Mentoring Session with Dato James Foo
Mentoring Session with Muzakkir Mohamad
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19 Sep 2021
6 Min Read
Ming Yang, PR & COMMS Strategist
Finally, we are at the Final day of one of the most anticipated virtual events of the year – the Techstars Startup Weekend UNI Online 2021, brought you to you BizPod and Taylor’s University Student Council!
The morning starts off with another gathering of all the participants to touch base with their progress. It seemed like it was another restless night for most of them. All the teams spent most of the night brainstorming and discussing the best way to present their business case to the panel of knowledgeable judges later in the evening. Even though it was early in the morning at 9.00am, everyone was still energetic and anxious to go through the day productively.
Mentoring Session with Dato James Foo
Mentoring Session with Muzakkir Mohamad
After a short briefing on the schedule of the day, the teams were once again reminded on the judging criteria as well as timeslots for the presentation. Straight after that, they were dispatched to various breakout Zoom call rooms to bring their Mentors up-to-date on their progress. Two rounds of sessions with their mentors were done to polish their pitch presentations and a quick round of tech check on their ideas or solutions.
By noon, it was time for the Mentors to have a bid good luck to the teams. Even though it was a short time spent with each other, but a lot of experience were imparted to the teams. At 3pm, it was the deadline for the presentation submission. Once all the presentations are submitted, it was just a matter of waiting till the pitching event starts. But before that, all the teams and participants went through a dry run to get themselves familiarized with the timing, cues and a final tech check. After a few rounds of final checking, it was time to deliver!
The Grand Pitching Finale started sharp at 4.00pm, on a Sunday, 1st of August 2021. The emcee, Nadia, started off the final event with a quick introduction of the judges and the rules of voting. The panel of judges consisted of Dr Anthony (PVC, Research & Enterprise), Jessie Chong (Director of Bizpod), Karl Engkvist (President, Taylor’s Education Pte LTD), Rosalind Yeoh (CFO, Taylor’s Education Pte LTD), Heislyc Loh (Founder, Devs Asia) and Mohd Noor Hisham Abdul Bari (Head-Stakeholder Engagement & Partnerships Cradle). Each team were given exactly 3 minutes to deliver their presentation and another 3 minutes for the judges to ask questions. In the end, it took about 3 hours for all the teams to deliver their final business case presentation.
The winners were then announced during the closing ceremony. A very hearty congratulations to teams NEX (1st), KITA (2nd) and A Bunch of Asians (3rd)! Also not forgetting the rest of the teams who also did their best heading into the finale event. Each and every team put in their blood, sweat and tears over the 54-hour weekend. But in the end, it was the idea of “No Tie Shoe Laces” from Team Nex who caught the attention of the judges and wowed them with just a 3-minute presentation.
