialists, consultants and coaches; followed by a

casual consultation session with the Workshop Speakers and Case Partners to clarify certain issues and

fine tune their solutions, before the exciting pitching sessions finally arrived.

After lunch, the Pitch Session will be held for the Case Participants to present their solutions to the Case

Partners. The session is to be conducted in an exciting way as the Case Participants only have five minutes

to pitch their ideas. It tests not only on how well they have conceptualized their thoughts, but also their

vocal and verbal presentation skills, leveraged on what has been taught and discussed in the workshops

and consultations before noon. Two teams of each case, i.e. 8 distinguishing teams with 4 cases, would

enter the Grand Finale for final competition.

The topics of the Workshops ranged from the common consulting framework and case solution models,

to more specific focuses on consumer research, online marketing, etc. All the Case Participants actively

took part in the Workshops and claimed to have learned useful tips and skills through the intense

individual learning and group interactions. Our renowned Workshop Speakers included Mr. Nawal K. Roy

and Mr. Brian Vo from McKinsey & Co., Mr. Sirish Kumar from PayPal, Mr. Dragos Necula from Etrican,

and Professor Hooi Den Huan from Nanyang Technopreneurship Center.

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“We really enjoyed the collaborative format of AIESEC's event and felt honored to be part of this new wave of young entrepreneurship here in Singapore. It will be exciting to see the students take this passion and turn it into real businesses."

- Ms. Lara Dudley, Co-Founder of the Talent Society; as the independent judge for Buy1 Give1, one of the Case Partners

Abice: Case Participants attending Workshops with professionals from McKinsey & Co., Nanyang Technopreneurship Center and PayPal

The Pitching Sessions were held concurrently with all four

Case Partners. The judges were impressed by the creative yet

well-thought ideas for their critical business challenges. It

surely broadened the thinking of the small enterprise owners

with a fresh and alternative perspective from the students.

Right: Case Participants pitching to Buy1

Give1, one of the Case Partners


SEC GRAND FINALÉ AUGUST 25TH, SATURDAY NTUC CENTRE, ONE MARINA BOULEVARD

SEC Grand Finalé concludes the SEC Case Challenge Competition and the series of SEC events. Thirty

outstanding Case Participants were selected from the Pitching Sessions were present, together with the

Case Partners and two independent judges, as well as distinguished guests from the Workshop Speakers,

NTU Ventures and Young NTUC.

After vigorous competition among 10 teams on various cases given, three 2nd year business students

stood out from the crowd and took away the grand prize, with a Best Speaker Award to an NBS final year

student and 12 First Runners-up awarded.

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Above: Case Participants, Case Partners and independent judges presenting in the Grand Finalé.

Above: Judges assessing the presentation of the Case participants.

Right: the final winning team of Jennifer Xie Kaixin, Heng Choon Kim, and Eric Lin Jian Hui, from both NTU and NUS.

Signed-up Teams

Signed-up Students

Qualified Teams

Qualified Case Participants

Participants at SEC Launch Conference


IMPACT BREAKDOWNS

68 204 45 135

IMPACT ON LOCAL YOUTH Students from Local Tertiary Institutes

150+

66%

13%

4% 2%

15%


Bachelor

Master

MBA

PhD

Others

88

17

6

3

20

Total 134

Breakdown by Degree of Study Breakdown by University

116

9

7

1

1

Total 134 86%

7% 5% 1% 1%


NTU

NUS

Others

SIM

SMU

Panellists and Moderator

Participated Case Partner Representatives

Workshop Speakers

Independent Judges

Exhibitors at Start-up Talent Search

5 8 7 3

IMPACT ON EXTERNALS INDUSTRIAL AND ACADEMIC PROFESSIONALS

50+

Case Partners – Local Start-ups

Participated Talent Search Partners

Small Enterprise Owners

Participated Externals in Total

4 22 16 80+

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EXTERNAL TESTIMONIALS

“It is indeed most encouraging and heartening to witness AIESEC initiating and very successfully implementing the Singapore Entrepreneurship Challenge. Not only are both the substance and form of the event impressively executed but is it very timely too – taking place following the Singapore’s Economic Strategies Committee report which highlighted the importance of entrepreneurship and innovation in a dynamically changing environment.

NTC is both proud and pleased to collaborate with AIESEC in this undertaking. NTC’s mission of making a meaningful difference to humanity through entrepreneurship education, converges with AIESEC’s role to provide a platform for youth leadership development, and offering young people the opportunity to be global citizens, to change the world, and to get experience and skills that matter today.”

- Professor Hooi Den Huan, Director, NTC, and Teacher Advisor, AIESEC NTU

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“Singapore Entrepreneurship Challenge is a wonderful platform for students to gain awareness on what

social enterprises are and how they can benefit the society and earn a profit at the same time. It is also

a unique platform in Singapore for the youths to experience hands-on and appreciate what it is like

working in and with social enterprise start-ups and get to interact and learn from social entrepreneurs.

As an AIESEC alumnus I am very proud to see that the organization continues to pioneer such initiatives

to enable young people to discover and develop their leadership potential for positive impact in

society. I look forward to be involved in the Singapore Entrepreneurship Challenge again next year.“

- Mr. Ashwin Subramaniam, Co-founder at Gone Adventurin’

- Mr. Eryi Toh, Managing Director, Pytheas Infosys

“Entrepreneurial spirit is what makes every business thrive - in today's dynamic economic environment even more than ever before. AIESEC Singapore identified this relevant topic and brought together passionate young minds, ambitious start ups, educational institutions as well as committed experts from the private sector.

Singapore Entrepreneurship Challenge provided great value to all parties involved and has been executed with a high level of professionalism and passion. I applaud AIESEC and all participants and would like to encourage more organizations to think as entrepreneurial as AIESEC and join for their programmes and projects!

We certainly would love to participated for the next round.”

- Mr. Lars Voedisch, Owner/Principal Consultant at PRecious Communications

Green Startup – Eco Travel

ECO TRAVEL is a Singapore-based travel agency which provides extraordinary overseas travel experience through nature appreciation and environmental learning. Eco Travel’s business model centers closely around Eco-Tourism and Sustainable Travel. It actively works to improve its operations to be more eco-friendly and also to stick close to its values to promote eco-tourism to travelers.

Lifestyle Startup – ZiniCat ZINICAT provides a food recommendation application service that matches persons to food. The service runs off an intelligent computing system that learns about a person’s food preferences and helps the user discover relevant and new information about food and restaurants. People worldwide are passionate about food and there is a clear demand for food services.

Social Startup – Buy1GIVE1

B1G1 Giving is a Not-For-Profit Society registered and regulated in Singapore. It supports mainly other charity organizations around the world to create sustainable contribution models.

100 % of contributions made by B1G1 Businesses directly go to the Worthy Cause organizations through B1G1 Giving. B1G1 takes nothing from the contributions nor does it receive funds from charities in any way fro the services it provides.

Technology Startup – Pytheas Infosys

Pytheas Infosys is a travel technology firm that is building Singapore’s online travel marketplace.

They provide travel agents with their proprietary Travel CMS software that helps customers publish their travel packages online and set up their own web and mobile store. Through a combination of internet, mobile and social media technologies, they are aiming to enrich the conventional offline shopping and travel planning experience.

Buy1GIVE1 is a social enterprise established in 2007 in Singapore. It supports, inspires and educates businesses globally.


SEC 2012 CASE PARTNERS

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SEC 2012 START-UP TALENT SEARCH PARTNERS

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COLLABORATIONS INTENDED AFTER SINGAPORE ENTREPRENEURSHIP CHALLENGE 2012

Be our Project Partner Today!

We would like to hear your opinions in bringing the local youth entrepreneurship higher!

Kindly contact us for more details on upcoming project plans.

Xu Yiming (Ms) Chairperson Singapore Entrepreneurship Challenge 2012

Contact No. +65 9750 5663 (HP) Email. [email protected]

PROJECT ENTREPRENEURSHIP TEAM AIESEC Singapore

Tok Xinyu (Ms) Director Project Entrepreneurship


Janice Joeng (Ms) Agenda Manager Singapore Entrepreneurship Challenge 2012


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Singapore Entrepreneurship Challenge Organizing Committee AIESEC Singapore Office No. +65 6338 5308

www.aiesec.org.sg

mailto:[email protected]

